Shawano Area Waterways Group 

Join Jaime Lee as she helps the Shawano Area Waterways Management keep the river, channel, and lake clean & safe. The Shawano Waterways organization has one main fundraiser a year, a a golf outing. This fundraiser helps the organization to place navigational markers in the Shawano Lake, the Shawano Channel and the Wolf River adjacent to Shawano Downtown. They also run the weed collecting machines that makes playing on the waterways more enjoyable.

Visit www.sawm.org for more information on donating and membership.

Transcript

– Good afternoon and
welcome to Shawano News,

your positive source in a crazy world.

I’m your host, Jaime Lee.

Today, we’re with the Shawano
Area Waterways Management

to help them clean

and keep the river,
channel, and lake safe.

(upbeat music)

Currently sitting on the boat here

with president of Shawano
Waterways is Todd Doberstein.

Hi.

– How you doing today?

– Good. – All right.

– You guys picked the
hottest day of the year

to put in these buoys.

– You know, normally we find that it’s

either raining or snowing, so
we’ll take the heat right now.

This isn’t so bad.

– So today you guys are
putting in how many buoys?

– We got about, about 130 buoys

between the lake, river,
and channel to put in.

– [Jamie] And what is the history?

How do you guys know where to put them?

Who are the people putting these in?

Tell us the process.

– Well, a little bit of
the history of it too.

The waterway and the
navigation of the water

actually started in
back in the early 1900s.

So we go, we’ll, fast
forward to about 1941/42,

is when they actually
started putting in buoys,

and kind of marking everything.

Now, Court was just a
young boy at the time,

but the rest of us we weren’t
even alive yet (laughing).

but we no.

So the buoys are all going in.

We try to do it all in one day.

We mark, we mark traffic
lanes out on the lake.

We do all the slow, no wake
and the river and channel.

– And how much do each
of these buoys weigh?

– So each buoy with the anchor
actually can weigh upwards

of about 150 pounds.

– Ah, that’s more than me (laughs).

– Yeah.

And we have to throw them in.

Yes, it is.

We might be throwing you
in later, we’ll be alright

– Uh Oh, you heard to here first.

So you’re gonna put all these in and then

afterwards you guys go maybe
to lighthouse or grab a

– Yeah..

– some lunch

– we try, we try to grab
a, maybe a beverage and

and a burger after we’re done with this.

– Well, you deserve it.

You guys are working so hard.

You’re volunteering.

– Absolutely.

– All your time.

A lot of you guys maybe
enjoy the waterways

or were born and raised on the water

or live here today, so.

– Yeah, and you know,
we know how important

the waterways are to
the tourists of Shawano

and in Shawano County.

So this is a huge thing
to keep everybody safe,

and to keep the waterways
open for everyone.

– Well, thank you for all you do,

keeping Shawano Waterways
safe, clean, enjoy your summer.

Any tips for boulders out
there on the waterways.

One more, one more tip.

– You know, one more tip for everybody

is please don’t run them over.

Every year we lose
approximately 10 to 12 buoys.

And the buoys with the lights
guys are about $500 a piece.

So the Waterway Association,
the dues that people pay

for our association help go towards that.

It is very expensive.

So please, please, don’t run them over.

– Do your part and be
safe and be conscientious

and keep Shawano why we love
it so much in the Waterways.

Thank you so much, Todd.

– You bet guys. Thank you.

Okay, Jamie, grab it.

Come on.

– Okay, Todd is gonna show
me how to put a buoy in.

What do I do here?

– Very important, very strategic.

Can you grab that and throw it.

Not yet.

– (screaming)

– Count of 3

1, 2, 3, go.

– (Screaming)

Yo! Shawano Waterways, whoo!

– Someone goes that buoy.

You have to go in the water

– (screaming)

– It is June 14th

and it’s gonna be a hundred
degrees today in Shawano.

We are currently at the golf course

for the annual waterways golf outing.

Let’s go have some fun.

I’m here with one of the
golfers, Cory Klement

who lives on the water and
enjoys Shawano Lake all summer.

Tell me what does Shawano
Waterways mean to you?

– It means an awful lot of enjoyment,

cause summer in Wisconsin
is very short, as you know.

This year, it’ll be about two months long.

– (laughs).

– And it gives us a chance to get out,

see a lot of people, enjoy the weather

and we love just looking at it too.

– We’re so lucky.

So grateful to have these
waterways right where we live.

– Absolutely, we’re very lucky that way.

We’ve got so much of it.

The river, the channel,
the lake, multiple lakes.

It’s great.

– And this is a perfect day to enjoy

with your buddies off the lake.

So have fun golfing Cory.

– Thank you so much.

– Bumped into this week’s
sponsor, Tony Zielinski,

from American Marine and Motor Sports.

I know you’re big with
the Waterways golf outing.

What does this day benefit?

– Well, it’s, it’s actually amazing

and I’m not the only person
whose sponsors say hole

in one opportunity here, but
you had Charlie’s market.

They generously as a title
sponsor donate $2,500.

We have prime motor sports that

if you get a hole in one, you win an ATV.

We have American marina Motorsports,

that if you get a hole in
one, you win a van hall

which is a really cool
three C type of deal.

And we have many, many other events

including putting with the Sundrop.

You win a year’s supply of Sundrop.

If you happen to be the
lucky name of the person

that made the putt, if
that’s the one that is drawn

and plus many other
events like fifty fifties

and things like that, it’s
an absolutely great time.

It is the number one fundraiser

for Swanano Area Waterway Management.

It generates nearly $20,000
pretty consistently.

And not only do the sponsors help here,

but if you look around and
take a look at how many people,

it’s gonna be nearly
200 people here today,

all of them die hard,
lake and swamp sponsors.

And we appreciate all of
them who have attended

and we look forward to a
really profitable fun day.

– Tony, thank you so much

for all you do personally
and professionally

with your business for Shawano
Waterways, we appreciate you.

And like you said, there’s a Sundrop pole.

I’m the Sundrop girl.

So I gotta get going.

Thanks Tony.

– Yeah, you’re welcome.

It’s been great.

– Oh my gosh.

And it’s always been my
dream to be on this big mama,

the weed cutter of the waterways.

We saw the buoys.

We were at the golf Audi.

Now we’re with Curt Preston.

One of the guys that cuts
all the weeds this summer.

Tell me how much work
is this process, Curt.

– Well, it’s a never
ending process (laughs),

is what it is.

There’s lots of steps to it.

There’s somebody that
gathers the addresses

of the accounts that need to be cut.

They go out and put stickers on signs,

or add signs to the docks.

Then we have another couple
people need to put the cutter

in and the elevators and
all the equipment in for us.

And then we can start to go
around to different homes

and places on both on
the lake and the channel

and the river and, and
cut the weeds for them.

– You said there’s
about a hundred families

and docks that get cut.

So Curt and some other
workers, they go around,

and clear off the weeds
with this big mama.

Let’s take it for a spin, okay?

– Sounds good.

– Cutting some weeds.

I really like this thing,

but I may go turn trade it in for an

at an American motor sports for

a new one.

Thank you, Area Waterways for everything.

Donate.

Shawano Waterways

This is Jamie Lee, signing
off for Shawano News.

Keep living and loving in the 54166.

(upbeat music)