Top Stories, March 5th

Labor Dept Sues Westra

3/5/10 - The US Labor Department is seeking compensation from a defunct Waupun-based construction company for draining money from an employee retirement stock plan. Westra Construction ceased operations in July of 2005 after the company ran out of money. Brad Mitchell with the Labor Department says the company set up an Employee Stock Ownership Plan in 2003, which was intended to provide workers with retirement benefits. Mitchell says money was diverted from the retirement plan to subsidize corporate activities. The Labor Department is asking the court to order Westra to restore the estimated $4 million owed to former employees. A hearing will be set at a later date in federal district court in Milwaukee.

Conley Named To Federal Judgeship

3/5/10 - The US Senate has confirmed President Obama’s nomination of Madison attorney William Conley to a federal judge vacancy for the western half of Wisconsin, which includes Columbia and Jefferson Counties. The vote was 99-0. Conley will replace Barbara Crabb, who retired after three decades on the bench. Senators Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold nominated Conley in August. The 54-year-old attorney was a partner for Foley-and-Lardner in Madison, specializing in anti-trust and regulatory law. Among other things, he’s been a legal clerk in the U-S Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago. Conley was also nominated for the Madison judgeship vacated by the retiring John Shabaz. But Obama wound up appointing former State Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler to that post.

Phase II Projects Moving Forward

3/5/10 - The second phase of downtown Beaver Dam revitalization projects is moving forward. Mike Laue with MSA Professional Services detailed plans this week for a new pedestrian bridge in the Tower Parking lot, railings for the South Center Street Bridge and a flood-proofing project for buildings on the 200 block of Front Street. The city commissioned MSA to conduct a study on how the removal of 10 downtown buildings has affected floodplain elevations. Laue says plans are to construct a flood wall on both sides of the Beaver Dam River downstream from the dam. If approved by FEMA, the flood walls would help in removing the restrictive “flood fringe” designation on the remaining buildings on the 200 block of Front.

Didion Ethanol Expanding

3/5/10 - The Didion ethanol plant near Cambria is expanding. Following unanimous approval by the Columbia County Board’s planning and zoning committee this week the company is moving forward with an 11-million-dollar expansion of its facility. Officials with Didion say the expansion includes a new product line, additional fermentation tanks and storage for corn that has already been through the fermentation process. They say the projects will also allow them to be more energy efficient. Didion says the expansion will allow for ten new permanent job plus an additional 75 jobs for the construction phase. About 5.5-million-dollars of stimulus money will help fund the project which could begin this summer and take about a year to complete.

Nass No Show At Wood Hearing

3/5/10 - The lawmaker who proposed the expulsion of state Representative Jeff Wood said he did not attend a hearing by a special panel this week because he wasn’t asked. Whitewater Republican Steve Nass said he will testify at the panel’s next meeting, a date for which has not been set. His absence yesterday was criticized by some of the six members of the ethics panel that’s supposed to recommend a possible punishment for Wood’s three O-W-I arrests. Panel chairwoman Mary Hubler says she won’t call for a decision until Nass allows the Chippewa Falls independent and his lawyer to cross-examine him. Nass said he didn’t attend yesterday because it would have let Wood make the hearing quote, “a three-ring circus.” Wood testified that he was guilty of drunk driving in Columbia County in December of 2008 – but he denied driving under excess medicines in Marathon and Monroe counties in 2009. His lawyer, John Hyland, said lawmakers can only be removed for violating legislative rules or disrupting debates – and they cannot be expelled for conduct that’s not related to their state duties. Nass has accused the ethics panel of stalling, so Wood can vote with majority Democrats on a number of pending issues. And if they keep delaying the matter, Nass says he’ll try to go over their heads and have the full Assembly vote on an expulsion. The Assembly has until the end of the session next month to act. Wood, a former Republican, is not running for re-election after eight years in office. But he refuses to resign now.