Top Stories October 18th

Hopper Arrested For OWI

10/18/11 - Former state Senator Randy Hopper refused to take a breath test until he spent a few hours in jail for his drunk driving arrest near Fond du Lac. Sheriff’s officials said Hopper’s blood alcohol level was still above the minimum of point-zero-eight. The exact figure is expected to be in an arrest report that’s due out today. It’s the first O-W-I arrest for Hopper, who was recalled from his Senate post in August due to his support for the law which limits public union bargaining. A witness told authorities that the 45-year-old Hopper was driving “all over the road” Sunday afternoon on a four-lane expressway on Highway 151. Officers said Hopper refused to take a preliminary breath test after he was stopped – and he failed a series of field sobriety tests. A blood sample was not taken, but sheriff’s officials say that’s only done when injuries are involved. Hopper’s girlfriend, Valerie Cass, was in the vehicle. She called somebody for a ride home, and Hopper spent 12 hours in jail before he was freed early yesterday.

Preliminary Beaver Dam Budget Numbers

10/18/11 - The Beaver Dam Administrative Committee got its first look at the proposed numbers in the 2012 budget last night. The total proposed budget is $13.7 million dollars, of which the city plans to levy for $8.4 million, that’s an increase of four-and-a-quarter-percent (4.25%) or roughly $342,000 higher than the current budget. In order for the city to be in compliance with the state’s budget restraint program, officials will have to find $175,000 to balance the numbers, either through revenue increases or expense decreases. No word yet on the proposed mill rate. The Administrative Committee will begin budget deliberations next Tuesday.

Operations Committee Reviews Five-Year Roads Plan

10/18/11 - The Beaver Dam Operations Committee is looking for $685,000 to complete select road projects next year. The committee reviewed its five-year plan for street maintenance last night. The Capital Improvements Program prioritizes streets based on conditions of the roadway and projected available funds. Citing the recession, the Administrative Committee provided no money to address crumbling streets last year. Residents along Lake Shore Drive were happy to avoid the assessments that came with the $1.1 million project. Lake Shore Drive is not in the five-year plan that was reviewed last night and because of commitments to pending state projects and limited financial resources, Operations Chair Laine Meyer says it could be over a decade before Lake Shore comes up again. In 2012, Beaver Dam is planning to reconstruct Prospect Avenue from Keller Boulevard to Eilbes Avenue in conjunction with a state Highway 151 project. In addition, two stretches of North Crystal Lake Road may see mill and overlay work along with the city-owned, downtown Center Plaza parking lot. Projects on the wish list for 2013 are tied to the state’s reconstruction of Highway 33, including portions of Front Street and 33 that are not part of the state’s plan. In 2014, the city wants to reconstruct portions of East Davis Street and West Burnett while doing mill and overlay work on parts of Henry Street, Prospect Avenue, Beaver Street and Front Street. The big project tentatively lined-up in 2015 would be a $670,000 reconstruction of Roosevelt Drive and Warren Street near the hospital. All the projects on the Operations Committee five-year plan are subject to funding by the Administrative Committee.

Home Sales Up, Prices Down

10/18/11 - Sales of existing homes in Wisconsin rose by 18% in September compared to the year before. But state Realtors said the median price of a home dropped by 1.5% percent, to $134,900. According to a numbers released yesterday, realtors sold about 4800 houses throughout the Badger State last month. There were 68 homes sold in Dodge County compared to 57 at the same time in 2010, that’s a nearly 20% increase. But sellers got 6.3% less for their home than they did a year ago as the median price dropped from $107,500 to $100,700. There were three more homes sold in Columbia County last month compared to 2010 and the value dropped by about $32,000 to $128,000. In Jefferson County, there was a 13% increase in homes sold, while the median price held steady at $157,000. Conversely, home sales in Washington County were up 1%, while the median price jumped nearly 10-percent to $184,000 last month compared to 2010. Fond du Lac County saw an 11% increase in homes sales and a 8.5% drop in home values. Officials said the jump was due to lower-than-normal sales a year ago, caused by the expiration of a huge federal tax credit for home-buyers earlier in 2010. Mike Theo, president of the Wisconsin Realtors Association, said too much stock should not be taken in a month’s worth of data. But he was happy to see a slower decline in home prices. New listings with Realtors are down 17-percent from a year ago, and the inventory of unsold homes remains high.

Plane Forced to Land on Street in Watertown

10/18/11 - Two pilots escaped injury after a blown engine caused a plane to make an emergency landing on a street near the airport in Watertown. Airport manager Jeff Baum said a pilot was getting advanced instruction in a single-engine Piper Arrow yesterday afternoon when the engine blew. And they were about to land when the windshield got covered with oil – and they couldn’t see. After landing on the street, the plane hit a car that was going in the same direction as the aircraft. The 63-year-old car driver was not hurt – but the vehicle received heavy damage. Police said the plane was taken back to the airport, and the F-A-A was contacted. Blum did not identify the pilots.

Supervisors to Discuss Budget, Concealed Carry Law

10/18/11 - The Dodge County Board of Supervisors will get its first look at the full 2012 budget at their meeting tonight. In August County Administrator Jim Mielke introduced a preliminary budget that would keep the tax levy the same as the 2011 budget, but due to a 2.2-percent decrease in county property values the mill rate would go up 12-cents to $5.52 per $1,000 of value. Mielke stressed at the time the number were only tentative and would likely change by the time they presented the budget tonight. The board is also expected to entertain a policy restricting citizens from carrying weapons into buildings owned by Dodge County. That’s in response to the concealed carry bill approved by the lawmakers earlier this year that goes into effect November 1st. The board meets at 7:30 at the Administration Building in Juneau.

Beaver Dam May Extend Building Inspector Contract

10/18/11 - The Beaver Dam Operations Committee last night signed off on a proposed, six-year contract extension with its current building inspector. The contract with Wisconsin Building Inspections calls for the company to keep all of the revenue generated from building permit fees up to $100,000. The city would get 10% of revenue generated between $100,000 and $200,000 and split everything 50-50 after that. Under the current contract, the city does not see any money until $200,000 in fees are collected. The average collected from building permit fees over the past five years is $210,000. The will continue to keep 100% of the money generated from code compliance citations. The matter will go before the full council next month.

Geese Feeding Prohibition Dies In Committee

10/18/11 - An ordinance to prohibit the feeding of geese in the city of Beaver Dam died for lack of a motion in committee last night. A caller to WBEV’s Community Comment last month told Mayor Tom Kennedy that feedings have attracted geese to residential areas and cause a nuisance. Kennedy brought an ordinance before the Operations Committee that was based word-for-word on an ordinance in Horicon. Chair Laine Meyer said he was not aware it was an issue and was reluctant to pass a ordinance to stop something that is not an apparent problem. Alderman Matt O’Brion pointed out that a lot of kids like to feed the ducks at Tahoe and Swan Parks and it could be tricky for the general public to distinguish between the two and make policing difficult.

BD Council Approves Contract With Veolia

10/18/11 - The Beaver Dam Common Council last night unanimously approved a five-year extension of its five-year garbage and recycling contract with Veolia Environmental. The contract calls for an increase of five cents per household per month, which translates to roughly $3300. The Operations Committee had previously rejected an offer that would have saved the city that $3300 but it would have cost one of the two curbside bulk pick-ups currently provided. The city is currently paying Veolia $677,000 a year with annual increases based on the Consumer Price Index but capped at three percent. Under the contract approved last night, that will stay in place, plus the city can freeze the CPI rate during any one year of the five-year contract.

Local School District State Aid Losses Finalized

10/18/11 - All but 13 of Wisconsin’s 424 public school districts are getting less state aid than a year ago. The state’s education agency released the final numbers late last week – and they’re about the same as the estimated totals released in July. Schools are averaging a 10-percent drop in state aid, although the figures vary widely. Most districts in our area will lose between 4.9% and 10.1% from last school year to the current one. The Beaver Dam School District will see about $1.05-million less while the school system in Watertown is looking at a $2.2-million reduction. Columbus is losing $603,000 and Mayville will see about $696,000 less. Waupun is down $1.2-million while Horicon will get $546,000 less. The Dodgeland School District will receive $368,000 less and Randolph is expecting a drop of $217,000. The governor and Legislature approved a total of four-and-a-quarter billion dollars in general school aid for the term that began in September. The total decline was eight-point-four percent.

Mitchard Moving To Massachusetts

10/18/11 - One of Wisconsin’s best-known writers is leaving for Massachusetts. Jacquelyn Mitchard has admitted being the victim of a Ponzi scheme. And she either had to sell her family’s home at Oregon in Dane County, where she’s lived for 35 years, or her writing retreat in Brewster Massachusetts. The house near Oregon sold quickly, while the Massachusetts home had no buyers. So Mitchard and her husband Chris Brent plan to move East in late November. The 56-year-old Mitchard wrote about Wisconsin life for years in a newspaper column in Madison and then Milwaukee. She has also written novels, including the best-seller “The Deep End of the Ocean.” Mitchard has said that she and Brent invested money with Trevor Cook of Minnesota’s suburban Twin Cities. Cook is now serving 25 years in prison for carrying out a 190-million-dollar Ponzi scheme with Brent, Mitchard, and at least a-thousand other victims. The Wisconsin State Journal said the couple was two years behind on its property taxes in Dane County, but the town overbilled the property – and the couple won an appeal. On Thursday night, Mitchard will speak at the Wisconsin Book Festival in Madison – and she’ll have a moving sale at her home on Friday.