News 03.15.18
15 March 2018 News
The Fond du Lac County Public Health Department is asking county residents to participate in a community health assessment. Public Health nurse Joyce Mann says residents are asked to fill out a short survey to help local officials identify priority health issues. Mann says the Healthy Fond du Lac County Steering committee will review the survey results and reveal the priority health issues for the county in June. The survey can be found online at the health department’s website.
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A Wisconsin man killed in an apartment explosion had friends and family who loved him and was not a bomb maker, according to the pastor who will conduct his funeral service. The Beaver Dam Police Department confirmed Wednesday that 28-year-old Benjamin Morrow died in last week’s explosion in Beaver Dam. Morrow’s death is a puzzle to all who knew him, said Rev. Jerry Marsden. Marsden will preside at Morrow’s funeral service today in Madison. Investigators are presuming Morrow was making bombs when the explosives accidentally detonated, according to Beaver Dam Police Chief John Kreuziger. The FBI has found that he was acting alone and authorities have also ruled out any connections to terrorism. Morrow was a quality control technician for Richelieu Foods and had previously worked as an associate scientist at PPD of Middleton, a contract research company. Residents had to be evacuated from the area because leftover explosive material caused additional explosions. Fire officials plan to burn down the apartment building today because the explosions dispersed chemicals throughout the structure. Beaver Dam Fire Chief Alan Mannel says residents won’t be able to collect their belongings before the structure is demolished. About 20 area fire departments with at least 100 firefighters will assist with the controlled burn, Mannel said. The FBI and the Dane County Bomb Squad will be among the agencies on hand.
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Wisconsin wildlife officials are launching the state’s first elk hunt.
The Department of Natural Resources announced on its website Tuesday that hunters will be allowed to kill 10 bull elk across Sawyer, Bayfield, Ashland and Price counties from mid-October to mid-November and over eight days in mid-December. Four tags will go to Wisconsin residents through a DNR drawing. One tag will be awarded to a Wisconsin resident through a Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation raffle. The rest will go to Wisconsin’s six Chippewa tribes. Applications will become available May 1. The DNR has been importing Kentucky elk for the last three years to bolster a northern Wisconsin herd and establish a second herd in Jackson County. The agency expects the northern herd to grow to more than 200 elk this year.
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About 203,000 retired public employees in the Wisconsin Retirement System will receive a 2.4 percent pension payment increase starting in May. The Department of Employee Trust Funds announced the payment increase on Tuesday. It comes after the State of Wisconsin Investment Board reported that investments in the “Core Fund” rose by 16.2 percent last year and “Variable Fund” investments rose by 23.2 percent. All public employees are covered by the “Core Fund,” which levels out gains and losses over a five-year period to avoid large spikes. The roughly 41,000 retirees who invest in the voluntary and more volatile “Variable Fund” will see a 17 percent increase on that portion of their annuities. That fund is comprised of all stocks, making pension payments tied to it more subject to ups and downs.
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