News 08.12.16
12 August 2016 News
Habitat for Humanity for Fond du Lac County is holding a ground-breaking ceremony this Saturday morning at 9:00 at 715 Park Street. It will be the third house built in Ripon and 28th overall in Fond du Lac County since 1996. Executive Director Tom Wilhelm says the project will take about six weeks and involves a group of individuals from Connecticut who travel the country building homes. Wilhelm says the group was in Ripon two years ago on a home build, and this build will be the last one the group does. Wilhelm says anyone can apply for consideration. There is an application process and other work to be done. Wilhelm says the land was donated with one condition – try to find a Veteran family for the home, which was accomplished. The new owners of this ranch-style, family of four house, will have regular monthly payments to make, but will have no interest to pay.
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The Fond du lac city council approves an ordinance that would allow people to walk their dogs through some, but not all city parks. The ordinance allows dogs on leashes in eight Fond du Lac Parks, but not Lakeside or Buttermilk Creek Parks. Dogs will be allowed in Lakeside Park West and the Harborview Drive trail which borders the south end of Lakeside Park. Dogs will be allowed on leashes in Colwert-Edward Park, Hucks Bellevue Park, Lallier Park, Ledgeview Corporate Center, McDermott, Paul Butzen, Plamore and Russell parks. City council member Brian Kolstad says it’s a good first step. Kolstad says if all goes well, other parks could be added in the future.
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The Manitowoc Company says more than 500 jobs will be lost in Wisconsin when it moves its crane manufacturing operations out of the state. The company plans to close the manufacturing facility in Manitowoc in stages beginning this year. Full closure is expected by the middle of next year. The company has not provided details on whether the 528 people affected will be offered jobs in Shady Grove, Pennsylvania where the crane manufacturing work will be moved. Manitowoc Company estimates the move will generate annual pre-tax cost savings between $25 million and $30 million. The company’s headquarters and some crane repair positions will remain in Manitowoc.
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Walk-through metal detectors are in place at every entrance gate this season at the home of the Green Bay Packers. The team installed just one metal detector at the Shopko gate last season at Lambeau Field. The additional security is in line with a National Football League mandate to have the detectors installed by 2016. Packers security director Doug Collins says the additional detectors were installed in time for Family Night last month and 50,000 fans entered the stadium in the first hour without any problems. Unlike metal detectors at airports, fans won’t have to remove clothing, belts or wallets — just phones, cameras and other large metal objects. And, there are express lanes for those without purses, bags or stadium seats. The Packers host the Cleveland Browns tonight.
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A new report says the value of taxable property in Wisconsin is up 3 percent this year, but has still not fully recovered from losses since the recession. The Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance reported Thursday that taxable property in the state is at just over $505 billion, which is still shy of the pre-2008 recession high of $514 billion. Values have been steadily increasing since bottoming out at nearly $468 billion in 2013. The Taxpayers Alliance estimates that the unprecedented five years of value decline won’t be erased until 2017. Since 2013 property values have been average an increase of 2.6 percent a year. From 2000 to 2008 increases averaged 7.6 percent annually. The independent Taxpayers Alliance determined the increase after analyzing equalized value figures from the state Department of Revenue.
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