Everything from bagels to heart care and Derby Day activities

Happy May, Streetwise readers.

How can you tell spring is in full swing? We have more opportunities to get out and around in Fond du Lac, and we also have those orange cones, barrels and signs that signal road work.

To the latter, I have a roundup of city, county and state-led road construction projects scheduled so far in the area for 2024. Most of them are pavement improvements, though some highlights also include the Division Street bridge replacement conclusion and a number of street and utility upgrades to Pioneer Road from Martin Avenue to County Highway V through the summer.

As for new things to experience in Fond du Lac, the Downtown Fond du Lac Partnership is putting on its first-ever Downtown Derby Day to celebrate the Kentucky Derby on Saturday. Individual shops, bars and cafes are hosting games, contests, specials, live music and watch parties, and the day will also include hat-making at the Thelma Sadoff Center for the Arts, free carriage rides and a best-dressed contest.

Also downtown, the Bagel Meister is getting into the swing of business under new ownership, and for the month of May is getting help from Kelly Northlee of the podcast Fondy Famous and photographer Christine Peck of The Sparkle Studio.

Peck is handling branding photos for the shop, and Northlee, who is also a marketing specialist, has the reins on Bagel Meister's social media to help show them — and other businesses in Fond du Lac — how to market themselves digitally.

Elsewhere in Fond du Lac, SSM Health St. Agnes Hospital recently finished the expansion of the Dale Michels Heart & Vascular Care center, which includes upgraded technology and more space for staff, patients and families, from additional recovery rooms to semi-private waiting areas.

The center's namesake was the former owner and president of Michels Pipeline Construction, Inc., who died from complications of a stroke in 1998 just after suffering a heart attack. The Michels family donated $1.5 million to the construction of the initial heart center in 2006 in Dale Michels's honor, then donated $3 million to this expansion.

Finally, my latest "Remember When ..." is directly related to a story I mentioned in my last newsletter on third places in Fond du Lac, after a reader mentioned Woody's as an old teen hangout spot.

Woody's opened in Woodworth Middle School back when it was closed, and offered a safe, drug-free space for middle and high schoolers in the Fond du Lac School District that felt like a nightclub. It lasted through the 1990s, but its downfall was ultimately waning interest among local teens, as the last few years were just open to middle school students after high schoolers stopped attending.

That's it for this week, but enjoy the sunshine when it comes, and I'll be back in two weeks.

Thanks for reading! You can send me feedback and tips to dlemke@gannett.com . Did someone forward you this email? Sign up for this newsletter so you don't miss the next issue. And, if you don't already, please consider subscribing to The Reporter if you enjoy my work.

Who is Streetwise?

I'm Daphne Lemke, Streetwise business reporter for the Fond du Lac Reporter. I write about what's happening in the Fond du Lac-area business community.

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This article originally appeared on Fond du Lac Reporter: Everything from bagels to heart care and Derby Day activities