Top Stories, January 18th

LSD Designs Being Finalized

1/18/11 - The Beaver Dam Operations Committee last night decided to finish what they started in designing the reconstruction of Lake Shore Drive. Funding for the actual construction of the project was rejected last week by the Administrative Committee because the city had already accumulated too much debt from the new police station. Mike Laue with MSA Professional services told the Operations Committee that two, committee-approved design plans were about 85% completed. The city could have saved about $4000 of the $35,000 price tag by scrapping the designs. Chair Laine Mayer says it would be foolish to throw $30,000 away and not get a finished product. The designs can still be used when the project is revived. The completed designs will also help Lake Shore property owners determine their property line and distinguish their property from the right-of-way when it comes time for spring planting. It also sets basic standards for street elevations if they are thinking about adding or repairing driveways or making other front yard improvements.

Funding Delayed For Pumper Truck Purchase

1/18/11 - Now that funding has been eliminated for most all of the capital projects that had been in the works for 2011, Beaver Dam city officials are under no pressure to approve the five-year Capital Improvements Plan. There were a handful of projects that were given the green light last week by the Administrative Committee – that’s the committee that holds the purse strings. Small-ticket items like design-work for a state-funded reconstruction project and renovations in City Hall after the police department moves to its new facility will be paid for with unspent money remaining in the Capital Improvements Fund. The only question that remained was weather or not to borrow over a half million dollars to replace the fire departments decades-old pumper truck. Administrative Committee Chair Don Neuert says because the process of purchasing a new pumper truck could take several months, they want to work it in such a way that the process gets started but there is no actual borrowing until next year. The CIP would normally be approved in January but because there are no road reconstruction projects lined up this spring, Neuert says it doesn’t matter if the five-year plan is approved this month or in the summer. The Operations Committee will be reviewing the five-year CIP at their meeting on Monday.

Council Approves Union, Non-Union Employee Contracts

1/18/11 - Beaver Dam city employees who are not affiliated with a union will be getting the same raises as their represented counterparts. The Beaver Dam Common Council last night approved a three-year contract with AFSCME, the union that covers a majority of city workers. They also approved the same wage rates for non-represented employees. Under the contract, city employees will see a three percent wage increase retroactive to 2010. There will be no increase for this year and a one-percent increase in January of next year, followed by another one-percent increase six months later. The common council rejected tentative agreement last July and mediation was requested. This new contract will cost the city a little more in wages but concessions were made in employee’s share of health insurance premiums. Most city employees are contributing ten percent for insurance. This contract establishes a sliding scale in 2012 that would require a greater contribution depending on increases in insurance premiums. AFSCME covers nearly every city employee except police and fire personnel and record keepers. The union has already ratified the contact.

First Woman Elected To Assemply Passes Away

1/18/11 - The first woman ever elected to the Wisconsin Assembly will be laid to rest on Wednesday. Ester Doughty Luckhardt of Horicon passed away on Friday at the age of 97. Luckhardt was a Republican representative in the Assembly and was first elected in 1962. She held the post for 22 years and also held the record as the longest serving woman in the Assembly at the time she retired in 1984. Luckhardt graduated from Horicon High School and owned and operated an insurance and real estate business in the city for 22 years. She was one of the first women to serve on a Board of Directors of a publically traded insurance company. Luckhardt was on the board of the Capitol Transamerica Corporation for 32 years before retiring in 1993. When the State Legislature in the 1950s decreed that every county should have a Park Commission, Luckhardt was appointed to the Dodge County Park Commission where she served as secretary for many years. The Commission's first official act was to purchase the Horicon Ledge and declare it Dodge County's first county Park. In December of 1987, Governor Tommy Thompson appointed Luckhardt to the University Of Wisconsin Board Of Regents. In 1995 he also appointed her to the National Committee on Aging held in Washington, D.C. Funeral services will be held Wednesday under the direction of the Murray Funeral Home in Horicon.

Fire Damages Lake Crest Apartment Unit

1/18/11 - Fire damaged a unit inside Beaver Dam’s Lake Crest Apartments Sunday night. Fire Chief Alan Mannel says the kitchen fire started around 10:30pm inside unit #112 on the ground floor at 110 Lake Crest. Mannel says the flames were going pretty good at one point and a neighbor doused most of the flames with a fire extinguisher just before crews arrived on scene. The fire was contained to the kitchen portion of the unit, which is not currently livable. The single occupant renting that apartment was displaced. Four of the apartment’s upstairs required ventilation because of heavy smoke. There were no injuries. There were a lot of residents outside in the pajamas and officials were just about to start lining-up overnight accommodations when they got the “all-clear” to return just before midnight. Damage estimates are around $10,000. Mannel says they were only a few minutes away from having something really bad.

Kratz Seeks To Dismiss Lawsuit

1/18/11 - Former Calumet County prosecutor Ken Kratz has asked a federal judge to throw out a sexual harassment suit from a woman to whom he gave suggestive text messages. Stephanie Van Groll filed the federal lawsuit last October, saying Kratz violated her constitutional rights. The D-A was prosecuting her boyfriend for domestic violence when he gave her over 30 text messages. Kratz admitted sending them after they were made public. He later resigned after other women came forward with similar complaints, and former Governor Jim Doyle’s office had scheduled a hearing on his possible removal as D-A. But Kratz contends he’s immune from Van Groll’s lawsuit, because he was a public official at the time of the text messages. In his response, attorney Rob Bellin wrote that her damages were caused quote, “by her own conduct, negligence, and behavior – or through the conduct of third parties” through no fault of Kratz. Among other things, Van Groll’s complaint said Kratz should have been trained to know that domestic violence victims could be harmed by unwelcome sexual advances. She’s asking for unspecified damages.

Existing Home Sales Down

1/18/11 - Sales of existing homes went down by seven-and-a-half percent in Wisconsin last year. That’s according to the state’s Realtors Association, which reported almost 51-thousand sales of existing homes statewide in 2010. That’s down from just over 55-thousand the previous year. The median sale price fell one-point-one percent, to 141-thousand-dollars. Realtors’ board chairman John Horning said 56-percent of last year’s home sales occurred from January through June, when buyers could take advantage of a federal stimulus tax credit. Without the incentive, home sales fell sharply in July – and Horning said they stayed at a depressed level for the rest of the year. Northern Wisconsin had a four-point-six percent increase in home sales in 2010, but there were declines in every other region of the Badger State. The north also had higher sales prices of just under four-percent. Median prices in central Wisconsin fell by four-point-three percent – and they dropped by two-and-a-half percent or less everywhere else in Wisconsin. Horning says the state’s unemployment rate will decide how home sales go in 2011. Over 41-thousand jobs were created statewide from January through November, and Horning says the momentum needs to continue for the state’s housing market to fully recover.

Columbus Council Considering Creek Improvements

1/18/11 - The Columbus Council will be asked to approve a task order tonight that could start flowage improvements planned for residents living along Second Ward Creek. Residents living along the creek have been subject to high water threats to their property for over a decade. Task order approval tonight could begin dredging improvements to creek flowage in back yards, through a golf course and through parks and athletic areas along the Second Ward Creek system.