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Summary of Accomplishments
Door County Legislative Days 2003
and 2005
Door County Legislative Days is an ongoing,
long-tern educational event designed to build improved relationships with
State government decision makers. Fortunately, this event has also
generated very significant short-term successes for Door County.
Highlights of some of these successes are summarized below.
2003 Legislative Days -
April 30 and May 1
One hundred Delegates presented the agenda to
all state legislators and several state agencies. The Legislative Agenda
addressed the following issues:
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Water Quality and Safety of Beaches
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State Highway 57 Four-Lane Improvement
Project
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Supporting Education Through Fairness and
Equity in Education Funding
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Improve the Door County Business Climate
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Construction of a New Bridge in Downtown
Sturgeon Bay at the Maple to Oregon Street Crossing
Accomplishments:
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Raised awareness of the challenge Door
County has to define, identify and address the factors associated with
the contamination of the near shore beach waters. Door County received
a $25,000 grant from the Wisconsin Coastal Management Program in 2004 to
help fund our source investigation research.
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WI Dept. of Transportation, Deputy
Secretary Ruben Anthony promised our delegation that the Highway 57
Improvement Project is budgeted and scheduled to be completed by 2008.
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Having the NWTC funding issue as part of
Door County Legislative Day brought attention to this issue and resulted
in the formation of the Assembly Speaker's Task Force to study the
Technical College System which motivated the system to look for ways to
reign in their spending and growing reliance on the property tax for
funding.
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Dept. of Commerce Deputy Secretary Dave
Storey promised to provide State assistance to prepare an economic
development plan that would help Door County deal with the loss of
manufacturing and other jobs and help chart a course to expand the
economy. DCEDC and the County received a $75,000 grant to help
prepare such a plan. The plan was completed by NorthStar Economics and
Grant Thornton and released to the public in April 2005.
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The Legislature approved a sweeping TIF
reform bill that enabled the City of Sturgeon Bay to use this economic
development tool for phase two of the waterfront redevelopment project.
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Wisconsin Public Service Commission
promised that they would assist our efforts to improve local
telecommunication services. Since this meeting, SBC has deployed a
divergent and redundant fiber line from Green Bay to Sturgeon Bay, SBC
has introduced high speed DSL broadband service to Sturgeon Bay, and
Charter has deployed high-speed cable broadband service to several
communities in the County.
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The State Dept. of Commerce expanded
eligibility for the CDBG Community Planning grant program to include
telecommunication projects. DCEDC and Door County received a $75,000
grant to assess the feasibility of a county-wide Fiber To the Home and
Business Telecommunications Deployment Proposal.
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The WI Dept. Of Transportation announced an
administrative determination accepting WDOT responsibility to own and
maintain both the existing Michigan St. Bridge and any new bridge built
over the Bay. Second, the State pledged $24 million to the
rehabilitation of the Michigan St. Bridge and construction of a new
bridge. Last, although funding remained an obstacle, the State affirmed
its commitment to provide a new bridge on the Maple to Oregon corridor.
2005
Legislative Days – May 4 - 6
Eighty Door County delegates presented the 5
point Legislative Agenda to all state legislators and the 17 point Agency
Agenda to ten state agencies. The Legislative Agenda addressed the
following issues:
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Sturgeon Bay Shipbuilding Cluster Master
Plan Implementation
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Downtown Bridge Over Sturgeon Bay
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Public Sector Collective Bargaining Reform
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State Budget Funding for Soo Locks and
Tourism Marketing
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Education Funding Reform for K-12 Schools
and Technical Colleges
Accomplishments:
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Successfully communicated a better
understanding of Door County issues and needs to state agencies and
legislators.
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Provided strong support to Representative
Garey Bies and Senator Alan Lasee’s initiative to secure funding for a
new downtown bridge prior to rehabilitation of the Michigan Street
Bridge.
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The Wisconsin
Legislature and Governor included $12 Million in the 2005-2007 State
budget for a new downtown bridge to begin construction within one year,
with Committee Chair Rep. John Gard specifically citing Door County
Legislative Days as being instrumental to helping move the initiative
forward.
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The state
Department of Commerce announced a $350,000 grant to the City of
Sturgeon Bay to support WireTech
Fabricators’ relocation to the Industrial Park and redevelopment of
their current site for attainable housing.
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The Department of Tourism announced a
$40,000 grant to the Door County Chamber of Commerce and Visitor &
Convention Bureau for the new “A Kingdom So Delicious” Door County
tourism marketing campaign.
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The Wisconsin Public Service Commission
announced approval of a CLEC
(Competitive Local Exchange Carrier) license to Brilliant Cities, Inc.
to deploy a new, state-of-the-art fiber optics telecommunications
network in Door County.
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