Local News Briefs Wednesday 4/16/14

The Winnebago County Coroner’s and Sheriff’s Offices have released the name of the 55-year-old Oshkosh man killed in a single-vehicle accident on Highway 45 in the Town of Oshkosh Monday morning. He was Thomas Cronier. He was traveling on Highway 45 near County Highway T when his vehicle went off the road and rolled over. A Sheriff’s deputy came across the accident while on the way to another call.

Reeseville Man Charged With Possessing Child Porn

Bond was set at $30,000 when a 21-year-old Reeseville man made his initial appearance in Dodge County Court this week on child pornography possession charges. Last Friday state agents and sheriff’s deputies executed a search warrant at the home of Kevin Munz. Among the items seized were computers, hard drives and cell phones. Munz is accused of sending and receiving illegal images of preteen children through various email accounts. He allegedly admitted to investigators that he knew he was engaged in illegal activity. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Thursday, April 24th. 

Elkhart Lake Man Sentenced For Freak Drunken Driving Injury Accident

An Elkhart Lake man will serve 30 days in jail for injuring a Manitowoc boy in a freak drunk driving accident last year.  Sheboygan County Judge Angela Sutkiewicz also ordered 65-year-old John Krizenesky to serve two years of probation, revoked his license for two years, and pay restitution. He was driving drunk on Sheboygan County EH northeast of Elkhart Lake last July 11th when he struck a power pole.  The pole came down and the live wires struck an 8-year-old boy playing in a nearby yard.  The boy spent 30 days in a hospital after suffering burns to 20 percent of his body.

Washington County Sheriff’s Deputies Honored For Valor

Two Sheriff’s deputies were honored during the Washington County Board meeting Tuesday for their efforts in thwarting an attempted armed robbery at a Culver’s Restaurant in Jackson last October. When deputies arrived the manager of the restaurant was struggling with a suspect, a 24-year-old Waukesha man, over control of a shotgun. The suspect had stabbed the manager with a knife and pointed the shotgun at the deputies and a Jackson police officer.  The deputies and officer fired on the suspect. Both the manager of the restaurant and the suspect survived the incident. For their courage during the incident Deputies Scott Nauman and Keith Uhan were awarded the Sheriff’s Medal of Valor.  The Jackson Police Officer was Officer Ron Laabs.

Eden Elementary Principal Taking Job In Oshkosh

The principal at the Campbellsport School District’s Eden Elementary School will be taking a job with the Oshkosh School District. Oshkosh Schools Superintendent Stan Mack this week announced that Michael Ruhl will become the Principal of Emmeline Cook Elementary School starting July 1st pending the school board’s approval on April 30th. Ruhl has been the principal at Eden Elementary School the past three years. Prior to that he was a teacher at the school since the 1999-2000 school year. Ruhl has both Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees from the U-W Oshkosh.  He completed his principal certification work through the U-W Madison.

Flood Damaged Items Accepted At FDL Bulky Waste

Today through Saturday the City of Fond du Lac Bulky Waste Drop off Site will accept, for free drop off, furniture and other household items that were damaged through basement flooding from the sanitary sewer system that occurred this past Sunday and Monday. The attendant is familiar with the neighborhoods that experienced basement flooding and will be able to identify flood damaged materials.

Lakeside Park Dredging Resuming

The heavy rains and excess water moving through the area delayed the start of dredging in Fond du Lac’s Lakeside Park this week. Public Works Director Jordan Skiff says the harsh winter had already moved back the resumption of dredging in the park.  He says they got quite a large section done last December before they had to halt operations for the winter. He says they will have two dredges working in the park this spring. Skiff says they won’t be able to store all the dredged material in a de-watering pile in Lakeside Park West so they will be storing some of it large bags known as geo bags while it de-waters. It’s the first time in about 50 years there’s been a comprehensive effort to dredge the channels in Lakeside Park.

FDL Fire Department Knows How To Bee Careful

A Fond du Lac firefighter says a hobby led to better protection for his fellow firefighters. Todd Shippee says he began keeping bees out of concern over the dwindling bee population. He learned that trucks carrying millions of bees are carried across country pollinating almond, apple, citrus and other crops before arriving in Wisconsin for cranberry crops. He became worried about whether firefighters had the proper protection if one of those trucks got involved in a traffic accident such as a mishap involving 17 million bees in Lakeville, Minnesota in May of 2010.  He says the department purchased six protective suits for those types of situations. Shippee says they also can use Class A foam or something firefighters know as “wet water” to render bees harmless. Shippee and several past and present members of the Fond du Lac Fire Department are bee keepers.

Weather Spotter Training Offered Next Week In FDL

Area residents are invited to take a free weather spotter’s training class at Marian University in Fond du Lac Wednesday, April 23rd. Fond du Lac County Communications and Emergency Management Director Jim McNabb says it will be at 6:30 p.m. at the Stayer Center. He says it’s become more difficult to facilitate that type of training with someone from the National Weather Service. But he says they were able to schedule former National Weather Service meteorologist Rusty Kapela to provide the training. McNabb says you don’t have to be training to be a weather spotter to benefit from the information that will be provided in the class. He says the class usually last about 90 minutes to 2 hours.

WW II Vets Visit Flying Fortress

(WHBY-Appleton)-A group of World War Two veterans got a chance to get up in the air on one of their old planes. The E-A-A helped organize a special flight on a B-17 bomber Monday. Bob Schuh of Chilton was a tailgunner on what’s known as “The Flying Fortress.” He says it brought back a lot of memories. It was Schuh’s first time on a B-17 since the war. Red Oestreich of Oshkosh also was a tailgunner. He says they lost a lot of planes when they were among the first bombers over Berlin, Germany. Bob Abresch of Wauwatosa used to fly B-17’s. He said he was a pilot and would have liked to sit in the seat again, but couldn’t do that. Family members of some of the vets were on hand to watch the take-off and arrival. The E-A-A held the event to kick off a national tour of the B-17 plane.