april 30–may 7/2021 • v27i17
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We Are Door County SERVING OUR COMMUNITY SINCE 1996
Door County Celebrates National Tourism Week
News | Door County
Education | Gibraltar School District
Supervisors Change Diversity Statement
Teacher Complaints Uncovered
Middle ground found in declaring racism a public-health crisis
But few conclusions drawn from study of district’s culture
Business | Door County
Palate | Sevastopol
Employers Struggle to Hire Seasonal Workers
A Taste of Tradition Returns
New survey cites lack of housing as top barrier
Arts & Entertainment
Mr. G’s reopening its doors
Plans Stamped for Potawatomi Tower Repair / Sturgeon Bay Forms NERR Committee / Tension at Pebble Beach / Public Comment Opens on Bridge, Highway Project / Wild Things / Early-Blooming Trailing Arbutus / Q&A with Ryan Louie of the Griffon String Quartet / Dale Vanden Houten’s Many-Shaped Prints / Story: ‘My Welcome to Door County’ + Happenings / Gallery Guide / Classifieds / Legals / Life Notes / Letters / Crossword on the cover Beachgoers to Europe Bay Beach at Newport State Park will notice six to 10 more feet of sandy real estate compared to last year. Photo by Brett Kosmider. Follow him on Instagram @brettkosmider.
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The Future of Tourism and Destination Door County
This special section is brought to you by:
DoorCounty.com
Maple Syrup Harvest Completed By Julie Gilbert President/CEO, Destination Door County
Louis Sohns, nearly 85, has been tapping trees since you, our community. We want to he was six years old be the destination marketing & by PATTY WILLIAMSON, PHD
A
management organization that our community desires and our visitor infrastructure needs.
• We will be transparent and communicate to the community and our stakeholders about what we do, how we operate and report on our return on investment.
Destination Door County’s Mission Statement To inspire travel that drives community
enhancement. Through innovation and s farmers prepare their fields for a new partnerships, we will share stories of Door season of growing, the harvest Some for of the ways we will • Effective collaboration another season has recently concluded: County’s people and places, deliver world-class continue to do this are: contributes to our success and maple-syrup making. experiences, strengthen the industry, work to the community’s success. We will Hard at the classic tree-tapping business Wethis want to be aware, ask ensure all travelers feel welcome and preserve share all information to improve our year, as he has been in one way or another for questions and listen. Door County’s way of life and its natural resources. capacity to solve key issues which more than seven decades, was Louis Sohns. There can lead to innovation and new are maple sugar producers with bigger operations We are passionate about Door approaches. in Door County, but hardly anyone who’s beenand in want to support and County the business longer than Sohns, who will bestrengthen 85 this the community’s help • As we transition from a (Fromprovides left) Charlie Eckhardt and Louis Sohns take a few minutes away from work in the steamy sugarhouse year. economic position which member organization to antrees into maple syrup. Photo by Charlie Eckhardt. where they’re boiling down sap from Sohns’ He was in first grade at Maple Grove School, justfor all our opportunity residents. inclusive partner organization, down the road from the farm where he was born we welcome andinwill continue beginning, like everyoneallelse those “We’re totallyCommunity dependentSurvey on theResults weather,” he and still lives, when he “went into business” with • We want to tellInthethe story of to bring new people, companies, theour Reinhards collected the sap in buckets said. “Traditionally, the run Walter and Bertha Reinhard. Door County, ourdays, history, arts, andtapped. ideas into the would start about 20 and last a few “I’dSince comeI home school, collect the and bags hung on theperspective, maples they In the arrivedfrom in Door County TourismMarch Marketing Strategies ourbuckets culture, our community, and the conversation whichinreflects all weeks, but you never know.” In 1951, the Reinhards of sap from the trees I’dI have tapped, them late 1950s, they were among the first Door mid-November 2021, beenand put people who live here. The health of voices within our community. in my little wagon,” said. “Before global County to begin using tubing to transport sap to tapped 3,000 trees with buckets and had just one listening to many inSohns our community Room Tax Update our community’s economy depends trash cans with liners in areas where there were sap run before it got too warm. It was over before warming, was usually snow on the ground to betterthere understand and help on a strong travel economy. in March, so I’d replaced the wagon many trees in one spot.• Be innovative by embracing the end of March, and they ended up with just 37 shape the direction we need to take wheels with Scholarship Winners Announced newchanged ideas andisfresh perspectives gallons of syrup. runners. I’d hitch up my dog, Muggins, and take off One thing that hasn’t the way sap to ensure we are an organization • We will strive to be more while evaluating new technologies is produced. Nature still needs days of about 40 Sugar maple trees make sugar out of sunlight around the corner to Reinhards’.” that focuses on Community Shared relevant and provide our New Entity Agreement Signed and platforms tell our story. Walter Sohns, Louis’ dad, made syrup for their degrees and nights below freezing,toideally about through photosynthesis: a process that allows Values. It truly is a pleasure to expertise for programs that trees and other plants to use sunlight to synthesize family, but the Reinhards (the parents of Jerry of 20 degrees, to coax the sap up from the roots of work for, and with, all of you in achieve and ensure Door County’s Jerry’s Flowers) were tapping 3,000 trees. Theyour mission, the trees during the day and allow it to retreat at food from carbon dioxide andCommunities water. Trees with moving forward in that direction. we together communicatenight. that toSohns the thinks this up-and-down journey of full tops that receive lots of sun make more sugar. became Sohns’ mentors, and they worked As we progress, willhe continue community so everyone part the of length of the “run” enhances the the sapisover Those in deep woods, where there’s not enough for about 30 years,we until began boiling sap to become more connected to Continued on page 3 room to develop big tops, make less. A run may the conversation. himself in 1972. flavor.
INSIDE
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EGG HARBOR
Destination Door County Does Away With Dues, Adopts More Inclusive Model
Shipwrecked Presents New Plan, Less Parking PhilDANNHAUSEN Berndt, Director byBy MYLES JR. myles@ppulse.com
of Advocacy, The Destination Door County proposal includes a 1,865-square-
foot addition and 92 additional seats in a beer garden next door the existing National Travel & Tourism Week has and we are proud to share sometoexciting he owners of Shipwrecked Brew restaurant on property that was long the special significance for us this year, as changes to our membership structure. Pub in Egg Harbor took a new home of Christine’s Casuals. we look ahead to a bright future. The Destination Door County has evolved planoftouncertainty the Egg Harbor Plan away from Thea plan commission past few years forced all membership modeldenied into a a similar Commission Tuesday. plan March 3, in part because that plan of us to become more innovative, more more inclusive, non-dues partnership relied on a nonexistent shared-use
T
flexible, and more collaborative versions of the organizations we once were. In recognizing the collective strength of our Door County tourism industry, we can work together more effectively to become a more authentic, innovative, sustainable, and inclusive destination
model. Any business, organization, or non-profit is now welcome to participate in our programs, buy into our marketing initiatives, and appear on DoorCounty. com at no charge.
Continued on page 3
agreement with a neighboring property owner for access to parking. The new plan is largely the same, but it removes the parking and the need for the shared-use agreement. Interim Village Administrator Tom Strong said the proposal conforms to village zoning codes.
Shipwrecked’s general manager, Joe Smith, presented the and proposal for the Learn more owners. take the pledge at “Our biggest takeaway from that DoorCounty.com/Pledge meeting was that green space was more important than parking,” Smith said. continued on page 2
2022
NOW ON
OCTOBER 30