 to love where you live. This is your monthly magazine from the Sheboyton County Chamber of Commerce. I'm Betsy Alice. I am the Executive Director of the Chamber and your host. And this morning we have two wonderful segments. Our first is to talk about this new project, the National Marine Sanctuary. And the second is to talk about our Levitt Amp Concert Series. So we'll get on with the show. I'd like to welcome to the studio today Russ Green with NOAA and Russ, welcome to the show. Thanks Betsy, good to be here. Yeah, we're gonna start by just talking a little bit about you and where you came from, why you're here, you know, how you landed in Sheboyton. Sure, yeah, well for the last 12 years I've been the Deputy Superintendent at the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary and that's in Lake Huron, way up the Northern Lake Huron in Michigan. And before that I was actually a State Underwater Archaeologist for the State of Wisconsin. So I've got some Wisconsin times, but then went over to work with NOAA in a Marine Sanctuary there. So the Marine Sanctuary in Thunder Bay in El Pina, Michigan is sort of a template of sorts for what might happen in Wisconsin. So having that experience is great. My background is in Maritime Archaeologist and Shipwreck Archaeology. And over time has really evolved to figuring out, you know, how do we leverage these places to do more than just the academic side of the history in the archaeology, which is fascinating, but leverage these for heritage tourism, creating public access. How do we connect 350 million Americans with this incredible maritime history that's here in the Great Lakes and in other places around our country? And things we don't ordinarily get to see. Exactly, and that is the great thing and the tough thing about these heritage resources, particularly Shipwrecks, which is sort of what this sanctuary is focused on, the potential sanctuary here, they're incredible. I mean, they're so well-preserved in the cold, fresh water of Lake Michigan, but they're tough to get to and they're tough for the average person to sort of envision, you know, if we had one of these on land or if we drain the lake and you could walk up to one of these, it'd be instantly a pair of how unique this is and what a window into the past is. So that is still there. It's just, you know, it's out there in the lake. So instead of draining the lake, we're going to look at having a marine sanctuary here. And I was part of that privileged group at first that went to visit the Thunder Bay installation in Alpina. And I think what impressed me the most was the incorporation of education into the picture, what all the kids who live in that area and for many miles around came to see and participate in as a result of it being there. Can you talk a little about the value of that in our community as we look at this project? Yeah, absolutely. And you know, that's really twofold. This is about creating the next generation of people that will be conservation minded, that will protect our Great Lakes and sort of a general idea. We can do education through the lens of the sanctuary to get people kind of in kids, particularly thinking about the Great Lakes. But that's also resource protection, right? If you get people to value this place, then they'll protect it. So in the education ranges from K through 12 to higher education and the sanctuary really looks for champions in each of these areas that would wanna leverage the science that is inside, you know, the marine sanctuary, the physicality of it. So for instance, in Alpina, Michigan, there's a high school teacher who teaches physical sciences through the lens of shipwrecks. So if you're a student at the Alpina High School, you know, you're gonna take this person's class and learn about physical sciences through this exciting lens of shipwrecks. And there was a way for him to engage students and that has just exploded. So, you know, almost every student comes through and wants to take that class. And then that's the high end of it. I suppose when you have a teacher who's really latching on the opportunity, but lots of informal programming is possible with, you know, fourth graders has been a target population in Alpina. We've written grants to get them on the water. There's a class bottom boat, which is sort of a private business in Alpina, but able to write grants to get those kids on the water and for many of them. And again, this isn't about coastal communities only. This is about engaging Wisconsin residents in their maritime heritage. So a lot of these kids have never been on the lake or down to the beach or really get the size and the density of the Great Lakes and what they truly mean to us and why we wanna protect them. So just that, that act of getting students on board a boat and out in the lake is important. It can be formal, it can be informal, you know, the sanctuary, again in Alpina, and this would be a vision for Wisconsin to help teachers craft curriculum that ties students to the Great Lakes. But there's lots of opportunities for informal programming as well. Very nice. And I'm gonna back up just a little now because I always get carried away with this project. I have to admit, one of my favorites. So let's just, if you could just describe the project for us in terms of its scope of the communities it touches, and kind of define it for our audience. Sure. There's 13 national marine sanctuaries around the country and they protect iconic natural and cultural resources that are important to Americans. And so this is humpback whale feeding grounds to coral reefs down in the Florida Keys and in the Great Lakes, maritime heritage resources. This is primarily shipwrecks. These are linkages to our past that are so well preserved here in the Great Lakes that their integrity is really exceptional. And in Thunder Bay, that was established exclusively to protect those shipwrecks, interpret those shipwrecks on behalf of all Americans. And so that's sort of what Wisconsin is about as well. One of the key differences to the project in Wisconsin is the way it was nominated. This was an entirely new process. In 2014, the communities of Port Washington, Sheboygan, Two Rivers, and Manitowoc got together and actually wrote a very community-based nomination. There's criteria now that NOAA has, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and that's the program under which sanctuaries sit. Right. And so it really got communities thinking about how a sanctuary could benefit an area, but also what those communities could do to complement a marine sanctuary. So that's an entirely different way of envisioning a sanctuary. What they ended up with in conjunction with the state of Wisconsin who has an incredible maritime archeology program which is housed in the Wisconsin Historical Society. So they've been protecting and interpreting these sites in Wisconsin for almost 30 years. So between those two entities, you end up with a proposal essentially that said, hey, a marine sanctuary can help us maybe take this to the next level in terms of research, resource protection, education, interpretation, and heritage tourism. And that's such a key piece. So that's where it started. And currently the proposal is about 1,100 square mile with 37 shipwrecks in it, stretching from Port Washington up to two rivers. So it's a great proposal that combines the history and the archeology protecting those places, but also the shore side, heritage tourism. And these are so complementary that that's kind of the big picture of what the sanctuary would aim to influence. That's a great description. And I also note that I think one of the best outcomes from this project, certainly the sanctuary itself, but also the relationships and the connectedness between those communities. I don't know that they've ever done something this large before together. So out of that comes a lot of back and forth in many ways, much more cooperation, greater ideas that come from four or five communities instead of being somewhat isolated in our spot on the lake. And that's what's so exciting about the proposal. If you think of Alpina as a model, Alpina is one city of 12,000 people, very rural. It's about four hours north of Detroit. And the sanctuary's had a number of impacts there, which are great. And I would encourage people to take the eight hour drive over and come down to Mackinac Bridge and go visit and see what a sanctuary in the Great Lakes looks like. But here the opportunity is huge to knit these communities together in the ways that you mentioned, which I think is really, really exciting. And I do too, and I think that out of it for each community will come some riches that they haven't even considered yet. I really think the whole, the piece about education just keeps knocking on my mental door. And I think about the, if you could talk a little bit about the robotics program that came from Alpina and the competitions and that kind of project. Yeah, for sure. And the robotics are such a neat slice of this because maritime technology, marine technology is so important to the next generation of explorers and also the workforce. I mean, these are the technologies that go into oil and gas and the places where we are looking underwater constantly. This is not only the next frontier, it is the current frontier working underwater. So there's an overarching program called the Mate ROV competition. And it's an international umbrella where teams from really fourth grade through higher education design build and then compete with their underwater robots, ROVs. And Alpina has been hosting a regional competition for gosh, 13 or 14 years. And that's neat, the sanctuary can facilitate that and do all the administration and invite the teams, promote the event and then also help teams with the instruction and help the mentors get resources they need to build great robots. Really exciting was in 2014, we took it to the next level. So this international program, once a year they'll have a big competition, an international competition. And Alpina, we just pitched, let's do it in Alpina. And the visitor center there for the marine sanctuary is an old paper mill site that was renovated. And at the end of that site in the paper mill process is a giant 80 foot diameter, 14 foot, 500,000 gallon tank. And the developer of the site said, jeez, I don't know what you guys will use that for someday, but let's keep it, you just never know. And this was a great partnership between the developer and Noah to establish this visitor center. And this is back in 2005. By 2014, we're able to pitch this international competition. We fill up that tank with city water, it's crystal clear and we get 60 teams from around the world to come compete in Alpina. So that was about a thousand people that came, teams from Egypt, Scotland, Russia and 30-ish states to come for three days and compete in this really high end robotics contest. So it takes a lot of effort, a lot of partners. We had local developers that were willing to kick in and spend some time building decking and installing power and making this really work around this tank that we had. But I guess the short story is it was a group effort to pull something off that was truly exceptional that had a big impact for those kids in education. What was remarkable for us in the sanctuary was, at first we thought, I don't know, these are often hosted in Houston at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab at NASA. It has a big city. So we thought, if we're gonna bring all these kids from around the world to Alpina, how will it go? Well, it turns out, I mean, these students are from small towns around the globe. And so they came to Alpina and absolutely latched on to this small town accessibility and getting around town. They also became the center of attention. They sure were. They were stars for three days for sure. So a great example of what's possible. Great story. And from a Chamber of Commerce standpoint, I see the transfer of skills, the ability of all of our manufacturers look at robotics and the kinds of future that is installed for them. That's gonna be a big part of how kids get encouraged to be in the either science or engineering fields and technology. So all of those, almost the entire STEM process is supported in this project. So that's exciting. Absolutely. And a lot of our research is kind of fundamental to those areas. So working with sonars to map the lake bed, to using 3D photogrammetry to map shipwrecks. And so there's a real nexus there for what's happening in the classroom and what's happening on the water in the sanctuary. Nice. And I also, some people have brought up the, is it a problem for the fishing? Is it a problem for, pretty much it looks to me, in fact, I spent some time with a fisherman, a commercial fisherman over in Alpina. And at first, yes, they were a little anxious about it, but as soon as they had the chance to sit down and really talk about it and then experience it, it's actually been a boon for them. They've been able to do their charter fishing with more people coming to town. So it's always, there's always that upside of something that people might originally think, ooh, I wonder if that's gonna be a problem. It hasn't been. Yeah, no, absolutely. And the concerns are understandable, right? A good-sized project. And so we wanna be careful that there's no unintended consequences with the sanctuary regulations. But as you say, I mean, there's very narrowly focused on shipwrecks. And in Alpina, the great thing is, 17 years later, folks that were unsure about the sanctuary had lots of legitimate questions are now champions of the sanctuary. And so we sort of turned to that as an example. Oh yes, because that really helped our group understand the project and allay any concerns we might have had about it. So that trip was well worth it, and it was fun too. Oh good. So yeah, so tell us, what's next? What's going on right now behind the scenes? Is there anything significant? Yeah, well, we need to finalize the proposal. So we've had two common periods in 2015 where one just wrapped up in March 2017 where we've got public input. So we've got that, we've got the proposal, the proposed regulations, and even a draft management plan, which has all been available for public comment. So that closed the end of March this year, and so we're kind of working through those comments to create a final proposal. In conjunction with the state, the sanctuary would be co-managed with the state of Wisconsin and NOAA. So we need to work with the state and have been for almost a decade to sort of refine this proposal. So we hope by fall 2017, we've got the details on that. We've taken the public comments. We know where people are coming from and we craft a proposal that works for everybody, and we hope to have that done by fall 2017. And that would be at the marine sanctuary level, and then it would go up through NOAA to be considered as a national marine sanctuary. So that's the really rough timeline. And a lot of it is paperwork and sort of writing this up to make sure we've got it right. But the exciting pieces are ongoing. Even in support of the sanctuary, we have a team coming out next week to do two weeks of lakebed mapping up off of Manitowoc. So we'll have a NOAA research vessel in town for two weeks and a team from NOAA and also a private contractor who's donating a really high-end sonar for this particular project. So they'll be at the Manitowoc mapping the lakebed. And yeah, it's really a stone soup to bring these projects together. So that's a great story. We have a socioeconomic study going on. You know, one of the things about Alpina, we almost had a tiger by the tail after we get on 15 years down the road and say we need to measure really how this is impacting the community. So we have a team that's going to start a baseline of socioeconomic studies. So we know where the sanctuary is starting. And if it is designated, we can kind of measure the success going forward. So that's really key. Very important. Yeah, at working with the state of Wisconsin, the Department of Tourism, is going to help us with sort of a pilot branding exercise. And again, as you mentioned, these communities all have an interest in, how do we link this together and promote it regionally? So we'll start that discussion with great and kind support from the state of Wisconsin through the Department of Tourism. And a few other things. Probably letting the cat out of the bag, but we hope to work with the Dennis Sullivan. So you may see that in Sheboygan and Manitowoc in Port Washington this summer. Very nice. Yeah, very nice. I love that. I've already seen her once out on the, well, she's named Dennis. So maybe it's a boy vote, but I've seen her already out there on the Great Lakes. She's been around very early and cold this year. Yep, yeah. Yeah, so well, you know, I think our viewers can kind of get a picture of, I know on the screen we've shown the website where they can go and look at the document. If they have any interest or questions, they can contact you. Absolutely. Okay, that's wonderful. Thanks very much for being here. And you know, I appreciate the whole project. If there's anything the Chamber of Commerce can do to assist, I know you'll let us know. Thanks so much. Great to be here. Yeah, thanks. Welcome back to Love Where You Live. I'm Betsy Alice. And with me for the second segment of our show, I have Angela Ramey from the John Michael Kohler Art Center. Angela is a big part and parcel, the poobah for the Leavitt Amp content series. And we're going to talk a little bit about their news that they released just recently about that lineup. I want you to get your pen or your smartphone or something out so that you can start tracking these concerts because this summer is really going to break loose in Sheboygan. So welcome to the show, Angela. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here. Yeah, it is when this list is released. It's always a very exciting moment for me. I get right on it. I put it on Facebook. I encourage everyone else to do that as well. I put it on LinkedIn. I put it everywhere I possibly can because, well, you know, what makes a vibrant downtown is this kind of project. When you can get 1,000 or 2,000 people to show up, then you have a whole different vibe in the evenings. You certainly do. Yeah, we were so excited to announce this year. And I had so many people asking me, especially as time was getting closer, when do we get to know? When do we get to know? So it was such a labor of love, you know, putting this series together. And of course it took so many people. It takes a village. We take so much recommendations from community, from agents, from staff members and everything like that. You don't really realize how much music there is out there until you try to put something like this together. So I think we did a phenomenal job. I'm really excited about this. I saw the list. I think you did do a phenomenal job. And we're gonna talk a bit about some of those. So, and like you said, yeah, please, there is so much to talk about. I just encourage everyone to go to our website, jmkac.org. And you can see the entire lineup. You can see pictures. You can see video of the whole series. Everything that we're doing at the Art Center, which there is, that's a whole nother show on the show. So you can check out the performances. You can see video. Absolutely. Yeah, just to see if it's something that floats your boat. But there is something for everybody this summer for sure. The concert series starts June 22nd. And it runs Thursday nights. We do 10 weeks of concerts. But the kickoff, I'm really excited about our first one. We wanted to make the first concert. You know, it's the first one of the summer. So let's bring in summertime. So we're really excited that it starts with our North High drum line, actually, is going to start our concert series. If you haven't seen them perform, you have to. We had them last summer at the concert series. We also had them as part of the Sheboygan-Shebang project we did last fall. They are amazing. And that will transition into our, we have a double headliner the first night. And the first headliner is too many zoos. Check them out if you haven't. They rose to fame, actually, by going viral. But their video is online from playing in the New York subway stations. It's a trio. It's a brass house music. You cannot help but dance when you hear them. They are funny. They are great performers. It's a party. And the party then continues with our second headliner that night, which is Unity, the band, which is reggae and world music. Oh, nice. So I mean, what a fun summer night. And all free to the public. Free. I mean, I think that's the most phenomenal part. These concerts are free, family-friendly. You don't have to go through a door. They're outdoors. You just can stumble upon it, you know? This is great if you're the kind of person who doesn't like to plan. Use what? Thursday night, come on downtown. And you'll be able to take in some great live music. And then, yeah, then they continue, like I said, on Thursdays and then June 29th, we have another double headliner. And then we have a live concert tonight as well. And that starts off with the Accidentals, which is a... I don't know if you've heard of them. Yeah. You know I have. Yes. It was a great recommendation from you. They are phenomenal from Michigan, trio, young, great indie folk music. And then the second headliner that night is Radio Free Honduras, which is Honduran punta music. They're from Chicago. And then it goes into July. Mac Blues Band, which is authentic Memphis blues on stage, which we didn't have last summer. I'm really excited to bring that. And I do wanna point out, again, check out the schedule on our website, but we take a break then the third week of July and the concerts move from Thursday to Saturday and Sunday. July 15th and 16th is our mid-summer festival of the arts, which is our huge arts festival. So we don't do concerts flanking the festival, we move them to Saturday and Sunday. But we do have four concerts happening that weekend with we have Paul Seabarr, Tomorrow Sound, Great World Music, Son Manarchus, which is a Latin fusion music. And then Sunday we'll have Trapper Shep and the Shades. He's been here before, kind of local. And then with our Cajun Swamp Rock, definite local favorite with Copper Box. So that will be the mid-summer festival of the arts concert. And then we pick back up end of July and then it goes all the way on Thursdays again until August 24th. And I'm really excited about our last concert as well. I'm excited about all of them, of course. Yeah, I can tell. Our last concert, we have Sidewalk Chalk from Chicago and that's hip hop, funk, jazz music. They're amazing, they're so much fun. And then our concert series ends with the People Brothers Band. They're from Madison. They've won tons of whammy awards. They're Rhythm and Soul. They're a big part of People Fest and they do a lot of festivals and things like that. So it's gonna end with another party. It's gonna be a lot of fun. Wonderful, wonderful. I'm very excited about this. I even, I looked at my vacation schedule and realized there's one I'm gonna miss. And I was disappointed, even though I'm going on vacation. It's a hard pull there. So I encourage everyone, as she said, go to the website, check these out. Too bad we can't play a few clips today. I know, I know. So but yeah, do it at home, man. We have links to everything. So you'll see, there is something for everybody. Every style of music I feel like has some sort of representation. So something for everyone for sure. Very nice. And you know, let's just for the sake of the audience go back a little bit in history and talk about, was it three years ago when this first began? It was. Well, I actually had to go back even one year further. The Art Center mission is to generate a creative exchange between artists and the public. So everything that we do at the Art Center is really rooted in that, of creating this exchange. And performing arts I think is, I have a, it's near and dear to my heart, but it's a special place in our community because that exchange is just so instant between the audience and the artists. And so we started four years ago doing an open mic on mic and that's that sculpture outside of the Art Center was a Connecting Communities Project. It's like a space capsule. It looks like everyone says it looks like a spaceship. It's actually a recording studio and art sculpture and it opens up and it serves as the backdrop for music. And so we had open mic and it was just really sort of small, but then people just started coming every week and we're like, this is a need in our community. This is a need is to have this, have some free live music outside. And then when the Levitt Amp Grant presented itself, it really, our mission really fit with theirs. They're a place making grant. They're about enlivening a public space through free music. So I was like, it was just such a perfect fit. And so we applied and we got it. And this is our third year of getting this grant. It's obvious just that it's such a perfect partnership. And thanks to the public who put the votes in on Facebook. They put the votes in, yeah. That's what I said, it goes back to, it's obviously serving a need. Sheboygan wants this and we're so excited to be able to provide that need. Of course with so many partners, we partner with the city. We partner with Sheboygan squared, visit Sheboygan. Sargento's a huge partner and there's tons of other businesses. The chamber is a huge ally in helping get the word out. So it does, it takes a village. It takes a village. Not to be tried and that never will be tried. Yeah, no, it's so true. Yeah, so that's kind of how we all got started doing this and we want to continue. And then the history with where the Boston store, the Pragees building was. Yes, yes. That was part of that placemaking, we were going to revitalize that space. So now the apartments are going up but they're still keeping that green space. And so as soon as that's finished, we're gonna move Mike. As soon as it's green. As soon as it's green, the grass is rooted. We're gonna move Mike over there and then we'll continue live music over just right across the street from the Eric Center. Yeah, and I think it kind of started there and then they did the building. So yeah, we're kind of been back and forth and back and forth a little bit, which is fine. It's just right across the street. So what makes it a really good experience for families? What do they need to bring? What's what's available there? Everything. So grounds open at 5 30. So just to get some, you know, details out of the way grounds open at 5 30. Headliners started six and the concerts go until 8 30. So it really is a family friendly, perfect time. Right. It doesn't go too late. Get dinner there. We're gonna have over 10 food trucks. So it would be 10 over. Oh, wow. So you can get everything from, you know, popcorn to tacos, to burgers, to mac and cheese bites, to everything, you know, under the sun. Plus our own culinary art car is there serving food from our cafe. We, again, this is our third year of offering local. We really want to support our local businesses. So we have three sheep's brewery we've got. So good local beer on tap and then Pepsi's there as well with products. And then we always will have our community engagement tent. Which is sponsored by Lakeland University, which is great. So we have either artists after our very first night meet public library will be there doing some sort of engagement activity. So they're bring your, bring a chair if you want. Otherwise you're welcome to come to squat on the grass, bring your family. The kids love to dance and just don't carry an alcohol but you're welcome to carry in food and other beverages. Well, thank you so much Angela for being with us today. I can tell you're excited. Oh, I can go on and on and on. So yeah, thank you everyone for those who attend and please if you haven't gone to one of these yet, make it, put it on your calendar. It's amazing. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.