Friday 2/1/19
1 February 2019 News
Power Outage Affects Ripon And Green Lake County
The west side of Ripon and eastern side of Green Lake County experienced power outages on one of the coldest days of the year. Alliant Energy spokesperson Annemarie Newman says there was an issue with a transmission line. About 1,700 customers in Ripon and 2,700 in Green Lake County were without power for a little over an hour. The outage began about 6:45 Thursday morning and power was restored to all customers by 8:15 am.
Fire At Mercury Marine
(Fond du Lac Fire/Rescue photo)
Fond du Lac Fire firefighters battled the weather and a fire at Mercury Marine Wednesday afternoon. The fire was on the roof of Plant 15. Workers were evacuated from the area. The fire was restricted to a heating, ventilating and air conditioning unit on the rooftop. No injuries were reported. Fire Chief Peter O’Leary says the wind chill was hovering around 30 below zero which made firefighters’ work more difficult, but the blaze was quickly extinguished.
Jury Trial Scheduled For Reckless Homicide Suspect
A two-week jury trial is scheduled for a 39-year-old Beaver Dam woman suspected of supplying the drugs that led to the overdose death of a Town of Fox Lake woman. The trial for Jackie Meyer, formerly of Waupun, on first degree reckless homicide charges kicks off in Dodge County court on September 30th. She is accused of supplying the heroin and cocaine that led to the August 27th, 2016 death of Karen Sadowski. Prosecutors suspect she took Sadowski to a drug dealer in Madison. After the overdose Meyer allegedly asked her boyfriend to lie about where she was when Sadowski overdosed. Sadowski died at a hospital early the morning after her overdose. In addition to the reckless homicide charge, Meyer is facing her first drunken driving offense with an enhancer for having a passenger under 16 years of age in the vehicle with her.
Mail Service Resumes
Temperatures aren’t the only thing that will be lifted today. The United State Postal Service has announced it will resume regular delivery of mail after a two-day suspension because of the weather. The suspension during the Wind Chill Warning affected residents in both Wisconsin and Illinois.
Cold Weather Firefighting
Fighting fires in bitterly cold temperatures is dangerous and taxing on firefighters. Ripon Area Fire Chief Tim Saul says they try and keep firefighters at the fire station during times like the cold spell we just went through to cut down response time and the amount of time firefighters have to spend at the scene. “If we can get water on the fire the first five minutes or four minutes we might only be out there a half hour or 40 minutes versus were getting water on the fire later now we’re going to be out there three or four hours in this cold. It’s not good for our people, it’s not good for our equipment.” Saul says it was the coldest it had been in five years, which reminds him of the Watson Street fire and the sub-zero temperatures they had to battle to put that fire out.
Snowy Day Abandoned Vehicles
Fond du Lac County Highway Commissioner Tom Janke says during a heavy snowstorm like the blizzard we had Monday they will leave stranded vehicles on the roadway until after the snow event. Sometimes they have to deviate a little from that. Such was the case on Interstate 41 that day. “I-41 I believe we had to set up a work zone and get a truck that was stuck in the median and actually stuck almost out in the passing lane.” He says if it is not an emergency and doesn’t create a problem they will wait until the snow event is over and then have the person who owns the vehicle contact a tow company to get it out. Janke says they certainly don’t want to see a lot of tow trucks out there during a huge blizzard.
Lottery Scam
The Wisconsin Lottery recently posted information on its website about scammers trying to take advantage of lottery winners. The scam calls may even appear to be coming from the lottery office, Powerball or Megamillions. They promise players even more winnings. Lottery officials urge players never to give out personal information over the phone such as Social Security numbers. They say you will never have to purchase anything other than the winning ticket to claim your prize. The Wisconsin Lottery does not call people to tell them they’ve won or notify them through internet “pop-ups.”
Net Worth In Green Lake County Among Tops In The State
According to one study Marquette and Green Lake counties are among the top ten counties in Wisconsin in terms of net worth. Marquette County finished third and Green Lake County seventh. In Green Lake County per capita income was a little over $26,000, per capita net worth $39,000 and per capita debt nearly $18,500. Financial technology asset company SmartAsset took into account net worth as a percentage of income and net worth as a percentage of debt to determine rankings. Vilas and Price counties finished first and second in the study.
For more on the study click here.
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