Sister Bay Buzz: Fall Fest, Road Construction and More

By Zeke Jackson, Village Administrator

• Mark your calendars for the 72nd Annual Fall Fest, the “granddaddy” of all Door County festivals, Oct. 13 – 15. In addition to all the regular festival activities there will be a parade, arts and crafts fair, food, live entertainment, and children’s activities. If you’ve never come to Fall Fest, you’re missing out on a rockin’ good time! This year there will be two new Fall Fest events. From noon to 4 pm Saturday, Oct. 14, “Touch-A-Truck” will be conducted at the Fire Station. At 10 am Sunday, Oct. 15 an Adult Big Wheel Rally will be conducted! There will be all kinds of really cool public safety equipment and trucks, as well as a huge tractor and a race car on display at “Touch-A-Truck,” and local firefighters as well as the owners of all the stuff which will be on display will be on hand to answer any questions you guys may have. The starting line for the Big Wheel Rally will be near the intersection of Maple Drive and N. Bay Shore Drive, and sixteen teams, representing SBAA businesses, will compete in heats. Each team will consist of two starters and one driver, and entrants will compete for bragging rights and a totally awesome championship trophy to be displayed at the sponsoring business. I’ve been asked to be the driver for one of the teams. Those guys have very good taste.
• The work on the Highway 57 Resurfacing Project, which will run from Baileys Harbor to Sister Bay, is underway and should all be completed by June of 2018. Detours are still in effect, but access to all properties along Highway 57 will still be maintained. Highway 57 will be open for Fall Fest weekend, and after that all the previously mentioned work will be completed under flagging operations. A project website has been created. For more information regarding the resurfacing, go to projects.511wi.gov/wis57.
• I’m pleased to announce that the American Concrete Pavement Association recently named the Bay Shore Drive Reconstruction Project here in Sister Bay as one of two finalists for their National Municipal Streets and Intersections Award! You may remember that the Bay Shore Drive Reconstruction Project received a Concrete Pavement Award at the Annual Contractor-Engineer Conference in January. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that we win again.
• The Sister Bay-Liberty Grove Library is a very busy place these days. The Readers Rampant Book Discussion Group meets at the Library on the second Tuesday of every month at 2:30 pm, and the topic of discussion on Oct. 10 is The Lost Book of the Holy Grail by Charles C. Lovett. New book club members are always welcome, and all of the featured books are available at the Library. Olga and the other members of the discussion group bring some really tasty snacks to their meetings, and a good time is always had by all. The library is hosting a beautiful depressed glass exhibit, which will culminate with an interactive and educational presentation by collector Dennis Appleton Oct. 23, 5:30 – 7 pm. Dennis will talk about the history and expansive variety of styles of pristine Depression-era glass on hand in the display, as well as some additional gems he will bring with him. He will also be doing free item identification and will appraise any depressed glass that people bring in. Christina asked me to pass the word along that  summer hours will be in effect at the Library through Saturday, Oct. 21.
• Many of us lead internet-connected, digital lives. From our homes to work, computers, notebooks, smart phones and other devices have made our lives easier. Unfortunately this has also made us vulnerable to cyber attackers. That’s why Governor Walker has designated October as Wisconsin’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month. “Simply performing basic cyber hygiene on a continual basis can dramatically reduce your chances of intrusions and attacks from impacting you,” said David Cagigal, Chief Information Officer with the Wisconsin Department of Administrations’ Division of Enterprise Technology. Good cyber hygiene comes down to “count, control, patch and repeat.” For further information regarding those terms, and tips on how to keep yourself safe from cybercrime please visit readywisconsin.wi.gov.
• The Utilities Committee will meet at 7:30 am on Tuesday, Oct. 10, and the Marina Committee will meet at 3 pm on that same date. If you would like to receive copies of agendas for any upcoming village meetings please provide your name and email address to me or one of the other employees in the Administration Office. Agendas and packet materials can also be accessed on the village’s website.

If you have any questions about upcoming village projects or village operations please don’t hesitate to contact me. I can be reached at 920.854.4118 and my email address is [email protected].