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March 14, 2007 |
DOT holds meeting regarding Marquette Road
At a Tuesday meeting for those directly affected by the proposed Marquette Road improvements, the big question was, "what will happen when traffic gets backed up in the roundabouts when a train goes through."
As presently planned, there will be a series of three roundabouts along Marquette Road when the construction is done in 2012: at Blackhawk and Wisconsin Avenues and at Iowa Street.
The meeting, held at Prairie du Chien City Hall, was open to the public but primarily for those whose homes or businesses border the affected area. It was hosted by the Department of Transportation (DOT) and consisted of a presentation by DOT staff, a question and answer period, and time for visits with the project staff.
Although data shows that traffic flows more safely and efficiently through a roundabout than through an intersection with traditional traffic signals, people expressed great concern about the effect of a busy railroad track a block away from the roundabouts. Project Engineer Craig Fisher said the backup [created by a passing train] in the roundabout would be similar to the backup at a signalized intersection, but the backup in the roundabout would empty out sooner.
Nevertheless, many people appeared unconvinced. There were no simulations or diagrams to show the effect of the trains. One man in the audience stated, "I think we're getting a snow job."
Approximately 40 people attended the meeting. Another informational meeting, intended for the general public, will be held next week, March 21, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Prairie du Chien City Hall.
The meeting will be conducted in an open house format with maps available for review. A presentation will take place at 6 p.m. See Monday's paper for more information.
Saturday's parade will bring out the Irish in everyone
The Prairie du Chien Area Chamber of Commerce Annual St. Patrick's Day Parade takes place Saturday, March 17 at 10 a.m. in Downtown Prairie du Chien. Father E. Sims is Grand Marshall for the 2007 St. Patrick's Day Parade. Jack and Glee Mulrooney will preside as King and Queen of the parade.
This year the Chamber is requiring all parade entries be registered before the parade, as the St. Patrick's Day parade will be broadcast live on WPRE on Saturday morning. All chamber members will have an opportunity to advertise any special "Irish" traditions at their business, during the parade.
All parade participants will assemble on St. Feriole Island beginning at 9 a.m. The parade will start from St. Feriole Island (at 10 a.m.), go east on Blackhawk Avenue, then north on Michigan Street, and back to the island.
Parade celebrities will be introduced at Huckleberry's Restaurant following the parade, where lively Irish music may be enjoyed along with good Irish food. Many area businesses will serve corned beef and cabbage, green beer, and other Irish traditional favorites. Check out the specials and join the St. Patrick's Day festivities.
Soccer idea again kicked around at school board meeting
Board members express concerns that financial goals may not be met
The Prairie du Chien School Board kicked around the idea of high school soccer once again at its regular meeting Monday night. Several board members raised questions about funding, and for awhile the boys and girls soccer program hung in the air with the possibility that the board could rescind its earlier approval of the sport.
Athletic Director Ron Sedgwick gave a presentation in which he said that he had received no donations for the soccer program. In addition, a coach for the girls team has not yet been found.
Boys and girls soccer was approved by the board by a vote of 6-1 at its Jan. 15 meeting with the idea that the district would receive an initial donation of $8,000 to get the program up and running. The program was also intended to be run at no cost to the district for the first two years, after which time it will be re-evaluated by the board as to feasibility and participation.
The Prairie du Chien boys soccer team is scheduled to play eight games in the fall of 2007. The games will be home and away games against Southwest Wisconsin Conference opponents but will be considered nonconference games because the conference schedule had already been set before Prairie du Chien came on board. To date, the girls team has 15 conference games scheduled for the spring of 2008. The girls team is Southwest Wisconsin Conference eligible. Both the boys and girls teams are WIAA tournament eligible. The home games for both teams will be held on St. Feriole Island.
Sedgwick said that he has received one letter of application for the boys head coaching position. That application was from Jim Rohde, who has volunteered his time.
"Soccer is one of the lowest cost sports there is and this is a great opportunity to move forward," said Rohde in his presentation before the school board. Rohde presented board members with a chart outlining conference soccer budgets at the various schools and also a plan by which costs could be cut, including a plan by which soccer players would work for local businesses in an effort to raise money for their sport. Five high school boys attended Monday's board meeting in a show of support for their intended sport.
"There has been a tremendous amount of excitement from the student body and the general public," said Rohde. "It's the right thing to do."
Board members Lonnie Achenbach and Ron Goodman raised the strongest objections to the soccer program.
"In two years, the district's soccer budget will be $25,000, while at the same time we are cutting teachers," said Achenbach. "Academics are more important." Goodman, who had voted against the soccer program at the Jan. 15 meeting, also raised concerns about what would happen to the district's budget after two years.
The soccer program will be re-evaluated after two years, and Sedgwick said that the school board could then vote to have the district take on the program, have the program continue to be run at no cost to the district other than transportation costs, or drop the program.
Rohde said that he had received a check for $8,000 from the Prairie du Chien Youth Soccer Association in order to fund the soccer program. He then turned the check over to the board.
"I believe in this community," said Rohde, who noted that his plan, along with further donations and volunteer efforts could continue to raise funds and cut costs for the program. "We're looking at it as a two-year building of a program because it is new," he said.
Board President Brian Edwards asked if there were any motions to rescind the board's earlier approval of Prairie du Chien High School soccer. There were no motions, and thus, the soccer proponents had achieved their goal.
In other business, the board:
´Accepted a request by high school biology teacher Dennis Lenzendorf for an unpaid leave and his resignation as high school baseball coach, effective immediately. Lenzendorf has accepted a position with the National Park Service at Sequoia National Park in California. "This is a chance of a lifetime," said Lenzendorf about his new position. A substitute biology teacher has been found for the remainder of the school year.
´Approved of placing half of the Bluff View Intermediate School band instructor salary into Fund 80, rather than Fund 10, as a cost-saving measure for the school district.
´Approved to reduce to 70 percent a position in the art department.
´Approved to issue final notice of non-renewal to the elementary art teacher as a cost-saving measure.
March 12, 2007 |
Volunteers build house in memory of woman who started volunteer program
When Virginia Bailie was church secretary at the United Methodist Church in Lancaster, she could not have envisioned where her energy and enthusiasm and her pastor's request would lead. The mission program that Bailie started has sent people all over the United States and even into other countries to help people in need„and now a volunteer-built house has been named in memory of her.
Bailie, who had been leading youth mission groups on various projects, was asked by her pastor in 1997 if she would do the same thing with an adult group.
Calling the group Volunteers in Mission (VIM), Bailie organized a trip to Montana in 1988, and that is when Ken and Dorothy Birrenbach of Prairie du Chien became involved. The Birrenbachs, who described the building of the house named in memory of Bailie, talked of that first trip with VIM. "We were enthused because the project would allow us to take a side trip to Glacier National Park," said Ken. "We've been going on mission trips ever since."
Virginia and her husband Roger moved to Prairie du Chien a number of years ago, and she died in 2005. Money was donated to VIM as a memorial, and "the idea came to build a house in Biloxi, Mississippi, which had suffered great damage in Hurricane Katrina, in her memory," said Dorothy.
The project involved over 100 people, mainly from Wisconsin, by the time the building was completed. Nine of those individuals were from Prairie du Chien: Bert and Sharon Anderson, Lola Childs, Sally Kann, Helen Larson, Gladys Brown, Joe Bula and Ken and Dorothy Berringer. Virginia's husband Roger, two of their daughters and husbands and one or two grandchildren also worked on the house.
About 50 people went down Jan. 1, and Birrenbachs had to leave about 4 a.m. to board the bus. "We had to make a short night of our New Year's Eve party," Dorothy quipped.
When they arrived, they were overwhelmed. "It was like a surreal landscape," said Ken. In many areas there were sidewalks and front steps, but no buildings: these had been destroyed by the storm or as a result of storm damage. The yard on which they were to build had nothing but concrete pilings sticking up out of the ground (because of flood potential, houses are raised off the ground). Most VIM work camps have involved repairs„not building a whole house, and, said Dorothy, "when the lady for whom we were to build the house said ïlet's pray,' I thought that was a very good idea."
The woman for whom they were to build the house was Karen Arseneau, a former Marine Corps Major, who had taken early retirement to nurse her dying husband. Arseneau, who worked right along with the builders, has designated one bedroom of her new home as the Wisconsin Room, and when anyone from the Wisconsin work crew comes to visit, they'll have a room in which to stay. They should also feel right at home. The workers brought her Packer memorabilia to decorate the room. In addition a plaque in the room states that the house was built in Virginia Bailie's memory.
In June, Arseneau, her brother and his wife, returning the favor done for her, plan to come to a VIM work camp in Ithaca, Wisconsin.
Conditions in the VIM work camps are not plush, said Dorothy. In Biloxi, they camped on air mattresses in the Methodist church basement. Besides that, workers pay a fee„the cost of food and transportation plus a little extra„to participate. Nevertheless, she said, "we're ready to go again." She and Ken agree that "we always get back much more than we give."
Despite Dorothy's initial misgivings, the house built in memory of Virginia Bailie was finished in five weeks„erected, roofed and sided.
Last Sunday, March 11, Roger Bailie presented Prairie du Chien's United Methodist Church with a plaque to be hung in the church in memory of the dedication of the Virginia Bailie home.
Local man killed in logging accident
A 37-year-old Prairie du Chien man, Corie N. Slaght, was killed in a work-related accident Friday morning.
At 8:37 a.m., the Crawford County Sheriff's Department received a 911 call from Nelson Hardwood Lumber Company requesting an ambulance for a man who had been struck by a log. The Bridgeport First Responders and the Prairie du Chien EMS responded to the scene, along with the Prairie du Chien Police Department.
At the scene, Slaght was found unconscious. Slaght was transported to Prairie du Chien Memorial Hospital by the Prairie du Chien EMS. Slaght was later pronounced dead by Crawford County Coroner Joe Morovits.
The Sheriff's Department investigated and learned that Slaght was unstrapping his load of logs when one of the logs came off of the trailer and struck Slaght in the chest.
Slaght had been hired by Nelson Hardwood as a subcontracted driver and had been working with them for the past three years.
The incident has been closed and ruled an accident.
Big mounts garner honors several years later
The Bucks of Crawford County show held each February at the National Guard Armory in Prairie du Chien has spawned many an interesting story over the years. And so it is with a pair of large mounts on display this year.
Jess Hollenbeck, a member of the Prairie du Chien Rod and Gun Club for the past four years, displayed an antelope at the show for the first time this year. The antelope was a large one, but to Hollenbeck's surprise, it turned out to be a record-setter.
Hollenbeck shot the antelope with an Indian straight bow in October of 1978 near the Elsworth Air Force Base. He was in the Air Force at the time and had received permission from a rancher to hunt on the rancher's land.
Hollenbeck explained that there are very few trees in the area and the land is relatively flat grassland. After lying on his back in the 14-inch-high grass for about two and a half hours, the camouflaged Hollenbeck saw movement out of the corner of his left eye. It was a male antelope that was working towards some females in the area.
"I hope he comes close enough," Hollenbeck said of his thoughts at the time.
Hollenbeck remained motionless as the antelope moved to within about 30 yards and stood broadside straight ahead. Hollenbeck then smoothly yet quickly drew back his 65-pound bow, raised his head up slightly and let fly. The arrow found its mark, traveling clean through the vitals and Hollenbeck had his antelope at about 3:20 p.m.
The antelope was later mounted by Gene Simmons of Madison but it was never scored until this year. Hollenbeck estimates that the antelope, also known as the prong horn, weighed 120 pounds. It was scored at 70 2/8, a North American Pope and Young record. Anything over 65 would have been a record, explained Hollenbeck, who noted that the horns are measured for length, girth and symmetry.
Hollenbeck has been an avid hunter since he was 12 years old, having been taught by his father. In 2000, Hollenbeck moved to Prairie du Chien from Brooklyn, Wis.
ANOTHER BIG MOUNT that wasn't scored for several years was shot right here in Crawford County.
Merrill Rutter of Prairie du Chien shot a whitetail buck in the late 1950s near Buck Creek in Freeman Township. The nine-point specimen tipped the scales at 212 pounds field dressed.
Merrill's son Jerry explained that the massive antlers hung for several years in the Oak Grove Tavern. They then spent many more years in Merrill's basement.
Merrill passed away in 1995. About five years ago, Jerry decided to take the antlers to the Bucks of Crawford County show for the first time.
"It was a pretty nice one," Jerry said of the rack, which is thick with long tines. "I never thought it would make the record book but it did." The antlers measured 157 inches and made the Wisconsin Buck and Bear Record Book.
Jerry is a member of the Rod and Gun Club and learned to hunt from his father Merrill. "We liked our deer hunting and still do," said Jerry. "He's no longer with us, but there are a lot of memories."
Jerry said that, hopefully, others will be encouraged to bring in mounts that may have been stored away for years. "Bring in your racks and share your stories," said Jerry about future Prairie du Chien Rod and Gun Club Bucks of Crawford County shows.
