Local News Briefs Friday 7/31/15

The two victims of a fatal plane crash at Timmerman Airport in Milwaukee Wednesday evening have been identified. Fifty-three-year-old Joseph Trustey was the chief operating officer of Summit Partners, a Boston capital investment firm. He and his 18-year-old daughter Anna were traveling to Milwaukee to visit Marquette University, which Anna was considering attending. The single engine plane crashed and started on fire about 6 p.m. Wednesday night.

Body Of Shawano Lake Drowning Victim Recovered

Shawano County Sheriff’s officials say the body of a Maryland man who drowned in Shawano Lake was recovered early Thursday. A pilot assisting in the search for 45-year-old Norman Robertson of Kensington, Maryland spotted Robertson’s body just before 8 a.m. Robertson jumped into the lake to aid his 10-year-old son when the boy lost his grip while trying to get back into a pontoon boat and fell back into the water. He wasn’t wearing a life jacket. Robertson jumped into the water, but didn’t resurface. His son was found near a buoy. The family was tubing on the lake late Wednesday morning when the incident occurred.

Waupun Man Suspected Of Assaulting Dog

Dodge County prosecutors have filed a charge against a 55-year-old Waupun man who allegedly sexually assaulted a dog in front of a teen. Ronald Mueller allegedly had inappropriate contact on several occasions in front of the teenager last February. He’s also suspected of touching the teen inappropriately. A felony charge of causing a child to view sexual activity was filed this week. Mueller will make his initial court appearance on the charge on August 10th.

Johnson At Hickory Closing Monday

Fond du Lac’s Public Works Department tells us the intersection of Johnson and Hickory Street will be closing Monday morning for pavement repairs. The work will be taking place in the east crosswalk and sidewalk areas of the intersection. Hickory Street will remain open at all times for north/south traffic and turns to the west will be permitted. Johnson St. will be open from the west up to the Hickory intersection, where a turn to the north or to the south will be required. Traffic on Johnson St., Highway 23, will be detoured using Main St., Scott St. and Peters Ave. The street will be closed through the following weekend and reopen on Monday, August 10th.

NFDL Schools Superintendent Comments On Public Schools Funding

North Fond du Lac Schools Superintendent Aaron Sadoff says they will have to tighten their belts with state aid remaining about the same this school year. He says state legislators are having schools do more while not including funding for those mandates. He says there’s a lot of rhetoric about the money that is being put into education. He says hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent on education, but the money now also includes private voucher schools and charter schools as well all competing for the same funding. He says priorities also seem to be shifting with legislators willing to spend the same amount of taxpayer funded money on a Bucks Arena financing package that they cut from the UW System. Both amounts worked out to about $250 million. Sadoff says the UW System is a jewel of the state.

Senator Johnson Has Two Town Hall Meetings In Dodge County Today

U.S. Senator Ron Johnson will be holding two town hall meetings in Dodge County today. The federal lawmaker from Oshkosh will be at Mayville Engineering in Mayville for a closed town hall meeting with employees from 11 a.m. to noon. A public town hall meeting will be held at the Audubon Inn in Mayville from 1:15 to 2:15 p.m. Senator Johnson will also visit the Backstreet Café in Mayville from 12:15 to 1 p.m. and the Frostie Freeze in Fort Atkinson from 4:20 to 4:35 p.m.

Brown Bag Lunch Program Seeing A Greater Need This Summer

The social services director for the Fond du Lac Salvation Army says they saw a greater need for their brown bag lunch program this summer. Ron Jacobson says they anticipated providing the lunches to about 600 people on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but the number has been greater. He says this summer they are serving about 650 to 670 people a day. He says at the rate people have been coming in they will top the 13,000 people they expected to serve this summer. Jacobson says the program originally began to fill a gap during the summer when the free and reduced meals kids qualify for during the school year aren’t available. He says other programs in town during the summer take care of meals on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Mercury And Brunswick Earnings Up

Sales were up during the second quarter for the Mercury Marine Group in the recent earnings report released by parent company the Brunswick Corporation. The group was responsible for $689 million in sales during the second quarter up about $37 million compared to the second quarter of last year. Operating earnings were $131.8 million also an increase of $9 million. Brunswick Chairman and CEO Dustan McCoy says Brunswick’s sales were up 6 percent and operating earnings were up by 9 percent during the second quarter. Net sales were more than $1.1 billion for the second quarter. For more click here.

FDL Works Contest

Area residents are invited to participate in a contest on the Fond du Lac Works Facebook page. Melissa Worthington is the Vice President of the Fond du Lac Area Association of Commerce. She says the contest is pretty simple. She says you have to like the post, put in a comment about why Fond du Lac is a great place to live and work, and if possible tag someone else. She says they are doing a lot of work with K-12 systems in the area to create awareness about career readiness. She says that has included Lemonade Day, a pilot program for middle schools, Project Grill and youth apprenticeship programs, and recruit and retention efforts with area business. She says meanwhile people are invited to visit the Fond du Lac Works website, which she says is a one-stop shop for jobseekers. The contest begins Saturday, August 8th and runs for a week. The prize package includes a year’s worth of Baker Cheese, a gift certificate to Festival Foods, a cooking lesson from a South Hills Country Club chef, a year’s worth of spices from the Spice Crate and a cheese lover’s gift basket from the Spice Crate.