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MANITOWOC COUNTY — The past year has been a rollercoaster ride for Manitowoc County.
In November, Manitowoc gained national attention when it selected through late-night television presenter John Oliver to place a poster for its crusade in New Zealand’s Bird of the Century contest. This led to several mentions on John Oliver’s show, “Last Week Tonight,” and another on Jimmy Fallon’s “The Tonight Show. “
On a more local level, the Manitowoc Public School District has been featured in several articles on topics such as a spring referendum for a $61. 7 million increase in spending limits over the next five years, two newly elected school board members, a replacement in the school’s curriculum, and the return of loose food for all students.
The Manitowoc County Board of Supervisors dedicated many hours of their time to explore the viability of renovating the courthouse dome. The board also approved the county’s first Narcan vending machine.
Those in Manitowoc and Two Rivers continued to create their own tourism departments. However, the lawsuit filed through the Manitowoc Area Visitor
The city of Manitowoc acquired the former Lakeshore Edgewater Plaza shopping center this year, marking a small replacement for the one that had been vacant for years.
Journalist Patti Zarling also shared her experience as a volunteer consultant (tourism consultant) at a historic lighthouse on Door County Island earlier this year.
This year has also seen changes in business in the region. Grizzly has expanded into the former Casa di Amici building on Washington Street. The Inn on Maritime Bay has completed renovations that complement the hotel’s striking views over Lake Michigan. Amerequip has also completed construction, this time to expand its production plant in Kiel.
While the chain has overcome many changes and difficult situations this year, it is the others who have really made the county shine.
The Herald Times Reporter began searching for our annual Person of the Year in November, when we asked readers to nominate other people who made a difference at the network in 2023. We’ve won a lot of nominations and we’ve added a few as well. .
We then narrowed the list down to those people, who are our 2023 Manitowoc County Person of the Year.
Manitowoc’s Nighttime Moment: Manitowoc dubbed “America’s Paris” via late-night talk show host John Oliver
This summer, Manitowoc Public School District Superintendent James Feil made the resolution to block the Community Eligibility Provision, a national program that allows schools to offer breakfasts and single breakfasts to students. This meant that starting in the 2023-2024 school year, students had to pay up to $3. 75 for a meal, unless their parents or their parents asked for and got permission to get single or reduced-price meals.
MPSD had in the past offered universally loose meals to all families during the COVID-19 pandemic and through the end of the 2022-2023 school year.
In September, after the resolution became widely known, parents and citizens flocked to Board of Education meetings, providing their input, as they would in the public consultation to help reinstate free meals for students.
Supporters of the loose lunch program also wrote letters to the Herald Times Reporter and held a networking forum about the history of school meals in the Manitowoc Public School District and the network’s eligibility provision.
At the end of October, Feil made the decision to reinstate the network’s eligibility provisions, and students received loose meals starting Nov. 6.
Linda Gratz and Stacey Eck were nominated by readers for recognition of their efforts to have the free meals reinstated for MPSD students.
Full Article: Manitowoc to Resume Bulk Meals for All Students on Nov. 6
More than 8,000 people attended the first-ever Wisconsin Sand Sculpting Festival held at Red Arrow Park and Beach in Manitowoc this summer.
The festival was organized through Manitowoc Sunrise Rotary and Visit Manitowoc, the city’s tourism department.
“Manitowoc shined along with thousands of others by hosting Wisconsin’s first sand sculpture festival,” Courtney Hansen, director of Visit Manitowoc, said in a July news release. “The occasion brought Red Arrow Park and Beach closer to visitors and citizens and demonstrated that this domain can be the site of other exciting occasions in the summers to come.
The three-day occasion in July included hands-on classes, sand carving demonstrations, a children’s area, music, food, drinks and vendors. Organizers have announced plans to host the festival in 2024.
Full Story: Here’s how many other people attended the first Manitowoc Sand Carving Festival in Wisconsin.
Anthony Lambrecht was elected in the spring 2023 election as the fourth judge of the Manitowoc County Circuit Court, a branch that was recently created earlier this year and began handling cases in August.
“The local judicial formula is very overloaded, so this (Branch 4) will help,” he said after the election.
The new branch of the Circuit Court was announced in 2022, and Lambrecht announced his candidacy for the position of judge shortly after. He ran unopposed in the April elections.
Lambrecht joined Mark Rohrer, Robert Dewane and Jerilyn Dietz as county judges.
Full Story: Manitowoc County will soon have 4 circuit court locations. Here’s what you want to know.
Angel and George Mueller were instrumental in promoting the law in Wisconsin and several other states to develop epinephrine, a life-saving drug for others suffering from anaphylactic shock. The legislation is called Dillon’s Act, after the Muellers’ son who died. in 2018 after a bee sting caused him to go into anaphylactic shock.
This year, they made wonderful strides by pushing for a national law that would encompass all 50 states. In June, U. S. Representatives Glenn Grothman and Debbie Dingell introduced the Dillon Act in the U. S. House of Representatives. Grothman is a Republican representing Wisconsin’s Sixth Congress. District and Dingell is a Democrat representing Michigan’s Sixth Congressional District.
The pair were also invited to speak at Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine in Louisiana this summer. More than 300 medical students attended their talk, both in person and via Zoom. After that, the Muellers were invited to speak at other medical colleges in Tennessee, Illinois and Arkansas.
Full Article: Dillon’s Law Championed in Washington, D. C. : Its New Manitowoc “Watch Wednesday”
John Stelzer, president of Roncalli Catholic Schools, has been leading the way to secure $20 million in funding to build a new school on Michigan Avenue in Manitowoc. The new 80,000-square-foot school will service students in a four-county area for generations to come.
Catholic education is a life-long tradition for Stelzer. He was a student-athlete at Roncalli High School, playing basketball, baseball and football, before graduating in 1981. He earned a bachelor’s degree from St. Norbert College and a master’s degree from St. Mary’s University.
Stelzer began his career at Roncalli in 1985. He served as a social studies teacher, held various roles in the area of development, and coached baseball, football and girls’ basketball.
He was president of Roncalli High School in 2004. In 2020, he oversaw the setup of Roncalli Catholic schools, in which Roncalli merged with St. Francis of Assisi schools. This transition led to the status quo of Roncalli Elementary School and Roncalli High School, which joined the top school to shape the Roncalli school system.
His enthusiasm and determination for the progress of the Catholic Church in Roncalli make him the 2023 Person of the Year.
Full Story: Roncalli Catholic Schools to Be Built on Michigan Avenue After Holy Family College Site Study
Damon Ryan, a longtime local radio personality, retired from his full-time jobs and morning newscast on Nov. 7, the same day he hired through Seehafer Broadcasting 46 in 1977.
Ryan, a veteran journalist for 50 years and the voice of WOMT News for decades, hasn’t dropped the mic at all. He continues to broadcast top school sports, adding football, basketball and hockey with Seehafer. He began his long career at WGSY in Peru, Illinois, WNAM-AM in Neenah and WMKC-FM in Oshkosh.
In 1977, he got a call from the late Don Seehafer to come to WOMT. He worked with radio host Lee Douglas for 35 years, and as part of the morning Lee and Damon Show for 12 years.
For his decades of service to the community, Ryan is named Person of the Year.
Full Story: Damon Ryan Hangs Up at WOMT After 50 Years, But Completely
A contract with the U. S. Navy helped keep alive the long-standing culture of the maritime industry in the Lakeshore region.
The ongoing task began with “Big Blue”, the giant blue crane manufactured in the city centre in 2021. This quirky crane has made waves on social media, with others following its barge adventure from Broadwind Heavy Fabrications to a shipyard in Navel in 2021. Maine.
Two cranes, about sixty meters high, are currently in the final stages of construction at Broadwind and are expected to make trips in 2024. These cranes were designed and commissioned through the Finnish company Konecranes, and the parts were manufactured through Broadwind.
They are part of a U.S. Navy contract and will be used to service submarine fleets. The two new cranes will also travel to Naval shipyards via barge, this time to the Pacific Ocean.
One will go to Washington state and the other to Hawaii. They will travel through the Great Lakes and then along the East Coast on the Atlantic. They will pass through the Panama Canal, and then either up the Pacific Northwest or to the Hawaiian Islands.
In a way, those cranes are a reminder of the community’s long history in shipbuilding. During World War II, the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company built 28 submarines for the U. S. Navy.
It is for these reasons that the developers of the blue cranes named them People of the Year.
Full story: ‘Big Blue’ cranes being built in Manitowoc will soon be shipped to Washington and Hawaii
For two decades, Jenn’s Java has been serving cups of joe under the motto, “Come for the coffee, stay for the conversations.”
Jennifer Backus opened the popular café, 1124 Washington St. , in the summer of 2003, and celebrates 20 years in business with a variety of specials and smiles throughout the year.
“Owning a business can be one of the hardest, but more rewarding, adventures in the world,” she said. “I’m so glad I decided to embark on this journey. We’ve survived pipes bursting, syrup shelves collapsing, life-threatening medical emergencies, major renovations, COVID and the ice cream machine from hell.”
Backus opened the store at a time when coffee culture, now widespread, was taking off. Starbucks boosted the public’s preference for specialty coffee in the mid-’90s.
The demand for coffee, as well as poor Wi-Fi in the 2000s, led to the emergence of many family-owned coffee department stores in those years.
Jenn’s Java created an upscale style by providing a shop area for local artists and vendors and began serving muffins, cookies, sandwiches, and soups.
Backus has created a giant dining room with lots of tables, chairs, and couches that can be moved around to give the impression of a living room for teams like e-book clubs or meetups.
She says owning the store hasn’t been easy, but she doesn’t regret anything.
“To the opponents, to my former boss who asked me, ‘What were you thinking?’When he visited the building, the bank that had no faith, the city government that doesn’t seem to care much beyond Eighth Street, I said, “Thank you, I’m just adding fuel to my fire,” Backus said.
For her determination and confidence that downtown Manitowoc needed and would need this downtown network center, Backus was named Person of the Year.
Full Article: Jenn’s Java in Manitowoc Celebrates 20 Years of Coffee and Connection
Kiel began competing in the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association in 1929 and until the girls’ soccer team won the WIAA Division Four state championship on June 17, the school had never won a team championship.
Kiel coach Mike Pritchard said that after the championship they would be legends at the school.
The Raiders beat Cedar Grove-Belgium 6-5 in double overtime, with Taylor Schad setting the D4 record in a single game with four goals in the game.
Full story: ‘They’ll be legends’: Kiel girls soccer wins first state championship in school’s almost 100-year history
Mikaela Helling won the WIAA Division 2 women’s 3200-meter championship on June 3, battling sweltering heat.
With track temperatures reaching triple digits, Helling crossed the finish line with a time of 10 minutes, 59:57 seconds.
Full Story: Two Rivers’ Mikaela Helling and Sheboygan Falls’ Conner Murphy won the series, all vying for 3200 state titles
Adam Backus suffered a grade five splenic rupture, which is when the spleen is damaged or a complete devascularization of the entire organ occurs, a workout last October that changed his regimen. It wasn’t guaranteed that Backus would be able to return for his senior year. Not only did he return, but he intercepted five passes as a defensive back to earn first-team All-Conference All-Packerland honors, as well as receiving an honorable mention via the Associated Press.
Full story: Mishicot’s Adam Backus thankful for senior football season after life-threatening injury
Chase Matthias finished his football career with the Two Rivers Raiders, holding nearly every single game, season and career record in the show’s history.
Raiders coach Kevin Shillcox said Matthias is likely the greatest player in school history. His 5,991 yards are seventh in state history and his 405 tackles on defense are also a school record.
Full Story: WIAA Football: Two Rivers Season Ends in Heartbreak, Reedsville Moves On
Matthias named the first team in every state through the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association as a running back and linebacker.
Matthias also finished second at 195 pounds at the WIAA Division 2 State Wrestling Championships on Feb. 25, proving he’s more than an athlete.
2022 Person of the Year: Here are Manitowoc County’s 2022 People of the Year
2021 Person of the Year: Manitowoc County’s 2021 Person of the Year award has left a lasting impact on the community
2020 People of the Year: Manitowoc County’s 2020 People of the Year helped us through COVID-19, unrest
2019 People of the Year: See who inspired and made a difference
2018 Person of the Year: Meet Manitowoc’s 2018 People of the Year
Did we miss someone? Reader nominations were sought in November, but did we miss someone you thought was deserving? Share your feedback. Contact Herald Times Reporter Editor Brandon Reid at 920-686-2984 or [email protected].
This article gave the impression that Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter: Manitowoc’s 2023 People of the Year fought for free school meals in MPSD.
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