Local News Briefs 7/7/14

A 24-year-old Fond du Lac man was recently sentenced to five years of probation and a year in jail on a theft charge. Fond du Lac County Judge Robert Wirtz sentenced Joshua Gehde on the charge, which was amended from an original charge of robbery with use of force. Gehde was one of three people suspected of robbing a woman in Fond du Lac last October. Twenty-eight-year-old Courtney Shelly of Fond du Lac will be sentenced for his role in the robbery on August 1st. Twenty-seven-year-old Cori Ritz of Chilton was sentenced for her role in March. She got probation and 60 days of conditional jail time. The victim was robbed of her purse and cell phone.

ReStore Burglary Suspect Charged

The 26-year-old Fond du Lac man police caught breaking into Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore last month has been charged. James Meisner was charged in Fond du Lac County Court last Thursday with felony counts of burglary and bail jumping. Police were called to the store on South Brooke Street on June 18th after a driver spotted a man going through a window at the store. Meisner was arrested at gunpoint. Bond was set at $500 cash and he has a preliminary hearing on July 18th.  In May Meisner was sentenced to 3 year of probation and given a deferred prosecution in a case involving 28 different counts of burglary, theft, criminal damage to property and bail jumping. The agreement required him to live up to drug court requirements for 18 months.

Hustisford Man Injured In Dodge County Accident

Dodge County Sheriff’s officials say a 25-year-old Hustisford man was injured after swerving his motorcycle to avoid an animal in the road Friday afternoon in the Town of Emmet. The accident happened on County Highway DJ and County Highway E. Although he avoided the animal the man lost control of his bike and crashed. He was taken to a hospital in Watertown with non-life threatening injuries. 

FDL County Board Catching Up With Technology

Like the City of Fond du Lac, Fond du Lac County will be going to paperless agendas and some type of tablet in the future. The problem is waiting for some infrastructure improvements before that technology can be offered. The Fond du Lac City Council now uses an online form of agendas and tablets at their meetings. County Clerk Lisa Freiberg says the County hopes to do the same some day. She says they’d like to get the supervisors an iPad or notebook, but would start out small rather than buy 25 all at once. She says paper copies of the agenda are currently delivered by Sheriff’s deputies to the supervisor and having electronic agendas would eliminate the costs of the paper and transportation. She says right now they have to wait for the expansion of broadband services in rural parts of the County to offer that type of agenda. Fond du Lac Information Technology Manager Dave Zittlow says it is nice to have the electronic agendas, which are available to the public and much easier to update at a moment’s notice.

Small Deficit Projected For Waupun School District

Waupun School Superintendent Tonya Gubin says she’s not worried about making up a small projected deficit for the new school year. The Waupun School Board last week approved a preliminary budget for the 2014-15 School Year that includes a projected deficit of $82,000. She says they do have some padded areas of the budget that they might not spend as much in, which allows them to eliminate such a small deficit. The state’s Department of Public Instruction last week also released general aid estimates, which shows the Waupun School District will be receiving less than a 1 percent increase in general aid. Gubin says they are grateful for the extra money, about $71,000 more. She says they had already calculated that into the preliminary budget for the district.

Hwy 45 Meeting

The state’s Department of Transportation will hold a meeting Wednesday at the UW-Fond du Lac to discuss proposed improvements to US Highway 45. The improvements will be in the village of Eden, town of Eden, town of Empire, town of Fond du Lac and city of Fond du Lac. The meeting is from 5 to 6 p.m. at the University Commons Room UC 114.  The meeting will follow an open house format. A short presentation is scheduled at 5:15 p.m.  Project representatives will be available to discuss the proposed project and address any questions or concerns. Local officials, property owners and other interested parties are encouraged to attend. The project won’t begin until 2018.

MPTC Beaver Dam Campus Offering IT Opportunities

Moraine Park Technical College’s Beaver Dam campus will be offering an Information Technology program similar to welding boot camps they held at other campuses. Jim Eden is the Vice President of Academics for MPTC. He says they’ve gotten federal grant monies for the programs. He says the funding is coming through the U.S. Department of Labor. He says there are four specific areas in certificate programs. They are android web application developer, content management, ISO web application developer, and web security all between 11 and 15 credits. He says they will have information sessions on four different dates at the Beaver Dam campus. They are on July 14th and 16th and on August 4th and 6th. He says you can look for upcoming information on those sessions at the MPTC website.