Door County Buy Local Kickoff
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Organizers of the new Door County Buy Local initiative will host an open-to-the-public kickoff event and business mixer on Thursday, October 21, 5:300in at Stone Harbor Resort, 107 North First Avenue, Sturgeon Bay. The Door County Buy Local program is a grass-roots economic development initiative that seeks to improve community quality of life by strengthening local businesses and improving job opportunities for residents. A brief program will feature information about the new initiative and an opportunity to join. Complementary snacks and refreshments will be provided, courtesy of Flanigan Distributing and Stone Harbor Resort.
In certain industry sectors, Door County loses a considerable amount of business to neighboring counties. For example, in the Electronics and Appliance Store category, although over $3.4 Million was spent in Door County in 2009, an additional $1.6 Million was spent outside the County. The Door County Buy Local program will encourage Door County residents and business owners to purchase goods and services from their local providers whenever possible, to keep more money within our local economy. |
WHEDA Paint and Fix-up Program
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 DCEDC received a $15,000 grant from the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority to provide free paint and fix-up rebates for exterior property improvements to specific properties in the former WireTech neighborhood. Property owners were eligible to receive grants of up to $800 for exterior paint and exterior repairs. Information and applications were sent to 55 property owners in the area surrounding the former WireTech site. Eighteen applications to the program were approved and those projects will be completed in the coming weeks.
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Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal Revetment
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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, along with DCEDC and County of Door, state and federal officials, held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Monday, September 20 at the Sturgeon Bay ship canal for a newly repaired south revetment. The $2.9 Million project was funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus package. The work consisted of removing dilapidated timber sheet pile; installing over 2,000 feet of steel sheet piling with required anchor wall; placing stone fill, scour stone, and a concrete cap; and installing a safety railing.
"This is an important project that improves critical navigational infrastructure," said Lt. Col. Michael Derosier, district engineer. "As an added benefit, it provides safe access to our structures which are extensively used by the public for fishing, boat watching or just enjoying the scenery." |
CNC Traing Center Proposal
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The Door & Kewaunee Business and Education Partnership's CNC (computer numeric control) regional training center committee recently presented a proposal to NWTC, asking the College to expand CNC training programs in the Door/Kewaunee region to address documented needs and grow a skilled workforce through the creation of a CNC training center. Expanding the CNC training opportunities in Door and Kewaunee counties will:
· Create opportunity to expose the CNC field to high school students;
· Provide entry-level training to high school students and other workers to fill immediate job openings in local industry;
· Create opportunity for CNC training to upgrade the skills of current employees of local manufacturers;
· Upgrade the skills of the local workforce to improve the competitiveness of local manufacturers in the global economy;
· Expand NWTC's CNC program possibilities.
NWTC is considering the proposal and will work with the committee over the next few months. |
Telecommunications News
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 We were disappointed to learn that the application by Nsight/Cellcom for federal broadband stimulus support for a Door County infrastructure improvement project was not funded during the second and final phase of the program. We are, however, very  thankful to Nsight/Cellcom for the time and considerable resources they leveraged on our behalf in putting together a very comprehensive application. We are also very hopeful that working together on the application will lead to a greater collaborative relationship between Door County and Nsight. As an incumbent service provider in the area, we hope that we are able to help them continue to grow their business in Door County and provide their services to our residents and visitors.
 Frank Maydak, GM-Wisconsin for Frontier Communications, recently made a presentation introducing his company to the DCEDC Technology Council. Frontier purchased rural lines from Verizon in July 2010, including the Northern Door territory. The company is committed to customer service, community engagement and changing the corporate culture. In their legacy territories, they had a 98% penetration of DSL to rural customers, versus 63% for Verizon. There is no timeline for deploying DSL to Northern Door at this time. The company is currently focused on replacing old and neglected cable plant and assessing what upgrades will be required to roll out DSL in the area. There may be potential for a working relationship between Nsight and Frontier to bring additional bandwidth into the County.
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