Local News Briefs Friday 6/19/15

A 25-year-old Green Lake man facing a homicide by negligent operation of a vehicle charge for the death of a Ripon man waived his right to a preliminary hearing. Travis Hartman was in Fond du Lac County Court Thursday. Thirty-five-year-old Tym Paul Hollerup was killed in the accident last July 27th.  Sheriff’s officials say both men were heading south on Highway 44 north of Douglas Street when Hartman looked down to change radio stations and struck Hollerup’s motorcycle from behind. Hollerup died at the scene. The accident was reported at 3:32 that Sunday morning.

FDL Man Arrested For Domestic Violence Incident

Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s deputies performed a high risk traffic stop at the I-41 and State Highway 49 exit Thursday morning to capture a 44-year-old Fond du Lac man wanted for a domestic violence incident. Fond du Lac Assistant Police Chief Steve Klein says they got a call at 5:14 a.m. from a woman who said her husband choked her and used a hammer to destroy things in their residence in the 1300 block of Primrose Lane. He wasn’t there when officers arrived. Sheriff’s deputies spotted his vehicle heading south on Interstate 41 and he didn’t stop when deputies tried to pull him over. He was taken into custody without further incident during the high risk traffic stop. Klein says the man got upset when he found text messages on his wife’s phone from another person. The victim was not seriously injured. The man is facing strangulation/suffocation, false imprisonment, battery, criminal damage to property and disorderly conduct charges.

Five Oshkosh Teens Arrested For Strong Armed Robbery

Five Oshkosh teens have been arrested for a strong armed robbery that occurred early Thursday morning in the 600 block of Jefferson Avenue. The 23-year-old victim was walking there when four teens on bicycles knocked him down and stole his wallet and cell phone. He did not require medical attention. The five teenage boys range in age from 14 to 18-years-old. All five face robbery charges. The victim’s cell phone was found on one of the teens.

Waupun Man Arraigned On Fleeing Charge

A 23-year-old Waupun man who fled from a police officer at over 100 miles per hour was arraigned in Dodge County Court this week. Jordan Bader pled not guilty to the fleeing charge. The incident happened on Waupun’s Main Street on March 18th when a police officer clocked Bader doing over 40 miles per hour. When the officer attempted to pull him over Bader fled.  Bader eventually stopped in an effort to try and avoid losing his driver’s license.

Meeting Scheduled For Highway 151 Highway 49 Interchange Project

The state’s Department of Transportation will hold a public meeting next Tuesday in Waupun to discuss preliminary designs for a roadway project on US Highway 151 at the State Highway 49 interchange near Waupun.  The meeting is from 5-7 p.m. on Tuesday at the Waupun Public Library. During the project improvements will be made to just under a mile of Highway151.  Also during the meeting preliminary concepts of for the Highway 151/ Highway 49 interchange reconstruction project will be introduced. That work is currently scheduled for construction in 2022.

Oshkosh Sex Offender Moving

Oshkosh Police say a 32-year-old sex offender will be moving to 310 Oxford Avenue in Oshkosh today. Delond Blunt was convicted of 2nd degree sexual assault twice in 2008. His victims were a 13-year-old boy and a 19-year-old man. Both victims were sleeping when they were assaulted. Blunt will be on GPS monitoring.

Senator Gudex On Prevailing Wage

State Senator Rick Gudex maintains he’d like to see substantial changes to the state’s prevailing wage law. He says there is still debate on whether it should be in the budget and the Republican caucus in the State Senate is still divided over whether it should be a full or partial repeal. He says it would hurt the 18th State Senate District if it were a full repeal. He says some major employers would be hurt by a full repeal. Gudex feels it will be dealt with as a stand alone bill. He says the Republican caucus in the State Assembly also differs on how far they should go with a repeal of the prevailing wage. He says the danger of dealing with it as a stand alone bill is there would be a third option of doing nothing to change prevailing wage.

New MPTC President Growing Into Role

The vice president of the Moraine Park Technical College District Board says they didn’t have to look far to find a new president for the college. Mike Miller says they knew from a previous search three years ago what was out there. He says they were lucky enough to have someone with Bonnie Baerwald’s experience already working for them. Baerwald served as interim president for five months after previous President Sheila Ruhland left for a similar position in the State of Washington. Baerwald was MPTC’s Vice President of Finance and Administration before that. She says felt more comfortable the longer she served in the interim capacity. She says normally a college president has an academic background, but she’s learning about her new role and will work with staff to make appropriate strategic changes when the time comes. Baerwald was named President of MPTC last month. 

Volunteers Needed For Senior Volunteer Program

ADVOCAP is looking for participants for its retired senior volunteer programs. Bridget Bestor is a volunteer development specialist for ADVOCAP. She says according to one survey volunteers are happier and feel healthier because of their volunteering. She says the United Health Survey found 94 percent of volunteers feel happier and 76 percent feel healthier because of their volunteer service. She says if you’re not sure what type of efforts you want to volunteer for, they can help you out. Bestor says right now they are recruiting for tutor volunteers for their foster grandparent mentoring program in the schools. She says senior volunteers put in about 700 hours of volunteering each week in the Fond du Lac School District during the school year. She says that could include helping kids learn how to read. She says there area other volunteer efforts at the food pantries, for veterans services drivers, senior companions, for Habitat for Humanity and more. To get started give her a call at (920) 922-7760.

North Fondy Fest

Saturday at the North Fond du Lac Village Park will be packed with activities for North Fondy Fest. Laurie King tells us things start tonight with a chicken dinner, carnival rides, and the softball tournament. Saturday the Presentation Men’s all-u-can-eat pancake breakfast is from 7 to 11 a.m. There’s also a parade straight up at noon. She says the theme for the parade is “Circus,Circus!” There’s music Saturday afternoon and evening. They will start with karaoke in the afternoon and at 8 p.m. Oil Can Harry will perform. There is no cost for the Oil Can Harry concert. About half way through that show they will have the drawing for their raffle with a $5,000 cash prize and other great prizes at stake. She urges people to get your tickets ahead of time for the raffle because they are limited.  You can get them at the Classic Cut, PDQ, Korneli’s Express, Spielman Library, the Village offices and from North Fondy Fest members. For a run down of North Fondy Fest activities visit their Facebook or Instagram pages.

Ripon FFA Alumni Country Breakfast Sunday

The Ripon FFA Alumni will hold their 28th Annual Country Breakfast this Sunday. It will be from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Doug and Micki Kastenschmidt Farm at W176 Center Road in Ripon. In addition to the all you can eat breakfast their will animals, coloring books and activities for the kids, an old tractor display, live music and more. Carry outs will be available. Tickets are available in advance at the Green Lake Chamber of Commerce, BMO Harris in Ripon, Housel’s East Side Country Market, Ripon Drug, Picket Co-op, Schmitt Lumber, Farmers State Bank in Markesan, The Diedrich Agency in Ripon, Brandon Bank, Bohn Implement in Berlin, the Markesan state Bank or from any Ripon FFA Alumni member.