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Ralph Murre Name Door County Poet Laureate

Ralph Murre

Beginning April 1, Ralph Murre will be Door County’s new Poet Laureate, succeeding Estella Lauter, who is just wrapping up her two-year term in the uncompensated role.

After explaining that Murre had been sidelined by the flu and could not make the March 24 meeting of the Door County Board of Supervisors, Lauter gave a brief history of the Poet Laureate position, which was created by the county board in 2010.

She said Murre is well qualified for the position, with four books of his own poetry and as a publisher of poets through his Little Eagle Press. She mentioned that he has organized poetry readings throughout the county, participated in Write On, Door County’s programs in the schools and is an active member of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, where he is respected as a triple threat – poet, publisher and illustrator.

“He has earned the respect and admiration of his peers and we are pleased that he has accepted our call to serve as the next Poet Laureate of Door County,” Lauter said before reading a poem Murre had written just for the occasion.

The board also heard an update on the sister city relationship with Jingdezhen, China. Bill Chaudoir, executive director of the Door County Economic Development Corp. (DCEDC), explained that he and Bill Schuster, head of the county’s Land and Water Conservation Dept., were charged by county board Chairman Dan Austad to head up the sister city program. He said in 2005 the county committed to a 10-year relationship, at the end of which the value of the relationship would be considered.

“The 10 years is going to be up this summer, so we’ll be coming back to you in a month or two to talk about the future of the program and where we would recommend it to go,” Chaudoir said.

But in the meantime, another group from Door County, led by County Board Supervisor Susan Kohout, will visit Jingdezhen April 27-30 to help supervise the construction of a square highlighting Door County culture and geography.

Schuster said a group of six from Jingdezhen is tentatively scheduled to arrive in Door County June 17-18. He said two will be government representatives and four from the medical industry. “They are interested in creating a medical exchange,” Schuster said.

Joe Krebsbach, head of the county’s Human Services Dept., reported to the board on completing a contract with an architectural firm to put together a proposal for a new senior center. He said he hopes to have a final report with proposals on the building and its cost for the June county board meeting. He also mentioned two community forums scheduled for April 14 to gather public input on the senior center. One will be held from 1:30 to 3:30 pm and the second will be from 5 to 7 pm.

“I think it’s time for the county board to step forward. We’ve been talking about this for six years,” Chairman Austad said.

The county will soon be the owner of a 40-acre quarry in the town of Nasewaupee.

Highway Dept. head John Kolodziej explained that the county has been an exclusive customer of quarry owner Ken Ward for close to 20 years through a lease agreement.

“This is a product we use primarily for road construction,” Kolodziej said. “It also is the hardest stone we have available of material we use at our hot mix operation, so this is a very critical part of our operation.”

Based on the county’s current annual extraction of about 21,000 yards of material from the quarry, it has close to a quarter-century of life left for the county. He said paying the negotiated price of $280,000 would be cheaper than continuing the lease and paying royalties to the owner.

He also explained the funds would come from the DK fund, which was money received from the state when the county took over Hwy DK (the old State 57). After completing all of the necessary projects for that conversion, the fund has a balance of $527,000.

The board also approved $50,000 from the Door County Revolving Loan Fund for Green Bay restaurateur Holly Hebel to purchase equipment to reopen The Hitching Post in Sevastopol. Hebel also owns the White Dog/Black Cat Café in Green Bay.

“This looks like a very good loan to get a business open,” Bill Chaudoir of the DCEDC told the board. “We’ve very excited that this is going to be a very successful restaurant.”