Hometown Broadcasting News Thursday 2/18/21
18 February 2021 News
Ripon Man Facing Sexual Assault Of A Child Charges In Sauk County
A 41-year-old Ripon man has been charged in Sauk County court with 2 felony counts of second degree sexual assault of a child. Marcus Hinton was released last week on a $500 cash bond and will return for a preliminary hearing on April 15th. According to the criminal complaint the victim told interviewers Hinton inappropriately touched the child during a trip to the Wilderness Resort last month. Hinton was a friend of the adults hosting the vacation. Hinton allegedly gave the child alcohol and told the victim not to tell anyone about his assault because he would end up in jail. The child thought Hinton might resort to violence or murder to keep his actions secret. The alleged assaults occurred over two days.
Ripon Schools Returning To In Person Learning For 6th Through 12th Graders
At their monthly meeting Monday the Ripon Area School District Board voted to return to teaching 6th through 12th graders face-to-face starting March 1st. That is done based on continuing mitigation strategies like wearing masks, social distancing, using hand sanitizer and washing hands, and cleaning surfaces more frequently if they are touched by students and staff. District Superintendent Mary Whitrock pointed out to the board in a memo that the Ripon High School, Ripon Middle School and both elementary school sites in Ripon have data demonstrating no spread of the virus and minimum cases of COVID coming into the schools. In addition close to 50 staff members have been vaccinated in the past few weeks.
COVID Testing In Omro Today
In response to an increased number of positive COVID-19 cases in the Omro community, ThedaCare will be offering free testing to residents this week. On Tuesday, leaders of the Omro School District announced in-person classes at the high school would be canceled for at least a week, and county health leaders are urging community members to be tested. ThedaCare’s free mobile testing will be held today from 10 am to 4 pm in the Omro High School parking lot. ThedaCare has the resources to provide approximately 300 to 400 tests.
Voter Turnout
Only 8 percent of the registered voters in Ripon cast their ballots for Tuesday’s Primary Election. According to City Clerk Ann Schommer 363 of the 4,609 registered voters in the city cast their votes for the State Superintendent of Public Schools and Fond du Lac County Judge’s race. In both instances Ripon voters gave the two candidates that came out on top in the statewide race and countywide race the most votes. In the superintendents race Jill Underly and Deborah Kerr advanced to the April 6th Spring Election and in the judge’s race Andrew Christianson and Laura Lavey. Countywide 14 percent of voters turned out and in Fond du Lac 19 percent where there were City Council and School Board races.
COVID Dashboard Improvement
A member of the Ripon Community COVID-19 Task Force says for the first time since the pandemic was in its initial months Fond du Lac County’s COVID-19 Safe Restart dashboard has no red status buttons or areas of concern among its five key metrics. Jeff Puhlmann-Becker says those indicators are for cases, testing, care, PPE, and contact tracing. “Cases are down below 4.2 percent, testing is at 100 percent, care is at 4.5 percent again under 5 percent, PPEs are at 90 percent. The only thing is contact tracing is in a yellow light and contact tracing is the only one in a yellow light.” He says it is difficult to judge the contact tracing because health department officials have been so busy with other areas of concern during the pandemic. Puhlmann-Beckers says health experts believe the turnaround is due to several things including vaccinations being doubled, some type of immunity for those who have already had COVID, and 20 percent of the population has been vaccinated.
Stimulus Bill
Congressman Glenn Grothman believes Democrats will get enough votes to pass a $1.9 trillion stimulus bill, but he hasn’t changed his mind about approving more money for relief from the pandemic. The Republican lawmaker from Glenbeulah says he wasn’t in favor of the bill President Trump was trying to push through either toward the end of his presidency. “I’m not thrilled with it and I’m not being a hypocrite here I didn’t like it when President Trump asked for his $2,000 per person back in November either. It’s kind of boring, but if you talk about the money supply it is going through the roof and I think we are already beginning to see inflation.” He says on the other hand there are some businesses that have been hurt by the pandemic and he’d like to help them out. He says in the hospitality sector restaurants, taverns, and hotels are all hurting.
GOP Lawmakers Reaction To State Budget Address
Republican state lawmakers from the area in reacting to Governor Tony Evers State Budget address preferred to focus on the responsible budgeting they did during the last legislative cycle. State Senator Joan Ballweg of Markesan says “Even though Wisconsin, due to our responsible budgeting, will see a surplus; it does not mean it is okay to use this budget to fund Governor Evers’ long list of divisive policy priorities.” State Representative Alex Dallman of Green Lake also praised the previous work of GOP state legislators saying, “To be able to battle through a pandemic and to be able to be positively positioned to bounce back, says a lot about our great state.” State Senator Dan Feyen of Fond du Lac says, “As Wisconsinites pick up the pieces and get back to normal, they need their government to help them along that path.”
EAA AirVenture
When EAA AirVenture resumes this year after being cancelled because of the pandemic last year there will be plenty to celebrate. Dick Knapinski of EAA says they had planned last year to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the end of WW II so they will do that this summer instead. “We’re going to have the Warbird shows especially on Friday and Saturday of AirVenture Week to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the end of the war. A lot of airplanes are coming in; we are talking with people who are finishing up restorations.” There will also be some special attractions like the U.S. Airforce Special Operations Group and the Orbis Flying Eye Hospital. EAA AirVenture 2021 will be held at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh July 26th through August 1st.
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