What Happened?

• The Sister Bay Village Board approved a motion to contract with Vandewalle & Associates, a consulting firm that will help the village with downtown and economic development, for $40,820.

• At its meeting on Jan. 8, the Ephraim Village Board passed an amended version of Ordinance 08-2012, regarding direct sellers and service vendors, and adopted Ordinance 01-2013, changing the marina’s parking space requirement from one space per slip to one half space per slip.

• Gov. Scott Walker’s Jan. 15 State of the State address focused on job creation and income tax cuts. According to politifact.com, the number of private-sector jobs created since Gov. Walker took office stands at 37,011 as of Nov. 2012 (Gov. Walker pledged to create 250,000 jobs by 2015). Statewide unemployment has decreased from 7.8 to 6.7 percent since Gov. Walker took office.

• The Baileys Harbor Town Board voted to accept a $44,900 bid from Harbor Construction to dredge the Baileys Harbor Marina, creating a channel that would allow boats to access and leave the marina. A lower bid was submitted by Iron Works Construction, but the company would not have been able to begin dredging until July. The board also commissioned Bob Bultman to continue to look into a more permanent solution to the marina’s annual access problem.

• The Friends of Ephraim-Gibraltar Airport donated $4,500 toward the purchase of an Automated Weather Observation system, which gives incoming pilots accurate, accessible information on local weather conditions. For more information on the AWOS system, read More Than A Windsock in the July 20 issue of the Peninsula Pulse.