WNA entry for Ripon Commonwealth Press: Reporting on Local Government

Thursday, November 27, 2014 - Page 1

Single copy — $1Thursday, November 27, 2014 Ripon, WI 54971

Ripon Commonwealth Press Issue No. 48www.RiponPress.com Serving the Ripon community since 1864

2011Wisconsin WeeklyNewspaperof theYear


2013

Wisconsin

Weekly

Newspaper

of the

Year

INSIDE

Our Views

Win is a winRipon may not have shot the way it wanted to, but the Tiger boys’ basketball team came away with a season-opening “W” Tuesday.

See page 17

King me!This Ripon man wasn’t in the “Man Pageant” just for show — this year, the local guy brought home the hardware.

See page 9

Sports

Education

Here’s the poopYou might not know it, but the No. 1 problem some families have is what to do with their kids’ No. 2.

See page 4

Snow story City says: be patientSnow season is clearly here, and with plows on the road, city leaders are asking Riponites to heed a few basic suggestions.

See page 3

City concerned as Boca buildings begin to crumbleBRICKS

3 For a related

editorial, see “Jim Connelly left his marks on downtown,” page 4.

What WILL be accepted under the new rules:What is

still NOT

accepted:Plastics:‰ All food, beverage and household bottles‰ Jars and jugs‰ Dairy containers and lids‰ Deli, bakery and produce containers and lidsMetal:‰ Aluminum bottles and cans‰ Steel, tin and bi-metal cans‰ Empty aerosol cansPaper:‰ Newspapers and inserts‰ Cardboard and paperboard‰ Junk mail and catalogs‰ Office and school paper‰ Milk, juice and soup cartons‰ Phone books, books and magazines** Shredded paper should be recycled in a paper bag that is stapled shut** Flatten and cut cardboard boxes to 3-feet-by-3-feet or smallerGlass:‰ Food and beverage bottles, jars

‰ Plastic bags,

wraps or film

‰ Motor oil bottles

‰ Styrofoam

‰ Aluminum pans

or foil

‰ Empty paint

cans

‰ Large/bulk

scrap metal

items

‰ Paper contam-

inated with

food or grease

‰ Tissue paper

‰ Gift wrap

‰ Window glass

‰ Ceramics,

China or

drinking

glasses

Recycling program expands in Ripon

by Ian [email protected]

Starting Dec. 1, Ripon resi-dents won’t need to be quite so careful when selecting which plastics to recycle.

Riponites now may throw not just plastics labeled “1” and “2” into their green bins, but virtu-ally any plastic, as well as most metal items, paper and glass.

“You bet [it’s a good thing],” said Dave Tellock, general man-ager of Advanced Disposal of Omro, noting that “reducing that solid waste in landfills” benefits everyone.

Currently, Advanced Dis-posal picks up Ripon’s recycling curb-side and transports it to its facility in Omro, before taking it on to the Outagamie County Recycling Center.

“This is where your plastic, aluminum, glass — all those things — go,” Tellock said, add-ing that “paper goes to a differ-ent location.”

Advanced Dispoal recently found out it soon would be able to pick up even more of those products.

“The reason its being made is MRF — the Material Recover Center — has updated what it’s doing with recyclables so it can take more, different products,” Tellock said.

So, what can Riponites re-cycle now that they couldn’t before?

The big change is with plas-tics.

Residents no longer will need to check what type of plastic a container is before tossing it in the recycling.

Now, the only plastic not ac-cepted will be:

‰ Plastic bags, wraps or film‰ Motor oil bottles‰ StyrofoamFor a full list of what is ac-

Vagrants, teens trashing insides of buildings, too

RMC leftovers will help Habitat chapter

Another Habitat house could be

built in ’16 or ’17by Ian Stepleton

[email protected]

After Ripon’s first Habitat for Humanity home was built, it was a decade before Habitat became active in the community once more.

The organization has no in-tention of waiting that long again.

Though it just finished its second house in the community last fall, a third house already may be in the works.

Meanwhile, it’s also seeking volunteers for another project that will occur next month as well.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDEDOn Dec. 19, Habitat for Hu-

manity of Fond du Lac County will be removing any leftover items Ripon Medical Center (RMC) does not need after it moves out of its current facility at 933 Newbury St.

“Early in our planning, we were approached by Paul Os-terholm — on behalf of Habitat

for Humanity — to see if Ripon Medical Center would be inter-ested in donating any items that would no longer be needed at our new facility,” said Katherine Vergos, RMC’s chief operating officer. “We felt this was a com-pelling opportunity to partner with another local non-profit organization to ensure that any-thing that would not move to the new hospital could benefit other individuals within the communi-ties we serve.”

It won’t be a pittance left over, either, according to Os-terholm, who is the executive director of the Fond du Lac chapter of Habitat.

“We feel we have enough to fill a semi with whatever is left over from Ripon Medical Center,” he said. “In most of the rooms we will have the chairs, or a chair and a desk [to collect].”

“Items include non-medical equipment, office furniture, artwork and other office-related supplies,” Vergos said. “And, this strategy fits well within our mission to preserve our natural resources through reuse and recycling. A majority of our office furniture and other items was available for Ripon Medical


It looks like something one might expect to find in a ghetto.

Smashed mirrors and dishes.Old toilets people have defecated

in — and left to rot.A closet in which a fire clearly was

set once, whether for light or warmth.Graffiti and trash everywhere.But this isn’t downtown Mil-

waukee.It’s downtown Ripon.The former American House

at 230 Wat-son St. and the former Republican House at 303 Blackburn have become frequent tar-gets of teens looking for somewhere to do illicit act ivi t ies, a n d eve n vagrants at times.

The lon-ger the buildings stay unoccupied — as they have been for several years under Boca Grande Capital LLC’s

OFFICERS found a Bible being burned by teens in May 2013.

submitted photo

ownership — the worse they get.One of these days, police worry,

someone will get hurt. Or worse yet, Ripon could have a repeat of the devastating Dec. 11, 2013 fire.

“What would concern me is

THE FORMER AMERICAN House now is trashed, with broken glass (above) and graffiti (at top) all over. Just a few years ago, it was a vibrant senior living home (inset). RCP file and submitted photos


A downtown building owned by Boca Grande Capital LLC has begun to crumble.

But the structure on the 100 block of Watson Street isn’t the only one with which the city of Ripon is concerned.

In fact, a year and a half ago, a city official sent a pair of official notices to im-mediately fix a portion of the facade at 205-207 Wat-son St., citing concerns the bricks would begin to fall to the side-walk there.

Thus far, they have not — but the facade at a different Boca building has.

Now, a similar letter is expected to be sent about 123 Watson St. — formerly Suds on the Square, where bricks fell out of the south-eastern corner of the facade.

So far, none of these condi-tions have been rectified by Boca Grande, the downtown developer that has beleaguered city officials by failing to finish most of the projects it agreed to in 2009.

THE RIPON MEDICAL Center campus off Metomen Street will be stripped of old furniture by Habitat for Humanity. RCP file photo

See HABITAT/ page 15

See RECYCLING/ page 15

See CRUMBLE/ page 16

See TEENS/ page 16

Ian Stepleton graphic

Page 16 - Thursday, November 27, 2014

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somebody getting in the building and, based on the interior condition of the building, being injured in the building,” Ripon Police Capt. Bill Wallner said. “... Nobody [would] know they’re in there [injured]. It could be some time before anybody helps them ...

“We’ve [also] all seen what a fire in the downtown area could do, and in this case you’ve got people light-ing a fire inside the building ... That’s the kind of stuff that becomes scary because if it gets out of hand it could become a situation.”

As Wallner explained, this isn’t an isolated incident or two. Police have seen a pattern of break-ins at these two properties, enough so that they’ve adjusted their patrols to keep an eye on each.

“It’s hard to say how many times they have been entered,” he said, though he know it’s been more than a few instances. “... Obviously there’s been considerable damage done within the buildings, both because the buildings have been left unoccupied, but [also] destruction from people who have been in the building. There is extensive damage to the interior of the building, specifically the Ameri-can House.”

Three times so far, police have ar-rested individuals at those locations.

Two summers ago, the American House became a focus of concern for police.

Someone had noticed individu-

What’s next, though, is any-body’s question.

“We want to do whatever we need to, to make sure the public is protected in these situations,” City Administrator Lori Rich said.

Meanwhile, others have re-ported problems with several other Boca buildings, ranging from trespassing to interior damage to fires lit.

For more information on these problems, see “Vagrants, teens trashing insides of buildings, too,” on page 1.

PROBLEMS AT 123 WATSON ST.The city’s concerns became

evident last week Thursday, when Ripon public works barricaded off the sidewalk by the south end of the alley behind the 100 block of Watson Street.

“Looks like there’s some dete-rioration of the bricks and its just a precaution,” City Engineer Travis Drake said, referring to the brick wall on the backside of 123 Watson St. “The building inspector will be following up on it.

“There were a few [bricks] that had dropped off so we just don’t want to put anyone at risk.”

City of Ripon Building Inspec-tor Susan Leahy confirmed this fact. “I am going to be starting on one on Watson Street on the corner on the 100 block,” she said.

Rich, however, explained the notices direct the property owner to make certain repairs.

“If something comes to our at-tention that is a particular hazard, our building inspector will send a property-maintenance notice,” Rich said, noting such notices are sent via certified mail, and direct the property owner “to contact the building inspector within a certain amount of time [10 days] ...

“[She is] going to send one on the 123 Watson St. [issue].”

ANOTHER BUILDING CRUMBLINGIt turns out, however, this would

not be the first — or even second or third — such notice the city of Ripon has sent to Boca Grande regarding its downtown properties.

In an interview with the Com-monwealth, Rich explained that

the city has been trying — unsuc-cessfully — to get Boca Grande to make repairs to 205-207 Wat-son St. (commonly known as the “Benkoski building”) for some time now.

In fact, Leahy directed Boca Grande to correct a problem in June 2013 that could lead to falling bricks there.

In a May 16, 2013 property maintenance notice — one of three obtained by the Commonwealth via an open records request — she wrote,

‰ “The structural integrity of the brick facade along the top of the building (round corner) is compromised and in need of repair. There currently is a large crack from the window head to the top

of the parapet. The brick facade is starting to lean outward away from the structure of the building. The condition of the facade must be repaired before loose brick or a section of brick topple to the side-walk below.” (emphasis added)

That, however, wasn’t her only concern. In that letter, Leahy listed two other “deficiencies” that were to be corrected immediately:

‰ Breaks in “the stone veneer and concrete facade exposing the structural column and mesh ...”

‰ “The painted boards cover-ing the stairs to the basement are not acceptable. These stairs are ... a trip hazard.”

The city has yet to receive any response from Boca, Rich

explained.In a typical situation, the rem-

edy would be clear.“The city would consider

whether to proceed with legal ac-tion,” Rich said of what typically occurs when a property owner fails to follow up on the notice sent.

This, however, is not a typical situation.

The city of Ripon continues to be embroiled in a legal battle with Boca Grande on more than one front.

It is suing Boca for a money judgement for failing to complete eight of the 10 downtown rehabili-tation projects it promised to do in a contract signed in 2009, and suing Boca’s tech arm, Granite

Broadband, for failing to make payments on a $750,000 loan from the city.

Given these continuing law-suits, Rich appeared hesitant to engage in another.

“We probably won’t pursue le-gal action on these items,” she said.

That doesn’t mean the city won’t take any action.

One option would be for the city to do the repairs itself (or contract with someone to do them) and then charge Boca for the work via the tax roll.

“That would be an option, too,” Rich said, without elaborating on how likely it would be the city would take that course of action.

The downside is that Boca has

stopped paying its property taxes.But, as Rich added, any dollars

spent could be recouped “at the time the property would be sold.”

ONE NOTICE WAS ADDRESSEDWhile Boca Grande has not

made corrections on these con-cerns, it did address previous problems listed in a June 16, 2011 property-maintenance notice.

According to that letter, “The front face of 207 Watson St. is exposed at the floor joists and must be enclosed. The front face of 205 Watson St. has a large hole in the fascia covering and must be repaired.”

That time, Boca made the fixes within two weeks.

AMONG THE s t ructura l concerns noted by the city building inspector are, from above left and going clockwise, a broken concrete facade at 205-207 Watson St.; brick cracked and possibly ready to fall at that building; brick — circled in red — that already has fallen off of the back corner of 123 Watson St. (formerly Suds on the Square); and damage to the facade of 205-207 Watson St. That last concern, though, has been repaired enough to satisfy the building inspector.

Ian Stepleton photos

TEENS/Police concerned someone will get injured, buildings burn from incidents continued from page 1

CRUMBLE/Biggest problems appear to be at 205-207 Watson St. continued from page 1

als entering the former senior living home May 11, 2013, leading officers to enter the building that evening. When they did, police found four teenagers sitting around a burning Bible in a bucket.

“I think they burned a Bible be-cause that was what was available to burn, quite honestly,” Wallner said, noting the building was in terrible shape. “There’s broken glass, there’s holes in the walls ... ceiling falling down. [The teens likely were] look-ing for a place to gather to sit around and do things not out in the open — trying to hide their activity, whether that’s drinking, smoking, whatever.

“There’s spray paint and vandal-ism — lots of graffiti inside the build-ing. Overall general destructive-type behavior.”

At least three of the four teens were referred for juvenile charges of trespassing and negligent use of burn-ing materials following the incident.

Then, just two weeks ago on Nov. 13, officers again made arrests in the building following an alleged trespassing situation.

A teen girl, as well as 18-year-old Justin X. Hernandez of Ripon, were arrested after police allegedly found them in the building with a bottle of tequila, as well as another apparent bottle of alcohol.

Each were referred for charges.Over at the Republican House,

meanwhile, a homeless man — al-legedly David C. Schultz of Ripon

— told police in February he went in “because he didn’t have anywhere else to go and ... needed to get out of the cold.”

Police, though, noted it didn’t ap-pear to be the first time someone had been into the building.

“... Based on the evidence of cans and clothing strewn around throughout the building, it appeared that someone had been going into the building on a frequent basis,” the police report reads.

Police reports describe the Ameri-can House as being in even worse shape.

According to a report by Inves-tigator Lindsey Michels, “... Plates were broken, and exit signs were pulled from the ceiling ... Holes were punched in the walls of all different sizes ... Windows were smashed out ... There were beer cans, water bottles, soda cans, alcohol bottles ... There was a lot of graffiti on the walls ...

“There were also toilets where people had gone in and pooped in the toilets. There were rooms that were smashed up; things that were smashed included microwaves, sinks, light fixtures, and basically anything that was in them. There was also a room where there appeared that they started a fire in the closet.”

Wallner wasn’t shocked that such activity is going on.

“They’re standing vacant. It doesn’t take long, based on my experience, whether it’s a building

downtown or a residence, when that building remains vacant for a period of time, it doesn’t take long for word to get out,” he said. “Either people are going in, looking for property, or are getting out of the cold.”

Boca, he added, has made good-

faith efforts to prevent such problems.“Every time we’ve arrested sub-

jects out of there, we’ve contacted them ... and they’ve attempted to secure the buildings,” Wallner said. “In some cases, [the trespassers] find a different point of entry or break a

window to get in or something else. I’m hopeful that they continue to ad-dress those security issues, and we give them frequent patrol because we’ve known it is an issue ...

“I think they’re trying to take steps but it’s the nature of the buildings.”

SCORCH MARKS ON the floor show where teens had a fire in May 2013 at the former American House. submitted photo

Thursday, November 6, 2014 - Page 1

Single copy — $1Thursday, November 6, 2014 Ripon, WI 54971




2013

Wisconsin

Weekly

Newspaper

of the

Year

O O Fall ElEction 2014 O O O

Riponites vote to combining Ripon

Middle School and Ripon High School Yes

Home sustains ‘significant’ damage

4

CELEBRATING THE REFERENDUM passage this (Wednesday) morning before school are, from left, Cindy Cody, left, treasurer of the citizens group, “Yes to the Future,” and Jeff Puhlmann-Becker, president of the pro-referendum advocacy group. With them are school Superintendent Mary Whitrock, center, and seventh grade students — who will be among the first freshmen in 2016 in the new, combined middle and high school — from left, Leah Carriveau, 12; Breanna Boofer, 13; Ellie Ewald, 12; and Sheila Kasuboski, 13. Tim Lyke photo

Ripon soon will see Boca in court — twice


Ripon will be seeing attor-neys for a beleaguered down-town developer in court more than once this fall.

Boca Grande Capital, princi-pal Jim Connelly and a former tech arm of the company, Gran-ite Broadband, have hearings set to occur over the next six weeks.

Meanwhile, other court cases continue to churn ahead — in-cluding at least one new lawsuit filed in the past month.

News has not been good for Boca for some time now, as it continues to see more suits filed against it ever since it failed to complete a series of downtown rehabilitation projects in Ripon.

Only two of 10 such projects it promised to do via a 2009 developer’s agreement were finished. Since that time, Boca has ceased making payments to various levels of government, including the city of Ripon.

Various lending organiza-tions now are taking it to court for failure to make payments to them as well.

TWO RULINGS EXPECTED IN CITY LAWSUITS

First on the docket for city of Ripon attorneys will be its law-suit against Granite, in which the city seeks a money judge-ment following Granite’s failure to make payments on a $750,000 from the city.

At this hearing, scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 26 at 1:30 p.m. in Fond du Lac, Ripon’s attorneys will be arguing for a summary judgement in the case.

As City Attorney Lud Wurtz explained, a request for a sum-mary judgement occurs when the plaintiff believes it can convince the court that the facts clearly support its case.

“It’s been scheduled for a summary judgement motion ... to assert to the court that, based upon pleadings and supporting affidavits that there are no issues to be determined ...,” he said, noting the plaintiff (i.e., the city) would be “... suggesting there are no issues ... that need to be addressed ...

“The court can make the de-termination.”

Next, Ripon’s attorneys will meet Boca’s representat ion

Udderly terrifying?

No, not reallySPORTING A zebra outfit, Duncan Willer, 1, of Ripon stares at cow-wannabee and costume-contest judge Henrik Schatzinger during the Tiny Terror event last week Friday. Other judges of the contest were “farmer” Jo lene Schatz inger and Ripon Mayor Gary Will, who dressed up as himself. Willer was one of four winners of the costume contest. For more photos from the sixth-annual Tiny Terror event, which returned after a one-year absence, see page 3 or visit the “Halloween 2014” photo gallery on www.RiponPress.com. Jonathan Bailey photo

FIREFIGHTERS FROM NUMEROUS districts fill the driveway adjacent to a home off Highway 49 Saturday. Ian Stepleton photo


“It’s a weird feeling pulling up on your brother’s house fire.”

That was how Brandon/Fair-water Fire Chief Mark Horvath summed up how he started his morning last week Saturday.

But he may have been relieved when he discovered his brother, John and family — wife and four children — all out of the home, safe.

Though John Horvath’s home at N5515 Highway 49 — midway between Ripon and Brandon — was significantly damaged, no one was injured in the blaze.

John Horvath called 911 around 6 a.m. after noticing an odor in his home.

“He was awake at the time; he could smell something,” Mark

Horvath said.Some family members already

were out at the time, and the rest quickly exited safely.

But it didn’t take long for the

fire to do major damage after that point.

When Mark Horvath ap-proached the home only a short time later, it was clear he needed

help.“There was flames going up

the outside of the house, up to

INSIDE

Our Views

Phoenix risingThe Red Hawk men’s basketball team pestered UWGB all game, but couldn’t hold back the D-I school.

See page 17

Poet & he knows itNeed a poem in a hurry? This Ripon teacher is your guy. Need an award-winning poem? He’s done that, too.

See page 10

Sports

Education

Family affairFor this Ripon family, serving the community is just a part of who they are — for three generations now.

See page 4

Sold City OKs RMC saleRipon’s aldermen finalized plans to sell the current site of RMC to an area developer to turn it into multi-unit housing.

See page 3

See DAMAGE/ page 14

See BOCA/ page 16

by Aaron [email protected]

It wasn’t even close.Ripon Area School District

officials enjoyed not one but two resounding referendum

vic tor ies Tu e s d a y — one to c o m b i n e the h igh school and m i d d l e school at t he h igh school site;

the other to continue with an increased level of operations funding.

Both passed with greater than 60-percent support, ac-cording to unofficial results.

Parent Jeff Puhlmann-Becker helped lead the ground game.

“Our goal from the begin-ning was to make sure that people got good and accurate information that was readily available — that citizens and neighbors would talk to each other and friends would talk to each other with the right information and make good

decisions,” he said.This included yard signs, a

Facebook page, addressing local service groups, and brochures tucked into kids’ Halloween bas-kets for parents to find. That’s in addition to 1,000-plus buttons

handed out.“And every time we gave out

buttons, we gave out frequently- asked-question sheets, so people had information when they said, ‘Hey, what are you voting for?’ They knew what they were talking

about,” Puhlmann-Becker said.

Meanwhile, Superinten-dent Mary Whitrock and School Board President Da-

See YES/ page 16

3 For more results

from Tuesday’s election, see page 16.

Page 16 - Thursday, November 6, 2014

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in Fond du Lac County Cir-cuit Court in the city’s lawsuit against Boca.

This is the case in which the city of Ripon is suing Boca’s development arm, Ripon Renew, for “unspecified damages” after failing to complete its downtown projects.

The complaint filed specifies the city seeks an amount “the court may deem just and equi-table under the circumstances.”

According to the online re-cords, the hearing will be for the court to render an oral ruling at the Friday, Dec. 19 hearing scheduled for 11 a.m.

It’s expected Judge Robert Wirtz will decide at that time whether next year’s trial will be a jury trial or a bench trail (in which the judge offers his deci-sion instead of a jury).

Currently, attorneys for Boca are requesting it be a jury trial. The city of Ripon attorneys, meanwhile, have submitted a wri t ten response arguing against.

Regardless the outcome of this hearing, the trial continues to be set for June 29 to July 10, 2015.

NEW LAWSUIT APPEARSMeanwhile, a new party has

appeared in the mix of lawsuits against Boca Grande and its principals.

Privatebank & Trust Co. — a Midwest banking institution headquartered in Chicago — now is suing Boca and Connelly, as well as his wife, Christine. According to the case filed Sept. 16 in Milwaukee County Circuit Court, it is seeking to foreclose on an unspecified property.

Interestingly enough, it’s attorney is one Ripon knows well: he’s the same attorney — John Van Lieshout of Reinhart Boerner Van Dueren s.c. of Milwaukee — the city hired in its lawsuit of Boca.

Also of note: several new entities are tied to this case that have not been listed as involved in other suits against Boca.

One them has been dismissed already: Kasgro Leasing LLC of New Castle, Pa. The only other time the name “Kasgro” has ap-

peared in cases against Connelly has been when North Milwaukee State Bank sought to seize 750 shares of Kasgro Rail Corp. stock in its lawsuit of Boca for failing to make payments on nearly $400,000 in promissory notes.

While Kasgro was dismissed from the case, two other mystery defendants remain:

‰ WICAB Inc. of Middle-ton, Wis., whose website says it is a “certified medical device company focused on developing the BrainPort V100, an assistive device for the blind and visually impaired,” and

‰ the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development.

Wurtz was not aware of this case, nor was he aware of any particular tie between those en-tities and Boca Grande Capital.

Van Lieshout, meanwhile, could offer little detail about the case, other than to say what it isn’t.

“It is not related,” he said, referring to the ongoing cases in Ripon. “It’s filed in Milwaukee County; it’s not related to the action in Ripon.”

No court dates are set in this case yet.

BADGERLAND FILES TWICEIn other lawsuit news, Bad-

gerland Financial, which had dropped a foreclosure case against Granite Broadband ear-lier this year, now has refiled lawsuits again — twice.

First, it refiled a similar fore-closure case Aug. 18, but this time removed any individuals from the lawsuit. The only re-maining defendants are Granite Broadband, the LLC for Gran-ite’s property (303-305 Watson St. LLC), and two entities with liens against Granite: the city of Ripon and Town Bank.

A motion hearing in this case will occur Friday, Dec. 5.

The second case was filed Oct. 2, in which Badgerland seeks a “money judgement” against Boca Grande as well as all the partners from Granite Broadband: Connelly, Frank Cumberbatch and Mark Dodge.

No court dates have been set in this case yet.

BOCA/One suit unrelated to Ripon issues continued from page 1


City of Ripon residents seemed to know only one word when voting Tuesday.

“Yes.”They uniformly approved all four referenda presented to them.For more on the results of the Ripon Area School District

referenda, see page 1.Only one of those questions, however, was advisory only and

strictly for the city of Ripon.A local group known as Move to Amend-Ripon received

strong support from city of Ripon residents. The group polled residents whether they would support asking state and federal legislators to restrict political contributions by organizations, unions and companies.

This measure passed 2,119-570, though it is not binding.One reason it may have received as many votes as it did was

because of heavy voter turnout in the city of Ripon.It started early, as City Clerk Ann Schommer noted, “Traffic

has been steady,” as of about 8:15 a.m. “Currently [we’ve had] 255 voters and more in line to vote.”

That number quickly grew by mid-morning.“At 10:44 a.m. we have had 830 voters,” Schommer said. “It

is steady. Short lines at registration at times, but no major lines for voters.

“I would say this is on par with the governor recall election from a few years ago.”

In the end, 2,941 voted in the midterm election, or 68 percent of registered voters.

By comparison, when Gov. Scott Walker was elected in 2010, only 61 percent (2,669 voters) turned out.

It did not rival the 2012 general election, though, when 84 percent of registered voters cast ballots (3,789 out of 4,513).

In other election news, Riponites’ votes mirrored how Wis-consin residents voted statewide, as Ripon supported winners in every corner.

Local results include: ‰ Riponites supported a state referendum on transportation

funding 2,116-549.‰ For the race for governor, city residents firmly supported

the current administration, as Gov. Walker and Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch outpaced Mary Burke and state Sen. John Lehman 1,584-1,286.

‰ The closest race of the night in Ripon was the District 6 race to replace U.S. Rep. Tom Petri, R-Fond du Lac. State Sen. Glenn Grothman barely edged Winnebago County Executive Mark Har-ris 1,380-1,365 (50.3 percent to 49.7). This was the only race in which Ripon’s results were drastically different than statewide, as Grothman won the seat handily across the rest of District 6.

‰ It was less of a contest locally for state Assembly District 41, where incumbent Rep. Joan Ballweg, R-Markesan, topped Democrat challenger Joe Kallas 1,640-1,161.

‰ In the only statewide race with a local challenger, Andrew Zuelke of Ripon received meager support for state treasurer (161 votes) as he ran with the Constitution Party. Instead, Riponites stayed with the two major parties, as Republican Matt Adamczyk led with 1,341 votes, while Democrat Dave Satori finished in Ri-pon with 1,087. Statewide, Zuelke captured about 1 percent of the vote: 28,010 votes, with 99 percent of municipalities reporting.

Riponites support all referenda, state winners

vid Scott attributed the success — at least in part — to keeping the community involved and informed.

“There was commitment from the very beginning to have a very transparent, open process with a lot of involvement, where multiple voices could be heard,” Whitrock said. “... We want a building that represents what the community wants, not just a handful of people.”

Scott also tipped his hat to the volunteers who helped spread the word and get people engaged.

“The school district has always been pretty supportive, and yes, I know it’s taken multiple times to get some referendums passed, but still, basically the Ripon School District really supports education, so that’s a big part of it,” Scott said. “And then there were a lot of people that were out there working on get-ting the word out and making sure that all their questions were an-swered ... And then just the fact that the process has been open from the very beginning. Those are the three things that really contributed.”

THE PROJECTOf all the students in the Ripon

Area School District, perhaps stu-dents in grades four, five and six have the biggest reason to celebrate today.

That’s because in two years, they’ll be the first middle school-ers to enjoy the improved Ripon High School/Ripon Middle School building when it welcomes grades 6 through 12 in fall 2016.

Tuesday, voters overwhelm-ingly approved the $29.1 million facilities referendum, allowing the district to tax those additional dollars over time and commence construction on a combined cam-pus for high schoolers and middle schoolers, using much of the exist-ing high school.

“Everyone is very excited,” Whitrock said of district officials’ reaction. “We’re really thankful, very appreciative for all of the work throughout the process and the commitment of the community to be engaged, because they really had a significant hand in designing the actual project that came forward.”

Amid heavy turnout across the 11 municipalities in the Ripon Area School District, voters approved the building referendum 2,817 to 1,554, or 64.4 percent support. Voters also approved the operations funding referendum 2,620 to 1,685, or 60.9 percent support.

Scott acknowledged it was “a relief.”

“I hadn’t heard too much nega-tivity,” he said, but added he was surprised that the building refer-endum passed by a slightly wider margin than the operations refer-endum.

When the middle school is de-molished and merges into the high school, the district’s oldest building will move from 1939 to 1963 and put the district in better stead for the long haul.

“It’s going to be a while [before Ripon needs to build another new school],” Scott said. “It puts us in really good shape as far as facilities are concerned.

As part of the referendum cost, the middle school — the oldest of the district’s four schools — will be demolished, and $1.5 million will

be earmarked for upkeep of Barlow Park and Murray Park Elementary schools as well.

“This [referendum] also gives us a chance to catch up on some deferred maintenance on all the school buildings, which is an im-portant thing,” Scott said.

The plan will see the exist-ing high school building divided roughly in half, with the west and south sides for the high school and the northeast side for the middle school. Then, 59,000 square feet of new additions will be spread between those two sides, most of it falling on the high school side.

New construction will include a new high school gymnasium (with the existing gym to become the middle school gym), new high

school commons, some new high school classrooms and new spaces for tech-ed.

This new construction will take place primarily on the west side of the existing building, and also some to the north. The two schools will be separate, although they will share some spaces, such as the auditorium and stage, library and swimming pool.

In other words, it’s not simply a new middle school, but rather a total reconfiguration of how the Ripon High School building func-tions.

Tax impact is projected to be about $118 per year (for the next 20 years) for a property valued at $100,000. The final impact will depend largely on the interest rate secured for the borrowing.

OPERATIONS REFERENDUMMeanwhile, in a separate deci-

sion, voters also granted the Ripon Area School District a six-year extension of the operations refer-endum for $500,000 annually. The “yes” vote on this item will not impact taxes, however, since it’s already in place.

According to the district, the $500,000 operations referendum extension is intended for:

— Curriculum ($225,000)— Technology ($160,000)— Maintenance ($100,000)— Vehicles ($15,000).School district officials spent

Tuesday night at a Ripon restau-rant, keeping track as the results came in from the 11 municipali-ties across the Ripon Area School District.

Business Manager J.J. Gutman answered calls and put numbers into a spreadsheet.

“Then in between receiving numbers, we were kind of doing our calculations to see where we were at and realizing that even with the last couple that came in that we had enough of an edge that both referendums came through,” Whitrock said.

Solid results from the city of Ripon — which came in about midway through the list of 11 municipalities — were the tipping point, making it clear that both questions were headed for victory, Whitrock indicated.

“What we really began to watch was the margin, and we really stayed throughout the night within that 60-percent range,” Whitrock said. “And I think that’s what was really exciting, because it’s significant to demolish a building that has a great amount of history in the community.

“To have that kind of support behind that move I think makes everyone feel very confident mov-ing forward.”

YES/District’s new oldest school built in 1963 continued from page 1

Thursday, August 27, 2015 - Page 1

INSIDE

Our Views

On the ballJust one game into the 2015 fall season, the boys soccer team already has recorded its first victory of the year.

See page 17

In memory of ...A young man from Germany has created a fitting memorial to a Green Lake man who gave the boy so much.

See page 7

Sports

Area

Gone and backThe only corn maze in the area decided not to return this year. Fortunately, another one has sprouted up to take its place.

See page 4

Competent Facing trial

The Ripon man accused of stuffing his brother’s body in a barrel was found competent this week to stand trial.

See page 3

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Major changes coming for Boca

HEROIN:A GROWING PROBLEM

As heroin use skyrockets, area law enforcement finds teamwork is only way to combat epidemic

HERO N Ripon’s growing epidemic ∙ A 4-part series


Editor’s note: This is part three of a four-part series examining the growing heroin problem in the Ripon area. The first article examined the local impact of the issue, while last week analyzed the physical and emotional impact the problem creates. This week considers how addic-tion extends well beyond Ripon, while next week’s story will explain how law enforcement aims to get a handle on the epidemic.

A couple months ago, a call went out across the police radio.

A driver reports seeing a man slumped behind a steering wheel.He has a needle sticking out of his arm.Could it be ... heroin?Ripon Police never got the chance to find out.

“The call came in [that the man was] at County Road KK and 49,” Ripon Police Capt. Bill Wallner said. “We were requested to go out there by the [Fond du Lac County] Sheriff’s Department, and by the time we got there he had left to go to Green Lake County.”

Solution: call up the Green Lake County Sheriff’s Department, and hand the concern off to their deputies.

“Staff ended up locating him down in the County [Road] K area on the south side of the lake,” Green Lake County Deputy Sheriff Mark Putzke said. “He was taken into custody for a drug-related OWI [operating while intoxicated].”

Heroin appeared to be the culprit.Apparently the man shot up, passed out, then came to just in time to

drive along a busy highway in what equated to a heroin-fueled missile

AN INMATE AT the Green Lake County Jail shows off track marks created by repeated heroin injections. submitted photo

Roadhouse being bought; Suds is sold; others still in question

Churches, etc. may get city recycling, for a fee


If city officials follow through with a suggestion by Ripon Ald. Rollie Peabody, a compromise might be struck between those who wish for nonprofit organizations to continue receiv-ing recycling services through the city, and those who believe they should pay their own way.

An ad-hoc committee will be formed to consider Peabody’s suggestion that nonprofits, including Ripon churches, continue receiving recycling services, but for a nominal fee that would more than cover the city’s expense for providing the service.

This fee, however, would come at a fraction of the cost such nonprofits would pay to contract with a recycling provider on their own.

The discussion comes in response to the recent revelation that when the city switched to single-stream recycling, a variety of organizations that had been receiving the service suddenly no longer were.

Evidently, churches and other nonprofit groups such as the Ripon Historical Society had been receiving the service for


A Ripon landmark restaurant is set to be sold, residents are urging the city to support the sale of anoth-er dozen properties and yet another building was sold at a sheriff’s sale.

These are among the massive changes afoot regarding properties owned by beleaguered downtown developer Boca Grande Capital LLC.

Within 48 hours, each of those came to pass as it seems Boca is los-ing its once firm grip on downtown Ripon now at a rapid rate.

What happened?Several moves occurred:‰ It came to light at Monday’s

Common Council meeting that Roadhouse Pizza, the only remain-ing going operation owned by Boca, is about to be sold;

‰ At the same meeting, a series of residents spoke on behalf of Tom Rogers and Rogers Rogers LLC, encouraging the city to release liens it has on several properties owned by Boca that Rogers Rogers is at-

RIPON MAIN STREET manager Craig Tebon speaks as city officials, including Ald. Dennis Miller, listen. Ian Stepleton photo

tempting to purchase. One person, though, spoke against; and,

‰ The former Suds on the Square/Timmons Corner was sold Tuesday morning at a sheriff’s sale.

What does this all mean?

That, if every sale occurs that could occur, Boca soon could own just one, last property: its former headquarters at 303-305 Watson St.

Principal selected at MPES

See BOCA/ page 16See RECYCLING/ page 16

See MPES/ page 14

Renee Bunge

See HEROIN/ page 15

by Aaron [email protected]

For Ripon’s newest principal, the second time’s the charm.

Ripon School Board mem-bers Tuesday unanimously approved of-f e r i n g t h e Murray Park/Q u e s t E l -e m e n t a r y School prin-c i p a l p o s i -tion to Renee Bunge, wife o f t h e n ew Ripon Middle School/Catalyst principal.

She replaces Randy Hatlen, who has become the new high school principal.

The decision came less than a week before the start of school, after the search was re-opened after previously being narrowed down to two other finalists.

Bunge has been a resident of Ripon for 21 years, an educator for 23 years.

Her two daughters have gone through Ripon schools.

She recently took a position as assistant principal at Oshkosh West High School, after being a literacy teacher for grades six and seven in the Oshkosh Public Schools since 2002.

During a meet-and-greet Monday afternoon, staff and others had a chance to meet Bunge and the other finalist, John Graf, the elementary prin-cipal at Forest Lane Community Charter School in Montello.

Bunge sought to connect per-sonally with her audience, em-phasizing her local ties and her daughters’ experience in Ripon’s public schools, and thanking the staff for staying late on their first day back on the job.

“It’s home. I’m invested,” she said. “I’m invested in you as people. I’m invested in the [school] district and this com-munity, and I will go above and beyond every single day to make

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RESIDENTS SPEAK OUT ON PROPOSED ROGERS PLAN

Many of those sales, though, hinge on the city releasing liens on properties owned by Boca Grande to the family group led by Riponite Tom Rogers.

Though about a dozen properties are involved in the potential trans-action, liens on four of them could prevent it from going through:

‰ 205, 207, 209 Watson St., otherwise known as the Benkoski Building

‰ 217 Watson St., home to Imagineers (a business owned by Ripon Ald. Howard Hansen)

‰ 231-233 Watson St., most recently home to Cho’s Black Belt Academy

‰ 301 Watson St., the former Ripon State Bank that most recently served as the city’s Senior Center.

So far, it appears Rogers is mov-ing closer to being able to purchase the buildings.

The Common Council met in closed session Monday night to discuss “Ripon Renew, Inc. [Boca] Second Mortgages],” without fur-ther detail, as well as the city’s lawsuit against Boca Grande.

Following that discussion, ac-cording to Rogers, he received a call Tuesday from City Administrator Lori Rich, who passed along two requirements.

The first was to receive formal notice from Boca principal Jim Connelly’s attorney that a sale is in the works.

By Tuesday afternoon, that had occurred.

“It’s been all taken care of be-tween the two attorneys already,” Rogers said of Connelly’s attorney and the city’s legal team. “[Now] they want me to meet with them in closed session [to discuss the possibility of removing the liens] ... They are supposed to put that together ASAP.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, a time had not yet been identified, accord-ing to Rogers.

LOCAL SUPPORT, CONCERNMeanwhile, the Ripon Area

Chamber of Commerce and Ripon Main Street sent out emails Mon-day, asking members to attend that night’s Common Council meeting and speak about the issue — though the chamber’s request didn’t say so directly.

It read, “During the meeting there will be an opportunity to ad-dress the council during the ‘Public comments and communications’ portion of the agenda to share your thoughts concerning Downtown Ripon and future happenings.”

Several individuals, not all chamber members, did offer com-ments that evening.

“I’m very concerned about two properties Boca owns that may not make it through the winter without some sort of structural failure with the facades,” Ripon Main Street manager Craig Tebon said. “It’s important to move on. We’re also looking at a developer who could bring a multi-million-dollar devel-opment project to downtown Ripon. who could add millions to the tax base. We’ve got to get out of this $4.1 million deficit we have with TID 11. The only way we can do that is to move on.”

Former Ald. Gib Stoeberl, one of

the individuals who once approved the original developer’s agreement with Boca, also spoke.

“I understand the skepticism the City Council has because I was a part of that first decision .... The concern of the council at that time was to save the city, to save the downtown, to protect a jewel that only Ripon has,” he said. “My concern is that, going through so much litigation, we’re going to lose that jewel ...

“[Rogers is] not asking you for money; the other person had all these plans but he also wanted our money, and I went along with it be-cause I thought that it would be good for the city. I once again will back [Rogers] even more ... I ask you to think [seriously] about that, and do a better job of saving our downtown than I did.”

Dan Zimmerman, who is leading the group establishing a Republican museum at the former Republican House property, also spoke on be-half of Rogers.

He noted that when he tried to ac-quire the Republican House last fall from the city, city officials wouldn’t release a lien at that time either — a fact, he purported, hurt the museum group’s ability to move forward.

“You provided a list of three stipulations that essentially were unreasonable, and they were not things we could comply with,” he said, explaining they included Boca principal Jim Connelly reaffirming his personal guarantee, to pay a payment in lieu of taxes and to sign a developer’s agreement. “... Now we’re thinking of Tom Rogers doing the same thing. I ask, what is that going to get us? ... [The museum group] ultimately ended up with the building; we bought the building. It cost is $12,000 more, it delayed our fund-raising, our project by four months, which ultimately set it off by a year. And what did we get? We still ended up with the building and we ended up with a lot of ticked off people ...

“You have an opportunity to do it right this time.”

Tim Lyke, publisher of the Com-monwealth, spoke as well, pointing to three lessons from his late father that were applicable, he said.

They were that “Downtown is the heart of our city ...; government is necessary, but it needs to know when to trust the private sector ...; [and] Attorneys are valuable, but they work for the client, not vice versa.”

He added, “I ask you to please don’t cut off the city’s nose to spite its face. I’ve had Jim Connelly in my office, hotter than a hornet, but this is not about retribution. It’s about doing what’s right, now, to rebuild a downtown that’s again worthy of this fine city.”

Former Mayor Dave Gray, how-ever, urged the city not to lift the liens.

“I am going to speak on the other side ...,” he said, noting he believes Rogers could focus on buying prop-erties without liens. “It just annoys me, and I think it annoys people outside of Main Street ... that a group that came in here and fleeced the city for next to $7 million and then borrowed another $5 million on top of it, and took it and ran, is now trying to get more money out

BOCA/City will discuss removing liens with Rogers soon continued from page 1

years, even though by city statute they were not supposed to be.

So, when the switch to single-stream recycling occurred, only residences of up to four units got the new roll-carts, as is consistent with the city ordinance.

But that left the churches and others out, leading them to wonder why. City leaders, too, were surprised by this, leading to Monday’s discussion.

“It is kind of a freebee for them. We have been doing this for years, though, at no cost,” Peabody said. “... Our contract is based on the number of pick-ups they are supposed to do. It was 2,600; right now it’s around 2,300. So we’re in that range of where we should be within the contract, if we were to allow this to go to the American Legion or the churches ... so adding addi-tional units doesn’t cost the city anything more.”

“It reduces the savings,” City Engineer Travis Drake said.

To cover that cost, Peabody recommended a special fee.

“[We would] charge the not-for-profits for up to one unit ... per organization,” he said, pro-posing a fee of $50 a year, which would more than cover the city’s cost of about $32 to provide the service. “I don’t think it would break the bank of churches to pay [that].”

He added this still would be much less than groups would pay otherwise, explaining a separate contract likely would cost a group several hundred dollars a year.

“I think it’s fair both ways,” Peabody said.

“That is certainly something we could look at,” City Attorney Lud Wurtz said. “... [It] seems fairly reasonable ...”

Not everyone — especially Ald. Jim Werch — was comfort-

RECYCLING/Public is invited to discuss continued from page 1

able with opening the door to allow non-residential properties to receive city recycling services, even at a fee.

“I like the idea, because I’ve been struggling with the idea,” he said. “[But] our ordinance already draws a line ... You’re opening that line up to ... non-profits. Why are we drawing that line there? All we’re doing is moving that line ... I’m just strug-gling at where that line is. Does a church or nonprofit do more than a small business? I can think of some large corporations in town who do very much for this com-munity ... Why do we make them pay for theirs?”

“The provider may draw that line,” Wurtz said.

“We may be satisfying one group but still disgruntling oth-ers,” Werch said.

Ald. Annette Klein, mean-while, moved in the opposite di-rection, pushing to give churches free recycling.

“It’s peanuts. If we can’t give that to our churches, I think it’s really sad,” she said. “... I feel they’re part of the community and it should be given to them.”

Ultimately, at Mayor Gary Will’s urging, Peabody agreed to lead an ad-hoc committee to investigate whether, and how, to implement such a fee structure for nonprofit-organization recy-cling services.

“I seriously think it needs to be looked at ...,” Peabody said.

Klein also volunteered to help.The public, meanwhile, is in-

vited to participate as well.“I’d like to see some public

input into that,” Werch said.Anyone interested in partici-

pating on the ad-hoc committee should call Peabody at 748-9838 to volunteer.

of the properties that the city now rightfully owns.”

Though the council later dis-cussed the issue in closed session, it offered no comment during open session.

ROADHOUSE PIZZA, SOLD?Meanwhile, Roadhouse Pizza is

expected be sold by the end of the month — but it’s unclear who the new owner will be.

Details of the planned Road-house sale remain shrouded.

Alisa Zabel was able to confirm only those details alluded to in an application she made to the city, in which she requested transfers of all the business’ licenses into her name as manager. The request was made July 30.

“At this point, we’re just focus-ing solely on getting a successful clos[ing], so at this point I cannot comment on much,” she told the Commonwealth, noting she could only confirm the property was being sold, and that closing should occur no later than Aug. 31.

She wouldn’t say who was pur-chasing it, though.

“I can’t share that ... because I’m contractually obligated,” Zabel said.

The application to the city, how-ever, for a sidewalk cafe license appears to suggest that she and manager Andrew Radke will be the new owners.

Under the section “Full Name of Corporation/Limited Liability Co.,” Radke and Zabel’s names are listed as being the members of “Roadhouse Pizza, LLC.”

At Monday’s meeting, the Com-mon Council approved transferring all licenses held by Roadhouse into Radke and Zabel’s names, pending the successful sale of the property.

HORICON GETS SOME SUDSThen, Tuesday morning, the

former Suds on the Square at 123 Watson St. also was sold via sher-iff’s sale.

The former Boca property had been foreclosed upon by lien holder Horicon Bank, with it to be sold in “as-is” condition Tuesday.

According to Sherry Anthes, a secretary at the Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s Department who handles the auctions, Horicon acquired the property.

“It went back to the bank; there were no other bidders,” she said, explaining this is not an unusual situation. “[It happens] a lot; very typical. A lot of times they go back to the bank.”

Jeff Liddicoat, a vice president at Horicon Bank in Ripon, confirmed the bank’s planned acquisition.

“We don’t have control of the property yet, according to the rules of the court,” he said. “We have to await a sheriff’s confirmation, which typically takes place 30 days after ... During which time the cur-rent property owner could redeem the property. But if they don’t it will fall to us ...

“After that then we can sell it. We can talk to anybody now ... but we have to say subject to us getting complete control of it at sheriff’s sale confirmation, if that is what happens.”

Assuming it goes through, Tebon already has some suggestions for a potential buyer of how to renovate the property.

“We have a rendering of what the building could look like. I’ve devel-oped a few different pro formas to provide some guidance of the scope of what a renovation could include,” he said. “Now we’ve just got to wait the 30-day period to see if the sale is contested, and then assist where ever [we can ...].”

He believes it wouldn’t need a massive upgrade to its look.

“It’s not all that cluttered, so it has great potential but perhaps opening up the windows on the second floor as well as on the side of the building,” Tebon said.

It all depends on how far some-body’s willing to take it and the rental income will support.

ALD. JIM WERCH, left, explains his concerns about changing the ordinance, while Ald. Todd Elliott listens. Ian Stepleton photo

MANY OF THE buildings visible here could be sold in the coming weeks by Boca Grande Capital LLC. Ian Stepleton photo

MPES/continued from page 14

ALSO INTERVIEWED was John Graf, a principal in the Montello School District.

Aaron Becker photo

person for you, because I am somebody who in 23 years of teaching and leading experience, I do have that art of the science.”

According to a district press release, “references described Bunge as the go-to person for students, parents, teachers and administration that she works with. She was noted as be-ing respected for her literacy knowledge and passion for both educating young people and sharing instructional practices that maximize learning.

“A former supervisor stated Ms. Bunge is ‘a person who is consistently reflecting and looking for ways to help us see improvement school-wide,’” it reads.

After the initial two finalists were rejected earlier this month, the position had been re-posted from Aug. 14 to 18. Thirty-seven applicants applied, nine of whom were new applicants.

“The selection committee was impressed with Ms. Bunge’s extensive teaching experience, literacy background and com-mitment to the community of Ripon,” Superintendent Mary Whitrock said. “Bringing Ms. Bunge on as the principal of Murray Park Elementary School and Quest Charter Elementary School completes the adminis-trative team and puts closure on a very successful administrative hiring process.”

Check out a breakdown of what’s new at each of the schools this fall on page 9.

Documents

WNA entry for Ripon Commonwealth Press: Reporting on Local Government