A Green Bay man working and living in Northern Door County was found in the water off
Indian Point Road on Washington Island yesterday. This is the second drowning fatality in two days. The call was reported to the Door County Communication Center at about 8:30 last night. Door County Sheriffs Department Chief Deputy Gary Behling.
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Authorities recovered the victim, who was wearing a lifejacket, near the shoreline at the entrance to Jackson Harbor. Behling urges everyone to use caution on or near the water.
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This incident is still under investigation. The name of the victim will be released early tomorrow says Behling.

As of now all the underground street light conduit has been completed and sidewalk areas should be backfilled. The curb and gutter will be installed by tomorrow as will a significant portion of the sidewalks.
For those who have not reviewed the plans, the area between the curb and sidewalk will be poured in two steps. The first step is to widen the sidewalk to a point 2’ away from the curb and installed at the same slope as the existing sidewalk. There are a few exceptions where the slope will be changed slightly but this will not be noticeable to most people. The last 2’ behind the curb will be poured with red concrete to match the cross walks. This concrete is considered a terrace area and will have a slightly greater cross slope than the sidewalk but again in most areas the change will not be noticeable.
We have had to make a few adjustments to the existing walk because of the strict standards that are now in place for curb ramps. At a few intersections, the old ramps were too steep for today’s codes and therefore we’ve had top remove some sidewalk to allow for a longer distance to overcome the grade difference from the sidewalk to the curb flow line. This adjustment is typically done within 10 to 15’ from the intersection and I believe will make for an easy transition from the sidewalk to the crosswalks for those in wheel chairs.
You should be noticing the wood box frames for the street trees. The locations are somewhat dictated by the location of the street lights and the water services, but otherwise can be moved a few feet one way or another. If you have a personal reason to move them slightly, please contact me and/or the on site inspectors immediately because once they are formed into the concrete they will not be moving.
There are 54 trees planned for this job, one may be eliminated because it was located next to the Draab’s clock, and there are 4 different varieties to be installed. They are the Ginkgo (a slow hardy Japanese tree that does well in urban environments), the Silver Linden which has a naturally tall spade shape, the Amur Maple which is a shrubby Maple that is trained into a tree and only grows to about 20’ tall and the Prairie Pear which is a fruitless ornamental tree that also reaches a mature height of about 20’. The trees have good drought tolerance necessary for our street trees and are slow growing or have a tap root system that should not damage our sidewalks.
The pavement marking of the Parking Spaces, Centerlines, Stop Bars and Crosswalks will begin next week and completed in about 7 working days. This same contractor will also be removing and replacing the pavement marking that was installed for the Oregon Bridge project because it failed to adhere to the concrete. With this being completed we will be able to open portions of the street after the June 28th opening ceremonies. The contractor is confident that the remainder of the road will open and even the trees installed by the 3rd of July. Remember that only the concrete installation were required to be installed in the first 42 days of construction and there were 18 more days to plant trees, install lights and mark the pavement but LaLonde is now working extra hours to finish all items before the 3rd of July. To accomplish this they may be working late into the evening, or there could be sub contractors working in different blocks throughout the project but they are definitely stepping up the level of effort to finish this job as quickly as possible from now through the 3rd of July.

There is a line from a song “Rainy days and Monday’s always getting’ me down” and so today a Monday we’ve had yet another setback. A machine was brought in to install the remaining curb and gutter. This is typically a good thing because these machines pour perfect curves and the flow around the corners is very accurate. For our job the machine being used could not turn the tight radius and the “Mule” or form to extrude the shape of the curb did not match what was previously installed. Therefore the installation of the curb and gutter will take 2 to 3 days instead of being complete today. Unfortunately these added 2 days will make completion within the 42 initial working period more difficult but not so difficult that the opening date will be delayed beyond the July 4th Holiday weekend.
For the next week Curb and Gutter, Tree Grates and sidewalk installation will be occurring every morning and then forms will be set each afternoon for the next days pour. Because every day will require the installation of concrete, weather is critical to keeping the project moving. When concrete can not be poured because of rain or the threat of severe storms, the contractor is given an extra day to finish the contract. Ideally we want cool sunny days and mild rainy nights in order to get the best concrete finish possible, but keeping you fingers crossed and prayers said for dry days will be good enough.
I hope that last weekend was a success for all businesses and we should be grateful to the contractor who was able to do a significant amount of site cleanup and restoration before the start of the weekend festivities. Again this is all work that ultimately needed to be done and with the threat of foul weather it was the prudent thing for him to do but it was still nice having a clean construction site for the weekend. Every week should result in improved cross traffic, safer pedestrian traffic and ultimately the completion of the project.