News

The 2018 Oconto County Senior and Junior Fairest of the Fair will be selected at the annual program, scheduled for Saturday at Gillett High School.

Interviews and judging will take place in the morning. The public portion of the program will start at 11 a.m. at the Gillett High School Performing Art Center, where all of the contestants will have the opportunity to speak on stage in front of an audience and judges.

The program will include introductions, radio spots, impromptu questions, event announcements and farewell speeches from outgoing Senior Fairest Victoria Hull and Junior Fairest Grace Seefeldt. The contest concludes with the crowning of this year’s Senior and Junior Fairest of the Fair.

This year’s contestants are:

State Rep. John Nygren, R-Marinette, has announced his intention to run for a seventh two-year term representing the 89th Assembly District, which includes parts of Oconto, Marinette and Brown counties.

The co-chair of the Joint Committee on Finance described the session just concluded as “the most productive Legislative session since I have been elected to the State Assembly” in a re-election statement released last week.

“When I first ran for office 12 years ago, I pledged to listen to my neighbors and work hard every day to ensure their voice is heard in Madison,” Nygren said. “Over this time, we have invested more money into public education than ever before, unemployment is at a record low of 2.9 percent and taxes have been cut by over $8 billion. We are moving Wisconsin forward, and I look forward to building on this work.”

Gillett police officers played a key role in the apprehension of a person of interest in a Green Bay shooting incident last week.

Shots were fired outside a Shawano Avenue home in Green Bay on April 11 and, at 2 a.m. the next morning, the Gillett Police Department was asked to try to locate a suspect vehicle and a 28-year-old male driver for questioning in the incidents.

Officers located the vehicle at an area motel at 2:20 a.m. and received information the driver and possibly other accomplices were inside, all of whom were suspected of being heavily armed, according to a news release from Gillett Police Chief Jess Keplinger.

Proceedings of April 11

John J. Mellinger, 39, Sobieski, waived his right to a preliminary hearing and was bound over on charges of strangulation-suffocation and misdemeanor battery and disorderly conduct in connection with an incident that allegedly occurred Jan. 28. Arraignment was scheduled for April 19.

In a plea agreement, Alex James Vandenhoven, 25, Green Bay, pleaded no contest to a charge of possession of narcotic drugs in connection with an incident that occurred Oct. 6. He had previously been charged with possession with intent to deliver. Sentencing was scheduled for June 6.

Proceedings of April 9

Nsight Telservices has been selected to receive a broadband expansion grant through the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSC) for a fiber construction project supporting businesses in the Oconto Falls Business Park.

The telecommunications firm partnered with the Oconto County Economic Development Corp. for a grant to construct a 2.2-mile fiber route through the Business Park. The fiber route will serve 33 businesses and a retirement facility and offer speeds up to 250 Mbps service, more than 10 times the speed currently available.

The project received a grant of $49,230. Local partners Oconto County Economic Development Corp. (OCEDC), City of Oconto Falls, and Oconto County will invest $4,500 and Nsight Telservices will invest an additional $66,342. In its selection memo, the PSC staff noted that this application was a strong example of promoting growth of the local economy.

The state Department of Public Instruction has named Gillett Elementary and Middle Schools as Title I “Beating the Odds Schools.” It’s the the seventh consecutive year that the elementary school has been honored and a first for the middle school.

The schools are among 135 being recognized for their success in educating students. All of the schools receive federal Title I funding to provide services to high numbers or high percentages of economically disadvantaged families.

The Beating the Odds designation is for schools whose students achieve in the top 25 percent of high-poverty schools in the state, with above-average reading and mathematics achievement compared with similarly sized districts, schools, grade configurations and poverty levels.

Paul Ehrfurth wasn’t mincing words.

“This is huge,” the executive director of the Oconto County Economic Development Corp. said Thursday after the state Public Service Commission approved a $600,000 state grant to expand internet broadband access to nearly 4,000 households and 107 businesses in several northern townships in the county.

The state grant will be matched by Bertram Communications, of Random Lake, which plans to construct five towers and lease space on two existing towers to boost internet speeds by five to 10 times current rates within the next 12 months, according the grant application.

“This is one of the most significant (economic development) projects in some time” in the county, Ehrfurth said. “I’m thrilled and overjoyed we received this award. I wasn’t expecting that we’d be the largest one in the state, but I’m certainly happy with that.”

Times Herald readers stepped forward over the weekend to help record a once-in-a-lifetime snowstorm for posterity.

Southern and eastern Oconto County bore the brunt of the storm Friday night through Sunday that dropped more snow than Oconto County has seen since a two-day snowstorm in 1888.

While the National Weather Service office in Green Bay announced a final measurement of 23.7 inches at its site near Austin Straubel Airport, higher totals were being observed north of the city. Oconto registered a final total of 25 inches, and a site in Stiles measured 32 inches.

By late Sunday afternoon, 29 inches had fallen in Sobieski, and Lena and Pulaski were each reporting 22 inches as of mid-afternoon Sunday.

Hospital Sisters Health System-Eastern Wisconsin Division has announced Paula Bake, a registered nurse who works in the Emergency Department at HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital in Oconto Falls, as the 2017 Nurse of the Year.

HSHS-Eastern Wisconsin Division hospitals include St. Clare as well as HSHS St. Vincent Hospital and HSHS St. Mary’s Hospital Medical Center in Green Bay and HSHS St. Nicholas Hospital in Sheboygan. Each year, one nurse is chosen from within the division as Nurse of the Year.

Nurses nominate a colleague from their unit, and those nominations are then reviewed by nursing leadership and HSHS-Eastern Wisconsin Division’s Professional Nurse Practice Council.

Proceedings of April 6

Bond was set at $25,000 cash for Matthew R. Haag, 43, Pulaski, who is charged with five counts of possession of child pornography in connection with an incident that allegedly occurred April 4. The balance of his initial appearance is scheduled for April 12.

After a preliminary hearing, Jeremy A. Hanna, 38, Oconto, was bound over on charges of fleeing an officer and misdemeanor bail jumping in connection with an incident that allegedly occurred Feb. 12. Arraignment was scheduled for April 12.

Proceedings of April 4