The Hoffman Hall pool, funding for Fort Crawford Museum and an amended fence ordinance were the main items of discussion at a Dec. 23 special meeting of the Prairie du Chien Common Council.

Council had voted to keep the Hoffman Hall pool open through the month of January to allow time for exploring funding possibilities and to obtain more exact costs of operating the facility. However, when City Administrator Jim Gitz reported on his meeting in Madison with state correctional officials, (Hoffman Hall is heated with steam from the prison plant), he still had no exact cost figures. The problem is that the prison has no precise way of determining the cost of the heat supplied. Gitz said the prison had a formula based on some expert assumptions about the costs, but the city has made improvements to the facility since that formula was prepared, so he does not feel the figures would be valid. The cost could be monitored by installation of meters, but that would be an additional expense.

Gitz said, however, that officials had given consideration to a contract proposal from the city which is much lower than their estimate. The proposal calls for a three-year phase out of reliance on the prison to provide heat and utilities. The city would pay $30,000 for steam and utilities provided through Dec. 21, 2008; $30,000 for 2009, and $40,000 for 2010 and 2011.In addition, the city would work at increasing the effectiveness of the utilities over the three year period. They have applied for an Office of Energy Independence Grant, with Hoffman Hall at the top of the list, Gitz said, and have proposed that in any economic stimulus projects submitted, Hoffman Hall be included. Corrections officials asked that the figures be transferred into a legal agreement and transmitted to them for examination.

Although no action was taken, council again debated the merits of keeping the pool open. If the agreement is signed, the heating costs would be the same whether or not the pool was open. Council member Joe Ruskey proposed the city give up on any attempts to keep the building operational and form a committee to explore building a new building with more gym space as a joint venture with the school.

Council member Becky Hackett said she felt that in paying $300,000 to purchase the building the city had already paid for the steam. "It needed work," she said, "and they knew it.

In relation to a request to restore funding to Fort Crawford Museum, Gitz said he had approached the Tourism Council about helping with the funding, and they had agreed to discuss it.

Speaking on behalf of Fort Crawford, Jim O’Meara said he had talked to someone on the Tourism council who said the council would help, but wouldn’t provide nearly as much money as they city previously had. He said since the council will benefit from additional motel tax from the town of Bridgeport this year, he felt they could be of more help. Gitz said he would try to set up a meeting with the Tourism Council and Fort Crawford representatives to further discuss the issue.

After discussing the advantages and disadvantages of further amending the city’s fence ordinance to include a possible setback, council finally passed an amendment which would require that any fences or walls built on residential property be constructed so that the finished side faces the neighbor’s property. No setback requirements were added.

A former Prairie du Chien High School athlete is working towards competing in the 2012 Summer Paralympic Games to be held in London, England.

Joe Delagrave, 23, who was a standout football, basketball and baseball player for the Blackhawks, received an invitation to a wheelchair rugby tryout camp Dec. 11-14 for the 2009 Team USA. The top 34 wheelchair rugby athletes from throughout the country were invited to the camp held at the Lakeshore Foundation facility in Birmingham, Alabama.

Following the initial tryout camp, Delagrave was one of 18 athletes who were chosen to continue in an effort to make the team. Several more training camps will be held from May through September, and, following the June camp, the team will be cut down to the final 12 athletes.

Wheelchair rugby is for people who have impaired use of their arms and legs. Delagrave sustained a spinal cord injury in a boating accident in 2004.

The 2009 Team USA will compete in an "America’s Zone" qualifying tournament in Buenos Aires, Argentina in October of 2009. The America’s Zone includes teams from North America, Central America and South America.

In December of 2009, there will be another tryout for the 2010 Team USA, which will compete in the World Championships in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

In December of 2011, the top wheelchair rugby athletes will again try out for Team USA, which will represent the United States at the 2012 Summer Paralympic Games in London. In 2008, Team USA won the gold medal at the 13th Summer Paralympic Games in Beijing, China. The Summer Paralympic Games were held from Sept. 6-17 and 4,200 athletes from 148 countries competed.

"This camp was good," said Delagrave, regarding the Dec. 11-14 tryout. "It was really tough, but it was exciting to have the opportunity to try out." He said that he made new acquaintances at the tryout but that it was also fun to compete with old friends he has met through wheelchair rugby in the past few years.

Delagrave said that he is very much looking forward to the upcoming training camp. In preparation for the camp, Delagrave will continue to practice with his club team, the Minnesota North Stars of Minneapolis, with whom he has enjoyed wheelchair rugby for the past two and a half years.

Delagrave is a senior at Northwestern College in Minneapolis, where he will graduate this upcoming spring with a degree in pastoral studies.

A teenager from Soldiers Grove died Dec. 26 of injuries received in an ATV accident near the residence of Karl and Jennifer Wangen.

Gregory Dodge, age 16, was operating an ATV near the residence of Karl and Jennifer Wangen on Wangen Drive in Utica Township. He went off the right side of the and struck a snow embankment. The ATV tipped over, pinning him under the ATV. He was transported to the Vernon Memorial Hospital by Tri-State Ambulance, where he was later pronounced dead from injuries sustained in the accident.

Assisting at the scene was Ocooch Mountain Rescue, North Crawford Rescue, Tri-State, the Wisconsin DNR and Soldiers Grove police department.

The accident is being investigated by the Wisconsin DNR.

Once again the City of Prairie du Chien will welcome the New Year with the Droppin’ of the Carp. The program for Dec. 31 is as follows:

3 p.m. Carp bowl - Last half of the football game between Prairie du Chien and McGregor/Marquette, Iowa firemen, located on St. Feriole Island. The winning fire department will receive a donation of $500 for their department.

9:30 p.m. Bonfire will be lit at the entrance to St. Feriole Island.

10:30 p.m. Welcome, breaking of the pinata for young children, crowning of the King and Queen, on-stage entertainment provided by Not So Pure Prairie League, composed of Suzanne Shaw, Jade Halverson and Shane Hazen.

11:40 p.m. Clock will be started for the countdown

Midnight Droppin’ of the Carp, "Auld Lang Syne," Pledge of Allegiance, "God Bless America" and fireworks.

When Don and Jeanne Ruehlow heard about the opportunity to become downtown streetscape benefactors by purchasing a plaque to be attached to one of the new amenities, they knew just what they wanted to do: purchase a plaque for the bench in front of Pete’s Hamburgers in memory of their son Danny.

Danny died in 2000, just 13 days short of his 16th birthday following a six year battle with leukemia and lymphoma. He was an active fundraiser in the crusade against cancer. Having experienced the outpouring of generosity from area residents who contributed to funding his cancer treatment expenses, he wanted to give back to the community. Even though he was still battling his own cancer, he was active in the local Relay for Life, and worked as an emcee with Tom Nelson on the annual Eagles Telethon.

Danny spoke at fundraisers and other gatherings throughout southern Wisconsin. His father helped him put together his speeches, but Danny, who enjoyed being on the stage, rarely kept to the script. "Had he lived," guesses Don, "he would have been a motivational speaker."

The Ruehlows credit a lot of Danny’s drive to a little slip of paper that Tom Nelson, one of Danny’s teachers, put in his report card: "I shall pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it. For I shall not pass this way again." Said Jeanne, "Danny thought it was the greatest thing ever."

Although he was Danny’s teacher, Nelson feels he really got to know him from the telethon, where, he said, "Jim Bittner was the heart of the telethon and Danny was its soul. He was one of those remarkable individuals that you’re lucky to meet and spend time with," Nelson said. "Life was enjoyable to him, and Danny was on the fast track, on that Harley going 90 miles an hour. He’s still here in the soul of everybody he reached out and touched."

Because of what Danny did in his short lifetime, the Ruehlows feel the memorial plaque is a perfect tribute. "He loved Prairie du Chien and the Prairie du Chien people loved him, and we thought it would be a nice thing to do for everybody," said Don. He added that if Danny were alive today, he would have been part of the project to sell the plaques. "He would have been in this big time."

Jeanne and Don chose the bench in front of Pete’s because Danny thought Pete’s was a great contribution to the city. He started helping Jill Bunders, his aunt and the manager of Pete’s, when she’d restock the supplies during the week. From the time he was 5 or 6 years old, recalls Jeanne, he accompanied Jill to carry in supplies and help clean. Later, he got a job there as onion peeler.

When Phyllis Gokey, owner of Pete’s, heard about the memorial plaque, "I was just thrilled," she said. "We all liked Danny; I couldn’t get over that they [the Ruehlows] would do something like that."

Prairie du Chien Downtown Revitalization (PDRI) is selling the plaques. In order to assure that the new downtown streetscape be completed at no cost to the city, PDRI pledged to pay the $50,000 not already covered by grants. The money taken in by the sale will help pay for the streetscape and other downtown revitalization projects.

People may purchase a four by six inch memorial plaque to be affixed prominently to a new street bench, trash basket, street light or flower basket, and they may, on a first-come, first-served basis, choose the location. The water fountains are already sold out.

Rogetta Halvorson, PDRI executive director, suggests people may want to choose a location in front of a building or store which has special meaning to their family, or they may want to memorialize someone who was a vital part of the city’s history or who simply had a great love for the city. Twenty seven plaques have already been sold. For more information, contact PDRI at 326-7374.