In the final days of 2025, our team at Door County Knock has compiled some highlights from our reporting this year.
In the past 12 months, we’ve extensively covered the issue of affordable housing in the county, including updates from local officials, poor living conditions in a local mobile home park and a new housing development in Sturgeon Bay.
We’ve continued to provide thorough coverage of health and wellness in Door County. That reporting included stories related to food accessibility and vaccine hesitancy amid a measles outbreak.
We’ve kept a close eye on local environmental conversations, such as the ongoing process of a farm attempting to become a large-scale CAFO, the devastation of winter storm Frannie and the not-so-mysterious tugboat still sitting in Baileys Harbor.
We’ve covered other major stories on the peninsula, such as the rise of homelessness, creative approaches to food waste, and senior living.
We’ve continued to follow the issues affecting the lives of Door County’s residents, including public safety, local economics and hyperlocal politics.
As always, we have continued to update our resource guides to keep our community informed and keep help accessible to Door County’s residents.
Here’s our best reporting of 2025.
Best of Affordable Housing Coverage
Experts say paradigm shift necessary to solve housing problems
By Emily Small
While many barriers to affordable housing exist, local experts are certain that a change in mindset is where solving the shortage begins.
New owners address violations at local manufactured home park after almost a year of complaints
By Emily Small
Following a lawsuit from the Door County Land Use Services Department, owners of Carlton Heights Mobile Home Park in the Town of Egg Harbor have addressed some maintenance and sanitation problems in the park, including sewage backups, water outages, and roads filled with potholes.
‘The vision was the easy part’: Downtown affordable housing gets a boost in Sturgeon Bay
By Emily Small
Over the past year and a half, Moira and Justin Callan have been trying to bring their vision of affordable workforce housing in Door County from idea to reality. Or at least to an active building site. On May 9, the Lofts at Cherry Lanes, located at 135 N. 4th Ave. in Sturgeon Bay, was the site of a “hard hat throwdown” celebration to kick off the construction phase of the project.
Best of Health Coverage
By Emily Small
Door County, as well as most of the country, can no longer count on high vaccination rates to protect them from measles, thanks to those rates declining coupled with an increase in voluntary exemptions.
Government shutdown leaves FoodShare benefit recipients empty-handed in November
By Emily Small
The federal government came to a standstill on October 1, when Democratic and Republican members of Congress failed to pass funding legislation. The ongoing government shutdown led to Wisconsin officials announcing that the November Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Plan, or SNAP, benefits would be delayed until the government reopens.
By Emily Small
March brought bad news for food pantries and school food programs after federal cuts, to the tune of more than $1 billion, were made to a handful of U.S Department of Agriculture programs that served pantries and schools nationwide, including those in Door County. The cuts were made in the middle of the grant cycle, stopping money that was already contracted to various state agencies who administered the funds.
Best of Environmental Coverage
Winter Storm Frannie tests community response in northern parts of Door County
By Emily Small
The northern part of the Door County peninsula, especially Washington Island, experienced power outages when a winter storm blew through northeastern Wisconsin on March 28 and 29. Ice accumulation accompanied by high winds caused extensive damage to trees and grid infrastructure. Nearly the entire island did not have electricity or running water for several days, and parts of Sister Bay and the peninsula were out for at least 30 hours.
By Emily Small
The Door County Environmental Council and several county residents took to social media and the Aug. 26 County Board meeting to register their opposition to Gilbert Farms, Ltd.’s recent application to expand its Sevastopol dairy farm.
Fate of the Donny S. uncertain after years of questions
By Emily Small
The 143-foot tug boat Donny S. sits aground in a few feet of water on the northeast side of Baileys Harbor. Attempts to move it have failed. Municipal, county, state and federal agencies have received complaints and inquiries about it. State representatives have gotten involved. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has convened four working group meetings and issued citations and fines to the boat’s owner, Jeremy Schultz.
Best of Features
A reflection on Door County homelessness after a night quantifying it
By Emily Small
The third time I met with Michael was in the wee morning hours of July 24. I was one of four volunteers. We were counting people experiencing homelessness in Door County as part of the Point-in-Time count. Twice a year, in January and July, the federally coordinated event provides data meant to shape funding, resource allocation and policy decisions surrounding homelessness.
By Emily Small
An estimated 20 percent of the trash going into Wisconsin landfills from 2020 to 2021 was food, according to a study from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. The DNR sampled municipal and residential solid waste in state landfills in the report and estimated more than three quarters of food waste was still consumable. Armed with a clipboard and a bright smile, Kendra Dantoin has been spending her Saturdays in June cultivating a small, local solution to the problem of wasted food.
Thousands of Door County seniors face changes to health care this fall
By Emily Small
Roughly 3,700 Door County Medical Center patients will need to switch health insurance providers in order to continue to receive medical care at the hospital. UnitedHealthcare is dropping DCMC as a provider network for its Medicare Advantage policyholders by Jan 1.