Local News Briefs Tuesday 8/11/15

Some detours will be put in place for the Truck ‘N Show parade in Waupun this weekend. Police say traffic coming into the City from the north and east will be rerouted. Highway 26 will be closed from East Spring Street to East Jefferson Street but will be accessible to local traffic, and Highway 49 will be closed from Gateway Drive to Fox Lake Road. Highway 26 traffic entering the city from the north will be redirected to Highway 151.  Highway 49 traffic will be redirected to Highway 68.  Detours will be in effect from 8:45 to 11 p.m. Friday night and 2:45 to 4:45 Saturday afternoon.

New FDL HS Assistant Principal Hired

The Fond du Lac School Board Monday afternoon approved the hiring of Kevin Krutzik as an assistant principal at the Fond du Lac High School. Krutzik served as a 6-12 principal at Oshkosh Lourdes last year and has nine years of high school teaching experience in Manitowoc. Fond du Schools Superintendent Jim Sebert says Krutzik is enthusiastic about the job. Sebert says they had 64 or 65 applicants for the position so they had a good field to pick from. He says Krutzik is “a high quality guy.” Krutzik actually started in Fond du Lac on Monday, August 3rd.

Reports Of School Bullying Down In FDL Public Schools

Bullying incidents in the Fond du Lac School District decreased by 13 percent during the recent school year. Marian Sheridan the coordinator of the district’s school health and safety programs gave the annual climate report to the School Board Monday afternoon. According to the report the number of bullying incidents decreased from 271 the previous year to 237 this year. District Superintendent Jim Sebert says that’s still too much. In addition to programs like Positive Behavior Intervention Support the district implemented a cyber bullying curriculum that 515 sixth graders took. Sebert says unlike tradition forms of bullying, cyber bullying is on the record and can affect the lives of the victim and bully for years. The overall percentage of students who felt bullying and harassment was a moderate to severe problem at their school was also down from 36 to 34 percent.

More Than 600 Well Water Surveys Returned

An official with the Fond du Lac County UW-Extension Office says they are pleased with the response they’ve gotten so far to a well water use survey they mailed out to about 2,300 private well owners. Diana Tscheschlok says they heard back from the UW-River Falls Survey Research Center, which is doing the survey for them, that they had gotten back 27 percent of the surveys or 630. She says the County and UW-Extension are interested in finding out how well they are serving those well owners and how they can do a better job. She says a postcard is being sent out this week reminding those who received the survey in the mail to complete the survey and mail it back if they want to participate.

Prison Stays Do Not Always Work

Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney says there have been cases where someone who reoffends after a possible prison sentence was stayed should have been sent to prison. He says probation agents do a good job, but an administrative law judge decides whether a prison sentence that was stayed should be imposed. He says a home invasion case in Fond du Lac County involved one of the intruders being shot by a fellow thief. He says the man who brought the gun was on probation and it should have been revoked, but Toney says sometimes administrative law judges are leery of sending someone to prison. He says people who are given a second chance don’t always make the most of it. He says sometimes in Fond du Lac County a prison sentence is withheld instead of stayed, that way there’s a chance it could come back to the circuit court if someone doesn’t live up to court conditions. He says that way if probation and parole makes the decision to revoke someone’s parole and the administrative law judge agrees it would come back to a County court for sentencing.

FCEDC Revolving Loan Fund A Success

Fond du Lac County Executive Al Buechel recently gave the Finance Committee anupdate on the Fond du Lac County Economic Development Corporation revolving loan fund. He says the next request for money from the revolving loan fund will be from the Rogers family, which is buying up former Boca Grande properties in the City of Ripon. He says that request will be in the neighborhood of $250,000. He says the fund was begun with sales tax monies to help out businesses that were looking at building, expanding and retention efforts. He says $2.6 million has been loaned out since 2010. He says the most recent business to benefit from the revolving loan fund is Swenson Tool & Die, which helped with their move from Washington County to Campbellsport. He says over the years the fund has leveraged $100 million in capital investment, created 642 jobs and led to the retention of 234 jobs.

Tickets Available For Habitat Raffle And Fundraising Dinner

Tickets are available for the Hard Hat & Helles fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity of Fond du Lac County. Part of the fun for that evening at the South Hills Golf and Country Club will be a raffle for four vacation packages. A Royal Caribbean Cruise, Monterey Golf Experience, Kennedy Space Center Astronaut Adventure or Lake Tahoe Weekend Getaway will be among the packages the grand prize winner can choose from. Julie Woznick Habitat’s Board of Directors President says they are amazing packages. Habitat Executive Director Paul Osterholm says the September 17th fundraiser is the biggest of the year for them. He says proceeds from this event will go toward building a Habitat home next year.Tickets for the raffle and the fundraising dinner are available at the ReStore in Fond du Lac. The winner of the raffle doesn’t have to be present to win.