Wednesday 1/2/19
2 January 2018 News
Number Of Reported Fires In FDL County Down In 2018
Reported fires were down in Fond du Lac County during 2018. Ripon Area Fire District Chief Tim Saul says they were lucky in that regard, but he also believes public education about fire prevention has played a role in it. “Our fires in Ripon have down this year, our call numbers are up but our fires have been down so that’s a good thing. We’re obviously getting the message out to some people. Throughout the entire county fire numbers have been down.” He says fire numbers go up or down in any given year and there’s no way of predicting what you will see during a typical year.
NFDL Man Arrested For Driving Drunk In Dodge County
A 29-year-old North Fond du Lac man was allegedly doing nearly 100 miles an hour on Highway 151 Sunday morning when a Dodge County Sheriff recorded his speed on radar. Deputies tried to pull him over near County Highway C in the Town of Trenton, but the vehicle didn’t pull over until it reached the south side of Beaver Dam. The driver was taken to the County Jail on his second drunken driving offense.
Middleton Man Arrested For Drunken Driving In Wautoma Area
A state trooper arrested a Middleton man Monday morning for allegedly speeding and driving drunk in the Wautoma area. Jeremy Kulis was pulled over on State Highway 21 and 20th Drive. Kulis allegedly failed field sobriety tests. Kulis six-year-old twins and nine-year-old child were in the car with him when it was stopped. He was arrested for his first drunken driving offense with an enhancer for having passengers under the age of 16. The traffic stop occurred shortly before 12:30 am.
Unemployment Rates Reported For November
Unemployment rates for most area counties remained below 3 percent in November and for some under 2.5 percent. Fond du Lac County’s held steady at 2.2 percent, Dodge County dipped slightly to that same level. Green Lake County’s jobless rate increased a bit to 2.9 percent. Winnebago County’s rate was down slightly to 2.3 percent and Waushara County’s rate held steady at 2.8 percent. The unemployment rates for the cities of Fond du Lac and Oshkosh both were at 2.4 percent for November.
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Survey Catalyst For Ripon’s Latest Charter School
Public input played a role in the development of the Ripon Area School District’s latest charter school. District Superintendent Mary Whitrock says there was about two years of planning. A $900,000 state grant to plan and implement the Odyssey Academy of Virtual Learning really got things moving in the right direction. Prior to that they surveyed parents about open enrollment and found there was need for a virtual school in the district. “It started with a survey with our own families here in the district finding out why they open enroll in and out of our district. One of the most significant areas was to pursue virtual schools and Ripon at this point hadn’t had any virtual schools.” Whitrock says parents told them if they opened a virtual school they would be interested in returning their kids to the district and some of those same parents are serving on the Governance Council for the school. Like the district’s four other charter schools the academy will have project-based learning and will open in the fall.
Ripon Channel Puts Public In Public Access Programming
The cable coordinator for the Ripon Channel says Ripon Common Council and committee meetings are their bedrock or most important thing they do, but they also broadcast a number of community and sporting events. “We cover Ripon High School and Ripon College basketball and football events. Ripon High School wrestling. We record as many school music concerts as we can.” Riley Icenogle says they also file share with Ripon College to be able to broadcast their music concerts and they also do event programming if there are speakers at the library or historical society. The Ripon Channel can be found on Charter Communications or Spectrum public access channels 986 and 987. In addition they are on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Ripon Area United Way Campaign
The president of Ripon Area United Way’s Board of Directors says some of the 21 agencies they help to fund are more in the public eye than others. Jeff Puhlmann-Becker says all of the play important roles in the community. He says the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army both were very visible in the community during the Watson Street fire. “The Salvation Army was here within 30 minutes in the middle of the night they were here and they were promptly helping people and help resettle people and I was on the committee that had helped the victims of that fire and their support to those families both fiscal but emotional support went on for weeks after the fire.” He says others like the Family Resource Center, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Vacation Bible School, the Boys and Girl Scouts each provide a service to the community. He notes 96 percent of what is donated in the community stays in the community. To donate to the Ripon Area United Way send your contribution to them at P.O. Box 71 in Ripon or stop by the Horicon Bank. The campaign runs into February.
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