Door County Pulse Podcasts

Kendall Weisgerber loved a great playground. When she died at age six in 1991, her family and the Baileys Harbor community built a playground in her memory. On Saturday, they opened the revamped Kendall Weisgerber Memorial Park with an incredible new playground. Kendall’s sister, Kari Baumann, joins the podcast to talk about her sister, the building of the playground, and what it meant to her to watch scores of kids rush onto the equipment on Saturday.

With the latest exhibit at the Miller Art Museum in Sturgeon Bay as the springboard – Newfangled, which presents artworks from the museum's permanent collect that illustrate the Modernist period – Debra Fitzgerald receives a spectacular primer from a woman who has a fascinating and accessible way of talking about art and its meaning and importance in the world: Helen Del Guidice, the museum's curator of exhibitions and collections.

It’s the final weekend to check out Christkindlmarkt in Sister Bay and John Nelson joins Myles Dannhausen Jr. to tell you what’s new on the grounds this year. Then they talk a bit about the evolution of Sister Bay from the doldrums of the mid-2010s to the thriving climate of today.

An unprecedented number of Door County municipalities are going through market updates and revaluations given the meteoric rise in the real estate market, especially residential homes. This year, Baileys Harbor, Gibraltar, Union. Sister Bay and Liberty Grove have gone through this process, with more coming up in 2024. People always wonder what will happen to their property tax bill when their municipality goes through this. Dean Peters, vice president of operations for Associated Appraisal, unpacks it all with Debra Fitzgerald.

Myles Dannhausen Jr. and Debra Fitzgerald discuss the sudden closure of Zion Early Childhood Center and what it means for the families of the 60 children there. But first, a look at the vote by Gibraltar voters to say no to a road tax.

Myles Dannhausen with an essay on life in winter on the peninsula, with some words from the late writer Norb Blei.

Ben Jones joins the podcast to talk about his recent story about the reinvention of Baileys Harbor. He talks with Myles Dannhausen about the evolution of the town from the sleepy, “quiet side” to a bustling food and drink hub still holding tight to its small-town, laid-back ethos.

Sturgeon Bay is kicking off the holiday season with Christmas By the Bay, then the rest of the county joins in the cheer next week. Myles Dannhausen Jr. and Debra Fitzgerald run down everything going on for the season, plus a look at the latest round of Destination Door County’s Community Investment Fund grants.

It took over 100 hours of footage, 43 interviews and 1,400 hours of editing to create Ridge and Swale, the documentary celebrating the legacy of conservation in Door County. Myles Dannhausen Jr. talks to director Brett Kosmider about the film, his process and what lessons we can learn today from the conservation battles of the past.

It’s municipal budget season and several communities have big expenses on the docket that will trickle down to their taxpayers. Myles Dannhausen Jr. and Debra Fitzgerald break down a couple of these budgets and why its so hard for municipalities to get ahead. Plus, Peninsula Players gets a big grant and the Northern Door Children’s Center embarks on the last phase of its expansion and renovation.

A plan for new multimodal paths to connect Egg Harbor to Fish Creek is taking shape with the help of the National Park Service. Community Planner Christopher Morgan and Landscape Architect Patrick Lydon of the National Park Service join the podcast to talk about their work assisting the village in engaging the public and planning the route for a path that could provide an off-road connection from Murphy Park to downtown Fish Creek.

Jewel Peterson Ouradnik is the 11th child in a family of 12 kids who grew up at Rowleys Bay Resort in Ellison Bay, which was purchased by her parents in 1970. A fire the day after Labor Day weekend destroyed a big part of the resort, lodge and bakery at the end of County Road ZZ that she has owned and operated with her husband, Bob, since 2013. Jewel talks with Debra Fitzgerald about the fire and their decision to sell the property, which is currently on the market for $2.15 million.

Anders Erickson got his start behind the bar at the late, great T. Ashwell’s in Ellison Bay. Twenty years later he has turned his cocktail skills into a thriving cocktail channel on YouTube where he has nearly 500,000 subscribers and his cocktail recipe videos garner millions of views. He joins Myles Dannhausen Jr. to talk about his journey and how the channel has grown.

In 1959 legendary coach Curly Lambeau was finished roaming NFL sidelines, but football was never far from his mind. Retired to his cottage in Fish Creek, he showed up at a Gibraltar Vikings high school football practice and was soon instructing players for coach Pat Spielman. Herb Gould joins Myles Dannhausen Jr. to talk about his article detailing Lambeau’s stint in Fish Creek.

Fishers Island is a community of about 400 people off the coast of Long Island that has faced some of the same housing shortfalls for residents that Door County is grappling with. But in 1987, residents of the island came together with land and money to devise a solution. Myles Dannhausen Jr. talks to the program director of Walsh Park, Matt Edwards, about the nonprofit housing trust the island created to provide homes for firefighters, teachers, laborers and even Edwards himself.

Pulitzer-nominated author Dan Egan joined Mark Holey and Myles Dannhausen Jr. for a special Fish Tales lecture series event at Crossroads at Big Creek on Oct. 16. Egan, the author of Phosphorus: The Devil’s Element. They talked about the vital element that is a key component of one of the most vital substances on earth: fertilizer, which has sustained life for billions of people. It has played a critical role in some of the most lethal substances on earth: firebombs, rat poison, nerve gas. But the supply of phosphorus is not endless. This live edition of the podcast was recorded from the Fish Tales event by Laddie Chapman.

What's a citizen scientist and why are they so important to Door County conservation and land protection organizations? Debra Fitzgerald finds out from Paige Witek, community conservation coordinator for the Door County Land Trust, and Tony Kiszonas, director of research for The Ridges Sanctuary, prior to the first Citizen Science Symposium that will take place at the Ridges on Oct. 21. To learn more about that event, go to doorcountypulse.com/a-collaborative-celebration-of-citizen-scientists/.

Myles Dannhausen Jr. and Debra Fitzgerald dive into the news of the week with a brief look at Fall Fest and a deeper dive into the latest room tax numbers and what those returns say about the state of tourism in the county. Then they talk about what’s coming for Egg Harbor’s highway reconstruction project and the latest broadband news.

In the third part of our series on the affordable housing shortage, Mia Vlaar joins the podcast to talk about the variety of approaches the Town of Vail, Colorado is using to build its affordable housing stock. She talks to Myles Dannhausen Jr. about their program to purchase deed restrictions, changes in legislation to divert funds to workforce issues and a new sales tax implemented to support housing projects.

In July the most ambitious affordable housing project to date in Door County opened in Sister Bay. Within weeks, nearly all of the income-restricted units were full. Myles Dannhausen Jr. talks to developer Marissa Downs about what it took to make it happen, some of the misconceptions about the development, and why it’s so hard to do it in Door County.