Revamped HVAC proposed for Courthouse Building

Proposed improvements to the heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems in the Crawford County Courthouse Building were discussed at the County Finance Committee Meeting March 18 and will continue to be pursued in the future.

"The County Administrative Offices Building is roughly twice the size of the Courthouse Building and it runs at half the cost," said Maintenance Department head John Poots, regarding the cost of utilities.

Poots said that three preliminary proposals have been drawn up regarding upgrades to the mechanical systems of the Courthouse Building including boilers, pumps, piping, air handlers and air conditioners. The preliminary plans were presented by Avenue Architects and prepared by JDR Engineers of Madison. The plans involve upgrades to the Courthouse part of the building as well as the Law Enforcement Center.

The original Courthouse Building was built in 1867. In 1930, an addition to the east side of the building was completed. The jail was built in 1978 and the Law Enforcement Center was added in 1996. Poots said that the current structure is kind of hodgepodge of systems.

Poots said that all three proposals call for one state-of-the-art system to run the entire structure. This heating, cooling and ventilation system would be designed to last 20-plus years and will save the county vast amounts of money in the long run.

Poots noted that the building only has one boiler that was built and installed sometime in the late 1950s. The proposals call for installing two modern boilers to replace the old one. In addition, the boiler room would be moved to where the Child Services Department used to be located in the basement.

"I would estimate that when these two new boilers are installed, the heating efficiency would go up from about 50 percent to 90 percent," said Poots.

In addition to saving money, the second boiler would provide a backup system that does not currently exist. Poots said that if the current, old boiler were to fail, it would cause a lot of hardship and cost a lot of money. "The liability factor alone is tremendous," he said, in noting that should the old boiler fail, the inmates in the jail would have to be shipped somewhere else, which would cost a lot of money. The facilities that the inmates would be shipped to would bill Crawford County. The cost of replacing the old boiler would also be huge, said Poots.

The three proposals also call for a "chiller unit" to be installed under the garage of the jail, where there would be virtually no sound. A chiller unit is a water-cooled air conditioner that cool the whole facility.

The Law Enforcement Center is run by a split unit system, much like a home would be. The jail is also a split unit system. The Courthouse involves mostly window units. Installing two new boilers, a chiller unit and new piping, would bring the whole facility up to modern standards, said Poots.

In addition, there would be "automatic zone control" for controlling temperature in the facility, much like that of the Administrative Office Building. Air quality would also be improved tremendously.

"There is virtually no ventilation right now, no fresh air," said Poots. In contrast, the air in the Administrative Offices Building changes every hour.

Poots noted that each of the three proposals aims at the same thing, but each proposal in turn is a little bit better and more costly. "It’s kind of like a Pinto, a mid-size and a Cadillac," he said.

Poots estimated that the least costly proposal would cost $1.27 million and the most costly would be approximately $1.58 million.

He said that county officials have already talked to people from Wisconsin’s Focus On Energy program, who in turn are working with the architect on finding grant money and other such funding sources regarding heating, cooling and windows.

Fire damages house

On Sunday, March 22 at 10:15 p.m., Crawford County Sheriff’s Deputies, along with the Bridgeport Fire Department, Eastman Fire Department, Prairie du Chien EMS, and the Prairie du Chien Police Department were called to a house fire at 61551 Haven Drive in the town of Bridgeport.

The owners of the home, Terry and Vicki Seeley, were asleep in the home when the fire started. They escaped without injury.

The home sustained severe damage. The fire started in the attic and roof area of the house.

Public input sought for waterfront development plan

If all goes as planned, Prairie du Chien will have a completed plan for the city’s waterfront ready for submission to the Department of Commerce by the end of July, and public input is not only welcome but desired, said Garth Frable, city planning consultant.

In December, 2008, the city signed a contract with the Wisconsin Department of Commerce for a riverfront planning grant. The grant is for the purpose of developing a plan which focuses on the waterfront property abutting the slough between Wisconsin and Cedar streets, the marina area, the slough itself, and the area between St. Feriole Island and Main Street.

By developing a plan, the city is hoping to encourage and better manage development in that area, ensure the development is consistent with the city’s plans, protect the natural and cultural resources of the city, encourage appropriate waterfront recreational uses in public and private development and connect residents and visitors to the waterfront through improved bicycle and pedestrian facilities.

Vierbicher and Associates is doing the research and preparation of the plan. Their first step is to research and collect data, including relevant local, state and federal planning documents, identify current land uses, potential impacts of the plan, any barriers such as archeological sites or flowage easements and corridors, gateways and other existing connections which will shape the use of the riverfront.

Next, Vierbicher staff will meet with the Public Works and Planning Commission at a meeting scheduled for April 6. Following that will be the first of at least two public workshops to present information and gather ideas from the public. The tentative date for this is April 16. Vierbicher plans to have information available to the public in advance of the workshop.

The next major step is to develop a draft design and land use plan and an annotated and illustrated site plan map. The map will include possible public facilities such as trails, boardwalk, boat landings and parks linking the slough to the downtown and to the future Highway 18 improvements. This should be ready by early May, and will be followed by a draft action plan including recommendations for development, projects identified by priority, and anticipated costs. Once this is reviewed by the Public Works and Planning Commission, a second public workshop will be held, with information prepared and available in advance.

It is hoped that the plan can be presented to the Common Council and adopted by July 1, with a finished plan submitted to the Wisconsin Department of Commerce by July 29.

Frable said he wants residents to understand that public input will not be limited to the public workshops. The city has the money to do the planning, and, said Frable, "we definitely want to get as much input as possible." He encourages residents to write up their suggestions and ideas and deliver them to City Hall throughout the planning process.

Guttenberg fires police chief

At a special council meeting Tuesday afternoon, the Guttenberg, Iowa City Council fired George Morteo, the city’s police chief since 2001. The meeting had been postponed from last Friday until Morteo returned from a business trip.

Mayor Jim Solomon stated the action was taken because of unacceptable performance, but he did not elaborate during the meeting. Morteo was not given an opportunity to speak before the roll call, and the vote for dismissal was 4-1.

The city is currently under a state investigation due to a case of missing cash from a Guttenberg Police Department evidence room. Neither the amount of money nor names of possible suspects have been disclosed.

The council chambers were reportedly filled to capacity with Morteo supporters and also with those asking that he be fired.

Several generations were taught in this red brick building until it was closed in the spring of 2006. This Eastman landmark has quite an interesting history.

The following article was written with the help of the book "Rural Schools of Crawford County," the information for which was collected, researched and assembled by Marie Doll Wagner and Ethel Matti Lorenz. The book was provided to the Courier Press by Faye Trautsch. Lonnie and Jane Achenbach of Eastman also brought in information, which was written by Eunice Key.

The first schoolhouse erected in what was then known as Batavia was completed in 1848. The schoolhouse was located on land that today is bordered by Coffin Street on the north and Highway 27 on the west. The land is now occupied by the home of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Granzow. The school was the second school in the Eastman area, preceded only by the Hazen Corner School.

The first election in Batavia was held in the schoolhouse in 1855. Along with town officers elected, there was also elected J. Bouilatte as Superintendent of Schools.

Originally, the school was a one-room building, but as enrollment increased another room was added. The school was a frame building and served the young people of the village until 1914 when the building was sold to James Wallin. Wallin separated the two sections of the building and remodeled them for two homes. These homes are still occupied by people who live in the village.

In 1884, the school had 89 pupils. According to records, the frame building was valued at $400.

The village name was changed from Batavia to Eastman, being named after Benjamin Eastman, a member of Congress for the Second District.

This first school on the north end of town was to be replaced by a new modern brick school building that was to be built on the south side of the village. Plans called for this building to be completed in time for the 1915-1916 school term, but labor trouble caused a serious delay so the first classes could not be held in the new building until the 1916-1917 school year. The children were forced to attend classes in the Village Hall and Royal Neighbor Hall for the 1915-1916 school term.

Completion of the school building was a great relief to the parents of the district. There had been much heated discussions held before finally the school was agreed upon. About half of the community wanted to retain the old school building. The other group wanted to complete a four-year high school on land that by 1990 was owned by Orvis Ertel. The result was a compromise. They agreed on a two-year junior high school built on the east side of the street across from the land owned by Ertel, where its majestic appearance still stands, awaiting its fate.

This brick school that was built in 1914-1916 is situated at 1,247 feet above sea level, the second highest point in Crawford County. A person traveling 12 miles southwest to Prairie du Chien descends approximately 600 feet.

The teachers of the new school were Principal Chester Allen, who also taught ninth and 10th grade, Ruth (Matti) Haddock and Hattie (Mehnert) Check.

In 1938, Upper Shanghai and Swatek Ridge rural schools merged with the Eastman School. At the end of the 1942 school term, the freshmen and sophomore classes were discontinued, and those students began their high school careers at Wauzeka, Seneca or Prairie du Chien.

During the year of 1958, the Eastman School merged with the Prairie du Chien School system. Before the final decision to join the Prairie du Chien District was made, several meetings were held with many heated debates, as many of the local people wanted to join the Seneca School District whose physical location was closer to the Eastman community.

After the merger, classes were still conducted at the Eastman School. In 1959, kindergarten was added to the Eastman School and the seventh and eighth-grade students were transported by bus to Prairie du Chien. The following year, the kindergartners were also transported to Prairie du Chien.

Regular classes continued in the Eastman School until 2000. Again, in the year 2000, there was much discussion about the fate of the Eastman Community School, and the idea of a charter school was introduced. The charter was written and approved for classes kindergarten through fifth grade. The school was known as ECHOES. It was closed in 2006, with students transferring to Seneca, Wauzeka and Prairie du Chien.

It won’t help catch any criminals in a high-speed chase, but the little electric vehicle purchased at a bargain-basement price by the police and public works departments is looking very promising in its initial weeks of operation.

Police Chief Mike King said his department had an interest in such a vehicle for a long time, but had neither the funding nor a source for one. Then the vehicle became available through the 10-33 Surplus Property Program. This program is designed to provide surplus government property to law enforcement agencies. Most of the items in this program used to be provided free, King said, but due to cuts in funding, there is now usually a fee. In this case, King estimated, the vehicle would have cost approximately $15,000 had they purchased it from a different source. "We got it," he said, "for $750, with the cost split half and half with the public works department." The vehicle is about three years old.

It runs on automotive batteries which are recharged overnight. It has a top speed limit of 25 mph, which is also the legal limit for such vehicles, and is to be used on side streets only.

Its first use, said King, was in the St. Patrick’s Day parade. He envisions using it for special events such as Rendezvous, traffic control and errands which would otherwise require use of a gas-burning vehicle. King said the police department had not had much opportunity to use it thus far because "we can’t get it away from the other department."

Terry Meyer, co-manager of public works, said it has been in use at the wastewater plant for collecting some of their daily samples, locating lines for Digger’s Hotline, manhole inspection and other jobs. "It reduces our carbon footprint," he said. "It shows the community the city is serious about environmental protection."

King agrees that it would cut down on energy consumption and pollution, but said the departments would like to use it for at least a year before deciding if the benefits outweigh the costs. Because of its speed limitations, it could not be used to replace a patrol car.