2/5/13 – The Beaver Dam Administrative Committee Monday night signed-off on the newest version of the city’s five-year Capital Improvements Plan. The CIP, as it’s called, lays out infrastructure improvement needs and major equipment purchases over the next five years while outlining a borrowing plan for the current year. Council President Jon Litscher says he is “very supportive” of the document that was advanced to the Administrative Committee last night after approval by the Operations Committee last month. The CIP includes $400,000 that is earmarked for fire department equipment needs. The rest is for public works projects including the reconstruction of Madison Street and Front Street from the Madison Street Bridge to Center Street; the repaving of Henry Street from South Spring Street to South University Avenue; and the repair of city-owned railroad tracks in the business park. Last year, Litscher championed a policy change that limited CIP borrowing to $1.6 million each year through 2014. However, unforeseen expenses related to the state’s reconstruction of Highway 33 may cause the city to exceed their self-imposed borrowing limit by around $44,000. A century-old building at the corner of Front and Center has delayed the project until at least next year and the city will have to pay the $300-thousand dollars to have it demolished. Beaver Dam will eventually be reimbursed from the state for all but around $5000 of the demolition costs. Litscher says that does not diminish the efforts taken to control debt any more than borrowing in advance of receiving federal stimulus dollars. The CIP now heads to the full council for approval.
2/5/13 – The Beaver Dam Operations Committee Monday night approved a $5000 contract change with engineering firm MSA Professional Services related to the state’s reconstruction of Highway 33. City Engineering Coordinator Ritchie Piltz says MSA has to hire contractors to assess the status of Ming’s Chinese Restaurant — the structure next door to the corner building targeted for demolition – to make sure it could stay open during the razing. If relocation is required, Piltz says the planned 2014 reconstruction of the Front Street portion of Highway 33 could be delayed. The city would also have to pay relocation costs for the six to 14 people living in the apartments above Ming’s. If all goes according to plan, demolition would take place after Memorial Day and take approximately three weeks.
2/5/13 – Union workers in the city of Beaver Dam will be getting the same two-percent pay increase that workers not covered by a union received as part of the budget process. The Common Council last night unanimously approved a one-year contract with AFSCME, the American Federal of State County and Municipal Employees Local 157. The contract covers employees in the Parks and Rec Department, DPW, Wastewater Treatment, City Hall, Engineering and the library. It does not cover police and fire personnel who are currently in negotiations with the city for a contract dating back to 2010.
2/5/13 – The brother of a woman who was brutally murdered in Manitowoc County says he is certain that the homicide convictions of her two killers will never be overturned. Mike Halbach says appeals will continue for the foreseeable future – but he believes the outcomes will be similar to the previous appeals made by Steven Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey. Last week, a state appeals court rejected a new trial for the 23-year-old Dassey, for the Halloween 2005 burning, raping, and shooting of Teresa Halbach at the Avery family’s auto salvage yard. It’s one of Wisconsin’s most notorious crimes, because it happened two-and-a-half years after Avery was freed from prison where he served 18 years of a rape he didn’t commit. And Avery was among the first in the nation to be acquitted by D-N-A evidence – only to be convicted later by D-N-A. Dassey’s attorneys say they’ll ask the State Supreme Court to overturn his conviction. A similar appeal by Avery was rejected last year by an appellate court. The 25-year-old Halbach was at the salvage yard to photograph vehicles for Auto Trader magazine. The 50-year-old Avery is serving a life prison term. Dassey is also sentenced for life, but he’s eligible for a supervised release in about 35 years.
2/5/13 – A Beaver Dam woman will spend three months behind bars for defrauding the federal government. Sara Livingston was sentenced on Friday after previously pleading guilty to charges of Theft of Government Funds and Making False Statements to the Social Security Administration. In February of 2008, Livingston applied for and received Social Security Disability benefits. Federal prosecutors say the 42-year-old failed to inform the agency that she was employed by a Beaver Dam chiropractic clinic and earning income above the allowable limits to collect disability. In addition, Livingston started a home childcare business in September of 2008 earning what prosecutors called a substantial income while still collecting disability benefits. The Inspector General’s Office for the Social Security Administration began their investigation in September of 2011 after receiving an anonymous tip. In addition to three months incarceration, Livingston was ordered to pay over $67-thousand dollars in restitution. As a side note, in 2010, Livingston was sentenced to a year in jail for embezzling thousands of dollars from that chiropractic business.
