Doyle visits as town looks to secure state disaster aid
By Paige Funkhouser, Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers
ELLISON BAY — Efforts by local politicians to secure funding for the Ellison Bay disaster brought Gov. Jim Doyle to this unincorporated hamlet Saturday morning for a tour of the explosion sites. His delay to the disaster site was because of a busy schedule — meeting with soldiers in Mississippi en route to Iraq Friday — and to give time for local investigators to finish their work, Doyle told reporters.
“Everybody is clearly aware of the tourism season, and they’re working to get the businesses open,” Doyle said. “But their first concern is safety.”
Local business owners and residents turned out to shake hands with the governor; he also made rounds to thank the emergency responders and American Red Cross volunteers on scene. Doyle met with Pioneer Store owner Carol Newman to hear her story of escaping from the building and commiserate her loss.
“This place has a lot of memories for a lot of people,” Newman told Doyle. “We used to haul ice to all of the cottages around here.”
“I feel like I knew this place,” Doyle told Newman, “I’ve been by here so many times. Who would’ve ever thought something like this would happen in Ellison Bay?”
Rep. Garey Bies, R-Sister Bay, and Sen. Alan Lasee, R-Rockland, said they collectively sent a letter to Doyle, requesting that he visit Ellison Bay.
“This was a good step in getting the state’s help,” Bies said.
Funds are available for Liberty Grove to assist the town in paying for unbudgeted items such as overtime pay for personnel in the Door County Sheriff’s Department and the Sister Bay/Liberty Grove Fire Department. There’s also a possibility the town could apply for grants from the Department of Commerce to aid local businesses in costs not covered by insurance.
Lasee said he couldn’t speculate about how much the town or business owners would get from the state.
“It’s a tough call, as the state’s not in the habit of handing out money to businesses,” Lasee said.
Emergency response from the local firefighters, emergency medical technicians and police officers to the disaster happened exactly as it should have, Bies said, who worked 30 years with the Door County Sheriff’s Department.
“They did everything we planned for, for the years while I was in the department,” he said.