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March 5, 2009 |
Two people were found dead following a trailer fire in Bagley early Monday.
The bodies of David L. Shinn, 57, and Joyce M. Shinn, 55, both residents of Lot 5, Jackley Lane, in Bagley, were found after firemen extinguished the fire.
A passerby, Sue Clauer, noticed the orange glow in the area of Bagley, and called the Grant County Sheriff’s Department. The fire spread to an unoccupied mobile home at Lot 7 on the south side of the mobile home and damaged the siding on a mobile home at Lot 3.
The mobile home was located within a block of the fire department, and firefighters were able to extinguish the fire within an hour.
Ruth and Paul Jackley, who own the 11-unit trailer park, said the Shinns were a husband and wife who moved to the park a few years ago.
Grant County Sheriff Keith Govier said the cause of the fire was determined to be consistent with a space heater igniting surrounding material. The State Fire Marshall assisted the Bagley Fire Department and the Grant County Sheriff’s Department with the investigation into the cause of the fire.
At Tuesday evening’s meeting, the Prairie du Chien Common Council approved creation of an ordinance intended to streamline council meeting, approved a contract for real estate evaluation and acquisition on the Marquette Road DOT project, and voted to waive liquidated damage fees relating to last year’s streetscape project.
The new council agenda format, as prepared by City Administrator Jim Gitz, would involve three changes: combining committee reports and any action needed on those reports, placing all routine items to be acted upon under a single consent agenda and adding public input as an agenda item.
Gitz said that all items on the consent agenda would be listed, but the entire list would require only one vote, rather than a separate vote for each item. If, said Gitz, any council member wishes to have an item removed from the consent agenda and considered separately, that can be done.
Taking one more step in preparation for improvements to be made on Marquette Road by the DOT, council approved a contract with MSA for real estate evaluation and acquisition services for property to be acquired by the DOT. The contract would include acquisition of 17 properties, 14 of which are in the 100 to 300 blocks on S. Marquette Road, two on N. Marquette Road, and one at 512 E. Blackhawk.
Asked by council member Jaaren Riebe if the project will begin this spring, Gitz said he had received no start date from the DOT. The contract with MSA has a start date of March 31. However, signing the contract does not mean executing the contract, and no work will be done without approval from the DOT.
An MSA representative present at the meeting said the start dates for the contract could be changed, and the company has guaranteed its fees through 2009. He added, however, that the longer the start date is delayed, the more difficult it becomes to schedule staff for the project.
Council approved the project on a 10-2 vote, with council members Sharon Boylen and Frank Pintz objecting.
Council also took action on proposed penalties for McHugh Excavating, the contractor for last year’s streetscape project. The company did not complete the project on the contracted deadline, and the contract provided for penalty of $2,500 for each day beyond the deadline. At last week’s meeting, council had requested that the Public Works Committee, which had recommended reducing the penalty from $12,500 for five extra days to $5,000, reconsider the issue. Several council members had argued the full $12,500 should be assessed.
However, following a meeting of Finance and Public Works Committees, at which a representative from McHugh Excavating was present, the recommendation was to waive the damages. Gitz said the contractor believes there is no fault on his part, and that the delays resulted from many changes the contract, including waiting for materials to be delivered. Said council member Dave Hemmer, "After hearing the explanations, we felt there was no cause to withhold damages." Pintz said he still disagreed with waiving all penalties. Council accepted the recommendation to waive the penalties, with Pintz, Boylen and Ruskey casting dissenting votes.
The city also approved measures that will allow progress on development of the Stratton property at the southwest corner of Blackhawk Avenue and Main Street. The first action was to waive bids and approve a contract with Ayres Associates to perform the necessary environmental work to prepare the property for redevelopment. The majority of the $29,000 costs is to be reimbursed by a Ready for Reuse Petroleum Grant received by the city. Ayres has already done work on the site and is familiar with the project, Gitz explained, and sending out for bids would cause a delay, The state, he said, allows municipalities to waive bids in unique circumstances.
Council also waived the bidding process for asbestos abatement, demolition, grinding, remediation and capping on the Stratton property and awarded the contract to Prairie Sand and Gravel. The project is being funded by a DNR grant, and, said Gitz, the DNR gave permission to negotiate the contract as long as the work is done correctly and is at market price.
Prairie Sand and Gravel, he said, is doing the project at a low cost in part because they can make use of some of the materials on the site. The benefits, he added, are that some materials will be recycled on site, the reduced cost is going to save money and using a local contractor benefits the local employment market.
Council member Mary Wayne said she was concerned about waiving the bidding process and voted no on both issues.
In other business council:
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Agreed to send a letter to the DOT requesting the
department find a way to save the trees and fence along a piece of property
abutting Main Street. |
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Approved purchase of a new van for the publicly funded local taxi program. The van, owned by the city but leased to Running, Inc. was totaled in an accident. With funds from the insurance settlement and a 2007 capital grant, the city will spend $1,422.95, but remaining funds from the settlement, which cannot be used for a capital purchase, can be applied to the city’s share of the 2009 operating costs. |
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Waived TIF development agreements for Tech Trim-Universal Forest Products and Wolf Machine for the year 2008. The companies did not meet the job maintenance and requirements penalties for that year, but given the weakened economic situation, council agreed to a one year waiver on those requirement. |
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Approved a trail run of grinding excavated concrete on a cost sharing basis. Under the proposal, Prairie Sand and Gravel would grind the concrete, left over from the streetscape and other projects. The company would retain some of the product and the city would get the rest of it to use in other projects. Because the cost of the process is unknown, council approved a two-day trail run at a cost of no more than $5,000. |
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Responding to a proposal by Prairie Sand and Gravel to open a quarry across from Cabela’s, council asked that the township of Prairie du Chien hold a public hearing on the issue. The proposed quarry is outside of Prairie du Chien city limits. |
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Approved a request by Prairie Catholic Parishes to have a Corpus Christi processional June 14 |
Crawford County and Alliant Energy are in negotiations regarding a possible new communications tower that would enhance countywide communication for law enforcement, emergency management, and the highway department, along with various fire departments and EMS personnel.
"It looks like it could be constructed sometime this year," said Crawford County Sheriff Jerry Moran, who noted that the proposed project is moving right along. Pursuit of the project has been approved by the Public Safety Committee and the Public Property Committee.
Nothing has been finalized yet, but the proposal calls for the county to allow Alliant to build the tower on county land at the current Seneca tower site. In exchange, the county will be allowed to put its equipment on the new tower and to also reserve space for future equipment should technology change.
"The new tower would benefit Alliant and it would benefit the county," said Emergency Government Director Roger Martin, who noted that Alliant would own the tower.
Martin said that a structure analysis has determined that the current 250-foot-high tower at the Seneca site is overloaded and does not meet current standards. He said that the new tower will be at least 250-feet high and will be much stronger than the current tower regarding wind, ice load and equipment load.
As it stands now, the county would not be able to add any more communications equipment to the current tower, said Moran. Upon completion, the new tower would replace the current tower as the main communications tower in the county. There are four other communications towers in Crawford County, but the current tower at the Seneca site services the largest area, said Martin.
"Alliant would like to break ground as quickly as the weather allows," said Moran, who noted that the new tower would cost approximately $250,000 just for construction of the tower itself.
With its operating budget already cut by the city, the Prairie du Chien library does not need any more financial difficulties. Unfortunately, that has not stopped an individual or individuals from stealing a total of 36 DVDs from the library over the last two weeks.
The library has been forced to move all the adult and some of the children’s DVD behind the desk, creating tight working quarters for library staff and inconvenience for patrons.
Library Director Nancy Ashmore said the library plans to install a security system, but the cost, approximately $5,000, will come out of the already-reduced budget. That means, said Ashmore, fewer purchases of DVDs, books and other materials.
The matter has been reported to the Prairie du Chien Police Department for investigation. The library would also appreciated any information related to the thefts.
March 3, 2009 |
For a plan that was approved in May of 2006 with big ideas and a small budget, Crawford County’s art gallery, aka Crawford County Administration Building, is not doing too badly.
Even if the budget could handle the acquisitions, there will be no Renoirs or Picassos on the wall, because the purpose of the gallery is to feature Crawford County—its beauty, its history and its artists.
Of 10 planned exhibit galleries, four are active.
The special exhibits gallery opened in fall of 2007with a display of the Driftless Area Art Fest. It is located in the main conference room and hallway, and will be used as a revolving display for festival and special event art.
The County Youth Art gallery on the third floor opened in December of 2008. Currently, works by 11 students of JoAnn Tesar are on exhibit in this gallery.
The Natural History gallery opened Jan. 16 with an event introducing the kinetic sculpture "Courting Crane’ by the late Glen Donovan of Gays Mills and Ferryville. The sculpture is a gift from Lisbeth and Jerry Quebe of Soldiers Grove. This is located in the main entrance lobby.
The last gallery to open, about a month ago, is the Large Art Gallery. This consists of the staircases of the building, ideal for showcasing quilts and murals. The hand-painted quilt, ‘Shoofly.’ by Virginia Johnson of Ferryville, is currently on display.
All art displays and acquisitions are approved by the art committee, consisting of Sara Ryan, who chairs the committee, Kathy Leard, William Howe, Ron and Marilyn Leys, Paul Porvaznik, Michael Ridder and Russ Hagen. Hagen, the County Land Conservationist, is currently serving as temporary director for the collection. The committee, he said, is concentrating on one gallery at a time. The next to open will be County Artists’ Gallery, to be located north of the main lobby. Crawford County artists will be able to display their work for two to four months at a time. "We’re on the road," he said.
Hagen explained the ration-ale for a county art collection and display: "The County Board feels the artistic community is an important part of the economic community of Crawford County."
Other galleries planned are for legal history, native history, community history, military history and the history of transportation. Hagen said the administration building, with its many well-lit hallways and large stairwells, is a perfection setting for displaying art. "It’s a gallery waiting to happen," he said.
Prairie du Chien gymnast Brittany Sheckler turned in an outstanding performance at the Platteville Sectional Saturday to qualify for the State Gymnastics Meet for the third time.
Sheckler, a senior, took second on the uneven parallel bars with a score of 8.85. She also placed fifth on the balance beam with a score of 8.775 and fourth in the all-around with a total of 34.425.
The top five finishers in each event and in the all-around qualify for the State Meet, which will be held in Wisconsin Rapids on Friday, March 6.
As a team, Prairie du Chien took seventh at the Platteville Sectional. The top two teams qualify for the State Meet.
Southwestern-Cuba City won the event with a team total of 137.025. Milton was second with 133.725. Platteville-Belmont had 132.15, Mount Horeb 128.275, Elkhorn 124.4, Whitewater 122.2, Prairie du Chien 112.225, and Dodgeville-Mineral Point 85.325.
