‘Community’ Features

Every day, people from around the world are gathering to share their lives, ideas and even their politics on Facebook.  Smaller communities are not being left out of the conversation either, although sometimes you have to look a bit harder to find them. Here in Baraboo, the local library and city police department have had a presence on Facebook for some time. You’ll also find a smattering of local businesses as well.  It should be no surprise that were also seeing local political action groups discovering the power of social media. “Taxpayers for Baraboo Public Schools is just one of many local groups to take advantage of blogging, Facebook and other social media channels to gather with folks of like minds and promote their points of view. You can visit their Facebook page here,  True-Boo’s Facebook page.  With each passing day it’s becoming apparent that folks NOT taking advantage of social media are risking being left out of the conversation.

Of course, Skillet Creek has our own Facebook Page.  We’d love to have you join us! Just don’t expect much in the way of politics though.  (Well, not too much anyway!)

The Baraboo river is nearing flood state near Rock Springs while area some area streams are are already escaping their banks.  The photo above was taken in Rock Springs yesterday afternoon where the river is expected to continue to rise before falling back below flood stage on early next week. The National Weather Service report this morning (March 22nd) states that a flood warning remains in effect for the Baraboo River at Rock Springs and in Baraboo as well. You can read the details here.   For more pictures of the current high water in Rock Springs, Around the Mid-Continent Railway Museum in North Freedom and Seeley Creek click here.

• Image Gallery as Pop-up Slideshow

Driving city streets this time of year can get downright dangerous!  Potholes on Baraboo’s main streets are quickly becoming canyons.  Thankfully our city crews have come to the rescue.  Today you’ll find them out there filling those dangerous and damaging chasms as quickly as they can.  If you see a bunch of steam up ahead while driving around town today, slow down. Smile and wave!  These guys are are shoveling hot  joy, fixing our streets and saving our suspensions!  Yippee!

Commentary – If you asked anyone close to the park system, they would tell you Wisconsin state parks are vastly underfunded today. It’s not surprising that parks are low on any governments priority scale of course. So how are they managing? Well, for one thing parks & national resource jobs draw in people who care about what they are doing. Often they put in a lot of personal time to get things done. In addition, some Wisconsin state parks are becoming  more and more dependent on their Friends groups. These non-profit, volunteer organizations have been taking over a growing amount of the work that the under staffed parks simply can’t manage. In some cases the Friends Orgs have even helped fund staffing. Many issues such as control of invasive plants within the parks are little more than quixotic tasks for the warriors of lost causes.  There’s not enough money or enough feet on the ground. This in part, is why what’s going on in Madison, Wisconsin right now is important to everyone who enjoys our natural areas. Even if we prefer to stay out of politics and keep to the woods. Read the rest of this entry »

The drive between Baraboo and Portage will take a bit longer than expected over the next few months.  The  Highway 33 bridge across the Wisconsin river near Portage will be closed until at least June as the Wisconsin Department of Transportation replaces the entire deck.  This means traffic will need to find an alternative route, most often by way of  Highway 39 &  Highway 16.  We have marked out a couple options in the map below.

Detour Options

We were happy to be among the first people to receive the new Verizon iPhone yesterday.  After a few minutes of set up time, we were soon out testing our iPhone in a few of the Baraboo hill’s more notorious dead zones. So far so good.  While there is still spotty or no connection in some of worst areas we checked, reception was actually better than what we had experienced with Verizon phones in the past.  One good example is where Highway 113 descends off the bluffs to meet South Shore Road which then travels east to west on the south side of Devil’s Lake. (*See map below or click here.) In this whole area cellphone signals are spotty at best. Our 2 year old HTC can find no signal on this section of 113 or on most of South Shore Rd. near the bluffs.  The Iphone on the other hand, has a weak but usable connection for the most part.  We still experienced dropouts, but at least we could find spots where it was possible to get a call out.   That’s quite an improvement.  It will be nice to hear more folks experiences over the coming months, but at first glance it does seem like the Verizon iPhone will work  as well as can be expected here in the heart of the Baraboo range.

*One area known for poor cellphone reception.

View Cellphone in a larger map

Everything’s closed and the groundhog stayed home.  That about covers it for February 2nd, 2011 as we begin to dig out from under the latest “Snowmegeddon”.  It’s hard to estimate how much snow the Baraboo area received with all he blowing and drifting but it’s fair to say we were closer to a foot, than a few inches.  Whatever the case may be, enjoy your snow day if you can.  If you had to get out and get to work today.. we feel for ya.   The county plow trucks placed about 5 feet of snow in our driveway this morning… so remember, it could be worse.

A recent article in the local newspaper listed their choices for the “Top 10″ local stories of the year.  It wasn’t particularly cheerful but then again, headlines rarely are.

Out of the selected 10 stories it’s fair to say only 3 had a positive message and only one had something good to say about our neighbors.  It was a story about bystanders saving lives in an accident.  The other 7 stories were either about the bad things we do to one another, or process stories that for many are little more that tedious politics.  That, apparently is the best we can do. The “Top 10″ stories of a passing year here in the Baraboo Hills.

You know what?  I can’t buy that.  Let me say right here that I enjoy our local paper and am glad to have them around.  Local news is dying all over the country and we’re lucky to still have local press. I do believe however that if this is it, we’re not looking hard enough. I understand the murder and mayhem. Every small town is afflicted and being small we feel it deeply when our neighbors are harmed. Yet, when looking back at a year’s passing here in the heart of Wisconsin there just had to be better options than just murder, injury, budgets and politics to bookend another passing year here in the heart of Wisconsin.  Of all that has gone on this year, nothing could push who “Won the county sheriff race?” out of the top 10?  Really?  That’s all we got?

Sheriffs and budgets come and go. Businesses open and close. Life goes on regardless.  I have to believe that  our community must have had shone  brighter that that in 2010.  Maybe we weren’t paying attention.  Maybe nobody was looking.  It seems to me that if we truly want to have a “happy” new year, we have to start by putting more focus and more value on the good stuff.  As we head into the new year, let’s work on that. Here at Skillet Creek, that’s going to be our resolution, to find the good stuff. Life is full of sadness and politics but when we look back on another passing year, it’s shouldn’t be all we have to remember.

Happy New Year!  Really.

If you or your family are the sort of folks who drive around the community looking at holiday light displays, the Merrimac Charter School’s Community Garden holiday display is worth a visit.  In summer the charter school garden is managed by the kids, their teachers and the village as a whole. In fact, during the growing season anyone in the community is invited to come pick a few veggies and pull a few weeds!  At other times of the year the garden is often dressed up for various holidays and school events. This year’s light display is something special.  The Merrimac Community Charter School is located on 360 School Road, in the town of Merrimac.  The Community Garden is lit from 5pm to 10 pm each evening and will be on over the holiday weekend. Stop by and see the lights.. Just be sure to wear your boots!

Google Map

View Larger Map

If we want to see more people in our community during the winter months and more tourism dollars coming our way, we have to do a better job keeping some of our most popular natural areas open year around. Again I find myself trying to remind those who will listen that outdoor recreation is a multi-billion dollar industry and here in Wisconsin,  and Sauk County is (Or should be) ground zero. Boarding up the windows (or in this case, not plowing the parking areas) when it comes to outdoor recreation in the winter is a mistake.  We have to get over this chicken and the egg argument for not serving the outdoor community in our area.  They will come, they will shop, they will buy… IF we serve them properly.

I’m not going to spend any more time here trying to explain to those who don’t want to hear about it, how popular outdoor recreation actually is, or how even in winter, thousands of folks throughout the Midwest are still getting out doors.  I shouldn’t have to state the obvious, that winter in Wisconsin is big business. Just ask the Wisconsin Department of Tourism.  What is apparent in our area is that we are having a hard time connecting and understanding the outdoor enthusiasts who do come here by the millions (yes, millions..) each year.

We need to see outdoor recreation in a broader scope.  Yes, it’s ice fishing, downhill & cross-county skiing, boarding and snowmobiling.  We do a good job there for the most part.  However, it’s also trekking and snowshoeing, sledding, and skating, wildlife watching, tracking, photography, ice boating, back-country skiing and more.  We’ve not even begun provide services or access for many of these folks.  Meanwhile in areas such as Yellowstone National Park the concern is no longer access but regulation of winter use.  (Is Yellowstone a fair comparison?  Well, that’s another post entirely.)

Looking West From The Merrimac Preserve Toward Devil's Lake State Park

In much of Sauk County we seem to have a hard time promoting or even acknowledging our amazing natural areas or the sheer number of trails and innumerable acres of public land. (Not to mention the coming addition of the Badger Prairie!) We come to our natural gifts as an afterthought. We seem to have little motivation to even contemplate the real business potential for communities.  We blindly keep our best features shrouded or at the very least pushed off into the periphery. Here in Baraboo we seem beholden to becoming trickle down recipient of Wisconsin Dells overflow.  We casually ignore the millions of people who come to our parks and natural areas every year, while blithely continuing to pretend that a new office building  here or box store there will somehow carry us into the future. In the long term this is going to be a mistake that will be hard, if not impossible to recover from down the road.

As I’ve said many times before, Baraboo and much of Sauk County should be putting all it’s efforts into developing it’s own niche’.  Sauk county is many things. It’s history, industry, business, the arts and more, but it is our natural environment that makes us something unique in not only the Midwest, but in the country as well.  We need to come to terms with that reality and build our community and our business models around it. We need to build on the 1.8 million visitors to Devil’s Lake State Park each year and the tens of thousands more visiting other parks, natural areas, ski resorts, and more. We need to better open channels of communication and take these folks by the hand and show them what we really have to offer. We have to provide more recreational opportunities and guidance. We have to better publicize all of our natural areas as one unified destination.  We need better maps and brochures.   We need to unify our “brand” if you will. We need more business targeted to the outdoor industry as well as support the ones we do have.  AND we need businesses that will stay open when folks get off the trails and off the beach so they don’t bypass us to go to Wisconsin Dells where (I’ve been told many times) they often feel more wanted.

Lastly we need to do it now. 2011, when all eyes will be focused on Devil’s Lake State Park’s centennial celebration.  The amount of media interest and the number of people hearing and thinking about Devil’s Lake and Sauk County as a whole, outside of Wisconsin Dells will never be higher. We need to take this opportunity to really show them what we have to offer.  What we cannot do is plod along with “business as usual”.  There’s a decision to make in our community and it should not be left to business leaders who simply can’t see the forest for the trees.  We need fresh thinking, fresh attitudes and fresh air to take our community profitably, and naturally into the next hundred years. We need to recognize our strengths and build upon them.  That’s how business and communities have thrived since the dawn of time. We’re lucky here in Sauk County.  People want to come here.  They always have.  They come because of us, and sometimes sadly, in spite of us.  We’ve got a good thing here in Sauk County. We just need to get with the program.

Oh, and by the way, we could start, but simply plowing out a few parking lots (Such as the one at Pewit’s Nest Natural Area in the top photo).

**Yes, this is just one silly person’s opinion.  Feel free to blow me off.  I’m sure many will.