Local News Briefs Tuesday 9/15/15

A 28-year-old Town of Hartford man was killed late last Friday night when a pickup truck turned in front of his motorcycle in the Village of Richfield. Washington County Sheriff’s officials say it happened at the intersection of State Highway 164 and Hubertus Road. The man died at the scene. The 75-year-old Town of Polk man driving the pickup and his passenger, a 73-year-old woman were not injured.

FDL Man Waives Preliminary Hearing In Gun Incident

The 19-year-old Fond du Lac man who allegedly displayed a handgun while confronting his girlfriend behind a Fond du Lac business last month waived his preliminary hearing. Jerry Yang also pled not guilty to charges stemming from the August 28th incident when he was subsequently arraigned. Yang allegedly was despondent after his girlfriend broke up with him and threatened to harm himself and possibly others. The incident occurred behind the strip mall near Festival Foods and ended without anyone coming to harm.

In A Hurry To Get A Deal

A driver in Fond du Lac was cited for several traffic violations after others reported him driving recklessly on West Pioneer Road Sunday afternoon. Assistant Police Chief Steve Klein says when an officer tried to stop him the man increased his speed to 70 to 80 miles an hour on the frontage road. He eventually pulled over in the Kohl’s parking lot. Klein says the driver told the officer he was in a hurry to get to Best Buy and didn’t realize an officer was behind him. He was cited for reckless driving, imprudent speed and having an illegal modified muffler. 

Wind Turbine Transport Causes FDL Traffic Issues

There was an unusual traffic hazard for Fond du Lac drivers Monday morning to get around. Assistant Police Chief Steve Klein says a truck moving a base for a wind turbine had a mechanical function that caused it to interrupt traffic flow for east and westbound traffic on Highway 23 near the Highway 151 bypass. He says the truck was westbound on Johnson Street attempting a left hand turn onto the bypass when it seized up. He says traffic had to be rerouted for about an hour. Klein says a steering mechanism controls the back portion of the trailer and a pin broke free causing the trailer to seize up during the turn.

FDL School Budget

The Fond du Lac School Board held a public hearing for the proposed budget for the 2015-16 school year prior to their regular meeting Monday. District Superintendent Jim Sebert says it’s a solid budget that will allow them to continue to offer a good education for students. Both the tax levy and tax rate are projected to increase by 4.6 percent, but Sebert says that’s likely to be reduced once final numbers are in for property values, their enrollment count and state aid next month. He says it looks like both enrollment and property values will both increase. The proposed mill rate is $10.02 per thousand dollars of value on a property an increase of 45 cents over the past school year or an increase of $45 on a home worth $100,000.

FDL SB Approves Early Childhood Contracts For Program For Three Year Olds

The Fond du Lac School Board Monday approved agreements for 3-year-old early childhood programs with two local daycare centers. District Superintendent Jim Sebert says they actually began the partnerships in the 2013-14 school year. He says the agreements are with the Shining Stars Learning Center and Camelot Children’s Center. He says the contracts are similar to their 4-year-old kindergarten contracts and will help children who have disabilities make the eventual transition to 4K programs. He says it’s a great example of partnering to give kids that additional early boost that helps propel them into 4k and the rest of their school experience.

Video Storage For Police Body Cams Can Be Expensive

The manager of Fond du Lac’s Information Technology Services says it’s expensive to store video for police body cameras and even dash board video. Dave Zittlow says the police department has 77 officers now all of whom patrol the streets. He says it would be expensive to store and backup video for all the officers if they were equipped with body cameras. Zittlow says people have a misconception that storing video on disc is cheap. He says it costs about $25,000 to store 20 terabytes of video for the enterprise environment they exist in versus 4 terabytes of hard drive at Best Buy for $125. He says another issue is the privacy rights of the individual caught on video by police body cams. He says they are recording someone when they are in the worst of times. Zittlow says on the other hand it’s been his experience as a former Fond du Lac Police officer that video helps officers more often than it hurts them.

Fondue Fest Benefits Non Profits

The executive director of the Downtown Fond du Lac Partnership says Fondue Fest is a nice opportunity for non-profits to raise money for their causes. Amy Hansen says over 20,000 people attended this past Saturday’s event and over 200 vendors lined the streets. She says non-profit groups and organizations benefit from the event. She says she’s also grateful to all the volunteers who worked behind the scene to make Fondue Fest possible. News-Talk 1450 KFIZ and K107.1 sponsored the South Music Stage during the day.

African Violets Show Will Be Held In Lomira

The Wisconsin Council of African Violet Club’s will be holding its 52nd annual African violet show and sale in Lomira this fall. The event will be held at Trinity United Methodist Church in Lomira on Saturday and Sunday October 3rd and 4th. Show hours are Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Admission is free and open to the public, an excellent opportunity to view beautiful African violets and related plants on display and for sale. This year’s show theme is Our Violets at Church. According to council president Judy Hess, the annual event is a showcase of magnificently grown plants and beautiful artistic designs by the members.

Oshkosh West To Get New Assistant Principal

The Oshkosh Area School District is hiring a new assistant principal for Oshkosh West High School. District Superintendent Stan Mack announced Monday that Ryan Peterson’s employment is contingent on school board approval at their September 23rd meeting. Peterson has been a teacher and head wrestling coach at Neenah High School the past three years. Prior to that he was a teacher and coach at Almond-Bancroft School District and coached football at Oshkosh West High School from 2008 through 2010.