Wednesday 9/26/18
26 September 2018 News
Hiker Dies After Fall In Peninsula State Park
A 70-year-old Elkhart, Indiana man died after falling from a lookout at Peninsula State Park Sunday. Door County Sheriff’s officials say the man was hiking with his wife in the Eagle Bluff Lookout area when he slipped and fell. Although the area overlooks water he fell about 100 feet to rocks below. He was flown from the scene, but died a short time afterwards. The accident happened about 2;30 Sunday afternoon.
Preliminary Tax Levy Approved For Ripon School District
Those attending the Ripon Area School District’s annual meeting Monday night approved a preliminary tax levy for the 2018-19 academic year. The school board recommended a nearly $6.4 million tax levy. District Business Manager Jonah Adams says the board will give final approval to the district budget and tax levy next month. There are still some unknown factors that go into the budget including third Friday enrollment count which helps determine state aid, General Aid from the state, and equalized property values. The school board is working with a budget that has anticipated expenses of more than $20.6 million compared to $23.8 million in the previous school year.
Johnson Backing Drone Defense Legislation
Legislation sponsored by Senator Ron Johnson would give the Homeland Security Department the same limited authority as the Department of Defense and Department of Energy to study the use of drones that are being misused. It would also allow them to track, seize and destroy drones considered a threat to large, public gatherings. The NFL is supporting the bi-partisan legislation after a drone flew over a San Francisco 49ers game and dropped leaflets in an end zone. Johnson says, “All we are trying to do is just pass that first step that gives DHS and the law enforcement agencies under its jurisdiction the authority to begin to study how do you counter a maligned use of drone. “ Senator Johnson says right now there isn’t any authority that can knock those drones out of the sky or counter them, and that’s what we’re trying to fix.
Rail Safety Week
Winnebago County had six crashes last year involving vehicles at railroad crossings, which led the state of Wisconsin. Susie Klinger is the Executive Director for the Wisconsin chapter of Operation Life Saver. She says the simple rule is “Slow down, look and listen.” Nineteen people were injured and six died in 42 railroad crossing crashes. Klinger says too many drivers are distracted. She’s a locomotive engineer herself and has been fortunate during her career to have not been involved in a crash with a vehicle, but she still sees some bad driving behavior on the roads. She says, ” The short-line railroads you do a little bit of everything. So I’ve seen and the reason I got involved in the program is I’ve seen some really scary things out there on the tracks while I’m driving.” Half of the crashes at railroad crossings last year were at crossings with flashers or gates activated. Wisconsin has 6,273 rail crossings. This in Rail Safety Week in Wisconsin.
Cats From North Carolina Need Homes
The Green Lake Area Animal Shelter is trying to find homes for six cats from North Carolina that left that state before Hurricane Florence moved through. Shelter Manager Janine Rubeck says they learned from Hurricane Katrina that it is easier to place pets that didn’t actually go through the trauma of a natural disaster. She says, “So the cats we have are not cats that were displaced by the Hurricane they were already in the shelter there’s not going to be owners coming to look for them after everything has settled down.” She says large organizations like the American Humane Society empty out all the shelters in the path of a hurricane and disperse them to other parts of the country before the actual storm moves through. If you are interested in adoption contact the Green Lake Area Animal Shelter.
More School Safety Grants Announced
State Attorney General Brad Schimel Tuesday announced 55 schools and school districts will receive $4.4 million from the second round of the Wisconsin Department of Justice School Safety Grant program, which focuses on advanced initiatives to bolster student mental health. That includes a $10,000 award for All Saints Catholic School in Berlin, over $63,000 for the Omro School District, and $19,414 for the Princeton School District.
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