Local News Briefs Monday 11/18/13

The Fond du Lac City Council will hold a special meeting tonight to act on amending the City’s housing discrimination ordinance. Councilman Dan Manning has proposed adding the term gender identity or expression as forms of discrimination when it comes to housing. Gender, gender identity, gender expression and sex would be added to the definitions in the code. Last Wednesday the proposed change was pulled from the Council’s agenda, but Council President Sam Meyer didn’t want to put off voting on the matter hence the call for a special meeting tonight. The meeting will be at 6 p.m. at the City-County Government Center.

Sex Offender And Bomb Threats Suspect Refereed Youth Athletic Contests

The Superintendent of the Waupun School District says they acted as quickly as possible after learning a convicted sex offender and bomb threats suspect had refereed athletic games for them. Tonya Gubin says they got a call from officials in Mayville where Aaron Schreiber had refereed some softball games. She says they got confirmation that Schreiber was indeed a registered sex offender and terminated the rest of the games he was supposed to referee for them. She says they also got a tip from a parent from another district who saw Schreiber refereeing a game and recognized him as being a registered sex offender. He says because he violated his conditions as a sex offender helped police in their investigation into the bomb threats as well. One of the bomb threats was for the Waupun Junior/Senior High School. To see the criminal complaint click here.

UW-FDL Releases Request For Proposals For Student Housing

The University of Wisconsin-Fond du Lac Foundation has released a Request for Proposals (RFP) for a 76-120 bed student housing facility to be located at UW-Fond du Lac.  The scope of work in the RFP is three-fold: pre-design; design/build; and on-going management of the facility’s operations. Interested parties are invited to a mandatory Proposer’s Conference, 9-11 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 4, in room AE-136 at UW-Fond du Lac, 400 University Drive, Fond du Lac. Inquiries regarding the RFP must be received in writing by 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 11. Inquiries can be sent to the Vice President of the UW-FDL Foundation, 400 University Dr., Fond du Lac, Wisconsin 54935, and marked RE: Student Housing RFP Inquiry. Full proposals are due by 4:30 pm on Friday, Dec. 20. The RFP is published on the UW-Fond du Lac Foundation’s Web site at: www.fdl.uwc.edu/foundation.  

State Senator Gudex Office Hours Today And Tomorrow

State Senator Rick Gudex will be holding office hours in a couple of locations in the 18th State Senate District today and tomorrow. He will be at the Taycheedah Town Hall from 5 to 6:30 p.m. tonight and the Black Wolf Town Hall in Oshkosh from 2:30 to 4 p.m. tomorrow afternoon. He will be available to meet individually with constituents during those times. He will also be a guest on the Morning Show with Bob Hoffmaster at 11:30 this morning on News-Talk 1450 KFIZ.

Drug Free Communities Had Role In Establishing Drug Court

An official with the Drug Free Communities of Fond du Lac County says a drug court in the County can trace its origins back to some of the work they initially did. It started with the Health 2020 initiative with work on alcohol use and abuse. Janet Lloyd says they wrote for the $350,000 that was awarded to the County that will pay for the cost of hiring a program coordinator that will help with the initiative. Lloyd says they are hoping the drug court will accomplish several aims decreasing recidivism and addiction. It’s hoped the drug court can help out about 30 people a year. The grant will cover the first three years of a program that officials hope will become self-sustaining through fees charged to participants.

Thiesfeldt Pepper Spray Bill On Its Way To Governor’s Desk

The bill a Fond du Lac state legislator authored that would allow residents to use stronger pepper spray to protect their home and person is on its way to the Governor’s desk to be signed into law. State Representative Jeremy Thiesfeldt says not everyone feels comfortable using a firearm under the state’s concealed carry law and Castle Doctrine. He says the state has one of the most restrictive regulations when it comes to the use of pepper spray. The new law would allow for use of stronger pepper sprays. The measure passed on voice votes in both the State Senate and Assembly.

NFDL Police And Benevolent Association Looking For Donations

Once again this holiday season the North Fond du Lac Police Department and Benevolent Association will be taking donations to help out needy families. North Fond du Lac Police Chief Darren Pautsch says they will be adopting a number of families and helping them out with donations for basic needs. He says they will be accepting donations of new in the package socks, underwear, hats, mittens and cash. He says they used to take food donations, but ran into problems with products that expired or food allergies. He says the cash donations allow them to buy grocery gift cards so they can pick up groceries for the families the day of delivery. He says anyone who would like to donate can drop their donations off during business hours at the police department in the municipal building from 8 to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Requests For United Way Funding Far Surpass Goal

The Fond du Lac Area United Way is over the halfway point in its fall fundraising campaign. United Way Executive Director Tina Potter says they are at 53 percent of their $740,000 goal or about $389,000. She says it’s always nice to see donations from large companies, but smaller businesses also do their part which is much appreciated. She says each year they get requests for more money than their goal. This year there were requests that amounted to $918,000. Potter says one area they would like to see increased contributions from is people working in the public sector. She says that includes government workers, firefighters and police, jobs in education and more. She says they set a goal of $79,000 this year for public sector contributors and it would be nice if they could meet that goal.

Gun Deer Season Starts Saturday

(Wisconsin Radio Network)-Hundreds of thousands of deer hunters in Wisconsin will be donning their blaze-orange attire later this week for the state’s nine-day gun season. DNR big game ecologist Kevin Wallenfang says there should be plenty of targets, even though the agency doesn’t predict the actual size of the deer herd. He says they try and get away from that because it throws up false expectations for hunting success. Having said that, Wallenfang figures there is probably more than a million and a half deer in the state. The gun season opens at daylight Saturday and runs through December 1st.

Blood Donations Needed

With the holiday season coming up the American Red Cross has put out an appeal for blood donations. All blood types are needed, especially O negative, A negative and B negative. In Fond du Lac County there’s a blood drive at the Campbellsport Public Library today from 12:30 to 5:30 p.m.  Tomorrow there will be a blood drive in Hustisford at the Bethany Evangelical Lutheran Church from 1 to 5:30 p.m.