Local News Briefs Saturday 1/30/16

Mt Calvary Man Waives Preliminary Hearing On Drunken Driving Homicide Charges

A 19-year-old Mount Calvary man this week waived him preliminary hearing on drunken driving homicide charges. Jacob Zielicke was also arraigned and pled not guilty to two felony charges. Charges stem from a traffic accident that occurred early the morning of last August 15th. According to the criminal complaint Zielicke was behind the wheel of a vehicle that struck a culvert at a high rate of speed on Lap Road in the area of Golf Course Drive. His passenger, 20-year-old Jake Treptow of Fond du Lac, died at the scene. 

Milwaukee Woman Arraigned On Dodge County Drug Charges

A 38-year-old Milwaukee woman who sold drugs to an informant in Dodge County was arraigned this week. Raechelle Johnson pled not guilty to three felony drug possession charges. She allegedly tried to sell heroin, cocaine, and pills to an informant outside a McDonald’s restaurant in Lomira. She will be back in court on February 29.

Snowmobilers Encounter Open Water On Beaver Dam Lake

No one was hurt when three snowmobilers came across some open water on Beaver Dam Lake late Thursday night. Dodge County Sheriff’s officials say two of the three sleds made it across the open water, but the third became submerged in about 4 to 5 feet of water. The operator of the machine was able to wade back to shore. Two men were arrested for operating their snowmobiles while intoxicated. Both are from Dodge County.

Legislation Would Correct Magic Words Problem

State Representative Jeremy Thiesfeldt says a Fond du Lac County judge brought his attention to a problem with what they call magic words they have to utter during certain cases. He says Judge Peter Grimm made him aware of the problem that sometimes trips up judges. He says if they don’t use the correct phrasing a defendant could ask for a new trial, which eats up public financing. Thiesfeldt says the judge told him joking that the statutes causing the problems date back to the time of Andy Griffith. He says the legislation would correct the problem.

Acuity Grants

Fond du Lac Schools Superintendent Jim Sebert says the Acuity Funds Grant program gives them an opportunity to fund educational programs you wouldn’t normally see in a classroom. The interest from the $500,000 Acuity paid for the High School Fieldhouse naming rights funds the grants. He says during a school board meeting next month the board will meet some of those whose grant applications were funded during the past year. He says this year a little over $24,000 will be available. He says applications for the grants will be due by March 1st and the school board will start selecting winners in May.

NFDL Click Fix

The Village of North Fond du Lac may have to continue to offer the See Click Fix program on their website through this year. Village Administrator Chuck Hornung says they decided to discontinue the service that allows residents to generate work order applications for problems that need fixing in the village. He says it wasn’t getting used a lot, but they found out from the company they couldn’t end the contract until the end of 2016. He says the board needs to decide whether they should use or let it sit on a shelf. He says he hopes to have a talk with company officials to see if there are other alternatives.

Ripon Churches Now Included In Recycling Collection

The Ripon Common Council recently decided to include the 14 churches in the city in their recyclable collection at no cost. Village Administrator Lori Rich says the churches weren’t covered for collection in their city ordinance, an oversight they discovered when they started looking at changing to single stream recycling. She says the churches were having bins of recyclables picked up, but needed to be included in the ordinance to get the containers for the single stream recycling.