Top Stories November 17th

Mayville Approves Budget Without Pool Funding


11/17/10 - The Mayville Common Council approved their 2011 budget last night on a 5 to 1 vote. Around three dozen residents spoke about the outdoor city pool during the public hearing. The spring-fed pool has been closed since the floods of 2008 and the city has until June to use $20,000 in FEMA funding to bring it back up to par or find another use. The city’s local match is in the budget, but not the $43,000 in annual operating costs. Twenty people spoke in favor of funding the outdoor pool last night, while two spoke against it. Two attempts by Alderman Al Voss to siphon money from other portions of the budget failed and the document was adopted without his support. Mayor Jerry Moede says the budget passage does not mean the pool issue is dead in the water and discussions are expected to continue in committee. Any attempt to fund the pool operations midyear would require a budget amendment, which would take two-thirds of the council to approve. As for the budget, the tax levy is up 3.8% to just under $2.7 million dollars. Mayville taxpayers will see a 21 cent increase in their mill rate to $7.91 per thousand. Property taxes on a $150,000 house in Mayville will be $1,187, which is an increase of $32.

Columbus Adopts Budget

11/17/10 - The Council approved the $3 million, fifty-eight thousand dollar City of Columbus 2011 Budget last night. The City Budget has a lower tax levy and lower mil rate than in 2010. When Columbus residents get their tax bills in December over 40 per cent of the mil rate will be going to the Columbus School District. The City’s share will be about 34 per cent and the remainder will be going for slightly increased Columbia County and VTAE District taxes. Council Member Roger Sneath pointed out that the City had decreased their mil rate from $8.20 per thousand last year to $8.11 per thousand dollars this year. Meanwhile, the Schools’ mil rate had increased from $8.77 to $9.69 per thousand during the same period. The 2011 City budget was passed quietly with no public input at last week’s Budget Hearing and no one speaking for against the final version at last night’s regular Council session.

Fitzgerald on Job Creation

11/17/10 - On WBEV’s Community Comment this week, State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald outlined some of the job creation plans that lawmakers will be considering in the upcoming session. Governor-elect Scott Walker promised on the campaign trail to create 250,000 private sector jobs in four years. The Juneau Republican says the shift in the last election will give his party the opportunity to rebuild government from the ground up. Fitzgerald says in his talks with the Walker administration they appear committed to the idea of “eliminating and reforming” the Department of Workforce Development and the Department of Commerce. He says the new department would be much more “aggressive” and “roll-in” former programs like the quasi-governmental “Forward Wisconsin.” Beaver Dam has benefitted from Department of Commerce grants as part of recent downtown revitalization plans but Fitzgerald says that is only a small segment of the DOC. Fitzgerald says while this area has benefitted from a lot of programs, other parts of the state have lost a lot of light manufacturing, an area he says needs to be a priority. Fitzgerald says a quarter million jobs in an “achievable goal” but he admits we might need a little help from the economy as well.

Survey: ‘Jobless Recovery Coming To An End’

11/17/10 - A survey by a Milwaukee group shows that the so-called “jobless recovery” may be close to an end. A-S-Q, which deals with quality control matters, says 42-percent of the 12-hundred manufacturers it surveyed in the U-S and Canada plan to hire people in 2011. And only 18-percent say they’ll keep freezing their employees’ pay, compared to 45-percent that did not give raises for this year. Sixty-eight percent of the manufacturers thought their revenues would grow in 2011 – that’s a slightly bigger percentage than in 2010. And only 18-percent of factories expect mandatory budget cuts, down from 35-percent in the current year. A-S-Q chairman Peter Andres says the factory sector still faces challenges in gaining a full recovery. But in his words, “The incremental gains shown in this survey are very promising.”

Dodge County Jury Hears Testimony In Kuenzi Trial

11/17/10 - A Dodge County jury heard from over a dozen witnesses this week, as testimony continues in an emotional drunken homicide trial of a Waupaca County man. 26-year-old Rory Kuenzi of Weyauwega is accused of hitting 20-year-old Kevin McCoy with his pick-up truck, and dumping the body in a ditch before driving off. It reportedly happened after an underage drinking party in 2004. The party’s hosts testified that Kuenzi was not invited, but he brought booze anyway. Two others said he had a confrontation with the crash victim at the party. And Kuenzi’s passenger, Walter Engel, agreed he had too much to drink. Kuenzi wasn’t charged in McCoy’s death until five years after it happened. State investigators re-visited the case after a furor was created in another case involving Kuenzi. He was charged with stealing a snowmobile and joining two others to kill a half-dozen deer on a Waupaca County trail in early 2009. Snowmobile groups statewide were put on the defensive after that incident. Both cases have stirred tensions, and metal detectors were set up on the floor where the drunken homicide trial is taking place. It’s scheduled to continue all week in Waupaca.

Davis Sentenced

11/17/10 - A former Fox Lake Correctional Institution inmate who attacked two guards with a claw-hammer had 47 years added to his prison sentence Monday, eliminating any possibility of parole from his previous sentence. Terrance Davis was convicted in September on charges of First Degree Attempted Homicide and a reduced charge of First Degree Reckless Endangerment. The 52-year-old assaulted the guards in the prison’s furniture-making shop in November of 2008. One officer sustained head injuries and a broken arm while another guard required surgery for a fractured skull. Davis has been in prison since he killed two Milwaukee police officers a quarter century ago years ago who walked into a drug deal.