Local News Briefs Thursday 3/6/14

A 64-year-old Chilton man suspected of selling illegal prescription drugs was arrested Wednesday. Calumet County Sheriff’s officials say a search warrant was executed at the residence of Gilbert “Bucky” Bowe. Prescription narcotic trafficking, maintaining a drug house, and illegal possession of a short barreled shotgun charges are being referred against him. The arrest culminates a several month long investigation. In addition to the Sheriff’s Department, Chilton Police and Lake Winnebago Area MEG Unit agents were involved in the execution of the warrant.

Juneau Man Sentenced For OWI And Theft

A 24-year-old Juneau man has been sentenced to eight months in jail for driving drunk and stealing thousands of dollars worth of jewelry and electronics when he crashed a party. Arturo Rodriguez was recently sentenced in Dodge County Court after pleading to his second OWI and a misdemeanor theft charge. Authorities say the thefts occurred during Christmas party in Horicon last December. He was asked to leave but took electronics and a safe containing jewelry before he left. He was pulled over a short time later and arrested for driving drunk.

LeMahieu Named Assembly Vice-Chair For JFC

Assembly speaker Robin Vos has named State Representative Dan LeMahieu of Cascade to serve as Assembly Vice-Chair of the Joint Finance Committee. Vos says he’s confident LeMahieu will do a fine job on the committee. LeMahieu has been a member of the JFC for two sessions and is the current co-chair of Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules. He has served in the State Assembly for 12 years.

Senator Johnson Expecting Lawsuit Over Obamacare To Be Long Battle

U.S. Senator Ron Johnson says his lawsuit against the federal Office of Personnel Management over the special treatment of members of Congress and staff under Obamacare will be a long battle. The federal lawmaker from Oshkosh says he recently heard the Obama Administration will take it’s time in its reply. He says if his suit is successful it would allow some of his Democratic colleagues to experience first hand the health care provided under the Affordable Care Act. Meanwhile he says he’s authored legislation to mitigate some of the damage created by Obamacare. Johnson campaigned for the Senate saying he would work to repeal Obamacare. 

DOT Asks Counties To Reduce Road Salt On State Roads

(Wisconsin Radio Network)-The state D-O-T has asked counties to reduce the amount of salt used on most state roads.  Todd Matheson with the state Department of Transportation says the agency closely monitors the amount of salt available for use on state highways and there’s now some 135,000 tons on hand. The D-O-T is asking county highway departments to reduce salt application rates on non-Interstate routes. He says they’ve lowered the maximum application rates on non-Interstate routes and temperatures will be warming up. Will drivers notice? Dan Fedderly is Executive Director of the Wisconsin County Highways Association. He says if application rates are lowered the public may see more snow on the road at periods of time than they are used to. As for county salt supplies, Fedderly says there’s more concern among the higher volume urban counties, but he notes counties use salt conservation measures throughout the winter.

Warning Against Energy And Phone Scams

Fond du Lac Police Officer Steve Olson is warning residents about a couple of scams they are seeing. One of the newest is a utility scam that is sent via email or the mail. He says it’s going to be from Energy Billing Service or Energy Billing System and if it’s the email it’s going to have a link. He says not to click on the link in the email. He says it’s going to say you owe money and need to pay it, he says it’s a scam and you shouldn’t pay it. He says another scam involves cell phones. He says it will show up as a call with a 3-digit prefix that looks like it’s from the U.S., but originates from the Caribbean. He says your phone will ring once and hang up. He says don’t call the number back or you activate the scam. He says if you do you are put on hold and charged $20 a minute.

Silica For Your Home Pay It Forward Promotion Benefits Nonprofits

Silica For Your Home has organized its annual Pay It Forward event to benefit nonprofit organizations. “Giving back to our community has always been important to our company” said Silica President Tom Schneider.  “Offering our customers the Pay It Forward Event allows us to offer discounts to our customers and gives them the opportunity to pick a non-profit that we can donate to after their sale is complete”.  During the event, Silica will offer the customer 5% off their sale price and will donate an additional 5% of the customers purchase price to a local non-profit organization of the customer’s choice.  Previous years have deemed the event very successful and have resulted in thousands of dollars being distributed to these groups as a donation from Silica. The Pay It Forward Event is being held at all Silica locations in Fond du Lac, Watertown and Beaver Dam thru Monday March 17. 

Open House For Agnesian Bereavement And Grief Relief Center

Agnesian HealthCare will be holding an open house for its new Bereavement and Grief Relief Center in Fond du Lac today. Bereavement Coordinator Sister Joyann Repp says staff and volunteers will be available from 4 to 7 p.m. to answer anyone’s questions. The center is located at 1161 W. Johnson Street. She says all of their bereavement and grief relief programs are all now conveniently located under one roof. She says the center helps both adults and youth cope with grief. She says although people visiting the center during the open house may not need their services now they could in the future.

Business Industry Education Day

The Fond du Lac Area Association of Commerce will hold its annual Business, Industry and Education Day next Tuesday at Marian University’s Stayer Center. Jim Cleveland of the association says it will run from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. It will feature two national speakers. One of those speakers is Kim Green, Executive Director of the National Association of State Directors for Career and Technical Education.The other speaker is Patrick McGaughey, the Principal at ActivatingPeople.com. whose talk is entitled Education-The Foundation of Economic Success. The business education partnership success of Kondex Corporation and Lomira High School will also be spotlighted. Registration is required for the day. You can do that by calling (920) 921-9500 or visiting the chamber’s website.

Daylight Saving Time Begins Sunday

Daylight Saving Time begins at 2 a.m. this Sunday. Fond du Lac Division Chief of Fire Prevention Troy Haase urges residents to check the batteries in their smoke and carbon monoxide detectors while changing their clocks. Clocks should be set ahead one hour as “Spring Forward.” Daylight Saving Time will end on Sunday, November 2nd this year. For more on Daylight Saving Time click here.

Coffee With A Cop In Hustisford This Morning

The Dodge County Sheriff’s Department and Hustisford Police Department will hold a “Coffee with a Cop” program this morning from 8 to 10 a.m. at Joan’s Country Cooking in Hustiford. The program allows residents to have “Coffee with a Cop” and have conversation with them in an informal setting.