The much talked about and rumored Senior Village is becoming a reality.

In October 2006, the City Planning Commission and City Council approved a 14-acre plot, located east of South Fremont Street between Taylor and Webster Street, as a planned community development. Community Health Services Corporation is proud to announce that the site work began a week ago for the Senior Village. Gerke Construction from Tomah, Wisconsin was awarded the site work excavation and preparation for the building placement.

Community Health Services Corporation Board has contracted with PDC Midwest, Inc., a design-build company. PDC Midwest, which has many years of experience with design-build construction for Senior Villages throughout the nation, has the responsibility as general contractor for the new senior village.

Construction manager Normand Racicot and assistant construction manager Robin Racicot, who are long-term employees of PDC Midwest, Inc., will be onsite full-time.

During construction of the project (March 2008-June 2009), there will be precautionary measures taken to prevent accidents and damage to both people and property. All machinery and equipment will be locked and safeguarded from unauthorized use; there will be a gate at the entrance with temporary fencing around the perimeter of the work site. Senior Village officials are also asking that there be cautionary measures taken by the community.

Community Health Services Corporation and PDC Midwest, Inc. are expecting to receive the approved building plans back from the State of Wisconsin within the next couple of weeks. The Senior Village will have several phases of completion. The current phase of the plan consists of relocation of Prairie Maison Nursing Facility (64-bed skilled care nursing home); Village Square will provide activities and amenities for senior residents, visitors, and employees; a 24-unit apartment complex and a memory care facility designed for six residents. The apartment complex will provide services such as meals, medication management, laundry, housekeeping, or other requests for personal services as needed. The expected completion date of this phase is summer of 2009.

Community Health Services corporation board consists of the following directors: Harold W. Brown, President, Doug Dickman, Vice President, M. Connie Achenbach, Sec./Treas., Helen Valley, Tom Farrell, Paul Ginkel, Dorothy Birrenbach, Dr. Mark Grunwald, Marsha Konichek, Martha Hoeger, Joe Faust, and Bill Burke. Business manager for the organization is Alesha Gillitzer.

Senior Village officials will provide periodic updates of progress. Community Health Services Corporation anticipates a ground-breaking ceremony before the actual construction of the building.

Community Health Services Corporation is dedicated to providing nursing home care, housing, and related services for low income, elderly, and disabled individuals in its service area.

CHSC owns and operates three such facilities through three Wisconsin Limited Liability Companies, Sannes Skogdalen Nursing Facility, LLC (d/b/a Sannes Skogdalen Heim); Prairie Memorial Housing, LLC, (d/b/a Prairie Memorial Housing); and Prairie Nursing Facility, LLC (d/b/a Prairie Maison).

In a resounding victory, candidate and former mayor Karl Steiner won Tuesday’s Prairie du Chien mayoral race, defeating incumbent mayor Cheryl Mader by a vote total of 715 to 497. Candidate Bill Lynch received 66 votes. Michael Brouse received 42 votes for mayor, but won a seat as sixth district alderperson. (See election chart on Page 2.)

Commenting on his election, Steiner said, "I’m very glad the people voted me back in after eight years of absence. I’m happy everybody was on my side, and I’ll do the best job I possibly can for them." Steiner expressed his thanks to the other candidates for running a clean campaign, and thanked all those who helped in the election. "I’m looking forward to serving the people of Prairie du Chien once again," he added.

In the council, or alderperson race, unopposed incumbents Jaaren Riebe, First District; Dave Hemmer, Second District; and Phil Dagnon, Third District, were reelected. Newcomer Michael Brouse, also running unopposed, won in the Sixth District.

No candidates had filed for Fourth or Fifth District, but Jean Titlbach received the majority of write-in votes (21) and will have the position if she accepts it.

City Clerk Barb Elvert said she would have to consult the state election board regarding the outcome of voting in the Fourth District. Current councilperson Nate Gilberts received the most write-in votes, a total of three, but did not seek reelection. Elvert said there were 12 other votes, but no one person received more than two votes.

Joseph Atkins and Lonnie Achenbach, running unopposed, won reelection to the Prairie du Chien School Board.

At the county level, the only contested seat for County Supervisor was in District One, where James O’Meara won, edging out Erwin Mueller by 51 votes to Mueller’s 19. Gary Knickerbocker, however, who withdrew from the race because he is also a county employee, received the majority of votes, 119.

The District Two seat is still undecided. Steve Lessard received most of the votes, but Lessard has withdrawn since he is also an employee of the county. There were several write-in votes, but an official at the County Clerk’s office said they will consult the County Board Chairman to determine how to proceed before a supervisor for that district is identified. Others elected include: Kersten Rocky Rocksvold, District Three; Melodie Rose Betts, District Four; Thomas G. Cornford, District Five; Mary Jane Faas, District Six.

Crawford County voters helped pass the Southwest Technical College referendum. County totals were 1,655 yes, and 1,312 no. With 97.7 percent of the votes counted for the area served by Southwest Tech, totals are 12,559 yes and 8,807 no.

As did the rest of the state, Crawford County voters defeated the so-called "Frankenstein veto" and approved a constitutional change which will limit the governor’s power to rewrite budgets approved by lawmakers. County voters registered a total of 2,053 votes supporting the amendment and 952 votes against.

In the race for Justice of the Supreme Court, Mike Gableman received 1,541 of the 2,923 votes cast, edging out Louis Butler, with 1,380 votes. At the state level, the race was even closer: according to an AP report early this morning, Gableman defeated Butler 51 to 49 percent.

Trentin has been on paid leave since Feb. 1.

This local radio personality, who does it because "it’s always been fun for me," enjoys performing in front of a crowd. "I can be on stage or on radio in front of thousands of people and be cool as a cat," he says, but admits to having a difficult time being in a crowded shopping mall.

Moris has been interested in broadcasting since he was a child and he and his sister took turns filming pretend newscasts and weather forecasts using the family video camera. "I’d do a play-by-play of my toy race cars on a track," he says. Later in high school, he did an internet radio show. "There were maybe five people who listened to it," he laughs, "but the fun was in making it.’ As a student at River Ridge high school, from which he graduated in 2000, he was active in forensics and school plays.

It’s ironic, then, that when Moris started college he had no idea what to choose for a major. As a freshman at UW-Platteville, Moris said, he knew only that he wanted to start a band, and his first few weeks there were spent trying to locate other musicians. Within two weeks he had found two guitar players, a bass player and a singer (Moris plays drums), and a band, Necessary Void, was formed.

However, that same year an acquaintance asked him if he wanted to volunteer at the campus radio station, WSUP. Still not seeing that it might have any connection to a future career, Moris decided that a knowledge of radio might be good experience if he was going to be in a band. Once he spent some time at the radio station, however, he realized he had found his niche, and decided to major in broadcast communications.

In the mean time, the first band, a modern rock band, faded out after the first year, and Moris and some of the former members formed a new band which lasted past college and was very successful. Called All Envy Aside, they played in Platteville, Dubuque, Madison and Milwaukee. However, once graduated, the other members moved back to Milwaukee. Because they were not a ‘cover band,’ which plays other people’s music, but rather a band which wrote and played original music, they usually didn’t get paid for their performances, and he found it difficult to drive all the way to Milwaukee to work with them. Right after that, Moris said, the band won an MTV contest as best college band, and had an opportunity to go on to better things, but he was no longer a part of it.

Moris stayed with WSUP for four and half years, and feels that, although his classroom learning was also necessary, the hands-on experience was even more valuable.

He recalls his last year in college as pretty hectic. "I had started working at the Prairie du Chien radio station as well as Prairie du Chien Culver’s, and continuing to work at UW-Platteville technical services, UW-Platteville television service, and WSUP—as well as playing in the band and dating my future wife."

Dan’s future wife, Shodi Steiber, had also attended River Ridge, but the two had little to do with each other in high school. "She thought I was a big-time dork," Moris laughs. However, they became better acquainted working at Culver’s, where she was his boss.

Moris’ schedule became considerably lighter when he graduated and was offered a full time position with the radio station, which allowed him to drop all the other jobs.

He does the morning show from 5 to 10 a.m., does play-by-plays for high school sports, does promotion and event work. The biggest promotion, he said is the Colgate Country Showdown, but he also does the radio portion of the Faith in Action Auction, and worked with Norb Aschom this past hear at the Taste of Home Cooking show.

Anyone who has heard or seen Moris in action can tell that he enjoys what he is doing.

Outside of the radio, he and Shodi, an owner of Healing Arts Center, spend a great deal of time doing volunteer work for Prairie du Chien Downtown Revitalization, Inc., more briefly known as PDRI. "We really believe in the concept of it," Moris explained, and said they are excited about blending the newer ideas of their generation with the Main Street vision.