Town Supervisor Cathy Ward, who was involved with the Mariner Park Project from the beginning, stated for the record at the Town Board meeting on January 21, 2026 that for 18 months (nearly all of 2020 through June of 2021), the Mariner Park Ad Hoc Committee held public meetings, and the recommendation that came out of that committee to the Parks & Property Committee, and then to the Town Board was for the removal of, or disposal of those buildings. We then put it on the April 20, 2021 Annual Town meeting Agenda because the Town electors must approve not only the acquisition of real property, but the disposal of real property. At that meeting, the motion to allow the Town to dispose of those buildings passed 29 to 0. So, we’ve been up front with all of this going on. After that meeting and unanimous elector vote to remove the buildings, there was a member of the community that put out a petition to save the buildings on “MoveOn.org.” The petition was turned into the Town. After going through the 375 names on the petition, it was discovered that 7% of them were actual Liberty Grove property owners, and about 12% lived in Door County & owned property in Liberty Grove, but were not residents. So, only 19% of the people who signed that petition actually had taxpayer money at stake. We also placed an Ad that offered if somebody wanted to buy it for “a dollar” and move it, all they needed to do was put down a $1,000.00 bid, (fully refundable on complete removal of the buildings), and no one was interested in that. There was also a suggestion at one of the meetings that the people who felt strongly about preserving the buildings could help the Town by raising some money or starting a foundation.  No one did.
The Town did get in touch with “Board & Beam,” the company in Green Bay that does restoration work and they did come up to look at those buildings. While they admitted that there were some things that were tempting, they decided it was not worth their time and effort to come and salvage/remove anything out of there. Finally we did offer to donate items from the buildings to whoever wants them. A number of items were picked up by and donated to the Historical Society, and to the Maritime Museum.

On January 21, 2026 the Town Board unanimously approved the demolition and removal of the buildings by a local contractor.