What Happened in Door County?

• The Gibraltar Board of Education unanimously approved a contract for Tina Van Meer to serve as the Superintendent/Elementary Principal for the 2012-14 school years at their April 30 meeting. Van Meer replaces Dr. Stephen Seyfer, who retires in June after serving the district for the last 15 years.

Van Meer currently serves as the elementary principal at the Abraham Lincoln Accelerated Learning Academy in the Monroe School District in southern Wisconsin. She previously served as the Middle/ High School principal in the Albany School District and taught in elementary grades for 14 years in Illinois and Wisconsin. Van Meer has a strong background in curriculum and student achievement.

Van Meer will relocate her residence to the Gibraltar District and begins her work at the school on July 2. A welcome reception will be announced at a later date.

• The Town of Baileys Harbor is moving ahead with phase one of the Anclam Park landscaping project. The town hired Rass Excavating and Materials to perform a series of upgrades that will cost $110,089. The county will cover 90 percent of that cost, making the total cost to the town about $14,600.

Town Administrator Doug Smith stated that the construction will get underway as soon as possible.

“We want to get it done before the summer season,” he says.

Rass, which has previously done work at Bailey Harbor Ridges County Park, is based out of Sturgeon Bay.

• The Door County Visitor Bureau announced that Rachel Willems is 2012’s Door County Certified Tourism Ambassador of the Year. Willems was nominated for and won the award as a result of her work as the Tourism Administrator for the Ephraim Business Council.

The announcement came during the Visitor Bureau’s kickoff breakfast for National Travel and Tourism Week, which runs from May 5 – 13. The breakfast was hosted by Visitor Bureau CEO Jack Moneypenny and featured state Secretary of Tourism and former Discover Wisconsin host Stephanie Klett as a guest speaker.

The Certified Tourism Ambassador program is a national program which teaches front line employees at tourist destinations how to better cater to visitors. Willems is now eligible to win the national award.