#7: Text-searchable City agenda packets and other public documents

Hello,
This is a simple, modest suggestion - to produce all City meeting agenda packets as text-searchable pdf files. This would also include public documents like the recent Parks plan. Using Adobe Acrobat can accomplish this from word documents, spreadsheets, etc. The idea is to make it easier, more efficient and effective for council and committee members to review the documents (agenda packets are regularly many pages long), and also for the community to stay engaged and involved with activities, plans, proposals, etc. Being able to quickly search for topics, keywords, dates, committees, etc. of special interest should help everyone!
Thank you for your consideration.

Nancy Aten

(Sent via Center Line Community Forum)

#6: City water

With all the news lately of poisoned city water due to either lead in the system or added chemicals like fluoride and chlorine, I suggest we take a long hard look at our own city water and the safety of our people and do what we can to remove as much of these toxins as possible.

Dan O'Hern V

(Sent via Center Line Community Forum)

Response from Josh VanLieshout, City Administrator (Thank you, Josh):

Dan, thanks for your comment.  To meet the requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act, the City of Sturgeon Bay, like all other community water systems is required to perform certain operation and maintenance activities, including chemical addition such as chlorine and fluoride to ensure that the water is safe to drink. An important component of these activities is sampling and analysis of the water quality at the wells and throughout the distribution system. The results of these monitoring efforts are made available to the public via the annual Consumer Confidence Report, updated by June 30th of each year. A copy of the most recent report can be viewed at: http://www.sbunet.com/media/water_quality_report.pdf.

You might also be interested in an article recently published by the Peninsula Pulse about the City’s water supply system, https://doorcountypulse.com/getting-lead-municipal-water-systems-door-county/. In it you will find more detail regarding our efforts to provide a safe and sustainable public drinking water supply.

Josh
 

#5: Arts Council

I’d love to see Sturgeon Bay create an Arts Council (maybe in conjunction with the Miller Art Center, the SB Visitors Bureau, the newly-formed Arts District, the Parks Dept and/or one of the other art organizations in Door County) to have a Walking Sculpture Tour like the inspiring one in Mankato, MN (see this link). Maybe it could be a sculpture and poetry walk. I think we could get some underwriters to help get it off the ground once a vision was formed. There are a lot of directions this could go in and I think the people working on it would have a lot of fun. It could be themed (loosely) to reflect SB's unique landscapes and history. It could evolve slowly.

Laurel Hauser

(Sent via Center Line Community Forum)

#4: Youth involvement

I would love to see the City encourage/promote the youth of our community to get/stay involved in local government. How about working with Sturgeon Bay High School students and maybe assigning student to an Alderperson and/or committee member so they can "follow" them around for a semester and see how local government works? Not just a "workshop" or forum for students to attend, but really hands on.

OR

To get the city on Social Media maybe approaching a H.S. Student and asking them to be a social media intern for the city?

OR

Giving a group or two of High School Students a fictitious plot of land within the city boundaries that they have to come up with a development, contact developers and present their idea as if it were a real scenario and go through the whole processes of committees and council. I think it is a great way for the youth to see how the process is supposed to work, get the feeling of attending meetings, learn what you can and cannot speak on during council meetings and really learn.

Kelly Avenson

(Sent via Center Line Community Forum)

#3: Safe slow-release fertilizer for Parks

I would love for the Parks and Recreation department to consider using a heated garage and begin raising red african earthworms for their earthworm castings. The slow release fertilizer is safe and could be used for all plantings, grass and ball field settings. The earthworms cannot be allowed into the earth being non-native. Restaurants, hospital, etc could participate by saving the vegetable matter that normally becomes garbage. A great informational resource for this is Growing Power in Milwaukee.

Linda Cockburn

(Sent via Center Line Community Forum)

Response from Josh VanLieshout, City Administrator (Thank you, Josh):

In speaking with Bob Bordeau, the City of Sturgeon only fertilizes ball fields (granular) and the potted flowers downtown (liquid).  Other turf areas are untreated.  If anyone is interested in earthworm castings as fertilizer,  Worm Products of Door County, right here in Sturgeon Bay may be able to help.

Josh
 

#2: Pedestrian safety on Jefferson Street and Egg Harbor Road

We all knew that traffic would increase through town when we learned about the highway road closings. We knew that our Police force would be burdened with more patrolling, monitoring and enforcement. I am sure they are doing the best they can. This problem could have been discussed (and possibly avoided) at the Parking and Traffic committee meetings last year as well as at the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board meetings. Next time, let's be prepared to handle this before the problems arise, but for now, solutions are still possible.

Here is an idea that other communities are using to aid pedestrians in crossing safely. These flags are placed on both sides of the street. Pedestrians wanting to cross the street take a flag, step to the curb, hold it up or wave it at oncoming traffic to alert them that they intend to cross. It gets the drivers' attention. Then after crossing, they place it in the holder on the other side of the street.

Street crossing flags (fb post)

Chesla Seely-Anschutz

(Sent via Center Line Community Forum)

#1: "No-mow turf" areas in parks

In the spirit of saving money long-term, less mowing, and less chemicals for park landscapes, here is a suggestion.

"No-mow fescue" (aka no-mow lawn, lawn alternative, fine fescues, etc) is a lawn alternative that is typically composed of a mix of the 'fine fescues', a few of the fine-bladed or wiry cultivated fescue species that do not need to ever be mowed - they are 'floppy'. A lot of north woods rural home landscapes used to look like this. Door Landscape (on Hwy 42 just north of Carlsville) has an excellent demonstration plot so you can see what this lawn alternative looks like. It takes know-how and time to get it established, but once established - it is perennial, no watering, no chemicals, no mowing, soft for walking and sitting on. It can't handle sports, but it is perfect for passive landscapes, hanging out, picnics, etc. Seems like it would be great for much of the city's parkland. Door Landscape staff should be happy to discuss. Wisconsin's Prairie Nursery has also been a longtime promoter of this, and you can see their info here. (Most providers have their own custom, but similar, no-mow lawn seed mix).
Thank you.

No-Mow Fescue demonstration plot at Door Landscape, photo taken October 2015

Nancy Aten

(Sent via Center Line Community Forum)