On Monday, April 9 at 6 pm, the Egg Harbor Village Board will hold a regular meeting at the Paul J. Bertschinger Community Center and you are invited to attend!
There will be time provided for public commentary. We hope to present Nancy Fisher and her board members with more than 500 names and comments all in support of saving the historic architecture of Egg Harbor. We are currently at 451 signers…
With a long history of supporting the preservation of Door County’s architectural heritage, we have also created a Facebook Page that describes our mission in general, “From barns and other agrarian structures to classic homes and commercial buildings… old structures define the history and essence of what it is that makes Door County and any other community unique.”
Save Door County Heritage Architecture
Auctioning off parts of the building before an open discussion takes place…
It is disappointing to say the least, that an auction house has already been given the rights to dispose of the contents of the Lena’s Sip & Chat building in a little-known, online public auction. The following heritage items are among the 124 lots, for sale to the highest bidder under a listing entitled, Jersey Shore Pub.
We petition the Village of Egg Harbor Board of Trustees…
“The Village of Egg Harbor legislators should undertake a complete study that includes all of the options and costs to build or repurpose the existing 1935 landmark building once known as Lena’s Sip & Chat. The evaluation should also consider public sentiment as well as the opinion of experts in Wisconsin’s historical architecture.”
Martha Egan Letter to Village of Egg Harbor Board of Trustees
Board of Trustees
Village of Egg Harbor
Paul J. Bertschinger Community Center
7860 State Highway 42
Egg Harbor, Wisconsin, 54209
April 8, 2012
Greetings, Ladies and Gentlemen:
As I am unable to attend this meeting in person, I have asked another member of our community to read this letter to the Board of Trustees in my stead.
The Charles N. Sr. and Peg Egan family has been a part of the Egg Harbor community since the mid-50’s. We have owned our home on Point Beach Road for over fifty-three years. My parents are buried in the Egg Harbor Catholic cemetery, as is my brother Charles N. Egan—Nick. My sister Polly Egan Arango’s ashes were scattered off our dock into Egg Harbor. Over the years, Egan family members have made many contributions of time, talent, and finances to enhance life in Egg Harbor and Door County, in support of a host of social and cultural organizations. We have also paid a considerable amount of taxes into the Village coffers. Nevertheless, as most of us have resident status elsewhere, we cannot vote in local elections.
I speak only for myself when I say that as a longtime member of the Egg Harbor community and a taxpayer, I am deeply concerned about Board of Trustees’ recent expenditures of millions of dollars of taxpayer funds and the incurring of considerable debt to fund the marina and the purchase of the Troup property. Not only were these expenditures extremely costly, and it will be many years before the debts are paid off, the projects primarily benefit day trippers and people other than local residents and taxpayers. These decisions by the Board were highly contentious, to a great extent unilateral and precipitous, and caused certain Village taxpayers to expend considerable funds in defense of their interests. They also worsened traffic problems.
Now the Board has made another costly move without proper consultation with impacted parties such as the taxpayers, the Historical Society, and the Library—the purchase of the possibly historically significant, more than eighty-year-old building known as Lena’s, which you plan to demolish for a parking lot and some unspecified future project.
I urge you to demonstrate responsible leadership by slowing down. Do proper research and planning in consultation with all impacted parties, manifest a clear purpose and plans for this property, present those plans to the public for our approval, and do not make any irreparable moves before doing so.
As the Board of Trustees, you represent ALL taxpayers, not just those who voted you into office or your own wishes. If you proceed without taking taxpayer opinions into consideration, you will cause more controversy and ill will among all who call Egg Harbor home, and call your leadership capabilities into question yet again.
Thank you for consideration of the points I raise.
Sincerely,
Martha J. Egan
Member, Egan Egg Harbor Property Partnership, LLC
PO Box 254
Egg Harbor, Wisconsin, 54209
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