Baileys Harbor First in Northern Door to Permit ATV Routes

As soon as signs are in place, Baileys Harbor will become the first Northern Door community with ATV/UTV routes.

With one vote against the routes from Supervisor Roberta Thelen, the Baileys Harbor Town Board on June 11 approved the ATV routes for town and county roads. The Door County Board of Supervisors had already given its approval to the plan at its May meeting.

The approved routes include County EE from Red Cherry Road to County F, County F to Meadow Road, and County E from County A to Red Cherry Road.

Joe Swanson, the Baileys Harbor resident who has been leading the effort for ATV routes in the town, said it will be just another way to get around, no cheaper than his road vehicle which also gets 25 MPG.

“But it’s more fun,” he added.

Dockmaster Mark Jonas updated the board on the dredging that took place just outside of and inside the marina.

“I counted 48 truckloads of sediment,” Jonas said. “There was never a mess. It was done very, very nice.”

He also informed the board that it looks like a “bumper season” for the marina, with bookings filling up into August.

“We’re outgrowing the place, basically,” Jonas said.

“Don’t say that,” said board chair Don Sitte. “We don’t have any money for it.”

Jonas said the marina is fully staffed to be open from 7 am to 7 pm every day through Labor Day, and then they will cut back a few hours for the fall, but will remain open seven days a week.

Jonas also told the board there is a great need for another unisex bathroom for the public at the marina.

“We have plenty of bathrooms for our guests,” he said, but added that the one public unisex bathroom gets between 200 and 300 visits a day on a busy day.

Sitte said the Marina Committee will take up that issue when it meets at the marina at 6 pm June 18.

Don Prust, manager of the town’s wastewater plant, reported that the plant received good marks in the annual plant review. He also suggested the town come up with a fair formula for for billing campgrounds in the town that are connected to sewer and/or electricity. He said Baileys Grove Campground has been on the town’s sewer system for at least 10 years but he has no idea how the town determined how to bill the campground.

He suggested the town develop a formula to be used for all campgrounds, based on 2½ people at a campsite and figuring an average number of gallons of water per day to be used. He said at the sites with electricity and sewer, 6½ campsites would equal the amount of resources used by a single household, and for rustic campsites (where they still use the campground’s water and sewer), 10 sites equal a household.

It was decided to invite all the town’s campground owners to the next meeting of the Sewer Commission in order to inform them of the pricing structure so they know what they are getting into if they want to hook up to the town resources.

Pat Keehan of the town’s Maintenance Dept. reported that the scoreboard at the town’s rec park went “kaput” before the Door County Destroyers played their first football game at the field two weeks ago. He said the scoreboard can’t be fixed, largely because the Wisconsin company that produced it decided to stop making spare parts for the sign. He tried to rustle up a loaner scoreboard but didn’t have any luck, but the Destroyers were able to find a temporary scoreboard.

Keehan brought in examples of several scoreboards similar in size to the one that died, and the board picked one that costs $8,500. However, the board had previously talked about moving the scoreboard because its current location makes it hard for the visiting team to read, so it was decided to locate the new scoreboard in a better position, which means it isn’t going to happen in time for this year’s season of football and soccer at the rec field.

Keehan was charged with either trying to find a loaner scoreboard or to gather information on what it would cost to buy an emergency temporary scoreboard to use now and have for future emergencies, and then put the $8,500 for a new scoreboard in the 2019 budget.

The board also heard from Krista Lutzke, conservationist with the Door County Soil and Water Dept., regarding invasive species management in the town, particularly phragmites. She informed the town that the department has interns that can inventory the phragmites at no cost, and will fund 50 percent of any treatment up to $1,000.

Finally, Supervisor Robert Schultz reported that highway road crews will begin pulverizing 1½-miles of Logerquist Road beginning June 26 and, hopefully, have that length of road blacktopped by July 4.