putinbay.com is proud to present the Put-in-Bay Gazette’s Island Diary. For the best South Bass Island journalism, visit putinbay.news and subscribe to the Gazette today!
Great Lakes Islands Alliance Meets at Put-in-Bay
The 2021 Great Lakes Islands Alliance summit host committee, a group made up of representatives from Kelleys, Middle Bass, Pelee and South Bass Islands, is looking for sponsors and donors to support the 4th Annual Great Lakes Islands Summit which will be hosted by the Lake Erie Islands October 3rd through 6th.
The Alliance meeting on South Bass Island will include visits to Kelleys Island, Middle Bass Island and Pelee Island.
The Great Lakes Islands Alliance is a group that encourages relationship building, information exchange and leveraging resources to address shared challenges and to embrace opportunities to benefit islands.
Please contact Peter Huston at phuston@ Stewardshipnetwork.org if you would like to sponsor or donate to this important event.
Celebrate the Battle of Lake Erie Island Style
Perry Monument Superintendent Barbara Rowles is inviting the community to celebrate the Battle of Lake Erie anniversary on Friday, Sept. 10th, at 3:15 p.m. by doing something really special. Below are a few ideas about how you can get involved and show your community pride:
-
- All Marina’s – patriotic music with boat honk outs!
- Miller Boat Line and Jet Express – all vessels give a honk out!
- Ring the Church bells and Carillon!
- Restaurants/Bars – food/drink specials with this Victory Cheer,
- “Our brave sailors on the lake – Ever flourish the laurels entwined round their brows by a grateful country.”
- Crowd responds – “Huzzah!”
- Wear your 1812 period clothing or your favorite “Don’t Give Up the Ship” attire!
Please help spread the word, be creative and encourage wide participation! Plan now to be on the island that day so you can participate.
NPS Seeks Comments on Visitor Experience Plan
The National Park Service (NPS) at Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial (Park) seeks public comments on a draft Visitor Experience Plan (PEPC 77366). This plan considers existing conditions and recommendations in other guiding documents and seeks to better define appropriate visitor experiences in the Peace Garden and around the Visitor Center. The Visitor Experience Plan defines the design for the empty lot west of the Visitor Center across from the Dairy Isle and the streetscape in front of the Visitor Center, extending along the east side of Toledo Avenue from its intersection with Bayview and Delaware Avenues.
This project will enhance visitor experience and wayfinding by designing a more formalized Peace Garden to link the town of Put-in-Bay to the park Visitor Center. The Peace Garden will serve as the park’s First Amendment space and create a setting for programs that are more appropriately held off the Memorial grounds. The main elements of the design consist of a central talking circle surrounded by a stone seat wall and native prairie plantings. To welcome visitors is an entrance plaza with park identification sign and a formal walk with rows of street trees along Bayview Avenue that lead directly to the Memorial column. Seat walls provide ample space for people to rest and enjoy the views. Art sculptures will be incorporated into the Peace Garden and engravings in the pavement will include quotes that communicate stories related to peace. Plantings and interpretive signage will be kept low to not obscure views to the Memorial column. Improvements along Toledo Avenue include additional wayfinding, plantings that frame views to the Visitor Center and access improvements for pedestrians.
Public comment to support this planning effort is currently open and will be accepted through August 7, 2021. The public can submit comments and find more information about the project at the Park’s website at http://parkplanning.nps.gov/pevi. The NPS will also be accepting written comments by mail at:
Superintendent Barbara Rowles
Attn: PEVI Visitor Experience Plan
P.O. Box 549
Put-in-Bay, Ohio 43456
The Park is open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. For more information, visit www.nps.gov/pevi or call (419) 285-2184.
Ohio Sea Grant and Stone Lab Host Plastic Free PIB Day
Ohio Sea Grant and Stone Lab join partners from around South Bass Island and the Lake Erie coast to heighten awareness on the issue of plastic pollution in Lake Erie on August 13, 2021.
Plastic Free PIB Day will take place on August 13 at various locations on South Bass Island from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. In partnership with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, the Ohio Clean Marinas Program, the Center for Great Lakes Literacy, Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial, the Lake Erie Islands Nature and Wildlife Center, the Lake Erie Islands Conservancy, and Eriesponsible Inc., the group is excited to offer six education stations, placed around South Bass Island, that highlight the problem of plastic pollution and offer simple steps people can take to reduce plastics use. Participants will receive a prize after completing activities at each station, with one large prize up for grabs to a lucky winner who visits all six stations.
Island residents, families, and visitors are encouraged to attend. More information about the event, including station locations, is available at go.osu.edu/PlasticFreePIBDay.
“After years of working with island partners to reduce use of plastics, clean beaches, and educate visitors, it is time to celebrate our successes as an island community,” said Jill Bartolotta, Extension educator for Ohio Sea Grant. “We are very excited to offer this education event for island residents and visitors.”
Plastics make up the majority of trash items found on beach cleanups, and most of these items are single-use, disposable plastics. Efforts to clean beaches are very important, but consumers must reevaluate their choices and ultimately choose to avoid single-use plastics when possible. Plastic Free PIB Day will include information on plastic-free and reduced-plastic options for travel, dining, boating and more.
This event is funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Marine Debris Program and the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.
The Ohio Sea Grant College Program is part of The Ohio State University’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences and NOAA Sea Grant, a network of 34 Sea Grant programs dedicated to the protection and sustainable use of marine and Great Lakes resources. For more information, visit ohioseagrant.osu.edu.
The following piece is published in this month’s Put-in-Bay Gazette. The Gazette has been producing incredible independent Put-in-Bay island news for over 40 years. If you have any interest at all in what is happening on South Bass Island, we urge you strongly to subscribe to the Put-in-Bay Gazette. One-year online subscriptions are only $15, and print subscriptions are available as well. To subscribe please click here.
This piece of Put-in-Bay journalism has been provided to islandclub.com courtesy of the Put-in-Bay Gazette, Put-in-Bay’s only local newspaper. Visit their website putinbay.news for more information and to subscribe!
