Hometown Broadcasting News Tuesday 2/11/20
11 February 2020 News
Illinois Woman Facing Charges For Three County Chase
(Columbia County Sheriff’s photo)
Multiple law enforcement agencies were involved in a high-speed chase Saturday morning on highways in Columbia, Sauk, and Dane counties. Columbia County Sheriff’s officials say it began when a Portage Police officer saw an SUV blowing through stop signs in the city and ended when a tire deflation device was put out for the vehicle in Dane County. The driver 34-year-old Tiffany Babitz of Beach Park, Illinois then fled on foot but was caught a short time later. No one was injured during the chase including the 65-year-old woman and 8-year-old boy who were passengers in the SUV. Babitz is facing charges in multiple jurisdictions.
Ripon Common Council Meeting Preview
The Ripon Common Council tonight will consider borrowing $1.7 million for equipment purchases and street projects. City staff is recommending the money be borrowed from Investors Community Bank for five years for the equipment and 20 years for the street infrastructure at an interest rate of 3.05 percent. That rate is lower than what the State Trust Fund can offer. The Council will also discuss the former American House property. According to estimates it would be cheaper to tear down the building than remediate mold in it. The Council meets at 7 pm at the City Hall.
Oshkosh Bridge Project
Governor Tony Evers recently signed a $1.1 million contract to improve the Oshkosh/Congress Avenue Bridge over the Fox River in Oshkosh. Work is scheduled to begin on Thursday, February 20th and should be completed in June. The bridge will be closed to all traffic during construction. A signed detour route will follow state Highway 21, I-41, and U.S. Highway 45. The prime contractor for the project is Omega Coatings and Construction, LLC from Tarpon Springs, Florida.
Shack Count Down For Sturgeon Season
An official with the state’s DNR says poor ice conditions and water clarity issues aside this is not the worst start they’ve seen to a sturgeon spearing season. David Barts is a fisheries biologist out of Wautoma for the Department of Natural Resources. He’s been with the DNR for over 20 years. He says they have seen worse conditions for a sturgeon spearing season. “We’ve had much worse years where ice conditions have been worse, clarity has been worse. This is by far not the worse that I have seen.” Barts says the fishing shack count is also down. He says in the past they’ve usually had over 5,000 shacks on the Lake Winnebago System. This year they counted 2,439 shacks on Lake Winnebago and 611 on the Upriver Lakes for a total of 3,050. On the other hand there are plenty of sturgeon in the system with 24,000 adult male and 18,000 adult female. The season could run all 16 days on both Lake Winnebago and the Upriver Lakes.
Protecting Medicare And Social Security
Congressman Glenn Grothman says he’s glad President Trump mentioned protecting Medicare and Social Security in his recent State of the Union Address. The federal lawmaker from Glenbeulah was there for the speech last week. Grothman says President Trump laid out that he is not going to touch Medicare and Social Security. “You know there are some Republicans out there; I’ll call them the Paul Ryan types, who feel we have to do something on Social Security. We are wasting so much money on other things in our country I think in so far as we have a deficit in this country we have a huge deficit those are the things that we should be looking at.”
Dodge County Fair Musical Acts Announced
The majority of the grandstand acts for the Dodge County Fair this coming August have been announced. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band will perform the Thursday night of the fair and Blue Oyster Cult and Starship featuring Mickey Thomas the Saturday evening of the fair. Although not official yet during the annual stockholders meeting last weekend the Fair Association announced Jordan Davis would be the country performer for Friday night. The Dodge County Fair is August 19th through the 23rd.
ADVOCAP Head Start Enrollment Underway For Next Fall
ADVOCAP is taking registration for their Head Start classes for current classes and those that begin in September. Hillary Gunther is the Director of Head Start and Family Development for ADVOCAP. She says they have room for kids in ADVOCAP’s Head Start programs in Fond du Lac, North Fond du Lac, Berlin, Markesan and Ripon. She says while the program is for 3 to 4-year-old children they look at the needs of the entire family. “So Head Start is a program, it’s a federally funded program that looks at the whole family it’s a family-focused child development program that absolutely looks at academics uses research-based curriculum, but looks at the whole family and provides comprehensive services.” If you are interested in enrolling your child or knowing more call Lorri Bohn at 920-922-7760, extension 3544.
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