As their fishing party boated up the river to the remote cabin at which they would stay for their regular summer fishing trip, Terry Igo wondered casually if, should an emergency occur, he could ever find his way back out. The thought had occurred to him on previous trips, but this time he and fellow fisherman John Kluesner were going to have the opportunity to find out.

The two men were part of a group that has been going to Abamassagi Lake in northern Ontario, about four hours north of Lake Nipigon, for several years. Other members of the group are Jim Greenwald, John Borgen, Cole Kluesner, Jack Kluesner, Kevin Kluesner and Kyle Igo. They stay in a primitive cabin owned by O’Sullivan Outfitters, with no direct communication to the outside world.

Normally they would fly in, but when they arrived at the landing strip, they found they would have to wait for most of the day until the plane could take them, so they decided to go by boat. The river has several sets of Class Two whitewater rapids, Igo said, which made the trip a little challenging, but not impossible.

The men had been fishing for several days when Terry and John were awakened by a knock on the door about 4 a.m. "At first," he said, "I wondered if I was dreaming." It was a man from another outpost a couple of miles away. He said one of their buddies was in bad shape, and they thought he was having a heart attack. Like Terry and John’s party, they had no means of communicating with civilization, and they wondered if anyone in the group knew the way back. Since that group had been dropped off by float plane, they didn’t even know about the river. Terry and John agreed to try. They met the other people at their cabin, which was closer to the river. Deciding the trip might be too difficult for the ailing man, two other men from that party decided to follow in a second boat.

"It takes 50 minutes or more to cross the lake, and we weren’t sure how long it would take to find the river, but we drove right to it," said Terry. He and John led the way through the first set of rapids and waved the other group through. He warned them the next set would be more difficult, since "you have to aim the boat right at a big rock, then let the water take the boat around it." He and John made it through, but the other men tried three times and couldn’t make it. So they used ropes to pull the boat up the rapids, with one man staying in the boat with a pole to keep it off the shore.

When they reached the next set of rapids, they suggested the men take a path from there to the road where they should be able to hitch a ride with a logging truck to the resort, and a plane could be sent to pick up the ailing man.

John and Terry started back, and just as they arrived, they saw a float plane land to pick up the man with the heart attack. Later in the day, they learned from the other party, a group of men from Quebec, that the man had indeed suffered a heart attack and would remain hospitalized for a while, but was doing well. Before they returned to the camp, the Quebec men had rented a satellite phone so they could get updates on the man’s progress.

Terry, who agreed to talk about it only at the prompting of Jim Greenwald, John Kluesner’s father-in-law, says it was an adventure; they learned they could find their way out of the wilderness, and they made some new friends as well. Greenwald has been going to the area for about 40 years, Terry said, and he has been going since 1998. The group doesn’t tend to catch any "monster fish," he said, but the fishing is good. During this past summer’s trip, they watched northerns grab at walleyes as they reeled them in, and were able to net both fish five different times.

Next summer, he said, they’re planning a golf trip to Ireland, but will return to Canada the following summer.

At its March 18 meeting, the Prairie du Chien Common Council approved an ordinance establishing Lucky Park and authorized adding a non-binding referendum on fluoride to the November ballot.

Although the creation of Lucky Park has been under consideration for some months, several council members questioned whether the area west of Rowdy’s Bar should receive official park designation. Once it is classified as a park, said City Attorney Tom Peterson, it would be very difficult to take out of park designation.

A major issue was whether or not the property might be better used for something else once the proposed convention center-hotel complex is built across the street. The ordinance passed designating the land as a public park and parking area, with council members Hein, Kluesner and Pintz casting dissenting votes.

Acting on a recommendation from the Protection and Health Committee, council approved placing a question about whether to add fluoride to the city’s water supply to the November ballot. Council member Frank Pintz said that because it was a controversial issue, the committee felt it would be a good idea to find out how the majority of the public feels before any action is taken. The vote will take the form of a nonbinding referendum.

In other business:

•Council approved a blight documentation report for Blackhawk Avenue and areas adjacent to it. It is a procedure, said City Planer Garth Frable, which allows the city to reallocate approximately$300,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds. A finding of blight is required to full the requirements of that grant. Several criteria may be used in determining blight, including: deteriorated structures, faulty lot layout, deterioration of site improvements, diversity of ownership, defective or unusual title and age or obsolescence.

•Council formally accepted the resignation of Rodney Fishler as street superintendent effective March 12. Mayor Cheryl Mader read Fishler’s letter of resignation thanking the city for the opportunity to serve and praising the street department staff. Mader said it was her understanding that Fishler intended to go back to farming. "We had an employee who gave 110 percent," she said, "and we thank him for his service."

•Water Department Superintendent Larry Gates said he had learned that there may be $1.2 million in Safe Drinking Water loan money available to the city. Should the city obtain this low-cost loan it would not be necessary to use bond anticipatory notes.

Obviously, Prairie du Chien had quite a heavy winter this past season, especially regarding snowfall. And, snowfall, unfortunately, has its price.

Now that the City Council has approved of the paying of the bills, this winter season’s snow removal and road maintenance totals are in.

The city paid $83,489.85 in wages to Street Department employees for snow removal for the months of December, January and February during the winter of 2006-2007. There were no overtime hours.

During the same months in 2007-2008, the city paid $102,932.55 in wages for snow removal, of which $13,839.17 was for overtime pay.

The cost of applying salt and sand to the city’s streets during the winter of 2006-2007 was $8,484.48.

During this past winter, salt and sand costs were $18,797.51, more than double that of the previous winter.

In total, the cost during the winter of 2006-2007 was $91,974.33. The total cost for this past winter during the months of December, January and February was $121,730.06, approximately a 32 percent increase.

Along with the election for the Crawford County Board of Supervisors and various other elections within the county, residents have the opportunity to vote on the building referendum for Southwest Wisconsin Technical College.

The $31.9 million referendum will be voted upon on Tuesday, April 1. If it passes, the building and remodeling project would cost $28 per year for 20 years for a homeowner with a $100,000 home. That is less than eight cents per day.

Residents of a 3,800-square-mile region, encompassing all or parts of nine counties can vote on the referendum.

This is the first referendum in the 42-year history of Southwest Tech. Should the referendum pass, Southwest Tech would be able to expand labs, build structures, enroll more students and bring cutting-edge technology to Southwest Wisconsin.