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June 8, 2009 |
The Allamakee County Sheriffs deputies call him the Yellow River Stallion. We called him Hildago. Whatever his name is, he should be called lucky.
After a month spent in legal limbo, the paint stallion that had been abandoned at Yellow River Forest camp-grounds now has a future.
He broke into our barnyard on April 30. After a week-long romance with our Quarter Horse mare Josie, we turned the wild but charming outlaw over to Ed Stahl, the Chief of Police for Lansing. Stahl, a lifelong horseman as well as a police officer, offered to hold the stallion for the Allamakee Sheriff’s Department.
By Iowa law, stray livestock must be advertised for two weeks and held for 30 days in order to locate the owner.
No one involved in this case believed that anyone was really looking for Hildago. When he was abandoned sometime in April, he was thin and did not allow anyone to touch him.
After a month at the Stahl place, Hildago is almost a horse of a different color. The Stahls grained the horse everyday, and snuck some wormer into his feed. His mane is free of burrs because Cathy Stahl worked with him almost every day feeding him, talking to him, touching him. Now the horse will allow her to pet him on the head, neck and shoulders, so she managed to pick the burrs out of his mane.
She’s gotten attached to him.
"It’s hard to let him go," Cathy said.
In the short time the horse was at our place, we got to like him too. His manners were quiet and curious. But he always kept his distance in a wild horse kind of way. Get within four to six feet of him and that was enough for him—unless you have a pail of grain.
That’s part of the trouble with keeping a horse like Hildago. He can be trained, but it takes a lot of time and patience. And because he is still a stud, he has to be kept separate from other horses to avoid problems. Recreational horse owners such as my husband and I and the Stahls don’t usually have the space to house such an animal separately, or the time and expertise to train an adult horse who does not trust people very much.
But there’s that wild horse cachet. There’s something romantic about a handsome paint stallion found running wild in the forest that is pretty appealing, especially to horse enthusiasts. And anyone who enjoys training horses is intrigued by the challenge such a horse presents.
On Tuesday, May 9, Hildago started a new chapter in his life. Lansing-area horse trainer and Quarter Horse breeder Daryl Steiber picked up the horse. At Daryl’s barn, the horse will be gelded, gentled and trained. Most likely the Yellow River Stallion will eventually be sold as a recreational horse.
Another horse, a pregnant paint mare, was also roaming the woods and campgrounds at Yellow River. For a few weeks in May she was a regular on the lawn outside the park office building, grazing on the inviting green lawn. Very thin and ragged-looking, she was a pathetic sight, in tougher shape than the stallion, probably due to her pregnancy.
With grain she was eventually captured by George Guttman of rural Allamakee County, who claims to run a horse rescue.
It seems reasonable to assume that the horses were abandoned at the same time by the same owner, who will probably never be caught.
Andrew Mezera, age 79, of Prairie du Chien, died yesterday when the car he was driving crashed through the main gate of the Prairie du Chien Correctional Institute shortly after noon.
Although no more information will be available until after an autopsy, which is scheduled for later this week, authorities theorize that Mezera was driving south on Sixth Street opposite the prison and suffered some type of medical emergency, jamming his foot on the accelerator. The car would have picked up speed and crashed through the gate.
The car, a 1998 Cadillac, rolled over and landed on its top once inside the gates. Mezera was pronounced dead at the scene by the Crawford County coroner. The incident remains under investigation.
Prairie du Chien Mayor Karl Steiner’s sentence for an OWI conviction has been finalized in Clayton County District Court.
According to the Clayton County Clerk of Courts Office, Steiner was convicted on May 26 but a motion for reconsideration was filed. The reconsidered sentence for Steiner now shows that he must pay a $1,875 fine, must pay a $600 surcharge, and must pay $110 in court costs.
Steiner was also sentenced to 10 days in jail with credit for time served. Steiner can serve his jail time on weekends, but there will be no work release. Steiner’s jail sentence can be reduced by two days if he completes the Hawkeye Course. Steiner must also complete Drunk Driving School, according to the Clerk of Courts Office.
Steiner, 43, was arrested for OWI and failure to maintain control following a one-car accident on Highway 76 just north of Marquette on Aug. 24, 2008.
The Prairie du Chien Teacher’s Union and the Prairie du Chien Area School Board have settled the contract negotiations for this year and last school year. The contract status was in the mediation stage for months and finally both sides agreed to a settlement.
The contract is about a 4 percent total package increase for each of the years. The top end teachers now earn $51,897 per year and the beginning teacher pay level was increased to $31,890. The insurance remains with the same insurance company that is owned by the State Teachers Union, but the teachers did opt for a different plan under those WEA Trust offerings, and that savings was added to their pay under the total package. The other main change was in the tax sheltered annuity language.
This is a settled contract and the teachers will get back pay for the two years. In the two previous years before that there was a contract in place but it was an imposed qualified economic offer (QEO) contract. That raise was the state mandated QEO of a 3.8 percent package for those years. This was put in place by the board because a mediator determined the two sides were making no progress and were at an impasse.
However, under the QEO, the teachers still received a 3.8 percent package. This new negotiated package of 4 percent each year for the past two years does not affect those past packages.
Negotiations for the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 school years will probably start again this fall.
June 6, 2009 |
Area athletes compete at State Track Meet
Several area athletes competed in the State Track and Field Meet at UW–La Crosse Friday and Saturday.
For the boys in Division 3, Cody Martin of River Ridge took fifth in the 100-meter dash in a time of 11.41 in his preliminary race to qualify for the finals. In the finals, Martin finished in eighth with a time of 11.86.
Garrett Knapp of River Ridge finished seventh in the pole vault final at 13-0 on Friday. Fellow pole vaulter Matt Floyd of River Ridge was 12th on Friday with a vault of 12-6.
The River Ridge relay team of Matt Raisbeck, Luke Moris, Cody Martin and Tom Osterday took sixth in the preliminary of the 800 relay in a time of 1:33.01 to qualify for the finals. In the finals, the team finished ninth with a time of 1:37.18.
For the girls, Laura Martin of River Ridge was 15th in the long jump with a leap of 15-2.
Megan Marfilius of Wauzeka-Steuben finished seventh in the high jump with a jump of 5-0.
Wauzeka-Steuben scored 2 points in the girls meet.
River Ridge scored 3 points in the boys meet.
Prairie du Chien man dies in accident
A Prairie du Chien man was fatally injured in a one-car crash the morning of June 7.
Jason Hutchinson, age 29, died when a pickup driven by Chase Cooper, also of Prairie du Chien, went off the road, struck a tree and rolled, partially ejecting Hutchinson.
The accident occurred at 2:43 a.m. on County Highway C, 1.1 miles west of Rail Hollow Road in Millville Township. Cooper was driving west on Highway C when he failed to negotiate a curve and his vehicle left the road. Hutchinson was pronounced dead at the scene by the Grant County Coroner’s Office. Neither Cooper nor Hutchinson wore their seatbelts at the time of the crash.
Cooper was arrested for homicide by intoxicated use of a motor vehicle.
The Grant County Sheriff’s Department was assisted on scene by the Boscobel Police Department, Boscobel Fire and Rescue, Mount Hope Fire Department and the Woodman First Responders.
This is the fourth fatality in Grant County for 2009.
Tentative waterfront plan includes amphitheater, expanded Washington Street park
Taking into consideration input received from city officials and the public, Vierbicher, the city’s planning and engineering firm, has put together a tentative waterfront plan which includes both the island and the mainland sides of the St. Feriole Slough.
The plan for the waterfront, as presented at a June 4 public workshop at City Hall, includes 37 possible improvements or additions to the waterfront. Each possibility listed is given a priority ranking, a cost estimate, and an indication of whether it is a short-term, mid-term or long-term project.
Eighteen items on the list are given the highest priority: cleaning up the shoreline of Lucky Park, a handicapped accessible fishing pier, an outdoor amphitheater, dredging the slough to improve boat accessibility, handicap-accessible parking for the fishing pier, a park shelter in Washington Park, improved riverwalk along the island side of the slough, a kayak/canoe launch are in Washington Park, a new path on the mainland side between W. Washington St. and Lucky Park, improving Lucky Park facilities and parking, placement of regional and wayfinding context maps in Lucky Park, rehabilitating the marina, a new boardwalk on the island side south of W. Blackhawk Avenue through the wetlands and boat docks south of Blackhawk Avenue.
The amphitheater plan and the proposals for Washington Park were accompanied by colored illustrations.
A vision statement, goals and objectives have also been developed. The vision statement reads, "The future of the slough will preserve the long-term viability of the waterfront as a place for public enjoyment and a source of pride within the community. It will foster an environment that enhances local quality of life while also responding in a sustainable manner to inevitable changes. It will create a future which preserves local character and historical context, recognizes and preserves the vast natural resources, and encourages residents and visitors to utilize and appreciate the unique qualities and amenities along the Mississippi River."
Five specific goals have been set, emphasizing historical context, economic development, waterfront recreation and accessibility, natural resources and aesthetics.
Vierbicher plans a working meeting with the Public Works and Planning Commission June 15. The intent of that meeting is to discuss public input from the June 4 workshop, recommend final changes to the plan and forward it to the city council with a recommendation for adoption.
If the council adopts the plan at its July meeting, the final plan would be submitted to the Wisconsin Department of Commerce, which provided the grant for developing the plan. Once adopted, the plan will serve as a guide for future development.
