MONROE - Getting ready for Cheese Days, especially in the last hours of preparation, requires some good humor.
City workers and community volunteers are scurrying with final preparations for the 2010 Green County Cheese Days Friday through Sunday in Monroe.
Steve Streiff was still waiting for signs to be completed Wednesday. He's in charge of placing the signs on and off the Square that direct pedestrians to the numerous stages, tents and event areas.
Even after the signs are delivered, he has to wait for the tents to be set up and vehicles to get in, and off, the Square.
"It's nothing abnormal," Steiff said. "If I put the signs up too soon, they'd just be in the way."
The work becomes an all-weekend job.
Steiff has about four FFA high school boys to help him because he will also be singing and giving polka lessons at the Main Stage and helping at Turner Hall. The students will be putting up no-parking signs and changing the signs for the bus tours and the farm tractor show taking place in the same area at different times.
This is Streiff's first year being responsible for the Cheese Days directional signs.
"I used to be the city's street supervisor - this is simple compared to that," he said.
Tom Boll, the current city street supervisor, had about four employees out Thursday and will have six to eight people out working Friday, laying out barricades for the parade that starts at 12:30 p.m. Sunday. They will also be pounding in posts for no-parking signs at the fairgrounds.
"Everything's working up to the big show," Boll said.
Street department employees will be on the Square at 5 a.m. Saturday, Sunday and Monday cleaning up.
The Monroe High School girls swim team is volunteering to pick up trash until 8 p.m. each night, but Boll said the partying doesn't stop at 8 p.m. any night at Cheese Days, and there's plenty to clean up each morning.
Gene Grinell, maintenance supervisor at the Green County Courthouse, finds drink cups in the bushes and smashed, fried cheese curds on the Courthouse steps after Cheese Days.
It's like a big, messy party on his lawn, but it doesn't bother him too much, he said.
"We plan a long time ahead," he said. "We enjoy it and are happy to have it looking nice for the people coming to town."
Grinell started "spiffing up" the Courthouse a couple weeks ago, painting handrails, trimming bushes and cleaning the streets.
One hard part of Cheese Days for the Courthouse, which is open until 4:30 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, is the daily trash haul.
"We have to get things out of the Courthouse, but there's no parking, and you can't get a vehicle up close," he said.
The long list of last-minute preparations for the Monroe Police Department include blocking off areas for setting up tents, concessions and handicapped parking, and blocking off areas for portable toilets, dumpsters, the carnival and the large stage.
The staff of the Monroe Police Department and its mutual aid from other communities' departments will be on duty 24 hours a day for three days, watching over the town and controlling the crowds that grow to 20,000 or 30,000 people at any one time.
"There's always last minute changes there," said Fred Kelley, Monroe Chief of Police, about the scheduling details.
Kelley also verifies all the beer garden permits are in order and arranges security for any VIPs that come to town.
On Sunday, the police close more city streets for the parade by setting up the barricades left earlier in the week by the street department.
"And we do all we can to ensure good weather," Kelley said, "or, of course, be prepared for other than good weather."
City workers and community volunteers are scurrying with final preparations for the 2010 Green County Cheese Days Friday through Sunday in Monroe.
Steve Streiff was still waiting for signs to be completed Wednesday. He's in charge of placing the signs on and off the Square that direct pedestrians to the numerous stages, tents and event areas.
Even after the signs are delivered, he has to wait for the tents to be set up and vehicles to get in, and off, the Square.
"It's nothing abnormal," Steiff said. "If I put the signs up too soon, they'd just be in the way."
The work becomes an all-weekend job.
Steiff has about four FFA high school boys to help him because he will also be singing and giving polka lessons at the Main Stage and helping at Turner Hall. The students will be putting up no-parking signs and changing the signs for the bus tours and the farm tractor show taking place in the same area at different times.
This is Streiff's first year being responsible for the Cheese Days directional signs.
"I used to be the city's street supervisor - this is simple compared to that," he said.
Tom Boll, the current city street supervisor, had about four employees out Thursday and will have six to eight people out working Friday, laying out barricades for the parade that starts at 12:30 p.m. Sunday. They will also be pounding in posts for no-parking signs at the fairgrounds.
"Everything's working up to the big show," Boll said.
Street department employees will be on the Square at 5 a.m. Saturday, Sunday and Monday cleaning up.
The Monroe High School girls swim team is volunteering to pick up trash until 8 p.m. each night, but Boll said the partying doesn't stop at 8 p.m. any night at Cheese Days, and there's plenty to clean up each morning.
Gene Grinell, maintenance supervisor at the Green County Courthouse, finds drink cups in the bushes and smashed, fried cheese curds on the Courthouse steps after Cheese Days.
It's like a big, messy party on his lawn, but it doesn't bother him too much, he said.
"We plan a long time ahead," he said. "We enjoy it and are happy to have it looking nice for the people coming to town."
Grinell started "spiffing up" the Courthouse a couple weeks ago, painting handrails, trimming bushes and cleaning the streets.
One hard part of Cheese Days for the Courthouse, which is open until 4:30 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, is the daily trash haul.
"We have to get things out of the Courthouse, but there's no parking, and you can't get a vehicle up close," he said.
The long list of last-minute preparations for the Monroe Police Department include blocking off areas for setting up tents, concessions and handicapped parking, and blocking off areas for portable toilets, dumpsters, the carnival and the large stage.
The staff of the Monroe Police Department and its mutual aid from other communities' departments will be on duty 24 hours a day for three days, watching over the town and controlling the crowds that grow to 20,000 or 30,000 people at any one time.
"There's always last minute changes there," said Fred Kelley, Monroe Chief of Police, about the scheduling details.
Kelley also verifies all the beer garden permits are in order and arranges security for any VIPs that come to town.
On Sunday, the police close more city streets for the parade by setting up the barricades left earlier in the week by the street department.
"And we do all we can to ensure good weather," Kelley said, "or, of course, be prepared for other than good weather."