Local News Monday 3/4/13

Winter Storm Watch

 

March seems to have the potential to come in roaring like a lion with a Winter Storm Watch for the area. The Watch starts tonight and runs through 10 p.m. Tuesday. Light snow will develop tonight and become heavier by tomorrow morning. The total accumulations through Tuesday night could be from 6 to 11 inches. Listen to News-Talk 1450 KFIZ for weather updates and go to KFIZ.com for the latest delays, closings and cancellations.

 

FDL County First Fatal Accident Of Year

 

A 31-year-old Fond du Lac man, Lance Beyer,was killed in a two-car collision in the Town of Marshfield Sunday afternoon. Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s Sergeant Jim Borgen says the accident happened near the intersection of County Highways Q and G. A 30-year-old Kiel woman, Katie Daane, was flown to Theda Clark Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries. Her 2 and 4-year-old children were taken there by ambulance. Beyer died at the scene. Borgen says speed and alcohol were not factors in the accident. Plenty of other agencies assisted at the scene including; Calumet Fire Department and First Responders, Mount Calvary Ambulance, City of Fond du Lac Ambulance, Gold Cross Ambulance, and Flight for Life. It was the County’s first fatal traffic accident of the year. Names haven’t been released yet. The accident was reported at 4:35 p.m.

 

Fire Damages FDL Home

 

Fond du Lac Fire Chief Peter O’Leary is crediting some “quick-thinking” neighbors for saving a home on Maona Avenue from being extensively damaged by fire. Neighbors informed firefighters when they arrived just before 6 p.m. last night at the home at 471 Maona Avenue that no one was in the house, but they had seen smoke coming from a 3-season room on the east side of the home. O’Leary says the fire had been smoldering for quite some time before neighbors noticed the glow. The blaze was restricted to the room. Fire investigators believe a space heater used for supplemental heat ignited combustibles which were left too close to it. 

 

Six Marion Wisconsin Residents Killed In Kentucky Crash

 

Authorities say six members of an extended Wisconsin family were killed and others injured when a tractor-trailer rear-ended their SUV on a Kentucky highway. The crash happened on Interstate 65 near Elizabethtown, Kentucky Saturday morning. All of those in the SUV were from Marion, Wisconsin and ranged in age from 8 to 92-years of age. Two of those killed were foster children and the two injured were also foster children. The injured were taken to a hospital in Lexington, Kentucky. Their injuries were non-life threatening.

 

Suspect In Heroin Death Bound Over For Trial On Other Charge

 

The 33-year-old Milwaukee man who allegedly attacked an officer at the jail last month has been bound over for trial. Roy Whitelow was in Fond du Lac County Court for a preliminary hearing last Friday on a charge of battery to a law enforcement officer. A motion to reduce his $50,000 cash bond was also denied during the hearing. He is also suspected of supplying the heroin that led to the overdose death of a Fond du Lac woman last month. Originally prosecutors were looking at charging him with heroin trafficking. The investigation into the death is continuing. 

 

Preliminary Hearing Waived In Nudity Recording Case

 

The 19-year-old St. Louis, Missouri man suspected of recording women who were showering at Ripon College is now facing 14 counts of Capturing an Image of Nudity. Demetrious Moll was waived his preliminary hearing in Fond du Lac County Court last Friday.  According to the criminal complaint there were four victims. Moll allegedly used his cell phone to record the video. Seventeen files were found on Moll’s computer containing the videos. Moll has been banned from the Ripon College campus.

 

FDL Man Charged With Possessing Child Porn

 

A $2,500 cash bond was set for a 55-year-old Fond du Lac man when he was recently charged in Fond du Lac County Court with possession of child pornography. According to the State’s Department of Justice the charge brought against Scott Bernhardt is the result of an investigation that partnered their Division of Criminal Justice with a detective from the Fond du Lac Police Department. According to the criminal complaint a forensic preview of his laptop computer uncovered hundreds of sexually explicit images of children in a folder saved to the computer’s hard drive.  In an interview with investigators, Bernhardt admitted to downloading and viewing child pornography for the last ten to 15 years, according to the complaint.   A preliminary hearing is scheduled for this Friday.

 

Olsen-Ellis Bill Would Increase Funding For Schools

 

(Wisconsin Radio Network)-A pair of Republican state senators are proposing their own plan to increase funding for public schools. Under the plan from Senate President Mike Ellis of Neenah and Senator Luther Olsen of Ripon, schools would get an additional 150 dollars per student over the next two years. Ellis says the kids who are the future of this state are entitled to an increase. The Ellis-Olsen plan would cost $382 million, which would be paid for by shifting funding around in the governor’s budget and by allowing districts to collect an extra $153 million in property taxes over the next two years. For a $150,000 home, that would result in about a $16 increase in the first year. While the governor’s proposed budget includes $130-million in additional public school funding, it does not increase per-pupil spending levels or lift revenue caps.

 

Highway Salt

 

Fond du Lac County has been bombarded with multiple winter storms over the past few months and Tom Jahnke of the Fond du Lac County Highway Department says they are monitoring their salt reserve.  He says they’ve dipped into their reserve a bit.  He says they order the salt of a lot of the municipalities and some of them are over their limit but they were able to obtain some more to freshen up the reserve. Jahnke says he doesn’t anticipate any issues with salt and they should have enough for the rest of the winter.

 

Long Report

 

A prison bus was involved in an accident at Highway 49 and 175 in Dodge County on Thursday.  Luke Newman of the Wisconsin State Patrol says the bus and another car were stopped when a third car struck the vehicle which then crashed into the bus. Newman says the thing that made it interesting is that when you fill out the accident report you had to get information from every person involved. Newman says they had two people in one vehicle, five in another, and 26 prisoners and 3 guards in the bus.  That meant they needed information from 36 people for the single report. The State Patrol was assisted in collecting everyone’s information by Fond du Lac, Dodge, and Washington County Sheriff’s Departments.

 

FDL County Health Dept Asks That You Like Them On Facebook

 

The Fond du Lac County Health Department has a social network presence. County Public Health Officer Kim Mueller says they are on Facebook. She says they post 3 to 5 times a week that is beneficial to the public. She says you will find information that is health related for example they posted information when the flu was at its peak. Mueller says sometime soon people will also be able to follow them on Twitter.

 

Packer Fan Waits 37 Years To Become Season Ticket Holder

 

(Wisconsin Radio Network)-He’s waited 37 years for the big day, but Brad Suave of Shell Lake is now a Packers season ticket holder. He got a letter this past month, a letter he almost chucked because he thought it looked like junk mail or a solicitation. Suave says he put his name on the list while with friends visiting Lambeau ProShop in 1976. Suave says he never forgot, and watched his number slowly creep up over the years, and last year when his number climbed to 15, he knew it was close. There are roughly 105-thousand people on the list.

 

Guard The Sturgeon

 

The Wisconsin DNR is still taking applications for those interested in being on the “Sturgeon Patrol.”  Each spring, hundreds of volunteers have the opportunity to guard sturgeon at their spawning sites on the Wolf River and protect the fish from poaching.  The DNR says that it’s impossible to predict the exact dates of the spawning but guards are generally scheduled from April 15th to May 5th. If you could like to volunteer head to the Wisconsin DNR’s website or call 920-303-5444.

 

Weather Spotter Training

 

A live in person weather spotter’s training class has been schedule in Fond du Lac County for March 14th at 6:30 p.m. on the Campus of Marian University.   The event hosted by the University will be located in the Stayer Center at the corner of 2nd Street and National Ave. in the City of Fond du Lac.  Parking will be located off the 2nd Street lot.  The training is offered free of charge to anyone that may be interested. The informational/instructional session will be facilitated by Rusty Kapela (Rusty.Kapela@noaa.gov) from the National Weather Service, Sullivan/Milwaukee office.  Fond du Lac County is in the Sullivan reporting area.  This live in person appearance is rare due to Federal funding cutbacks to the National Weather Service and may be non-existent in the future.  We encourage all members of the Fond du Lac County community, public safety personnel and anyone that may be interested to attend this presentation. We recognize the value and privilege of being able to use the Stayer Center at Marian University for this presentation and thank them for their community minded presence.