Cheese Days
Cheese Days will be held today to Sunday, Sept. 16.Complete schedule information is also available at www.cheesedays.com.
MONROE - Setting up for Cheese Days requires hundreds of city workers and volunteers with a lot of pages of written choreography.
Street crews began putting up signs and barricades on Tuesday, partly to manage the labyrinth of tents, stages, vendor trailers, parking spots and electrical cords that go into setting up the Cheese Days festival grounds in downtown Monroe.
Just one week before the kickoff of 2012 Cheese Days, Tom Boll, supervisor for the City of Monroe Street Department, received from Police Chief Fred Kelley the "most recent list" of official street closings and no parking-areas. The list was at least five pages long, and Kelley had highlighted in yellow about 20 percent of it to indicate the new changes.
Boll refused to guess how many signs, barricades, cones and "pop-ups" are used during Cheese Days.
"I'll send you the list, and you can count them," he laughed.
Boll said he started "rounding up signs" as well as 80 to 90 trash barrels more than two weeks ago.
In the early morning hours before Cheese Days opens each day, the crews also come through to clean the streets and remove trash, which members of the girls' swim team and Boy Scouts have collected.
The two-hour Sunday parade alone requires 22 temporary barricades. If pressed to tell how many barricades he uses in total, Boll could safely say, all of them. He turns to the Park Department for support in that area.
"All (city) departments work together" to get the job done, said Paul Klinzing, Park Department supervisor.
The Parks Department not only hauls out their barricades, it also pulls together its picnic tables, trash barrels and bleachers.
Compared to 30 years ago, Cheese Days now needs "more of everything," said Klinzing, who has worked with the city since 1980. "More tables, more trash barrels, more bleachers."
Parks Department crews transport three large bleachers to the Square for parade viewing and strategically place six smaller sets around Cheese Days - near the stage, the kids' street and the courthouse. About a dozen picnic tables also get dropped off on the courthouse lawn.
Klinzing said four more tables and 24 trash barrels are taken to the Arts and Craft area near the middle school.
The Parks Department also ropes off the handicapped parade viewing areas along 9th Street.
Being "down on the Square" can be a bit disorienting, if you get even slightly lost in a crowd. That's why Rob Davis, a Cheese Days volunteer from Monroe, has taken up the official task of posting way-finding signs for pedestrians.
Although this is his first year as the sign guy, Davis is Cheese Days-experienced and described his work as "putting up signs, like, 'This way to the beer.'"
On Wednesday, Davis received a few pages of instructions on where to place particular signs. He discovered one parking lot used for a tractor show gets no fewer than 12 "no-parking" signs.
Davis started his work with "probably 30 signs" Thursday night and, ever resourceful, recruited his wife, Brenda, to help him. More signs go up today, and he'll move some to accommodate the parade on Sunday.
Davis said he's happy to be of some help to Cheese Days.
"I grew up here, and this city has done a lot for me and my family. I thought it was time for me to give something back," he said.
No doubt, among the signs for the beer tent, cheese tent and tractor show, some of Davis' signs will be pointing the way to the portable toilets.
Two years ago, Glenn Marass, Juda, took up the enviable job of arranging for 75 portable toilets to be delivered and serviced during the three-day event. This year his work included finding four 30-yard waste receptacles.
Marass has a unique way of referencing his work and position, which was handed over to him by Dennis Everson.
"I'm 100 percent the man," he said bravely.
Marass doesn't have to clean the toilets; that service is included in the paid contract. He's just the go-to man for the potty suppliers.
"I just make sure everybody has someone to talk to," he said.
Marass was eased into the job. Marass recalled Virgil Leopold, another Cheese Days volunteer, asked him four years ago, "How'd you like a job with Cheese Days?"
"He said, 'It won't involve much; kind of fun,'" Marass added.
And Marass makes the job sound rather fun. "I greeted some of them last night," he said about meeting the first delivery of toilets.
"I love my job, because it's part of Cheese Days, pure and simple," he said.
An estimated 700 volunteers pull together all the little pieces that make Cheese Days a success, from stage builders to parade drivers to trash collectors, according to Green County Cheese Days coordinator Noreen Rueckert.
Those numbers, she said, do not include the volunteers of all the organizations that prepare for their own part in Cheese Days.
One of those organizations, the National Historic Cheesemaking Center, features Master's Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, made with cheese from a Green County Cheese Master. At 2010 Cheese Days, the NHCC used 320 pounds of cheese, 300 loaves of rye bread, 75 pounds of butter and 13 gallons of a secret sauce spread generously inside the sandwich before it is grilled.
NHCC members are prepared to make more sandwiches and grill them faster this year, said Donna Douglas, NHCC executive director. "We have new grills," she said.
Getting and storing so much cheese for one event is no problem for NHCC. "We have direct access to Master Cheesemakers," Douglas said.
Proceeds from its Master's Grilled Cheese Sandwiches go to sustain and enhance the National Historic Cheesemaking Center, and its members are hoping for a banner year.
If the number of people in the parade is any indication of the turnout this year, they won't be disappointed.
The parade is expected to include about 2,000 participants, including cheese and agriculture royalty, cheesemakers, bands, fire departments, dog owners and float riders.
Street crews began putting up signs and barricades on Tuesday, partly to manage the labyrinth of tents, stages, vendor trailers, parking spots and electrical cords that go into setting up the Cheese Days festival grounds in downtown Monroe.
Just one week before the kickoff of 2012 Cheese Days, Tom Boll, supervisor for the City of Monroe Street Department, received from Police Chief Fred Kelley the "most recent list" of official street closings and no parking-areas. The list was at least five pages long, and Kelley had highlighted in yellow about 20 percent of it to indicate the new changes.
Boll refused to guess how many signs, barricades, cones and "pop-ups" are used during Cheese Days.
"I'll send you the list, and you can count them," he laughed.
Boll said he started "rounding up signs" as well as 80 to 90 trash barrels more than two weeks ago.
In the early morning hours before Cheese Days opens each day, the crews also come through to clean the streets and remove trash, which members of the girls' swim team and Boy Scouts have collected.
The two-hour Sunday parade alone requires 22 temporary barricades. If pressed to tell how many barricades he uses in total, Boll could safely say, all of them. He turns to the Park Department for support in that area.
"All (city) departments work together" to get the job done, said Paul Klinzing, Park Department supervisor.
The Parks Department not only hauls out their barricades, it also pulls together its picnic tables, trash barrels and bleachers.
Compared to 30 years ago, Cheese Days now needs "more of everything," said Klinzing, who has worked with the city since 1980. "More tables, more trash barrels, more bleachers."
Parks Department crews transport three large bleachers to the Square for parade viewing and strategically place six smaller sets around Cheese Days - near the stage, the kids' street and the courthouse. About a dozen picnic tables also get dropped off on the courthouse lawn.
Klinzing said four more tables and 24 trash barrels are taken to the Arts and Craft area near the middle school.
The Parks Department also ropes off the handicapped parade viewing areas along 9th Street.
Being "down on the Square" can be a bit disorienting, if you get even slightly lost in a crowd. That's why Rob Davis, a Cheese Days volunteer from Monroe, has taken up the official task of posting way-finding signs for pedestrians.
Although this is his first year as the sign guy, Davis is Cheese Days-experienced and described his work as "putting up signs, like, 'This way to the beer.'"
On Wednesday, Davis received a few pages of instructions on where to place particular signs. He discovered one parking lot used for a tractor show gets no fewer than 12 "no-parking" signs.
Davis started his work with "probably 30 signs" Thursday night and, ever resourceful, recruited his wife, Brenda, to help him. More signs go up today, and he'll move some to accommodate the parade on Sunday.
Davis said he's happy to be of some help to Cheese Days.
"I grew up here, and this city has done a lot for me and my family. I thought it was time for me to give something back," he said.
No doubt, among the signs for the beer tent, cheese tent and tractor show, some of Davis' signs will be pointing the way to the portable toilets.
Two years ago, Glenn Marass, Juda, took up the enviable job of arranging for 75 portable toilets to be delivered and serviced during the three-day event. This year his work included finding four 30-yard waste receptacles.
Marass has a unique way of referencing his work and position, which was handed over to him by Dennis Everson.
"I'm 100 percent the man," he said bravely.
Marass doesn't have to clean the toilets; that service is included in the paid contract. He's just the go-to man for the potty suppliers.
"I just make sure everybody has someone to talk to," he said.
Marass was eased into the job. Marass recalled Virgil Leopold, another Cheese Days volunteer, asked him four years ago, "How'd you like a job with Cheese Days?"
"He said, 'It won't involve much; kind of fun,'" Marass added.
And Marass makes the job sound rather fun. "I greeted some of them last night," he said about meeting the first delivery of toilets.
"I love my job, because it's part of Cheese Days, pure and simple," he said.
An estimated 700 volunteers pull together all the little pieces that make Cheese Days a success, from stage builders to parade drivers to trash collectors, according to Green County Cheese Days coordinator Noreen Rueckert.
Those numbers, she said, do not include the volunteers of all the organizations that prepare for their own part in Cheese Days.
One of those organizations, the National Historic Cheesemaking Center, features Master's Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, made with cheese from a Green County Cheese Master. At 2010 Cheese Days, the NHCC used 320 pounds of cheese, 300 loaves of rye bread, 75 pounds of butter and 13 gallons of a secret sauce spread generously inside the sandwich before it is grilled.
NHCC members are prepared to make more sandwiches and grill them faster this year, said Donna Douglas, NHCC executive director. "We have new grills," she said.
Getting and storing so much cheese for one event is no problem for NHCC. "We have direct access to Master Cheesemakers," Douglas said.
Proceeds from its Master's Grilled Cheese Sandwiches go to sustain and enhance the National Historic Cheesemaking Center, and its members are hoping for a banner year.
If the number of people in the parade is any indication of the turnout this year, they won't be disappointed.
The parade is expected to include about 2,000 participants, including cheese and agriculture royalty, cheesemakers, bands, fire departments, dog owners and float riders.