By Heather Graves
Correspondent
GREEN BAY – The Green Bay city council adopted an ordinance earlier this month to allow virtual participation indefinitely in all committee and full council meetings.
“I hope that sooner than later, most of us can be together, but I think it would be a really nice option to have for us since we know it can work, it really can work if we need it to,” District 1 Alderperson Barbara Dorff said.
The original ordinance included a proposed sunset date of Dec. 31, 2021, however, the council amended it to exclude it, therefore making the ordinance permanent.
“I think it makes it much easier to do the job we were elected to do,” District 4 Alderperson Bill Galvin said. “And at the same time, even more so, for the public. This allows them to participate more in the governmental process than ever before. It gives them the opportunity to make the comments they feel should be made. I think that is even more important than what it does for the alders.”
Wildlife Sanctuary gift shop
City staff will be taking over the operation and management of the Nature Center Gift Shop at the Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary, in an effort to create additional revenue to support the facility.
However, there is some concern if it’s the right move.
“Personally, when I look at the numbers, it is kind of like, is the squeeze worth the juice?” District 9 Alderperson Brian Johnson said. “For the Wildlife Sanctuary, I don’t know if people necessarily go there for the gift shop. I don’t know if it is in the best interest of the city to be managing a gift shop for the margins that we were looking at. So I think it’s important that we continue to monitor that.”
Parks Director Dan Ditscheit said the goal is to make the gift shop profitable.
“And if we can’t make it profitable, then we are going to find another option,” Ditscheit said. “We don’t want to operate the gift shop at a loss, just as a courtesy to the users.”
He said as part of the agreement, the city would need to purchase the current gift shop inventory, which the city will pay for using funds from a donation.
Currently, Ditscheit said the gift shop is open from noon to 4 p.m. every day – with volunteers staffing it on weekdays and paid employees staffing it on the weekends.
“A lot of times the gift shop was closed, when the building was open, before last year,” District 6 Alderperson Kathy Lefebvre said. “Maybe that was an issue, too, that we weren’t bringing in the revenue. If you don’t have anybody there, you won’t have any sales.”
The council approved an amendment that would require a report to be brought back six months after the city takes over.