Everybody's just going
like this, please hurry,
come on.
We are rolling.
As the nation honors fallen
service members this Memorial Day
on Monday, the tourism industry
marks the start of the summer
season.
A bill in the U.S.
House would re-designate
the Apostle Islands as Wisconsin's
first national park.
The 21 Islands and 12 miles
of mainland off Lake Superior
in northern Wisconsin is
already a national lakeshore.
Supporters say the designation
as a national park would boost
tourism and local economies.
Republican Congressman Tom Tiffany
introduced the measure and it passed
committee this spring.
But local governments in and around
Bayfield County and the Red Cliff
Band of Lake Superior Chippewa
oppose the redesignation.
The county and the tribe drafted a
formal resolution together opposing
it.
We asked Bayfield county board chair
Jan Lee why.
And thanks very much for being here.
Thank you for having me.
So we've done some reporting in
Bayfield kind of during the
summer season and the crush of
tourists can be difficult for
small businesses there to
manage. How would a national park
designation increase those
crowds?
Yes, thank you.
So I think to
start,
like you said, the tourism area
here in Bayfield in particular,
at the gateway to the Apostle
Islands, hasn't
been a problem in the summer times.
There's never been a a problem with
not having enough tourists up here
in the late spring, summer,
early fall, like basically through
Apple Fest every first
weekend of October.
As a matter of fact, we're pretty
much bursting at the seams in terms
of what we can accommodate,
in terms lodging
and restaurants.
And that affects workforce,
of course.
And we don't have housing for people
up here. It's hard to
have workforce come in that can
accommodate all these tourists for
the businesses.
And I know that Mr. Tiffany has
touted this re-designation
as a boon for tourism.
But we're basically looking
for tourism in other directions.
I think as a whole, we've
done a lot of work over the last 15
to 20 years, trying to
create tourism as an industry up
here, getting people all the way up
to Northern Wisconsin to enjoy
Lake Superior and the inland lakes
that we have.
And we've a really good job of that.
But what we've really been trying to
do is subsequently also is to try to
do that in the shoulder seasons and
in the winter to expand tourism in
those areas.
And the big problem with Mr.
Tiffany's bill at this point in time
is that we
don't know where the infrastructure
is gonna come to support it.
Infrastructure like roads
and lodging and parking
uh... But but wouldn't uh...
Federal park service be responsible
for that
Well, we are responsible as
a county for our roads, and I mean,
the highway department for our
county roads, and County Highway 13
is what gets you up to Bayfield.
It runs through Washburn, which is
also a small city about
12 miles south of Bayfield, and that
is also sort of a gateway point to
the Apostle Islands, as well as
north of Bayfiel, where the
Red Cliff Lake Superior Band
of Ojibwa live about
two miles north of the Bayfield is
where the reservation starts.
And they have treaty rights, of
course, to the area.
Another issue that we've
been sort of trying to address
is the treaty rights and
the fact that we
have invited Mr. Tiffany to come.
We want to be a part of the dialog.
We want share our
concerns and have our questions
heard.
But he hasn't come.
And so we received, about
a year and a half ago, we,
and by that I mean the county board
and the Red Cliff Tribal Council,
first heard about Mr. Tiffany's
bill, or resolution,
of H.R. 9-1-1.
Heard about it.
We found out that the resolution had
basically already been
written and was already on its way
to Washington D.C.
Without consultation with
the county board or the city of
Bayfield or the tribal council.
And so we never got a chance to
express our concerns or ask our
questions. And that pretty much
left us in an area of
The only option that we have left at
the federal level is to enact some
resolution.
So that's what we did.
We don't normally like to enact
negative resolutions.
We like to work in the positive.
But this is an instance of where we
felt that since we hadn't been
heard or consulted that we really
didn't have another option.
What would you be seeking from
the federal government or the
federal park service to make
this thing work?
I think, first of all, what we've
never heard is a
deeper explanation of
why.
The National Lakeshore
designation is already
a part of
the national park's programming of
designation of land matter
and bodies of water.
And right now, as the national
lakeshore, it is
at one of the highest, if not
the highest level of protection.
Because it is a wild area,
it's a wilderness area.
Even though people live in these
small communities on the shoreline,
the lake itself and the islands are
subject to very dramatic weather
shifts and very cold water
that, as
we know, if anybody who knows this
area knows, has been responsible
for hundreds of deaths,
either in ships or boats or
people out kayaking or canoeing
who aren't familiar with
how unpredictable this...
Very big lake, which is
actually more of an inland sea,
how quickly the weather can change,
how cold the water is, and how
prepared and knowledgeable you have
to be in order to embark
on it.
So that's one of our concerns,
is just the safety
of it, of it all as well.
Well, we will watch this
bill as it moves through
and prepare to visit
and do some field reporting up
there.
I'd love to have you come up.
Take a look, enjoy the area.
All right, Jan Lee from Bayfield
County. Thanks very much.
Thank you.
That was great.
I didn't consider that
piece about the safety
of it, because obviously you're
absolutely right.
The other thing I was going to say
besides the county, the other county
responsibility is EMS.
So if you can somehow in your future
visits or arguments about it,
we are, we just,
and it's not a failure
of the people here, because
we've run on a volunteer EMS system,
because our Bayfield County, many
people don't know, is the second
largest county and the most rural.
We only have 16,000 people here.
So our tax base, we're
responsible for providing emergency
services.
But in order to cover that,
excuse me, we have to, you know,
raise our levy. We have to raise the
taxes. We have do something to be,
it's a responsibility, statutorily,
that we have do and we
want to do and are required to do,
and it's the responsible thing to
do.
But we are shifting in our
demographic to older and older
people up here.
More and more people are, you now,
aging out of the workforce, and more
are coming in, retirement age.
And we're trying to address the
housing issue to get more working
families in and also to increase the
workforce to help with more tourism.
But what we're failing at
is EMS because
our volunteers are aging out and
we don't have a county run system.
And because we're so rural, the
expanse of the state,
we're missing calls.
We don't mean to be, but we're
having trouble manning our
EMS. We're already in a...
A pretty dire situation.
Some of our county is doing great,
they're doing fine, but other
stations or areas of the county are
really not.
They are tapped out.
And so that's
one of the major things that we're
trying to be addressing over the
next few years with the county board
here within the next year or two
is to figure out what kind of
program we need to implement,
whether it's a combination of local
control and the individual stations
and the county's involvement.
Because right now it's been solely
local control with individual
stations and volunteers.
But now we need to really, you know,
ante up and we have to figure out
how we can get from a failed system
to a functioning
responsive 100
percent of time BMS system.
So that's a big concern of mine
personally. That's my own personal
take. I'm not on record as a board
member necessarily, But on
behalf of the board.
The resolution that we passed two
of them now in 24
and 26, 25 and 26.
And they both passed by significant
majority,
you know, 11 to 2 or something like
that. So we, and
as well as working with the tribal
council on this
as our very respected
neighbors.
So that's those are our concerns.
That is super interesting.
We have a new
project, well
it's not really a project, but we
have a a new emphasis on rural
reporting with a
Wisconsin Public Radio reporter and
a designated PBS Wisconsin
reporter and videographer.
And the story, the issue
you just talked about
Bayfield County and EMS is.
Uh... Right in that wheelhouse so
expect a call on
that madam chair
Well, we're pretty overrun at
the moment with trying
to figure out. We're heading into
budget season.
So we're trying to work with
our EMS.
We knew how we knew for the first
time in the state.
This is news.
I mean, you may have heard of this
already, but we as I know, you
probably have to get going.
But Bayfield County and Ashland
County are the first
we are the first
counties to collaborate and
combine our dispatch service.
And we just started that last
year. So, we're still
transitioning and making that work.
The transition has happened.
It's going.
Ashland and Maple County are
functioning out of one dispatch
center.
But of course, connected to that is
this EMS situation.
So that's the next sort of piece
that we really have to try
to solve.
So yeah, so I don't know
if immediately is a
great opportunity for option for
us, but I think because people are
pretty consumed right
now and busy with trying to figure
out solutions.
But yeah, anytime you could talk to
Megan, Megan Kwanderer
is our dispatch coordinator
for Bayfield County and
EMS.
And I could, you know, we could
reach out to her and suggest that
I mentioned her and.
I would be happy to make a
connection if you'd like.
Well, thank you. No, super
interesting. Really appreciate the
information.
And thank you for all you do.
Thank you.
Okay.
You too! Happy Memorial Day weekend!
Thank you.
Oh