ICORE elects new officers at annual meeting, potluck

By RICHARD JENKINS

[email protected]

MERCER, Wis. - A mix of new and familiar faces will be leading the Iron County Outdoor Recreation Enthusiasts next year, as the group elected new officers at its annual meeting in Mercer Tuesday.

Described on its website as, "A group of people dedicated to promoting silent sport activities and outdoor opportunities throughout Iron County, Wisconsin," ICORE holds roughly eight to 10 programs a year.

Mike Ondresky was elected as ICORE's new president; with John Bates being selected as vice president, Tereas Schmidt remaining as secretary and Bob Traczyk was named treasurer. The three member-at-large positions on ICORE's board will be filled by Mike Fauerbach, Karen Hagemann and Diane O'Krongly.

Among the priorities for the upcoming year is the revitalization of ICORE's committees; including its trails committee, the events committee and a "green sheets" committee to promote outdoor and silent sport events in the area. Future committees are expected as the new leadership settles into their roles.

Another focus for the upcoming year will be continuing to strengthen the recent merger between ICORE and the Iron County Regional Trails Committee, according to Ondresky.

"As far as the next year, I think we're trying to solidify the merger of the two organizations and at the same time, we really want to grow our membership. And I think we're starting to do that," Ondresky said.

He was enthusiastic about the merger with the group, which had been working to extend Michigan's non-motorized Iron Belle Trail into Iron County.

Along with taking over the efforts to develop the trail, Ondresky said the ICORE will continue to offer programs every month or so - including the one after the meeting Tuesday on the interaction between deer and wolves in the state.

"We kind of picked this subject because we thought we'd (try to attract) other people who would come to the meeting, rather than people that just like to kayak or bike," Ondresky said, regarding the topic being slightly different from past events. "We all like the outdoors, and we all like it in different ways and we just want to encourage that."

Building on the success of a recent trail maintenance day at Lipp Lake, Ondresky said ICORE will likely undertake other smaller work projects.

Project ideas brought up during the meeting included improving the trails through the Mercer School Forest or to Corrigan's Lookout in Upson.

"(Small projects) were one of our main ideas when we first got started, and then we had poor communication and we just kind of lost some of our momentum," said Ondresky. "Now electronically we've connected now and we feel much better. People are attending events like this in good numbers. "We're just much better organized as an organization."

For more information on the group and its events visit ironcountyoutdoors.org.