Friday, December 17, 2010

Top Stories, December 17th

Christmas Radio Play Tonight

12/17/10 - Good Karma Broadcasting is once again teaming up with the Beaver Dam Area Community Theater to present the ninth annual “Christmas Radio Play.” The show, presented as an-olde thyme radio broadcast, features two different stories this year. Director Heidi Freeby says the “Best Christmas Pageant Ever” is a funny and heartwarming story about a family of troublemakers that crash the audition for a holiday play. The other show is the beloved Christmas classic “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer.” You can watch the radio broadcast live from the community theater; tickets are $6 and can be purchased at Rechek’s Food Pride or at the door. Festivities begin at the theater at 6:30pm and the broadcast on 1430AM begins at 7pm. The show will be re-broadcast on WXRO 95.3FM on Sunday morning at 10am.

Bunny Berigan Goes Digital

12/17/10 - Bunny Berigan has gone digital. The Fox Lake-native who revolutionized jazz trumpeting and introduced swing music to the mainstream has had a collection of documents, news clippings and pictures preserved online. Julie Flemming with the Friends of the Fox Lake Public Library says they received a Library Services and Technology Act grant which allowed them to digitize 1000 pages of documents and around 200 pictures. The grant required extensive cataloguing of a huge collection of Berrigan memorabilia from the Harriet O’Connell Historical Room. Flemming says they unearthed a complete genealogy of the Berrigan family; birth, marriage and death certificates; newspaper clipping from Milwaukee and Madison, Beaver Dam and Fox Lake; childhood stories from Berigan’s brother; and even the program from the Odd Fellows Hall where Berrigan sang his first solo at the age of eight. The collection can be found on the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections website at http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/WI.BunnyBerigan

Columbus Looks At Flooding Issue

12/17/10 - Columbus residents living along Second Ward Creek heard results of a four month engineering study this week. The Creek has been noted for overflowing problems ever since flood events have been recorded. Study results will be submitted to the DNR along with a list of action recommendations for alleviating flooding threats. Recommendations include clean up along the whole length of the Creek and its’ tributary. Second Ward Creek runs through the southeastern third of the City.

Woman Accused of Smuggling Drugs Into WCI

12/17/10 - A Waukesha woman is accused of trying to smuggle drugs into the Waupun Correctional Institution. Harriet Hoffer was bound over for trial yesterday in Dodge County court on a felony charge of Delivering Illegal Articles to an Inmate. The 47-year-old was reportedly acting nervous and corrections officers say she was constantly looking at the cameras. Hoffer was then allegedly observed in the vending area putting something inside a potato chip bag. According to the criminal complaint, there were seven balloons, each with ten pills of methadone inside. The inmate is Hoffer’s nephew, who is serving a life prison sentence for murder. He is said to have ingested all seven balloons. When questioned, Hoffer told investigators that her nephew was suicidal, suffering from emotional pain and would have hurt someone without the pills. If convicted, she faces up to three-and-a-half years in prison. Hoffer will be back in court for an arraignment hearing later this month.

Names Released In Fatal Pile-Up

12/17/10 - The names of those killed and injured when a semi-truck plowed into vehicles that were stopped in traffic have been released. It happened about 10 a-m on the Highway 41 expressway near Allenton in Washington County. According to authorities, the semi-truck was going south when it crested a small hill, and then hit two S-U-V’s and a van. It caused the first S-U-V to strike a mini-van. Those vehicles had been stopped because of another chain-reaction crash that happened earlier. No one was hurt in that mishap. Killed in the second pile-up was 57-year-old Ronald Brien of Fond du Lac, who was driving the first vehicle, and 58-year-old John Will of Fond du Lac, who was a passenger in the second S-U-V that was hit. The semi driver, 62-year-old Robert White of Malone, was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries. 30-year-old Shanna Will of Fond du Lac and 39-year-old Cathleen Merget of Richfield were seriously hurt, and a third woman, 52-year-old Annette Bath of Mayville suffered minor injuries. The truck was hauling ammonium hydroxide, but none of it spilled. Highway 41 was closed for the rest of the day, as the crashes caused back-ups of up to five miles.

Jessica Doyle Visits Columbus Middle School

12/17/10 - Wisconsin’s First Lady surprised Columbus Middle School-ers this week by dropping in to award the Grand Prize for the on-line geography game “Where in Wisconsin is Jessica Doyle?” The Grand Prize winner was fifth grader Savanna Parsons who goes onto the website regularly to play the game identifying Wisconsin cities. Parsons received a bag of prizes including an overnight stay at a Hotel & Waterpark. Teacher Kim Olander was also presented with a certificate and the First Lady’s thanks for her efforts in teaching kids about the state they live in.

Property Assessments Begin Monday in BD

12/17/10 - Property assessments in Beaver Dam begin next Monday. Accurate Appraisal has been retained by the city to revalue taxable property for 2011. As part of the regular inspection cycle, all non-manufacturing parcels are inspected every four years. City officials say in order to accomplish the inspections in a timely manner, it is important to give representatives with Accurate Appraisal ample opportunity to make a thorough inspection of your property. The assessment work is expected to take between two and three weeks to complete.

Residents Advised To Clear Snow From Hydrants

12/17/10 - The Beaver Dam Fire Department is asking the public to clear snow from any fire hydrants on their property. Deputy Fire Chief Matt Christian says it’s not a bad idea to clear snow from fire hydrants on adjacent properties either, because any build-up can slow efforts to fight a fire. Officials with the Beaver Dam Department of Public Works say it is the responsibility of property owners to remove the snow. The department does clear as many hydrants as possible, but they say with all the snow we’ve had so far this season it takes a while to get to them, and having them snow covered could be a tragedy in the making.

Holiday Travel Projected To Increase

12/17/10 - At least one-third of Wisconsinites expect to hit the road during the holidays. A survey by the Triple-“A” shows that one-point-eight million people in Wisconsin will travel 50-miles-or-more from home for Christmas and-or New Year’s. That’s three-point-one-percent more than a year ago, same as what the auto club projects nationally. And Wisconsin’s Triple-“A” president, Tom Frymark, says the figure could be even higher here – because the survey was taken before people started making plans to see the Badgers at the Rose Bowl. Madison’s airport says over two dozen charter flights plan to head to Pasadena for the New Year’s Day event – and about five-thousand people will be on those planes. Nationally, the Triple-“A” says 92-million Americans will travel this season. And their average distance will just over a-thousand miles, about 33-percent longer than a year ago. The survey says the average holiday traveler will spend almost 700-dollars, up from 670 last year.

Tavern Air Quality Improved Since Ban

12/17/10 - The air quality in Wisconsin’s taverns and restaurants improved by 92-percent after the statewide public indoor smoking ban took effect July fifth. That’s according to a study performed by the U-W Madison cancer center. It analyzed air data from 214 bars and restaurants in 41 counties both before and after the smoking ban. Among other things, it found that average levels of small particles fell from 160 micro-grams per cubic meter to a satisfactory level of 13. Before the ban, the state D-N-R said one of every five establishments had hazardous air quality. But after the ban, 97-percent of places had good-or-satisfactory air quality.

Woman Injured In Chester Wreck

12/17/10 - A woman was taken to the hospital after the car she was driving was struck by another in the town of Chester on Wednesday. It happened on County Highway M near Milligan road just before 3pm. The Dodge County Sheriff’s Department says a vehicle driven by a 21-year-old Brandon man was southbound when he hit some slush and lost control going around a curve. His vehicle drifted into the opposite lane and hit a car driven by a 58-year-old woman. She was taken to Waupun hospital with unspecified injuries. Traffic had to be detoured while the scene was cleaned up.

Injury Reported in BD Collision

12/17/10 - One person was transported from the scene of a two vehicle accident in the city of Beaver Dam Tuesday afternoon. It happened at 1:15pm on Gateway Drive just west of Frances Lane. The injured party was a passenger in one of the cars and was transported to Beaver Dam Community Hospital with minor injuries.

Fox Lake Updated in PD Hiring

12/17/10 - The Fox Lake City Council this week got an update on the hiring process for a new, full-time police officer. Chief Jim Rohr said earlier this fall that more than 100 applications came in for the position, which they’ve narrowed down to 16. Interviews with Rohr and the council will be held in the coming weeks before a hiring recommendation is made to the full council. Also at this weeks meeting, Mayor Tom Bednarek reminded those in attendance that an ad-hoc committee will be presenting a plan to the Waupun School Board next Monday to reopen Fox Lake Elementary as a charter school, and urged residents to go to that meeting and show their support.


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