Door County Pulse Podcasts

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.

A familiar name returns to Door County in October when musician Tony Brown comes home for a show. Deb Fitzgerald talks to Myles Dannhausen Jr. about her interview with Brown in this week’s Pulse, then they talk about Cycling Without Age, a program that gets people back outside and in nature with the use of electric trishaw bikes.

In the first of a series of conversations over the next few weeks, Myles Dannhausen Jr. discusses local initiatives and challenges in piecing the housing puzzle together. We also look beyond the county’s boundaries to examine approaches being used in other communities, such as Vail, Colorado and with local leaders, developers and Fisher Island, New York. This month the Door County Community Foundation launched the Workforce Housing Lending Corporation. Bret Bicoy, the President and CEO of the Community Foundation, joins the podcast to discuss the program and what its creators hope it can accomplish to close the housing gap on the peninsula.

An August windstorm exposed serious problems with the Egg Harbor Marina’s floating pier system. Deb Fitzgerald joins Myles Dannhausen Jr. on the podcast to discuss what happened, plus a proposal for a pop-up roundabout in the village. Then they talk about dog rules at a northern Door County park.

The County of Door is replacing all the emergency, green-and-white fire signs in all of the towns at every single address, at a cost that's been estimated at more than $1 million and is being funded, in part, with American Rescue Plan Act dollars. Debra Fitzgerald talks with Mariah Goode, director of the county's Land Use Services department, about why this is being done and why, in the age of GPS, those signs are still needed. She also touches on the county's comprehensive plan process now underway, and how the county's vision of land use across the peninsula interacts with, and overlays, municipal versions of future land use.

Andrew Kleidon is joined by singer, songwriter, and playwright Katie Dahl to talk about her musical journey thus far. From the broken wrist that got her to pick up a guitar, to making a career in music in Door County, and touring beyond. After the break we dig deeper into her songwriting and performance process around her newest album, Seven Stones.

Door County municipalities are almost all engaged in a process to bring reliable, high-speed internet access to all addresses within their communities. Jessica Hatch, County of Door broadband coordinator, reviews with Debra Fitzgerald exactly where each community is in the process, how much money is out there for grants to get the work done, future challenges that could arise and how they're preparing for those now.

There is nothing like a tragedy to show a community who it is, and the Sept. 5 fire at Rowleys Bay Resort was all that. Myles Dannhausen Jr. and Deb Fitzgerald talk about the Sept. 5 response to the fire, the aftermath, the memories, efforts to help the displaced employees and the owners' vow to rebuild

Author Meghan O'Gieblyn joins the podcast to discuss her book, God, Human, Animal, Machine: Technology, Metaphor and the Search for Meaning. She is one of the featured authors at the Washington Island Literary Festival, which takes place Sept. 21-23.