News August 31, 2011

DCSO K9 Unit Tracking More Than Drugs

8/31/11 – The Dodge County Sheriffs Departments new K9 unit is trained to sniff out more than drugs. Sheriff Todd Nehls told us on WBEV’s Community Comment that the department’s new canines, Ziva and Paige, have been trained to detect three types of the most common drugs: marijuana, cocaine and heroin. The young black Labradors have also been trained to find missing children or adults. It’s the first time the sheriffs department has been able to have a canine tracking resource in-house. Paige is a 9-month-old black lab from River Velvet Retrievers in Horicon. Ziva is a 16-month-old black lab that was discovered at the Dodge County Humane Society…surrendered by owners forced to move from their home to an apartment that doesn’t allow pets. Master trainers call them a perfect fit. There have been some donations from the public for bullet-proof dog vests and veterinary services, but Nehls says the bulk of their $18,000 K9 program is being funded through excess money from his 2010 budget. The Sheriffs Department is holding a golf fundraiser for the new K9 program. The First Annual K9 Scramble will be held on Monday, September 19 at Rock River Hills Gold Course in Horicon. More information can be found at www.dodgecountysheriff.com and click on the link for the K9 Golf Scramble, or by stopping by the Sheriff’s Department. If you’re interested in becoming a hole sponsor or to make a donation, call Capt. Molly Soblewski at 920-386-3836 or Detective Kevin Day at 920-386-3963

Columbus City Attorney Interviews Continue

8/31/11 – Candidate interviews were held again last night in Columbus in a search for a City Attorney. Prior to April the City Attorney was elected. Starting in 2012 the position will be under contract to the city. Current City Attorney Randy Lueders is on the list of finalist candidates. Lueders has been the City Attorney for 22 years. One final set of interviews is scheduled for next week and the Council’s approval of the next City Attorney is expected on September 6.

PAVE Receives Crime Victims Grant

8/31/11 – A local domestic violence shelter is among the agencies splitting nearly $8 million dollars in grant funding to provide services to innocent victims of crime in Wisconsin. People Against Violent Environments, or PAVE, has been tabbed to receive almost $60,000 as part of the Victims of Crime Act. PAVE Executive Director Jamie Kratz-Gullickson says the VOCA grant will help them continue to fund their legal advocacy program and their volunteer coordinator position. She says it hasn’t been easy lately as the need for domestic abuse services has skyrocketed since the recession and they’ve already provided as many “nights of service” so far this year as in all of 2010. The Victims of Crime Act was enacted in 1984 and the annual grant is awarded to the Wisconsin Department of Justice — Office of Crime Victim Services and then distributed to local government and non-profit agencies. VOCA funding comes from revenue generated by various federal criminal fines, forfeitures, assessments and penalties. No taxpayer money is used.

Gassen Street Dedication Wednesday Afternoon

8/30/11 – School Street in Beaver Dam will be renamed during a ceremony Wednesday afternoon to honor a soldier from Beaver Dam who was killed last year while fighting in Afghanistan. The common council this month approved the renaming of the street between Prospect Avenue and Gould Street as Jacob Gassen’s Way. The public is invited to the ceremony, which will be held at 3pm on Jacob Gassen’s Way, which is across from Moraine Park Technical College and adjacent to the Family Center.

Governors Association 2013 Meeting In Milwaukee

8/30/11 – The nation’s governors have chosen Wisconsin for their largest annual meeting two years from now. Governor Scott Walker said Tuesday that the National Governors’ Association

will meet August second-through-fourth of 2013 at the Frontier Airlines Center in downtown Milwaukee. Walker said he was looking forward to hosting state government executives from around the country. He says they’ll focus on ideas to improve state governments, as well as the federal government’s partnership with the states. The group Visit Milwaukee says the convention will attract about 12-hundred people, who will stay for a total of 18-hundred nights in hotel rooms. That’s small, compared to the 12-thousand-500 room nights for the annual sales conference put on by Milwaukee’s Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance. But the annual governors’ meeting normally attracts national publicity. When this year’s meeting was held in Salt Lake City, the Washington Post was among the media interested in talking with Walker about his successful effort to limit collective bargaining by most public employee unions – as well as the state Senate recall elections which resulted from that measure. Next year’s governors’ conference will be held in Williamsburg Virginia.

Child Care In Wisconsin Costs More Than College

8/31/11 – Sending your child to daycare is very expensive in Wisconsin. A new report from the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies ranks this state fourth in the nation in the cost of daycare. Parents will spend about nine thousand dollars a year to put a four year old child in a quality daycare operation. That means it costs more to put a young child in daycare than it does to send an older child to the University of Wisconsin. One daycare operator says state licensing regulations and the high expectations of parents to provide quality care could be driving those costs.

Costs for Recall in Fond du Lac County

8/31/11 – The costs for the recall elections for the 14th and 18th State Senate Districts came to nearly $127,500 for Fond du Lac County. County Clerk Lisa Freiberg says that includes over $37,000 in programming costs, which the County did itself but other counties have professional firms perform. Even without those costs included the price tag for the primaries and general elections for the recalls came to nearly $90,000. That included over $52,000 in wages and Freiberg says didn’t include the time her staff spent on the elections in that figure. She says in a typical election year the County would budget about $50,000. Next year $138,000 is being budgeted because of the presidential elections and a number of others. (KFIZ, Fond du Lac)

Swing Set Recall

8/31/11 – A Madison company is recalling about 55-hundred swing sets. Pacific Cycle says the Play-Safe Dartmouth Swing Set has seats that can premature crack or split, and cause riders to fall. Pacific Cycle said it received five reports of seats breaking – and it caused a few minor scrapes and bruises. The swing sets were sold only at Toys-R-Us stores throughout the country from January through May. They were manufactured in China. Officials said the sets have six metal legs with two swings, a two-person glider, rings, and a lawn swing. More information is available by finding Pacific Cycle online, or by calling the following phone number from 8-to-5 weekdays – 1-877-564-2261.

FMUB Celebrates 150 Years

8/31/11 – Farmers and Merchants Union Bank will celebrate 150 years of service tomorrow with a number of events at their downtown Columbus office. Bank spokesperson Lorraine Kasmiski says there will be a Civil War encampment, free coin appraisals, a brat fry, local vendors including Sassy Cow Creamery and Rhodes Bake ‘N Serve, and Columbus Community Hospital will be doing free blood pressure readings and CPR training. Events get underway at 10-am tomorrow.

Marais Players Wrapping Up Fall Show Auditions

8/31/11 – The theater group in Mayville is holding the second and final night of auditions for their fall production tonight. The Marais Players will be presenting Neil Simon’s “Plaza Suite” in early November. The three-act play features a variety of different characters in each act even though it’s set in the same New York hotel suite. Rehearsal times will be discussed during the auditions. Auditions will be held tonight from 6pm to 8pm at Mayville’s Audubon Inn on Main Street.