Jan. 22 – Feb. 5

• The Door County Tourism Zone Commission decided to take six lodging properties to small claims court for non-compliance with the countywide room tax at its Jan. 21 meeting.

The commission has been grappling with how to best encourage lodging entities to comply with the 5.5 percent tax for several months. Since it was formed in 2007, the commission has opened files on 68 properties that were severely delinquent in filing and paying the tax. Two have been brought to circuit court.

Fire Station #1 in Egg Harbor.

Most of the offending properties are ones that include only one or two cottages or units, not large commercial resorts. Commission chair Bob Kufrin said that the properties being pursued in court are those with the highest estimated tax owed under $5,000.

The commission decided not to increase fines or penalties for late reporting and payment.

• They’ve operated their fire departments jointly for years, but the Village of Egg Harbor and the Town of Egg Harbor are haggling on a new agreement.

The two municipalities traded sealed envelopes that contained their “best offer” for sharing costs of rebuilding or renovating Fire Station #1 at a Jan. 20 meeting, but no decision was made.

“We tabled action until each board could meet individually to discuss proposals,” said Village Administrator Josh Van Lieshout. He said the village wants a more equitable sharing of costs for the station. Though the town’s equalized property value is about 20 percent higher than the village’s, the two communities share costs 50/50.

The town and village share ownership of Fire Station #1, while the town has sole ownership of the Carlsville station. One option discussed would be for one municipality to buy the other one out of station #1, but that would require the town to take it to its voters in a referendum.

“I don’t see this as something that will get cleared up very quickly,” said Town Chairman Paul Peterson.

The boards will meet again at the Bertschinger Center on Feb. 24 at 6pm.

• JJ’s La Puerta re-opened Feb. 2 after months of work rebuilding after a fire closed the landmark restaurant in August of 2009. The restaurant will be open Tuesday through Friday for dinner at 4 pm and all day Saturdays.

• The Sevastopol Board of Education accepted a donation of photography equipment from Jeff Maples and a stereo system from Bridget and Jim Bowers at its Jan. 25 meeting. The board also approved a bid of $17,663.20 for replacement of computers in the business lab and heard from Mike Kaye about affordable housing possibilities within the district. The board instructed Superintendent Steve Cromell to prepare a letter in response to the decision by the organizers for the Door County Century Ride to move the race to Sturgeon Bay. It had been staged at Sevastopol School for 30 years.