Hometown Broadcasting News Tuesday 12/7/21
7 December 2021 News
Oshkosh Man Skips Out On FDL County Court Appearance
An arrest warrant was issued last week for a 25-year-old Oshkosh man charged with battery to a nurse and disorderly conduct for a scuffle at the Ripon Community Hospital. According to the criminal complaint the charges stem from an incident on June 20th when Zachary Schwochert was brought in for treatment of injuries suffered in a minor traffic accident. Once there he allegedly tried to choke himself by wrapping a call light cord around his neck when a nurse walked away for a minute to grab something. While the nurse was trying to take a belt from Schwochert he grabbed her hand squeezing hard and injured her. He also threatened to shoot himself with gun he tried to take from a police officer when he was being restrained. According to the criminal complaint Schwochert told police he had worked as a correctional officer at Oshkosh Correctional but had to quit because he had tried shooting himself because voices told him he needed to do that. Schwochert failed to show up for his initial appearance in Fond du Lac County court last Tuesday.
Mercury Marine Announces Expansions In FDL
Mercury Marine Monday announced three new expansions to its Fond du Lac campus to meet record demand from its global customers. Mercury will increase capacity in both its Foundry and Machining facilities in Wisconsin, adding close to 100,000 additional square feet to its now three million square foot campus. Since 2009, Mercury has invested more than $1.7 billion in capacity and expansion, growing to more than 4,000 employees in Fond du Lac. Mercury Marine President Chris Drees says expanding the two facilities will give them the opportunity to produce more engines to meet the growing needs of their global channel partners. A recent study showed that Mercury contributes $5.1 billion annually to the Fond du Lac community. Mercury will also open a 512,000 square foot distribution center near Indianapolis, Indiana to support its parts and accessories business.
COVID 19 Update Monday
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services didn’t issue an update Monday on COVID 19 data because the Wisconsin Electronic Disease Surveillance System was being upgraded. During its last update on Friday DHS officials reported COVID activity was “critically high” in 26 counties and “very high” in the remaining 46 counties. Fond du Lac, Green Lake, Waushara and Winnebago counties were in the “very high” category while Dodge and Waupaca counties were in the “critically high” category for COVID activity. Meanwhile health researchers have initially found that the Omicron variant is more contagious than the Delta variant.
Federal Grant Pays For FDL County Traffic Enforcement Efforts
Federal grant monies will help pay for additional traffic enforcement by a Fond du Lac County task force. The Sheriff’s office runs the task force and funnels the money to other law enforcement agencies throughout the county to pay for overtime to conduct the efforts to keep drunken, drugged and reckless drivers off the roads. Sheriff Ryan Waldschmidt says his deputies also participate in those efforts. He says law enforcement agencies see a continued rise in calls for service each year so a $70,000 federal grant will help pay the overtime costs for their traffic enforcement campaigns like “Drive Sober” or “Click It or Ticket.” Waldschmidt says they are optimistic about getting another federal grant for traffic enforcement efforts next spring and summer.
Ballweg Bill Signed Into Law
State Senator Joan Ballweg coauthored a bill recently signed into law that provides more reasonable financial penalties for towns and villages that do not submit their annual statement for general transportations aids on time. Ballweg says local towns and villages do really well with the tight budgets they have to work with and they should be supported not burdened with harsh fines. She says one of the towns in her district lost $9,000 in transportation aids because of a computer error that wasn’t their fault. Previously, the Department of Revenue reduced aids by one percent for each date late, up to a maximum of 10 percent. Under the new law, the penalty will be $100 a day with a cap of $2,200.
Organized Retail Crime Bill
State Representative Alex Dallman introduced a bill, which would establish different requirements related to third-party sellers and online marketplaces through which they sell consumer products. He hopes to get bipartisan support for the bill. It would require that online marketplaces, such as Amazon, verify that their high-volume third party sellers are legitimate businesses. Dallman says organized criminals will steal from legitimate stores then sell what they steal on Amazon, Facebook Market Place and other online sites that do a high volume of business. The state lawmaker from Green Lake says the bill would require sellers like Amazon to find out more about the people that sell over $20,000 in merchandise or more than 100 items on their platform. He says this type of crime has been a real problem on the West Coast, but is now making inroads into the Milwaukee area.
Next Oshkosh City Clerk Tabbed
The city of Oshkosh has selected Jessi Balcom as its next City Clerk. Balcom will oversee the City Clerk’s Office, which is responsible for elections, issuing city licenses, and maintaining legislative records for the Oshkosh Common Council. City Manager Mark Rohloff says Balcom has broad experience in local government and has been a valuable member of the Public Works department for the past two years. Prior to that she was the Village Administrator for the Village of Slinger for 6 years, and was previously with the Village of Elm Grove as a Zoning and Planning Administrator. She will begin her City Clerk duties on January 4th. She is replacing current City Clerk Pamela Ubrig who retires on January 3rd after 41 years of service with the city.
Accreditation Team Visiting Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office
A team of assessors from the Wisconsin Law Enforcement Accreditation Group will visit the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office next Tuesday. The purpose is for accreditation of the department. The board will verify whether the Sheriff’s Office meets its state-of-the-art standards. It is part of a voluntary process to gain accreditation-a highly prized recognition of law enforcement professional excellence. As part of the on-site assessment, agency employees and members of the community are invited to offer comments by telephone. Phone calls can be made to the assessment team between the hours of 11 am and 1 pm on Wednesday, December 15th. The number of the non-recorded line is (920) 236-7327.
Aloha
Some Ripon senior citizens will be escaping cabin fever this winter with a trip to Hawaii. Noreen Johnson is the executive director of the Ripon Senior Activity Center. She says a group of ten seniors will be accompanying the Ripon High School Band and Choir for the March 10th through March 16th trip. The seniors will be seeing some of the same sites, but won’t be with the students on most of those adventures and will also be staying at a different hotel. Johnson says one of the things that will happen is a tour of Pearl Harbor’s historic sites. Other highlights include a visit to the Hawaiian North Shore and attending a traditional Hawaiian luau. Costs vary depending on whether you want to stay in your own room or double with someone. Spending money should also be taken along. Those who are interested should let the center know by next Monday by stopping by the center or calling 920-748-6225.
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