Local News Briefs Saturday 5/16/15

The state’s Department of Transportation will hold a meeting in Rosendale next week to discuss preliminary design for improvements to State Highway 26. The improvements will be for a stretch of the highway from Lafayette Street to Becker Boulevard. The meeting is scheduled from 5 to 6:30 p.m. on Thursday at the village of Rosendale Municipal Building. A brief presentation will be provided at 5:15 p.m. Construction is currently scheduled for 2018.

Fondy Woman Arrested For Driving Under Influence With Baby In The Car

Oshkosh Police say a 22-year-old Fond du Lac woman was arrested Thursday night after driving under the influence with a one-year-old baby in the car. She was stopped after forgetting to turn the headlights on. She’s facing Operating While Intoxicated controlled substance with a passenger under 16, resisting arrest, possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia charges. The officer who stopped her smelled marijuana smoke and she rolled up the window and tried to lock the car door. She was taken to the Winnebago County Jail. Charges were referred to the District Attorney’s office. The baby was released to a relative.

Average Age Of Traffic Fatalities

Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s Captain Rick Olig says if you think fatal traffic accidents claim the lives of younger and older people in general you are mistaken. He says they know from statistics from fatal accidents in the County over the last 15 years that the average age of the victim of a fatal traffic accident falls within an age range. He says when there was a high of 32 traffic fatalities in 2003 it was 38-years-old. He says over that 15 year span it averaged from 32 to 51 years of age and last year was 42. So he says buckle up, drive sober and not too fast. Monday the Click It or Ticket enforcement effort starts. 

Marian Will Host Veteran Career And Job Fair

Marian University in Fond du Lac will be hosting a veteran career and job fair on Thursday, May 29 from 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. in the Stayer Center. The career and job fair will feature representatives from the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission and local human resources professionals who will assist veterans with resume writing and interview techniques. New this year, human resource professionals are invited to attend a brown-bag luncheon to hear about the benefits of hiring veterans. Sessions will be held at 11:30 am and 12:30pm, each lasting about 30 minutes. In addition, the fair will feature local businesses and organizations that support veteran hiring, as well as representatives from colleges and universities in the Fox Valley who assist veterans in returning to school.

Drones Pose Dangers For Other Aircraft

Drones may look like fun for the hobbyist, but can be a real threat for those flying a medical helicopter. Jayce Commo of Flight for Life says the FAA does have some rules including keeping the drones flying no more than 400 feet of the ground and not operating them within 5 miles of an airport. He says a Southwest Airlines pilot called in a complaint after a near miss at 4,000 feet near LAX. He says some of the nicer ones can fly over 100 miles per hour. Commo says they may look small, but depending on the size can weigh up to 55 pounds.

Here A Duck

Laura Degolier of the Greenway Arboretum in Fond du Lac commended the work of the Fond du Lac Police Department’s Community Service Officers this past week. Degolier thanked the CSO’s during this week’s City Council meeting for policing the Greenway. She says they have had some recent fires and vandalism, but with the CSO’s doing patrols twice a day that’s cut down. She says they even helped in an effort to relocate a mother duck and her ducklings to the Green Way. The mother duck and her 13 ducklings were transferred to the Greenway from South Main Street after a CSO gave her a call, which she says it was nice to see that extra touch.

Samaritan Clinic Has Support

The Executive Director of Agnesian HealthCare Foundation says it was nice to see the community once again support the Samaritan Clinic during the annual cash raffle this past week. The raffle has been supporting the services of the clinic the past 23 years either by raffling off a house in the case of the last two years cash. Rita Meidam says the Clinic isn’t just getting from Fond du Lac. She says it’s amazing how people in the community and communities around us support such a worthy cause. This year more than 4,900 tickets were sold for the annual raffle. Jim Simon of Fond du Lac won the grand prize of $100,000 cash.

Grief Relief Winner Announced

Wayne Otto, of Princeton, was drawn as the grand prize winner of Agnesian HealthCare’s Grief Relief: Rebuilding Families “One Backyard at a Time” fund-raiser through the Agnesian HealthCare Foundation. Otto’s grand prize, valued at $4,999 and donated by Stuart’s Landscaping & Garden Center, includes a custom landscape construction (softscape) package. Thanks to the fund-raiser, Grief Relief will receive more than $21,000. About 240 guests attended the April 18 fund-raiser at its new location, the Knights of Columbus Hall. “We appreciate the community’s continued support of our Grief Relief program,” says Rita Meidam, Agnesian HealthCare Foundation executive director.