Area hunters are eagerly awaiting the nine-day gun deer season, which begins Nov. 22. And, so it is with Jeff Dull of Mount Hope, a lifelong outdoorsman who hasn’t let his handicap stop him from the continued pursuit of his passions.

Jeff, 47, a former McGregor resident, was paralyzed from the waist down in a work-related accident in 2005. He continues to enjoy the outdoors, however, including fishing for smallmouth, walleye and other species, as well as hunting for deer, ducks, turkeys, pheasants and more.

"I pretty much hunt everything that you can hunt," says Jeff. "But, it is a little different since my accident. It’s a whole different lifestyle, but I stay quite active. I’m not into just sitting around."

Jeff said that his Polaris Ranger that is "rigged up for hunting" helps him in his pursuit of game. He is also greatly assisted by his friends and his wife Melody.

During turkey hunting, for instance, Jeff drives his Ranger out to the area where he will be hunting. His friends assist him into his blind. Jeff’s friends then move on to their own blinds. He said that they can communicate via cell phones.

"I’ve hunted all of my life and I couldn’t do it without my friends," he said. "They help me a lot. My wife Melody also does a heck of a lot for me in getting ready."

Jeff said that he hunts deer on his friends’ land or in areas near his home. He drives out into the fields and stays in his Ranger in a strategic location. His friends can then "drive" the deer in his direction.

Jeff touted the state of Wisconsin in regard to deer hunting and other hunting opportunities for handicapped hunters.

"Wisconsin is pretty decent as far as hunting," said Jeff. "I’m pretty impressed with them. They help the handicapped out pretty decently."

Jeff said that duck hunting is more challenging than other types of hunting because it takes more manpower and time to get set up. His friends need to get him into the boat and then set up in the blind.

"Each time we do it, we learn a little something and find easier ways to do it," he said.

Jeff said that brothers Jimmy and Kenny Johnson of Prairie du Chien and Mark Milewsky of McGregor help him to hunt duck, turkey and deer.

On Oct. 1, Jeff went hunting in Wyoming with Jeff Kinley and his daughter Erin of McGregor. Jeff shot a mule deer and an antelope on the first day of the three-day hunt. He shot a buffalo on the third day. Jeff Kinley and his daughter Erin each got an antelope.

"I plan on going out every year if I keep drawing the licenses," said Jeff, who noted that it was his first hunting trip out west. "It was a pretty good time. I had a blast."

Jeff went hunting two weeks ago on a pheasant farm near Westby, where he was trying to train his dog, a Weimaraner who is a little more than a year old. "I had a good time over there," he said, in noting that they have a special SUV called a Kubota, which has a platform on the front with a seat that swivels. "When the dog was on point, I could use my hand to position myself to shoot," said Jeff. "It works really well."

Jeff said that he couldn’t deer hunt last year because he had surgery. In 2006, he got a doe in Iowa. He said that if he gets a deer this season, he will donate it to a friend. He said that Benji Davies and The Kirby’s help him when he hunts deer in Iowa.

Sept. 1 each year is a big day on Jeff’s calendar. "The dove hunt and the goose hunt gets me fired up for the entire hunting season," he said.

After years of hunting and fishing, Jeff has waterfowl, pheasants and big fish mounted in his home. "The one thing I’m missing is a nice big buck for mounting," he said. "I’m waiting for that to come by."

As for fishing, Jeff often goes with Mark Kleinow of Marquette. Jeff explained that Kleinow has a flatbottom boat with a kind of platform. Kleinow is able to get Jeff and his wheelchair into the boat. "He’s got to lift me and I’m not getting any smaller either," said Jeff with a laugh.

Jeff also recently purchased a pontoon boat, which he keeps at the Prairie du Chien Marina. "They treat me pretty decently down there, Dennis Regal, his wife and boys," said Jeff. "I get out as much as I can."

Jeff’s advice for those who have handicaps or who become handicapped is straightforward and optimistic.

"Don’t ever give up on your passions," he said. They’ll find a way to make it work. There is a way. If I couldn’t hunt or fish, I don’t know what I would do. I still have a passion for it. Keep the passion going."

Jeff noted that everyone has friends or family who are willing to help.

"I’d like to thank all of my friends for putting up with me and taking me out," he said. "I hope we can do it until we can’t anymore."

City faces tough budget choices

When the 2009 budget comes before Prairie du Chien Council for final approval, council members will be forced to make some difficult decisions which will most likely involve not only cutting the operating budget but increasing taxes.

City Administrator Jim Gitz explained that while expenses keep going up, the state shared revenues have not increased commensurately. The city is looking at increased health care costs and increases in utility costs, among other things. The problem, Gitz said, is intensified by the fact that neither the 2007 or 2008 budgets turned out to be balanced. The result is an expected deficit of $260,000 by the end of 2008.

"This year," he said, "we have to balance the budget no matter how painful, and there will be cuts all across the board." Gitz said it could not be a matter of "writing down figures and crossing fingers and hoping for the best;" it has to be based on past history and the very best possible projections for future expenses.

The proposed budget will include recommendations for freezing non-union salaries, and, Gitz added, the city is taking union salary negotiations to arbitration. Union employees are paying less than 10 percent of their health care premiums. "If times were good, we’d favor doing all we can for employees, but times aren’t good," he added.

He said the rumors that the city plans to close Hoffman Hall are not true, but the Finance Committee is recommending closing the Hoffman Hall pool to cut operating costs.

Gitz said he wanted to emphasize that the city’s financial problems have nothing to do with the streetscape project. "That project was 100 percent grant funded," he explained. The water and sewer work, which was needed to replace aging structures, was paid with state revolving loan funds with an interest rate of approximately two percent.

At the same time they are trying to balance the budget, city officials are also taking advantage of programs which will help maintain the city’s infrastructure. "The city’s government," said Gitz, "is dedicated to doing everything we can to operate efficiently and bring down costs." One of the 2009 goals will be to increase energy efficiency.

In summing up this year’s budget efforts, Gitz said, "tremendous acts of effort and review are going into this budget. People have spent hundreds of hours on this."

The Finance Committee met Monday night to finalize its recommendations in a session that extended into the early hours of Tuesday morning. A summary of those recommendations is published in the legal notices of this newspaper, and it is expected the budget will come before council for a public hearing and approval Dec. 4.

Money issues dominate council meeting

Money, or the lack of it, was the dominating theme of Tuesday evening’s meeting of the Prairie du Chien Common Council. The Finance Committee presented a summary of its budget recommendations; a Harbor Commission request for repairs to the Fisher Street landing was shot down due to lack of funds; and a previously-obtained grant for pedestrian crossing signs was rejected because the actual costs had increased beyond the amount covered by the grant.

If there was good news coming out of the 2009 budget recommendation, it was that the Finance Committee had pared down the proposed levy increase from 12.7 percent to 5.9 percent. The bad news was that it was attained by asking department heads to cut another 10 percent out of their already-reduced budget requests. Council and finance committee member Pintz commended heads for their cooperation.

City Administrator Jim Gitz advised council members to be very careful in making any changes to the budget. "It already assumes," he said, "that we won’t have a catastrophic snowfall or that the cost of salt won’t double."

Council member Joe Ruskey, also on the Finance Committee, cautioned that "for every $19,000 that goes back into the budget, we have to raise the levy one percent.

Bill Howe and Arnie Mueller spoke on behalf of the Harbor Commission request to repair the Fisher Street boat landing, which, according to the estimate, would cost $9,800.

Bill Howe said the Fisher Street landing was the oldest public landing in the city and was in operation as a riverboat landing area when the hotel on St. Feriole Island was in operation. Howe said there is a possibility the Delta Queen company’s riverboats might once again visit the city, and that would be the ideal landing. Mueller said the money for the repairs would come from the boat landing fees, which are designated for keeping the landings in good condition.

Gitz said the problem is that the fund exists only on paper at this time. "Long before I came," he said, "there was a consolidation of accounts." Gitz said the account should be taken out of the general fund and segregated. That procedure could be done, he said, in the spring, and the Finance Committee has tried to set up the new budget so the money will be there.

The motion to repair the landing at this time was defeated, with council members Pintz and Boylen casting the only votes in favor.

Withdrawal from the pedestrian school crossing grant was also precipitated by funding problems. In this case, however, cost of the project had increased dramatically since the project was first submitted in 2006. The project was approved for the amount of $18,947, but estimated costs have increased to approximately $42,000. The grant application will be resubmitted in 2009 with up-to-date cost estimates.

The economic downturn in the United States and around the globe is affecting people here in the Midwest and in Prairie du Chien in a variety of ways.

One local company that has felt the effect of the failing auto industry is Miniature Precision Components (MPC), which makes plastic parts for all of the large auto makers from around the world.

"This is the worst I’ve ever seen it in my 15 years here," said Plant Manager Joe Faust. "This is the worst downturn MPC has ever seen in its 22 years in Prairie du Chien."

For example, Faust noted that MPC makes oil caps for every vehicle in the auto industry. MPC was turning out 2 million oil caps per month in 2007. Now, the company is producing 1 million per month.

Since the beginning of the year, approximately 100 people have lost their jobs at MPC. "We were operating with about 400 employees," said Faust. "Now, we have less than 300." In addition, 30 people are laid off every week on a rotating basis. Faust explained that a different group of 30 employees is laid off, while the previous 30 return to work. Faust said that the lay off situation is expected to continue indefinitely.

Also, not all departments at MPC are up and running seven days a week. "Basically, right now we’re running four days a week in our assembly department because of the current economic situation," said Faust, who noted that the molding area has gone down from seven days a week to five days a week in the third quarter.

Faust also said that the company will have a two-week shutdown over the upcoming holiday season, rather than the usual 1-week shutdown.

"We’re down about 35 percent since the first half of 2008," he said. "November and December look slim. Ford has said that they will be shutting down nine plants from mid November through the end of the year."

Faust noted that nobody knows when the situation will begin to get better, saying, "It may depend upon what the new president is going to do."

"Our outlook is that it’s going to be a tough ‘09," said Faust, who explained that MPC is doing its best to weather the storm. "But, things always turn around."

MPC continues to pursue contracts whereby it can produce parts for companies other than auto makers. Currently, MPC is making plastic components for Harley-Davidson, John Deere and Polaris.

"We’re trying to keep as many people employed as we can with what the situation is," said Faust. "The teamwork at MPC has been very understanding and we thank our employees for that."

In addition to working at MPC, some employees have been getting part-time jobs in order to supplement their incomes, Faust said.

"It’s not only the right thing to do," said Prairie du Chien City Administrator Jim Gitz of the city’s decision to enter into a ‘25 by 25’ partnership with the State of Wisconsin, "if we do it right we can also save money."

The City Council passed the resolution Nov. 11 to become a partner with the state to achieve the goal of 25 percent renewable, domestically produced energy by 2025. This was the culmination, said Gitz, of a discussion with Brian Driscoll of the Office of Energy Independence, who last spring visited municipalities throughout the state to reinforce the state’s commitment to redirection of greenhouse gases and increase alternative energy sources. He also offered the opportunity to partner with the state and apply for grants.

"As we worked through the scenarios for ‘going green,’ we became aware of the benefits of this program," Gitz said. Instead of a group of consultants who have to be paid, the state will select communities which apply for grants and provide them with resources. The state will give money for staff support to work on energy solutions tailored to the individual community. The partnership does not require a matching grant, an important factor when the city is struggling to pare down the budget.

Gitz said the city has benefited from other partnerships: money for the streetscape came from the Department of Commerce, and the DNR provided money for brownfield cleanups.

"Our goal for 2009 is to implement a true green initiative. ‘25 by 25’ is the perfect vehicle to get us there," he said. He explained there will be energy audits on municipal buildings, attempts to burn cleaner fuels, and examination of the building code ordinances to see how energy can be conserved. "We want to ask the public to work with us," he said, "but we want to set an example with the city."

Overall, the goal is to improve energy efficiency, reduce costs and reduce reliance on fossil fuels. "For us, ‘25 by 25’ is a win-win," he concluded.

With the exception of purchasing house brands, Schaaf’s money-saving tips can also be applied to ALDI. ALDI has its own private label brand and carries other brands only as special purchase products. Like Piggly Wiggly, ALDI has a flyer. Their flyer highlights special purchase items, which vary be season and are available as long as the supply lasts. Recently, they offered a three pound bag of tangerines for $1.29. They also advertised chopped walnuts at $2.99 for eight ounces, reduced from $3.49, and a pound of butter for $1.99.

ALDI, however, is very different from the typical supermarket. Customers are expected to bring their own bags or pay to purchase them; using a cart requires a 25 cent deposit; all payment is required in cash or by debit card; there is usually no choice of brands, and because the selection is limited the store is much smaller than a supermarket.

Such an experience might not please every shopper, but all of these cost-saving factors combine to produce significant savings for the customer. "ALDI," says company spokesperson Martha Swaney, "has taken steps to eliminate hidden costs and reduce consumer price." The company strives to keep all prices low and focuses on the 1,400 most frequently purchased items. Local manager Janice Polodna said ALDI prides itself on offering quality at low price. "One big thing that draws people," she said, "is the quality of the fresh produce. Trucks bring in fresh produce every other day."