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Senior center plan endorsed despite complaints |
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Written by Kristyn Halbig Ziehm
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Wednesday, 10 March 2010 19:17 |
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Port committees favor renting building, but some seniors say they’d be getting short end of deal to keep business in city Two Port Washington committees on Monday endorsed a city proposal to lease the Franklin Energy building for use as a senior center despite complaints from senior citizens who said they would be settling for a less-than-ideal site in order to keep the company in Port.
“I don’t think it’s the right thing to do,” Don Race of Saukville, who attends the center daily, said to applause. “I think it’s an impractical idea. That building’s not for old people. I would like to see you guys get an acre of land and build yourself a building all on one floor.”
But members of the Commission on Aging and Senior Center Strategic Site Selection Committee said the Franklin Energy Building — a former church at 403 W. Foster St. — offers many improvements over the current center.
“It has more than twice the square footage of the building. The parking that is available is all on level ground, a tremendous improvement over what we have here,” Commission Chairman Sue Bruner said. “The restrooms you can’t even compare. There’s wheelchair access.
“It certainly, at least on an interim basis, meets the needs of the center right now.”
The commission, following a recommendation from the site selection committee, stressed that the building would be an interim site and said the city should have a plan in place for a permanent center by the end of the lease.
“We’re letting the city know we don’t want a 25-year lease,” Bruner said.
However, the commission also said the lease should contain both an option to renew and a buy-out clause to give the city flexibility as it works toward a permanent center.
City Administrator Mark Grams on Tuesday said the 10-year timeline may not be realistic.
“Would we move out of there in 10 years? I don’t know,” he said. “If the seniors are happy there and it meets their needs and programs, maybe not.
“It all depends on what the conditions are then. A lot of it will depend on the economy. Is there going to be a levy freeze? Are state aids going to decrease significantly? If they do, do you want to spend a couple million dollars for a new building and put that on the shoulders of the taxpayers?” |
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Woman faces homicide charge for Fredonia overdose death |
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Written by Bill Schanen IV
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Wednesday, 10 March 2010 19:02 |
 Germantown resident accused of selling prescription drugs that killed 21-year-old
A 38-year-old woman was charged Tuesday with homicide for allegedly selling narcotics to a 21-year-old Fredonia woman who died of an overdose in December. Germantown resident Kimberly S. Sell, who also faces drug dealing charges in Washington County, sold Kati Lynn Hammen the methadone that killed her, according to the criminal complaint filed in Ozaukee County Circuit Court.
Sell faces one count of first-degree reckless homicide, a felony punishable by a maximum 40 years in prison.
Hammen, a 2006 graduate of Random Lake High School, was found dead at her home at 511 S. Milwaukee St. in Fredonia at 6 a.m. Monday, Dec. 21. Hammen’s boyfriend, Brad Baumann, told authorities that he and Hammen purchased 13 methadone pills from Sell for $100 the day before Hammen died, according to the complaint.
Based on Baumann’s statements, authorities quickly built a case against Sell. Within hours of Hammen’s death, an undercover agent with the Ozaukee County Multi-jurisdictional Anti-Drug Unit purchased drugs from Sell, Lt. Rodney Galbraith of the Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Department said. That led to a search of her house on Dec. 22, and on Dec. 23, Sell was charged in Washington County with felony counts of delivering narcotic drugs and maintaining a drug trafficking house, as well three drug-related misdemeanors.
But it would take another two-and-a-half months for Sell to be charged with Hammen’s death. Ozaukee County Sheriff Maury Straub said Tuesday that authorities were waiting for the results of toxicology tests that prove Hammen died of a methadone overdose.
Sell, who was free on $2,000 bail in the Washington County case, was arrested Tuesday by Ozaukee County authorities. |
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 10 March 2010 19:23 |
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Turkeys rule the roost in Port |
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Written by Bill Schanen IV
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Wednesday, 10 March 2010 18:51 |
Wild in name only, gobblers have settled into the urban lifestyle, hanging out in yards, lounging on lawn furniture, strolling sidewalks and visiting schools They hang out in yards, lounge on lawn furniture, snack from bird feeders and stop traffic on city streets as they make their daily rounds about town.
On Monday, they gathered at the doors of a school, appearing as if they would like to stroll the hallways, peruse the fare in the cafeteria and sit in on a class.
They are Port Washington’s wild turkeys, a flock of six to eight birds that are wild in name alone.
“I’m sure that you could touch them if you really wanted to,” said Nancy Turenne, who sees the birds most days from her desk at Franklin Energy, which is in the former St. John’s Lutheran Church on Foster Street in Port.
Eschewing their species’ typical environs in rural fields and woodlands, Port’s turkeys seem to prefer city life. Amused residents report that the birds prefer to walk throughout the city on shoveled sidewalks, usually traveling in an orderly single-file line and are, for the most part, oblivious to the hubbub of urban life.
“They have a daily routine,” Turenne said. “After they stop here, they go sit on the lawn furniture in the yard across the street.”
After visiting several yards, the turkeys typically arrive at Franklin Energy around the lunch hour, she said.
“We have a lower-level lunchroom with windows and birds actually stand on a grate and press their faces to the window,” Turenne said. “It’s like they’re looking at us.”
As wild birds go, Port’s turkeys are relatively polite and surprisingly social, according to most accounts.
“People will go outside and talk to the birds, and believe it or not, the turkeys talk back,” Turenne said. “People use their phones to record the conversation, then come back inside the office and play it for everybody.”
The turkeys, members of what is believed to be same flock, have been seen throughout the city and caused a bit of a stir at Thomas Jefferson Middle School Monday.
“First they came to the visitor entrance, then made their way around to the main entrance on Holden Street,” Assistant Principal Liz Ferger said. “Then they walked around back where the eighth graders were out at recess. I had to herd them toward the tennis courts.” |
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 10 March 2010 19:23 |
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