Category: Headlines

I love old people.

I love to pick their brains, to hear their stories. I try to steal the lessons of their life’s mistakes in hopes that I won’t make them myself (not that it works).

Town board gatherings are typically characterized by the monotony of procedure and mundane detail, but a public hearing June 12 concerning the proposed Historic Character Preservation Ordinance in the Town of Gibraltar brought out emotions on both sides of the issue.

One hundred forty eight years had passed since Aslag Anderson purchased his 110-acre tract of land from Ephraim founder Andreas Anderson in 1858. In all of those years, amidst so much change on the Door Peninsula, the property has remained largely undisturbed in Anderson family hands.

The biggest news at last night’s meeting to discuss a proposal to build a Subway restaurant in Sister Bay came after almost everyone had gone home. Village Administrator Bob Kufrin said he overlooked a line in the zoning code that would make the proposal subject to a conditional use permit, which would hold it to much stricter standards.

In a time of great dispute over land use in Door County, peninsula residents and officials heard a speaker delivering a message of cooperation June 1 and 2.

Congressman Steve Kagen (D – Appleton) released comments on the passage of the Health Care Reform bill today. “Americans may now have peace of mind,” Kagen said.

Why Does My Vote Matter? “Everything you think the state does, the county actually executes.” – Door County Administrator Mike Serpe County of Door www.

A De Pere-area developer has submitted plans to build a Subway restaurant on Highway 42 in Sister Bay. The Sister Bay Plan Commission will take its first look at the proposal from Bruce Gajewski at its next meeting March 25 at the Sister Bay Fire Station at 5:30 pm.

Sturgeon Bay School District Referendum to Exceed Revenue Limit Shall the following resolution be approved? Be it resolved by the School Board of the School District of Sturgeon Bay, Door County, Wisconsin, that the revenues included in the School District budget be authorized to exceed the revenue limit specified in Section 121.

The Gibraltar Vikings came up just short of their first trip to the WIAA basketball sectionals March 6, falling 60 – 58 to Green Bay NEW Lutheran at Brillion.

Gibraltar senior Sam Forkert led four Door County players named to the Packerland Conference 1st or 2nd Team. Forkert was the only county player named to the first team and is the first Gibraltar player to earn the honor since Paul Nelson in 1999.

The final room tax returns have been tabulated for 2009, and collections were down .5 percent in comparable municipalities from 2008. The number of room nights filled, however, dropped 3.

In the article “Gibraltar Basketball Nears Milestones” in the Feb. 22 issue of the Peninsula Pulse, we wrote that the last time Gibraltar boys basketball team defeated Southern Door was in 1995.

Fighting fires in even the smallest towns is increasingly complicated, and the volunteer fire departments that Northern Door relies on are bearing a burden that grows heavier with each regulation and mandate handed down by the state and federal governments.

“Under the spreading chestnut tree, the village smithy stands.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Albert Zahn, who once carved birds in the blue house at the north end of Baileys Harbor, wrote to his nephew August Zahn that the village needed a blacksmith.

The two biggest school districts in Door County are no longer competing with each other only on sports fields and with academic teams. Southern Door School District and Sturgeon Bay School District are now competing publicly for students and the tax dollars that follow those students through the open enrollment process.