Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign: Clark County Friends of the Black River's Sign Project

Thursday, March 25th, 2021 -- 12:01 PM

-The Clark County Chapter of the Friends of the Black River are working on a unique sign project for some of Clark County’s waterways.

I spoke with Adam Marcineak, the founder of the Clark County Chapter, and he explained the project in more detail.

Adam:  “The Friends of the Black River has undertaken a sign project for Clark County.  And what we are providing is an aluminum satellite image sign of the river to go in the parking lots at the more improved landing sites throughout the county."

"And the signs will provide information regarding distances and travel times on the river, different information on where you can obtain flow rate information, where you might find the rapids and what the classification of those rapids are to give people that heads up of what they’re getting into before they get on the river, and some other pertinent information associated with kayaking and canoeing will also be available on those maps.”

“The maps project itself started as a couple signs in Neillsville that the county had slotted in their future plans that we adopted from them and have grown it into the project that we’re doing with these satellite signs at approximately 25 locations in Clark County.”

“Also involved in the sign project, most of the locations will get a trash bag dispenser and brochure holder with more information about the river on the brochure and then some information about the Friends of the Black River and what we are all about.”

Question:  “So these signs and maps will be distributed at 25 locations.  Are all of them on the Blakc River?”

Adam:  “Not all of them are on the Black River.  There’s approximately 20 that will be going on the river and Lake Arbutus.  But we’ve also been working on some sign projects for some of the navigable creeks in the county, which would include Wedges Creek.  And then the east fork of the Black River, we also have several signs for those creeks as well that we included in this project.”

Question:  “Did you have funds available for this project or did you do some fundraising?”

Adam:  “We initially had about an $800 budget that we took out of one of the grants that we first got to get our organization up and running.  That grant that we asked for had that amount in it for this project."

"And since the inception, the growth of the project has required more funds to obtain, but we have gotten some donations from local businesses for nuts and bolts and things of that nature to help keep the cost down, but we’re in the process of writing another grant to round out the project.”

Question:  “When do you hope to have this project completed?”

Adam:  “We would like to have all the signs in the ground by the end of summer.  And we hope to get some of the key locations done at the end of spring/beginning of summer is when we plan to start actually planting these signs in the ground.”

Question:  “In the spring and fall you usually do some clean ups at different sections of the river.  Do you have plans for this spring’s clean up?”

Adam:  “Yes, we have the plans in the works and what is all included in that is we’ve been, for the last 2 years, heavily based in the Neillsville area with these clean ups.  And, this year, we’re trying to give more widespread coverage to the county and have it set up to hold three separate clean ups all on the same day in Owen, Greenwood, and Neillsville.  And that date would be April 17th.”

Question:  “You also mentioned you have some paddling dates coming up.  Can you explain what that entails?”

Adam:  “In Jackson County, the Friends of the Black River Group there has been doing these types of paddles for over 10 years and we’re trying to emulate the success they’ve had down there.  It’s basically just an organized free paddle."

"We set up dates and a time to meet and plan a section to go down and it’s open to the public.  We have some kayaks available and are looking into getting more kayaks to borrow out to people and get them into the sport and using the river for recreation in that way."

"Like I said, it’s free to the public and we plan on getting those dates firmed up very soon and that information out on our Facebook page.  And we’ll have flyers around town with some of those dates."

"The paddles range from more gentle flat water type paddles into some more advanced white water stretches.  So, it’s definitely a good idea to contact my myself or Dan Moore to let us know what your experience level is to know if a certain section is right for you or not if you’re joining these paddles.  Or if you need other information about it, you can contact us as well.”

Question:  “Anything else?”

Adam:  “We’re definitely always looking for volunteers for our clean ups.  That’s always a concern on our mind to get as much of the community involved as we can to keep the trash out of our environment."

"Otherwise, the newness of our Clark County Chapter, we’re still looking for interested parties to help us plan our events and clean ups and be more than just the volunteer to show up and help out at the event.”

As Adam stated, they’re always looking for members for the group and volunteers to help with the clean ups.  You can learn more about the group by checking out their Facebook page. 

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.