A New Redesigned Website
by Don Mittag » Fri Oct 05, 2012 8:30 am
A new web site design will preview this weekend according to Sarah Adams. It was a long time overdue. After much discussion between the BOD it was decided to eliminate the discussion threads. I have looked at the surrounding States web sites and I found none to have discussion threads. The main reason was to get the shooters of this state to get involved with the directors in their own zones. It was also felt that this would eliminate some of the misinformation that some have put up on the discussion threads due to either not having complete or correct information. With direct conversations this should help reduce the amount of misinformation that the shooters get.
So please feel free to contact your zone director either in person, by e-mail, or by telephone. Their contact information is located on this site. As I have not seen the new design I cannot tell you exactly where it is located. I will still have a place to put out information on the new site. I have also asked to have a comment button located there to allow you to leave your comments about a subject the I have posted. I will then either answer your question on line, contact you personally or direct your comment or question to the correct person so that they may contact you.
I hope that this will do what we want it to do. I look forward to passing along as much information as I possibly can and that you will still provide feed back under the new structure. Either on the new site or in person.
Don
Serious Grading
by Don Mittag » Thu Oct 04, 2012 9:25 pm
I recieved a text with a picture today from Jay Adams. If I knew how to get it from my phone to here I would have posted it but that is beyond my knowledge. Anyway it looks really neat and it had the trap house and pad staked out. He said that they are expecting to start pouring pads and walk ways on Monday. That way they should be dry by July of 2013. I will be up there next week and will take a look see. Maybe I will have Mike post some pictures for me. It has started.
Trap Houses
by Don Mittag » Mon Sep 24, 2012 10:25 am
The BOD has decided when we purchase out trap houses for the home grounds they will be dyed (Probably green). This way we will never have to paint them. Atleast not in my lifetime. The cost right now is aprox. $1800 and $200 for the dye per house. The added expense to dye them will be a savings down the road because of not ever having to paint them. We will be buying all 30. We have generous donations from Duddly and Tammy Larson to ship them from northern Il. to the home grounds. Dan McDermott from Beaver dam GC. is going to supply a crane and Jim Gruenwald is suppling the backhoe and operator to dig the holes to set the houses. So it would be foolish not to set them now. Not all 30 will have electric and concrete pads and such but they will be in the ground and ready for the rest of the things like walkways and electric to be added when we need them. At this point we are expecting to use 24 fields for the 2013 State shoot.
We are also only going to buy 8-12 machines. We are hoping to borrow machines from some of the wonder and generous gun clubs from around the state for the State shoot. So if your club would be interested in helping us out in a big way without any cash out lay, please contact any Board member. We will pick up and return them. Unless someone else wanted to volunteer. We would also be responsible for damage to the machines if there was any. We would be looking for 12-16 machines. If a few clubs would donate 2-3 machines it would be a great help to save us some cash this year. We will have machines in 24 trap houses one way or another. It is just if we can put off for a year buying all 24 machines we could save about $90,000 this year to use for other things.
Just to clarify a little. If you have donated a trap field you will get a field named after you complete with machines. It is just right now not everyone that promised a field has completely paid for it so we will be purchasing machines as we go along. We will own all of our own machines in the near future. We will be most likely using 24 fields in 2013 and all will have machines in them.
More big news about the Home grounds
by Don Mittag » Sat Sep 22, 2012 12:21 pm
In last nights teleconfrence meeting of the BOD we voted on and accepted the Bid from Royal Excavating, Inc., Wisconsin Dells. This is for the next phase of Excavation, like clearing the top soil from the road, parking areas, putting in the stone, 800 feet of walk way behind some of the traps, the trap pads, reseeding and some landscape work, and so on. This will also be in the meeting minutes to be posted soon. Their bid was $498,493.61. That is for the main area, For the west camp grounds it is $114,316.00. The reason for the two bids is really for the timing of the project and the other parts of the construction. Like septic, water, electric.
Also at last nights meeting funding was discussed. We are working on securing a building loan of 1.1 million with the help of mister Ray Moser to be used as we go along with this project. More information in the minutes.
Things are really starting to click. Now is the time to make your donations if you were on the fence about when to do so.
Some wonderful donations
by Don Mittag » Sat Sep 22, 2012 12:06 pm
In the near future there will be a donor list posted on this web site with the donations that have been already recieved. We have already recieved one grant from the ATA in the amount of $5,000.
I am attaching a letter and donation we have just recieved from a very generous neighbor in the Town of Rome. This is the kind of people you will find in Rome. And this is the general feeling of the people of Rome.
------------------------------------------
September 18th, 2012
Dear WT A Members:
As one of the many committed business owners in Rome, your selection of our township for your new
project is very exiting. I just had the pleasure of reading an article in the Wisconsin Outdoor News about
your venture.
I would like to thank you for choosing our wonderful Rome to build such an outstanding facility. I look
forward to meeting each of you and also very willing to help make your project a success.
I have enclosed a check for $2500.00 as a contribution to build a 12 x 16 shelter.
Lori Pritzl
-------------------------------------------
So when in the area stop in at Pritzl's and say hi. Tell them thanks and you are a trap shooter.
Did you want camping in Rome, Wi?
by Don Mittag » Sat Sep 22, 2012 2:12 pm
If you talked to Bill Simonar at this years state shoot about camping for the 2013 State shoot and he gave you a sign up sheet it is very important that you return it very soon. He is starting to assign camping spots. Don't miss out on your spot. He will be sending out payment information soon. First come first servered. So again send in your camping spot request very soon.
His address
Bill Simonar
18821 Rosecrans RD.
Denmark, Wi 54208
Phone 1 920 655 4759 (after 50)
wjsshoot@aol.com
State team application
by Don Mittag » Tue Sep 11, 2012 11:16 am
Just some information about this years state team application.
First there is a new date that the applications need to be in by. That is Nov. 15, 2012.
Next there have been some minor changes to the requirements. There is no longer a min. average reqiurement. Anyone can send in a application no matter their average. The top shooters will still make the team. Mens team top 10. Womens team top 5, vet's top 5, Sr. Vets top 5, Jr's top 5 and sub jr. top 5 averages.
You may have noticed there is no application up as of yet. Rick Tesker said he will have the new one to Brad next week. If you have a old application you may still use it. He will accept either one.
The target requirements are just a little different. You still have to shoot the Championship targets at a zone shoot. You still have to shoot the Championship targets at the State shoot. You need to shoot 100, 16 yard targets, 100 handicap targets and 100 doubles targets at two different clubs before or after the Zone and State shoot. Even I am a little confused. Example if the zone shoot you shoot is at waukesha and you shot the State shoot at Waukesha and you shot a regular reg. shoot at Waukesha that is three. You would need to shoot at one more club or you could shoot 100 16yrd at one club and 100 at another club and 100 doubles at a third club, because the zone and the state shoot count for 1 club each. So after all that it comes down to this. These are the only targets you need to shoot in Wi. We hope you shoot more in Wi but this is the Min. you have to shoot here.
The target reqirements for the State high average remains the same. And they all have to be in state.
Any questions call Rick Tesker at 262 424 0444 or E-mail @
richardt@tesker.com.
Re: State team application
by Rick Tesker » Wed Sep 12, 2012 10:45 am
Don
Thanks for posting requirments but there is one change, you do not have to shoot 100 each of 16s, handicap, and doubles. You just need three hundred targets of whatever at the club. If anyone has questions you can email me and I will get back to you asap, as I am at the Gateway shoot and sometimes phone or internet is not the greatest.
Thanks
Rick
Dates
by Don Mittag » Thu Aug 30, 2012 3:20 pm
Yes we had a long telephonic meeting last night. One topic that took about a hour and and half was the date of our state shoot next year. After looking at all the pro's and con's, and I am not going to go into them right now because there were alot, we decided to stay with the same dates as this year which for 2013 would be July 16 thru the 21st. After talking to alot of shooters the majority said the last week of June would be ok but if we could keep the same dates in July that would be better. Is there going to be a few people bitching. Yes. Had we gone to the June dates would there have been bithching yes. One director said it right. The BOD is going to be damned if we do or damned if we don't. So we took the route that we thought we would hear the least bitching. There is going to be people driving a little further like to Plove, Stevens point and so on. There are some rooms at some of the hotels in the Rapids. You will have to chech around. Next year at the annual meeting the dates will be discussed and at that point we can get a better idea of how the hotel situatiion really is. We all felt that was the best way to handle it. At this point we really don't know how many people will be needing rooms. Also with leaving it the same dates we have given clubs more time to set there dates but just keep it in mind that it may change in 2013 after the meeting.
This brings us to camping. Bill says the number of people wanting camping spots is growing. I don't have the prices handy so if you are thinking about camping give Bill a call. 1 920 655 4759. We may only have half the total of spots that is on the drawing this year so better get your spot picked out. Better yet do a long term lease.
Melinda will be publishing lists of hotels in the area. Also Melinda will be making a list of other things like resturants and things to do in the area.
A few other things that were brought up at the meeting. Bruce is meeting Friday, and I can't remember if it was this week or next, with a person that writes business plans. So the thing that eveyone wants should be coming out soon. I don't know how long this takes but it is being done soon.
I have been nominated to be the "Infomation director guy" I will be trying to update you all with as much information as is available. I won't be doing this on any kind of schedule like weekly, monthly or what ever. When I get something to tell you I will do it as soon as posible. Just be resonable. Like today. We are leaving early morning and won't be back til Tuesday night. So there won't be anything from me then. Nest week I will be gone Thur. thru Sunday night.... and so on. Today is Melinda and my 43 anniversary. So I have a few things that I need to take care of. So I won't be covering every thing that went on last night. The minutes should be out in about ten days or so.
There were a couple of changes made to the State team structure. One the will no longer be a min. average requirement. We will use either the old requirements or the new due to the timing of the changes. The where and how many targets need to be shot here and there will be posted by Rick soon.
I know Brad has some and I don't know how many but we would like to get as many E-mail addresses as posible. Send them to me. With a good list we can get important information out really quick and cheap. We can also keep somethings inhouse if need be.
We have hired a grant writer. This will help us in getting some of the grants that are available. She is a very excited to be working on this project with us.
The web site needs to be updated a bit. How can we make it interesting to people so they want to go to this site. When we start putting in for grants the prospective (Grantor?) person will want to go to the web site and check us out. What can we do to spice it up. Anyone with Web site developement skills please contact someone on the BOD. Anyone what to run the site? Talking about e-mail address. Ever been to a web site and they ask you sign up for their news letter. That is the kind of thing we need to get a good e-mail address base. Stuff like that is what we need a volunteer for.
There is a issue in the township just north of our property. A large commercial dairy opperation wants to build in the town of Saratoga. They would have many large high cap. wells withing a mile or so of ours. The BOD will be sending a letter of concern to the town of Saratoga. This will let that town and the Town of Rome that we stand behind them and share the same concerns about this issue. They are trying to fight it but it will really be up to the DNR because the Town of Saratoga doesn't have zoning and so it has gone to the courts and that doesn't really look to good for us. We can only hope the DNR will put enought restrictions on them that they change their minds or atleast protect the wells in that area. This is still a on going fight up there.
When we were discussing the dates we also got some numbers for some of what needs to be done to hold a shoot. We think it will be in the 1.5 milion dollar range. $700,000 for grading and stone work alone. With electrical and plumbing to done yet.. We think that with the shipping of the houses and the crane and equipment needed to dig the holes the trap houses should cost around $1800 each. With the things I just mentioned to be donated we need to put in the 30 houses. We would be foolish not to. We will most likely not put in all the traps and wireing. Probably 22 to 24. We will also most likely only buy half or so of the machines. Here is where you all come in. We were thinking that if a few clubs in the state would donate the use of a few machines we could save another $88,000 this first year. So if your club would like to let us use a machine or two please let us know. We would pick them up and return them. We would also be resposable for any damage. With things like this we can make this happen.
So with this bit of info you should see we are not trying to hide anything. Please contact me or any Director if you have a talent you want to donate. If you want to donate anything else please now is the time. As you can see we will need to take out a loan soon. What ever you can donate won't need a loan. If you have a couple hundred thousand or more call me and I'll take you out for a nice dinner and talk about it.
Well I hope most of you won't be climbing down my neck for this long post. I hopw to possibly do this in a section like the one that was started about the home grounds but I don't know how to post things there YET. But trust me I will learn. I know not all you questions have been answered but things are going to start happening and when they do I will do my best to keep you informed. Well all this typing has exhausted me and taken several hours. So I am going to celebrate our anniversary and then head out of town. I hope this helps calm some fears and I hope I have answered some questions. I know there are alot more out there but hopefully we will have more answers soon.
Don Mittag
Your information Director guy.
donmittag@aol.com
262 470 2708
2013 State Shoot Lodging
by Melinda Mittag » Tue Sep 04, 2012 4:50 pm
Here is the start of information about lodging in the vicinity of Rome. As Don indicated in his earlier post, the BOD weighed the pros and cons before publishing the dates for the tournament. One of the cons is that we are bumping against a large water-skiing event in Wisconsin Rapids and a Softball Tournament in Plover that same weekend. Rooms are at a premium this year so here is what we have gathered so far. There will be a lot more information coming once I hear back from the various tourism departments for neighboring towns as we widen our circle around the grounds.
NOTE: AS YOU WOULD WITH BOOKING ROOMS AT AN UNKNOWN HOTEL OR A HOTEL/MOTEL THAT IS NOT PART OF A NATIONAL CHAIN, BE SURE TO CHECK REVIEWS AND CUSTOMER FEEDBACK
As of now, there are still rooms available at – (no specific order) - all of them are approximately 10 miles from the grounds.
1. Roadway Inn – 3300 8th St. South, Wisconsin Rapids (715-423-7000). Internet available and pet friendly.
2. Maples Motel – 4750 8th St. South, Wisconsin Rapids (715-423-2590)
3. Sleep Inn & Suites – 4221 8th St South, Wisconsin Rapids (715-424-6800). Internet available and pet friendly
4. Shermalot Motel – 1148 W Queens Way, Nekoosa, WI (715-325-2626). Internet available – no pets
9/4/12 UPDATE! - Confirmed that there are 20 rooms available(singles/doubles) at the AMERICAS BEST VALUE INN IN WI RAPIDS (715-423-8080)
ALSO - If you have an interest in renting a condo for the week, try Lodges of the Lakes 866-456-3437 - just a thought
9/5/12 UPDATE! - Confirmed that there are a few rooms left at HOTEL MEAD in Wisconsin Rapids - 451 E Grand Ave, Wisconsin Rapids (715-423-1500)
In the Plover area (about 29 miles on good roads) there are still rooms available at:
1. Best Western – 5253 Harding Avenue, Plover (715-544-6200 or 855-205-4632). Internet, pet friendly
2. AmericInn – 1501 American Drive, Plover (800-634-3444). Internet and pet friendly
3. Hampton Inn – 3090 Village Park Drive, Plover (715-295-9900). Internet, no pets (only single queen room available)
4. Comfort Inn – 1560 American Drive, Plover (715-342-0400). Internet, pet friendly
We will publish more information on lodging and activities in the area as it becomes available. Because of the conflicting events in these cities, I would suggest booking your rooms as early as possible. The hotels have indicated they are booking up fast.
