2013 bnc entry: business coverage

Thursday, August 29, 2013 -

Single copy — $1Thursday, Aug. 29, 2013 Ripon, WI 54971

Ripon Commonwealth Press Issue No. 35www.RiponPress.com Serving the Ripon community since 1864

2011Wisconsin WeeklyNewspaperof theYear


INSIDE

Our Views

Build on successThe Tiger volleyball team finished with its best record in six years last fall. Now they feel it’s time to use those wins as a springboard to more.

See page 19

Tall taleThese area scouts climbed up high to spin a story of achievement while they were on their summer vacation.

See page 7

Sports

Area

Campaign stopWhen on vacation, why not go sightseeing to track down the bedrooms of presidential hopefuls, as publisher Tim Lyke did?

See page 4



Top farmer Riponite nominatedA Ripon man is one of 10 finalists who could receive the Wisconsin Farm Bureau’s Young Farmer and Agriculturalist Achievement Award.

See page 3

HARLAN BOSSENBROEK OF Brandon motors on down Dartford Road as he leads a pack of tractors during the fifth-annual tractor cruise, held last week Saturday. Waving to friends on the green and yellow Oliver tractor is Steve Kulick. For more photos, see page 3. Jonathan Bailey photo

Who prevents an AFK ‘explosion’?Flood water inside the foundry

could be catastrophic, but whose responsibility is it to address this?

Ladder truck fails state inspection

by Ian [email protected]

For years, replacement of the aerial ladder truck has been the elephant in the room for the Ri-pon Area Fire District (RAFD).

With the truck being 31-years-old, the department long has known it needed to be replaced.

But, because it continued to pass certi-fications and in spec t ions , that elephant has remained h i d d e n i n a dusty corner of that prover-bial room.

No longer.“It has been taken out of ser-

vice,” RAFD board president Joel Brockman said following an emergency session of the RAFD board last week. “It failed its state inspection.”

Without the ladder, Ripon must rely on mutual aid from

other communities if a problem ever occurs at a taller structure.

And now the department must look the $1.1-million elephant in the eye and decide how to proceed with replacing the out-of-service rig.

To put into perspective just how long the truck has been in service, national standards sug-gest it should have been out of service years ago as a front-line truck.

“NFPA [National Fire Protec-tion Association] standards state how long a ... vehicle should be front line, and that’s 20 years,” Saul said. “After 20 years, [a

d ep a r t me n t ] should be put-ting that in a reserve status — no t you r front-line out of the door.

“Then, usu-ally after 25-

30 years, you don’t keep that truck because standards change so much.”

Ripon’s truck, meanwhile, is at 31 years.

“It’s not something we haven’t known,” said RAFD board mem-

Fire truck now out of service as fire district debates how to solve the $1.1M problem

“It’s really past the point where it should have

been replaced.”Ald. Howard Hansen


Imagine, someday, the city floods, and water pours into the AFK foundry building off Pacific Street.

Water reaches a pot of molten metal. Catastrophe ensues.AFK officials have imagined the result could be a “huge and violent

explosion and fire.”Within a one-mile blast radius, windows are blown out of every home and

business. Close up, the damage is worse, and anyone working at the plant likely is seriously injured.

The question is ... Whose responsibility is it to ensure this never happens?Is it AFK’s, since the foundry is operating the plant?Or is the city’s, since it maintains the storm sewer system?

Downtown apartments ready to buildby Ian Stepleton

[email protected]

A hybrid townhouses/apartment development is ready to move for-ward.

The Commonwealth Cos., based in Fond du Lac, was given all the necessary approvals last week Wednesday by the Plan Commission to go ahead and build the project off Jefferson Street this fall.

The building will be known as the Jefferson Street Apartments, per documents turned in to the Plan Commission.

Mayor Gary Will praised the planned new construction and its proximity to Watson Street.

“Any town you go to you need people downtown,” he said. “You need to get people to live and work and shop in the central business district.”

Other Plan Commission mem-bers agreed.

“It’s a good use,” Bill Hoch said, to which Will agreed, “A very good use.”

“It looks like a very good proj-ect,” commission member Steve Reimer said.

JASON DAY, LEFT, and Stan Ramaker of Excel Engineering examine the plans for the new apartments. Ian Stepleton photo

Tractor parade

All in the family:Nephew gets Habitat home

3 What: Ground-breaking ceremony for Habitat home

When: Saturday, 9 a.m. Where: 120 Wolverton Ave.

See FOUNDRY/ page 18

See LADDER/ page 18


Eleven years ago, a young Alan Huar Jr. watched as his aunt became Ripon’s first recipient of a home from Habitat from Humanity.

“She said it was a wonderful experience, getting the house and working with all the people,” Huar said of Aunt Romelia Rodriguez. “It encourages you to help oth-er people, [she told me].”

Just over a decade later, Huar will enjoy the same experi-ence.

He and his 1-year-old son, Em-mit, were selected to be the recipi-ent of Ripon’s second Habitat for Humanity home.

It will be built off the northeast corner of Wolverton Avenue and Eureka Street.

He won’t be given the home; rather, he’ll help build it, and then Huar will begin paying a mortgage on the property.

An official ground-breaking and

ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held Saturday at 9 a.m. at the build site, at which time Huar will be in-troduced to the community.

Huar, though, admits that’ll be far from the first time he’ll see where his new home is set to be built.

He admits he’s snuck a few peeks in recent weeks since finding out he’ll be the recipient.

“Yea, I’ve done that already,” he said, laughing about driving past.

H u a r e x -plained that, as a father, he’s proud he’ll be able to provide

a home of his own for Emmit.“We’re just really happy to have

a place for our family,” said the 22-year-old.

A Ripon resident since 2001, Huar graduated from Ripon High School in 2009 and now works at Advanced Paper Enterprises in Ripon.

Frankly, he never expected to be selected, joking he is one of “the

See BUILD/ page 16

WATER CAN BE seen rising up the front of the AFK building off Pacific Street during a May 2004 flooding event. Rising water, however, is not an uncommon sight at the plant. submitted photo

See HABITAT/ page 17

Thursday, August 29, 2013

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News

ber Ald. Jim Werch during Mon-day’s Common Council meeting in explaining the problem to the council. “We’ve seen this on the [horizon] for many, many years. This situation is the catalyst ...”

Ald. Howard Hansen agreed.“It’s really past the point

where it should have been re-placed,” he said.

That the failed inspection occurred two weeks ago didn’t come as a shock to those in the department, either.

“There was some, as the guys were saying, some ‘settling’ with the ladder,” Brockman said, explaining firefighters needed to “keep lifting it” for it to stay at a given height.

The inspection two weeks ago identified why.

“The main hydraulic rams that lift the ladder” must be repaired, Brockman said. “The repair estimate — it’s a broad estimate — is $10,000, but they do not stand very firmly by that estimate until they get in there and look at what is wrong.”

To put that in context, what’s the old truck worth?

“The value of the truck is $8,000,” Brockman said.

During Monday’s Common Council meeting, he elaborated, noting, “The only thing we can probably do with it is scrap it” if it can’t be repaired.

“This is not a little failure,” Brockman said.

Hansen added it’s unclear whether other problems exist with the truck as well.

He explained that, when the inspector found the problem with the rams, he “stopped all other testing.”

That left the RAFD board in a quandary last week Wednes-day when it held an emergency meeting.

“I t was a spl i t board on whether we do the repair or not,” Brockman said, noting it couldn’t decide whether a repair was “throwing good money after bad ...

“It came down to, we need the aerial.”

Numerous buildings around the area, he explained, require an aerial ladder truck to ad-equately fight fires. Locations

LADDER/New truck could cost about $1.1M continued from page 1

such as the dormitories at Ripon College are too tall to address through other means, Brock-man said.

“[So] we need to keep the old one running until we can afford to get a new one,” he said. “Ba-sically, the decision was ... the

$10,000 repair is the limit set by the board.

“[Now] each municipality must review how to finance a new ladder truck through their budgets.”

Cost to replace the aerial ladder truck is believed to be

about $1.1 million, the bulk of which — about 75 percent, or $825,000 — would be picked up by the city of Ripon (as the larg-est municipality in the RAFD).

Most of the remainder would be paid by the town of Ripon, with the town of Nepeuskun responsible for the final portion.

“When you spec a truck out, it will vary ... depending on what you put on the truck,” Brock-man said of the actual cost for a ladder truck. “I’ve instructed the chief to start gathering data on what’s out there.”

According to Saul, the de-partment wouldn’t need to pay extra for additional features on the truck.

“These days, ladder trucks that are stock ladder trucks ... have almost everything you need because of NFPA standards,” he said. “We don’t need the bells and whistles; we need something that is functional, that will meet our needs, keep our firefighters safe and help the community.”

The board is willing to con-sider looking at a used truck, rather than a new one, but Brockman said his preference — and the board’s leaning — is to go new.

“You inherit a lot of prob-lems,” he said of buying a used truck. “When you buy a used vehicle, most of the time it has so many hours on them ... [though that] depends on where the aerial comes from, too.”

With that in mind, “We’re probably looking at a demo or a brand-new one,” Brockman said.

Before any serious steps are taken toward replacing the truck, though, the RAFD needs to know exactly how bad the cur-rent problem is, and whether it’s worth making the repair.

“No. 1, we are in the process of making the repair, investigat-ing how bad it is ... and then each municipality is tasked with tak-ing it to the budget hearings to implement a plan to purchase,” Brockman said.

This likely will take through the remainder of 2013, and pos-sibly into early 2014.

“I don’t see a clear-cut an-swer coming out of this until [budgets are done],” he said.

RIPON’S AERIAL LADDER truck is extended to full height during a special event at the fire station during the winter of 2012. Ian Stepleton photo

The Ripon Common Council debated this dilemma Monday night after receiving a request from AFK to do something about the storm sewer situation in that area.

Ultimately, the council agreed it’s the foundry’s responsibility to take steps necessary to protect its plant, but added it may be best long-term to see the plant relocate to a safer spot.

“There is no question AFK on Pacific Street has issues with runoff drainage when we have a hard rain — this is not new,” City Engineer Travis Drake said in his overview for the council. “I gave you a written report in 2002 when [there was a problem].”

One issue — and an issue AFK focused on when contacting the city — is that a storm sewer pipe leading to Silver Creek cannot convey all the runoff it is fed during a heavy rain.

According to the 2002 report, “The investigation determined that the drainage system does not have capacity to convey the design storm runoff directly to the creek without ponding in Pacific Street in front of AFK.”

“Their feeling is a larger [storm sewer] pipe will take care of that,” Drake said Monday night, though he disagreed with that sentiment.

Drake, however, as he noted Mon-day and in the 2002 report, believes a large part of the problem is that the storm sewer pipe actually is below the water level in places for Silver Creek. In fact, during storm situa-tions, there are storm sewer grates on Pacific Street that are lower than Silver Creek’s surface level may be.

“The submerged outfalls [where the pipe drains to the creek] results in the runoff entering the street and AFK yard during anything other than the most common storm events,” the report concludes.

Bottom line: the land AFK is on is so low, it always will be prone to flooding as long as the storm sewer runs through there, according to the report.

“When it rains and all the wa-ter comes down ... it comes down through the pipe and back-floods,” Mayor Gary Will said.

“The size of the pipe won’t make much difference in that,” Drake said.

One potential way to mitigate the problem, per the report, would be to run a new line around the north side of AFK to a point that “could provide unrestricted discharge.”

Eleven years ago, cost to do so was about $100,000. The city, how-ever, has not been keen on paying that cost, and has offered in the past to do engineering work on such a project — so long as AFK pays for construction.

On Monday, Drake described the new pipe as the “preferred solution ... But I don’t know how much more we could do at this time.”

While this might help, council members debated whose responsibil-ity it is, considering AFK knows it exists within a floodplain.

“We, as a council, do we need to look at helping them out — getting them out of this area and moving them to the industrial park or go with this lesser route and work on the drainage?” Ald. Rollie Peabody asked.

“First, that’s something we want to know: if they are interested in [moving],” Will said, noting that, given the property’s problems, AFK would have a difficult time re-selling the land if it did move.

Peabody, though, focused on the danger to the community associated with having the foundry there.

“You’ve got a risk of a business in the floodplain with I don’t know how many tons of molten metal in the basement ... [An explosion] would be terrible,” he said. “We’ve got to look at it.”

City Attorney Lud Wurtz, though,

emphasized the responsibility falls on the business, since it knows it’s oper-ating a business in a risky location.

“I think it is relevant it’s in a floodplain ... and they know it ex-ists,” he said. “It’s a known situation ... It’s their duty to deal with the risk. They’ve had this [report] since 2002. It’s a private business aware of a known risk for their business.”

It’s not that AFK has not tried to mitigate the problem, Drake ex-plained.

“Over the years I’ve been here, they’ve taken many steps to try to reduce that risk,” he said. “They’ve done a lot to mitigate that.”

“What kind of damage would be done if molten metal came in contact with surge waters?” Ald. Joel Brock-man asked.

“I can only repeat what was said to me: We’d all be replacing windows [for] probably a mile [around the foundry],” Drake said. “No doubt there would be severe injuries if there was anybody in there at the time.”

Wurtz, though, reiterated AFK is culpable for anything that happens because it’s continuing to operate in an area it knows is prone to flooding.

“That’s what water does: it goes to floodplains,” he said. “... It’s some-thing they need to address.”

The council implicitly agreed later, voting unanimously not to take direct action, but to meet with AFK to come up with a solution to the problem.

That did not bind the city into paying for any such solution, though. The city would help with engineer-ing work, but it would not pay for construction.

Meanwhile, the city also intends to discuss the possibility of relocation with AFK leadership, which council supported.

“Include relocation [in the talks] and see what the options are,” Brock-man said.

SIGNIFICANT FLOODING IS visible on the north side of the AFK foundry following a heavy rain in early August. AFK photo

FOUNDRY/continued from page 1

Yeah, he’sadorable,

but you havesix of him.

Place an ad in theRipon Commonwealth Press/Express

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Thursday, February 14, 2013 - Page 1

❤ ❤

INSIDE

Single copy — $1Thursday, February 14, 2013 Ripon, WI 54971

Issue No. 7www.RiponPress.com Serving the Ripon community since 1864

Our Views

Tourney timeThe Tiger boys’ basketball team is charging into the tournament strong with another victory in its pocket.

See page 19

Plenty to giveThe Webster Foundation board shows it can be fun to give away tens of thousands of dollars to the community.

See page 14

Sports

Business

A moving storyA move to Indiana last fall for the Rev. Mark West came right when he needed it: just in time for him to get a new doctor, who found cancer.

See page 4

Trial Starts TuesdayLee Stellmacher, accused of trying to hire someone to commit murder, goes on trial starting Tuesday, Feb. 19.

See page 3

Divisive politico visits Ripon

Boca payments fall further behind

Kevin A. Taylor


A Ripon Police officer is lucky to be alive after a Milwaukee man allegedly almost ran him over as

the suspect fled authorities.

Now Kev-in A. Taylor, 20 , i s be -ing charged with multiple counts in Fond du Lac County Circuit Court.

Meanwhile, individuals at a

Ripon home also may face drug-related charges after the chase for Taylor led to a search warrant served at a Ransom Street home.

For now, however, the charges against Taylor include:

‰ First-degree recklessly en-dangering safety-repeater (a fel-ony),

‰ Attempting to flee or elude a traffic officer-repeater (a felony)

‰ Possession of marijuana-repeater (a misdemeanor), and

‰ Possession of drug parapher-nalia-repeater (a misdemeanor).

If convicted on all four counts, he could face a maximum penalty of $36,500 in fines and more than 30 1/2 years in prison.

Additionally, he could lose his driver’s license for as many as 10 1/2 years.

“[The officer is doing] good — he wasn’t injured at all,” Ripon Po-lice Capt. Bill Wallner said of offi-cer Timothy Schroeder’s condition after nearly being gravely injured during the chase. “It’s fortunate because it very well could have ended up with him being injured or having to use deadly force.”

He later added, “The charges this kid [Taylor] is facing are ap-propriate. He was charged as a repeater — that goes to show this is not his first go-around.”

HIGH-SPEED CHASE INTO CITYThe alleged incident began

last week Wednesday at 1:50 a.m. when Fond du Lac County Sher-iff’s Department deputy Laura Halfmann pulled over a vehicle she’d witnessed travelling at 71 mph along Highway 23 near Coun-ty Road C west of Fond du Lac.

According to the criminal com-plaint, “Halfmann [asked Taylor] if he had any form of identifica-tion and the male said he did not ... Halfmann smelled the odor of marijuana coming from the vehicle and directed the driver to exit the vehicle.

“... The driver put his vehicle in drive and sped away.”

The pursuit flew through Rosen-dale, with the vehicles reaching 75 mph in the 25 mph zone, according to the complaint, which added, “A northbound semi had to stop at the intersection to allow the suspect vehicle through.”

Once past Rosendale, speeds increased to nearly 100 mph, even

Officer nearly injured during recent pursuit

Rove touches on economy, 9-11, more in talk at college

by Tim [email protected]

Karl Rove encouraged Ripon College students last week to follow his lead: “Participate in the great drama of America’s democracy.”

The campaign strategist and White House advisor to President George W. Bush told the 325 gathered in Harwood Memorial Union last week that politics is meaningful, exciting and seriously fun.

During his almost 90-minute appearance, he discussed: ‰ How President Obama won last

November; ‰ Why he’s “bullish” about the

GOP’s future;‰ The moment when, listening in

to a call President Bush received on 9-11, he realized that America was in grave danger;

‰ How the Affordable Care Act already is proving to be more expensive than the White House had predicted;

‰ Why the Tea Party’s future is “durable;” ‰ The precautions interrogators must make to assure their captives are

not tortured;‰ Why more Latinos should vote Republican; ‰ Media that mask their liberal bias behind claims of objectivity.Open to college students, staff and faculty as well as the greater Ripon

community, Rove’s visit was sponsored by Ripon College Republicans and

Experts sought to solve Silver Creek mysteryby Ian Stepleton

[email protected]

Why does Silver Creek stink near Pacific Street?

The DNR still doesn’t know, but it’s taking steps to reduce the odor — as well as find out what’s going on.

And those steps may mean bringing in a company from out of state to do some work.

Last week, the DNR received

the results of tests it had the State Laboratory of Hygiene run on two samples it took from Silver Creek: one from the surface of the creek, and one directly from a “seep” where groundwater is flowing into the creek.

What did the results tell the DNR?

Essentially that it needs more information before identifying the true nature of the problem.

That doesn’t mean it’s going

to wait the months it will take to officially solve the mystery before it does something about the stink, though.

DNR officials will be moving forward on two tracks, the second being finding a way of mitigating the problem currently as it seeks the overall source.

BACKGROUND ON THE ISSUEIt’s been a long road for those

investigating the odor already.

The search began two years ago, when neighbors around the Pacific Street area started com-plaining of a sewer-like smell. Later, the city of Ripon found a gray slime had appeared at a rocky outcropping adjacent to the creek just east of Pacific Street.

The slime, otherwise known as sulfur-reducing bacteria, is emit-ting hydrogen sulfide (H

2S)— a

KARL ROVE VISITS Ripon’s Little White Schoolhouse last week Wednesday prior to speaking at Ripon College. Pictured are, from left, Rove, Ripon College senior Jacqui Michalak, Ripon Area Chamber of Commerce executive director Paula Price, Ripon College first-year student Logan Soich and Ripon College Professor Lamont Colucci. Ian Stepleton photo

KARL ROVE SPEAKS to a crowd of about 325 at Ripon College’s Harwood Memorial Union. Aaron Becker photo

3 For an editorial related to this story, see “U.S. de-

mocracy stinks of cash cows,” page 4.

Developer now owes more than $500k to city, county


A downtown developer has fallen another year behind — more then half a million dollars worth — in pay-ments due to both the city of Ripon and Fond du Lac County.

All told Boca Grande Capital LLC now owes the city of Ripon more than $300,000 for two grant-reimbursement payments missed, and hundreds of thousands of dol-lars more to Fond du Lac County for several years worth of unpaid property taxes.

“Those have not come in,” City Administrator Lori Rich said.

The developer, meanwhile, says it intends to make good on the pay-ments, though it has not told the city when.

“We met with the developer, and we continue to meet with him and try to encourage projects to move forward in any way we can,” Rich said, noting she met with Boca prin-cipal Jim Connelly as recently as last week Wednesday. “... Yes, they do

still intend to pay those amounts and have identified a couple of sources that could help them come up with funds to pay these.

“They did not give a timetable.”The Commonwealth attempted

to contact Connelly for comment as well, but found he retired from his position as a partner at the Mil-waukee offices of Foley & Lardner as of Feb. 1.

A secretary there who works with retired partners forwarded on

the message to Connelly, and later returned the following message with a demand from Connelly that it run exactly as written:

“Despite repeated attempts by The Ripon Commonwealth to portray Boca Grande Capital in the worst possible light, the City of Ripon leadership, recognizing the chal-lenges inherent in the worst economy in more than 75 years, has worked

See BOCA/ page 18

See POLITICO/ page 17

See OFFICER/ page 16 See CREEK/ page 16


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cooperatively with Boca Grande in addressing thoughtfully and proac-tively these matters. Boca Grande Capital, LLC has kept City of Ripon leadership fully and continuously ap-prised as to its positive progress under the Development Agreement with the City. As the City is well aware, it is the clear intent of Boca Grande Capital that all outstanding payments, interest, and penalties currently due to the City of Ripon and to Fond du Lac County will be addressed and paid in full not later than September 1, 2013.”

He then concluded his note with the following message:

“This statement must be utilized by you and the Commonwealth exactly as it appears above, without editing or modification of any kind. Boca Grande Capital, LLC will have no other written or oral comments to you or the Commonwealth on these matters at any time.”

PAYMENTS MISSED TO CITYThis is the second-straight year

Boca has failed to make its grant-reimbursement payment to the city of Ripon.

This payment is meant to help the city make debt-service payments for tax-increment finance district (TID) No. 11 — a district the city created in 2009 that funded the loans made to Boca Grande.

Boca, meanwhile, is obligated to make grant reimbursement payments under the terms of the development agreement it signed at that time with the city.

As a part of that agreement, the city took out more than $10 million in loans so it could provide Boca with $8.6 million for its development work.

The city’s ability to pay for those loans, though, was tied directly to the amount of additional property taxes the city expected to collect from the properties involved.

So, in the developer’s agreement the city and Boca signed, each project has an expected payback schedule. This schedule represents how much the city must bring in to pay for interest-only payments early on, and later principal and interest payments on the loans.

Regardless of whether a project moves forward or whether its value reaches projected levels, the devel-oper’s agreement obligates Boca to cover these amounts.

Projects have not moved forward

as expected, meaning this clause in the developer’s agreement has come into play, and Boca must make grant reimbursement payments.

Last year, Boca missed a payment of $123,168.65. With interest, that figure now has grown to $128,096.15.

Then, on Jan. 31, a second pay-ment was missed: $183,636.91.

This brings the total Boca owes to the city to $311,733.06.

“At this point, it’s not creating a problem,” Rich said of how the city does not yet need to take money from the tax rolls to offset the dollars Boca is supposed to be paying to the city’s loans. “There are four other TIF dis-tricts ... that are sharing with TID No. 11, so that helps prevent a shortfall.

“Even if we assumed no increase in [property] values with the TID, it would be more than five to 10 years before a problem occurred, and any development in the downtown TID ... creates additional increment [to pay off the loans].”

Meanwhile, Rich explained the city is optimistic at least one change could be coming downtown as well.

“Jim Connelly is continuing to work with another developer, and there seems to be some movement forward, albeit slowly,” she said, refer-ring to a new developer taking over the flagship project Boca proposed: a downtown hotel. “The next step is for him to request an amendment to the developer’s agreement [that would allow someone else to do that work].”

Whether that has occurred yet is unclear; the Common Council met Tuesday night in closed session to discuss “Conferring with legal coun-sel for the governmental body who is rendering oral or written evidence concerning strategy to be adopted by the body with respect to litigation in which it is or is likely to become involved — re: Ripon Renew Inc. Development Agreement.”

Ripon Renew is another Boca-related entity created for downtown development.

PAYMENTS MISSED TO COUNTYThe city of Ripon, however, isn’t

the only entity looking for payment.Fond du Lac County has not re-

ceived any property taxes from Boca Grande in years.

Delinquent taxes remain from both the 2010 and 2011 tax years — and now 2012 has been added to that list.

Exactly how much Boca owes to the count, however, is not clear. As of late Tuesday morning, Fond du Lac County Treasurer Julie Hundertmark told the Commonwealth her office was running into software issues that prevented her from pulling up an ac-curate number.

As of Nov. 30, 2012, however, she’d told the Commonwealth Boca owed $256,332.07 in back taxes, penalty and interest.

That number, however, has grown substantially since then. The total would need to add on property taxes for all its properties for 2012, as well as additional penalty and interest for past years and for February of this year.

NewsBOCA/Payments were due Jan. 31 continued from page 1

Thursday, September 27, 2012

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BusinessMelvin Blank, this is YOUR new wing!

He’s only missed 3 days of work in 60 years, and now he has an

addition named after himby Ian Stepleton

[email protected]

For the past 60 years, Mel Blank has arrived at Alliance Laundry Systems every day — rain, shine or snow.

A n d h e doesn’t plan to retire any time soon.

B u t e v e n when Blank does, his pres-ence will con-tinue to be felt there for years to come.

One of its t w o n ew e s t bui lding ex-pansions — its plastic injec-tion molding area — wil l bear his name.

“It will be t h e M e l v i n B lank P l a s -t ic Inject ion building,” said Todd Kaull, plant manager for Alliance.

The honor was announced

Monday at a special ceremony adjacent to the site of where the new expansion will be built.

It caps quite a 10-day span for Blank.

On Friday, Sept. 14, Blank was hand-picked to meet Gov. Scott

Walker when Wa l ke r v i s -ited Alliance for its ground-breaking cer-emony. Then, o n S u n d a y of this week, Blank official-ly reached 60 years of em-p loyment a t Alliance.

T h e n e x t day, Alliance held the spe-cial ceremony, at which em-p loyees and m e d i a f r o m a round the region came to ce lebra te

Blank.“It’s not everyday we get to

celebrate a guy like Mel,” said

MELVIN BLANK receives a congratulatory hug from a coworker following Monday’s ceremony. Ian Stepleton photo

Mike Schoeb, CEO of Alliance, who joked that though Blank has been there for 60 years, “He doesn’t look a day over 50 — he puts the rest of us all to shame.”

It’s an impressive career. And, to put in perspective just how long Blank has been at Alliance, Schoeb offered a few facts about the day Blank started there.

“Gas was 20 cents a gallon, and the average new car cost $2,700,” he said. “About one of out of three households in the U.S. had a TV.

“We’ve been very, very lucky, and very fortunate [to have him here all that time.]”

“He’s been around this com-pany longer than most of us have been alive,” Kaull added. “He has a very storied history here. When he stared, his wage was $1.49 an hour. The only thing the plant made [then] was a wringer washer.”

Kaull explained that, since that first day Sept. 23, 1952, Blank has “only missed three days of work,” vacations notwithstanding.

How did he use those precious three days off?

Blank couldn’t remember, Kaull said, except for on one of them: he went to a farm show in Fond du Lac, because he needed a tractor.

Even that could have been written off as a work expense at one point.

On one particularly snowy day, Kaull told the crowd, there was no way Blank could drive to work.

So, “he got on his tractor and drove the tractor to work that

day,” Kaull said. “Ladies and gentlemen, that’s dedication.”

Blank took all the accolades with an “aww, shucks” attitude, never gloating in the limelight as multiple still and video cameras pointed at him.

But he couldn’t hide his ex-citement at a couple special gifts Alliance offered him.

First, he was offered some-thing any Alliance employee would covet: his own parking spot, close to the building.

Blank nearly leapt off the ground, his jaw dropped, slapping Schoeb on the shoulder.

Then Blank was offered an-other gift.

Company execs looked up the last time he bought a washer-dryer set from the company, Kaull said. “And the last set you bought was in 1981.

“We’ll get you another one.”“It just shows what a good

product we make here,” Blanks said of the new set of Speed

Queens.”If his actions didn’t make it

clear how dedicated Blank is to the company, he made sure every-one on hand understood.

“I want you to remember one thing,” he said to everyone there on his behalf. “This is a very good company to work for — a very good company.”

And when will the 80-year-old retire?

“Maybe,” Blank said, “in an-other 10 years.”

MELVIN BLANK REACTS with shock and appreciation as Alliance plant manager Todd Kaull announces Blank will get his own reserved parking spot. Ian Stepleton photo

THROWING THE CEREMONIAL first shovel-full of dirt on the Alliance expansion in Melvin Blank’s name are, from left, Alliiance CEO Mike Schoeb, Blank and plant manager Todd Kaull. Ian Stepleton photo

PLANT MANAGER TODD Kaull shows a piece of molding Melvin Blank created to Blank’s family, from left, grandkids Madalyn and Samuel Leinweber, and step-great-grandchild Isaac Augustyn.

Ian Stepleton photo

Ripon/Green Lake native Randy Roeper has taken on an expanded role at Community Health Network.

For the past 10 months, he has served as the home care administra-tor.

This role will continue, along with his newly appointed position as vice president of the CHN Medical Group.

Roeper has 15 years of healthcare experience and has held a variety of operations, development and market-ing roles throughout his tenure as a health-care executive.

While serving as the administra-tor of CHN Home Care, he was very successful in implementing best practices and leading his staff through some critical change. Roeper is a patient and physician advocate alike.

“It has been a humbling experi-ence to work in home care and see how we are taking care of our patients in the environment they want to be in — their home,” he said. “The dedica-tion and compassion of my staff is truly incredible. They provide care like no other.”

There are challenges in the home-care setting that created an eye-open-ing experience for him, including the continuing decline in reimbursement that dramatically impacts home care agencies and their ability to help people in their homes.

It’s a challenge he plans to con-

tinue to follow and be the patient advocate for, to assure CHN is able to provide this service to its patients in the future.

In his expanded role as vice presi-dent of the medical group, Roeper said he is grateful for the opportuni-ties that await him.

“I am really excited to work with the CHN Medical Group. We have an outstanding group of providers on staff with experience and tenure that gives us a huge advantage in rural health care,” he said. “CHN is an in-credible organization that has bucked the trend towards corporate medicine. We are fiercely independent, whereby

we can make decisions that make sense to the communities we serve and not by a corporate office in some far away city.”

Roeper and his wife, Tanya, are alumni of Ripon College and have lived in the area for over 20 years.

“My wife and I are actively in-volved with our kid’s school, Cub Scouts, sporting activities, along with community events,” he said. “I feel incredibly blessed to be able to work and volunteer in the community I call home.”

Randy Roeper

RC grad Roeper named vice president of CHN

Thursday, April 11, 2013 - Page 1

INSIDE

Single copy — $1Thursday, April 11, 2013 Ripon, WI 54971

Ripon Commonwealth Press Issue No. 15www.RiponPress.com Serving the Ripon community since 1864

Community

New conference?It’s really early in the talks, but Ripon could end up in a new conference, facing some old friends.

See page 19

Not small ballFor local kids such as this Ripon girl, there’s no better way to enjoy a school day than to be pelted by an orange ball.

See page 10

Sports

Education

Not so niceAn impromptu ice storm surprised Riponites this morning (Wednesday), as power lines and tree limbs fell all over the community.

See page 6



Rosendale One dies in incidentA Rosendale man died last week Friday by his own hand after he apparently set fire to his downtown home on purpose.

See page 3

Participants in the Ripon Police Department’s Citizen’s Academy learned last week Wednesday how to col-lect evidence and investigate crimes from Investigator Lindsey Michels (pictured above).

Here are a few tips on how to bag evidence. To find about other investigative techniques learned by the students, visit www.RiponPress.com and select “Ripon Police Citizen Academy” from under the “News” drop-down menu.

How To ColleCT evidenCewith Investigator Lindsey Michels

1

2

Bag and label the evidenceJon Heatley fills out an evidence bag after “collecting” a piece of evidence during last week’s class at City Hall.

Seal it upCitizen Academy students Lori and Gary Will work on sealing their evidence bag with “duct tape”-style evidence tape.

3Name a guilty party?

This is almost the correct way of signing off on an evidence bag. The officer collecting evidence is supposed to date and number the bag over the edge of the evidence tape. But it’s supposed to be initialled — and not say, “Gary is Guilty.”

For more tips,visit www.RiponPress.com

photos and graphic by Ian Stepleton

Who will be superintendent?Decision likely made today;

check RiponPress.com for latestby Aaron Becker

[email protected]

A decision on Ripon’s choice for a new school superintendent could be made late this morning (Wednesday), after press time. New information will be posted at www.RiponPress.com.

A closed-session meeting of the School Board was scheduled for 11:15 a.m.Meanwhile, the two finalists both visited Ripon schools and held a meet-and-

greet with community members last week, on separate days.They are Kyle Ransom and Mary Whitrock. Both appeared with their spouses.Ransom is superintendent of the 615-student Gillett School District, located

northwest of Green Bay. Whitrock is the chief academic officer for the nearly 21,000-student Green Bay Area School District.

The search process comes as Ripon’s superintendent, Richard Zimman, will

Mary Whitrock Kyle Ransom

City is seeking grant to tear down

Boca’s Mapes Hotel

CHN may follow RMC’s lead, merge with Agneisan


Before joining with Agnesian HealthCare, Ripon Medical Center (RMC) and Community Health Network (CHN) explored merging a few years ago.

Nothing came of it — yet i n a f ew months, t h e y c o u l d become sister or-ganizations anyway.

C H N a n d A g n e s i a n have entered talks that could lead to an affiliation — but one CHN offi-cials say would be mark-edly different than the one RMC entered into with Agnesian.

“It’s very early [in the dis-cussions], quite honestly,” said John Feeney, president and CEO of CHN. “This is not an affiliation like you saw ... in Ripon. This is not where they are coming in and buying our organization.

“What we’re considering as a board is allowing Agnesian

to come in and invest into our organization.”

He said this would give Agne-sian “up to 50 percent” equity in CHN.

If both sides are amenable, the affiliation could be complete within the next six to 12 months.

“We believe, if we combine our resources to serve our com-

m u n i -t i e s , w e w i l l p r o -

v i d e b e t t e r health care close

to residents in Ripon, Berlin and the sur-

rounding com-m u n i t i e s

t h a n w e can do on our own,”

said Steve Little, president and CEO of Agnesian HealthCare.

Regardless of whether such an agreement is reached, though, it’s not expected to negatively impact health-care offerings in Ripon.

Actually, according to both organizations, an affiliation could lead to more traffic at RMC.

“We would be request-ing $500,000.”

City Administrator Lori Rich


Five years ago, the former Davis Hotel was to be the cornerstone of Boca Grande Capital LLC’s plans to rehabilitate downtown Ripon.

Plans called for it to be part of a grand hotel and spa, touted to be among the best in Wisconsin.

Now, the city may be on the verge of acquir-ing 300 Watson St. — and tear-ing it down.

It’s currently owned by Boca.But such an action would only be

the first step toward a different de-veloper creating a hotel on that site.

“It’s something we’ve been work-ing on for a while,” Mayor Gary Will said.

Between now and then, however, remains one formidable hurdle: the state.

The Ripon Common Council hopes to schedule a special meeting for early May to consider whether to allow city staff to apply for a grant from the Wisconsin Economic De-velopment Corp. (WEDC).

The council will meet Thursday at 7:30 a.m. at City Hall, at which time it plans to schedule a spe-

cial meeting for Tuesday, May 7 at 7 p.m. for a public hearing and a vote on whether to apply for the grant.

The grant is offered by WEDC’s public infrastructure, community facility and downtown redevelop-ment program.

“We would be requesting $500,000,” City Administrator Lori Rich said.

The money would be used for acquisition of the site by the city,

See HOTEL/ page 18

See MERGE/ page 17

See SUPERINTENDENT/ page 15

Thursday, April 11, 2013 - Page 17

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News

The first step toward establish-ing that relation-ship took place recently, when both boards of directors signed a letter of intent to begin discus-sions toward af-filiation.

L e a d e r s o f each organiza-tion are offering positive words a b o u t s u c h a marriage.

“We are excit-ed about the pos-sibilities this opens up for both health-care systems,” Feeney said. “We know that bringing together our combined strengths will enhance the technology, services and facilities we are able to offer.”

“This would be a win-win situation for both organiza-tions,” Little said.

Monday’s announcement of a possible affiliation was the latest step in a long discussion between the two groups.

“[Talks] have been moving along slowly,” Feeney said, ex-plaining CHN wishes “to main-tain control over our destiny, as we always have had.”

“We have been in conversa-tion with CHN — Agnesian and our executive at Ripon Medical Center — for well over a year,” Little said. “We’ve formalized that [now], to really sit down and look hard under the hood.

“CHN wil l look a t what Agnesian can bring to the table, and Agnesian will look at what they’re all about.”

“They bring a larger comple-ment of specialists; that is entic-ing,” Feeney said. “We are hav-ing specific discussions around a radiation/oncology center so patients ... can receive radiation [locally,] not an hour away.

“So we have been having talks about very specific product lines at this point.”

Little said Agnesian “brings capital; we bring a great scope of health services in specialty areas. We bring the expertise that comes with a larger delivery system.

“What they bring to the table is a very broad, geographic reach to the north and west of Ripon. They bring a very strong medical group.”

CHN serves not only Berlin but also Wautoma, Redgranite, Princeton, Green Lake, Marke-san and Montello. It also is affiliated with Wild Rose Com-munity Memorial Hospital, a nursing home, nearly two dozen

outlying community clinics, a retail pharmacy and a rehabilita-tion program serving nine sur-rounding communities.

One of those clinics is in Ri-pon. It typically admits patients to Berlin Memorial Hospital, though it can refer patients to RMC.

Under a potential affiliation with Agnesian, CHN patients would have the option of being admitting directly to RMC.

“It is my perception that CHN physicians are very loyal to Berlin Memorial Hospital,” Little said. “They treat a very large number of patients from the Ripon area proper. Those patients, who want to seek care in Ripon, could, whereas now they are referred to Berlin Me-morial Hospital. This could be a very significant improvement [for RMC].”

This could benefit CHN as well, which Little said he’s been told has “some issues with capacity, and this would benefit both parties.”

Any lingering hard feelings between RMC and CHN from past years, Little added, would be overshadowed by the ben-efits both organizations would receive from the affiliation.

“I’m keenly aware ... that there have been some differ-ences between the two organiza-tions in the past,” Little said. “I will tell you today we are in an era of health reform like we’ve never been in, in the last 50 years. Working together ... will be very important to the future viability of all of us. The ulti-mate result will be better health care for all we serve.”

He added growth is a neces-sity of the current health-care climate.

“One of our strategies to remain viable and healthy is

John Feeney, CHN CEO Steve Little, Agnesian CEO

to continue to grow, and one of our prime o p p o r t u n i -ties [is with CHN],” Little said. “Work-ing with CHN h a s a l w a y s been a poten-tial strategy we des i red . [But] beyond CHN’s mar-ket, we have no immediate plans.”

Both orga-nizations —

Agnesian and CHN — agree an affiliation could serve each group’s core principals.

“The reason we are inter-ested in working with Agnesian HealthCare is because our mis-sion and vision to keep the pa-tient at the center of everything we do is pervasive throughout their organization as well,” Feeney said. “By placing more emphasis on collaboration we believe that our cost structure to recruit and retain excellent physicians decreases while ac-cess to world-class care goes the other way. The result is better health care for patients in Fond du Lac, Green Lake, Waushara and Marquette counties.”

Little agreed.“By working collaboratively,

we can better coordinate care for patients in the CHN service area, providing even more ways for area residents to receive ex-panded primary- and specialty-care services,” he said.

“The two organizations are a good fit, culturally,” Feeney said, but added CHN wishes to retain its identity. “Providing care in a rural area is more per-sonable and more personal than in a metropolitan area. It’s im-portant to me, culturally, that it’s a good fit because our patients are our friends, our neighbors.”

Now it’s simply a matter of the two organizations ham-mering out what the affiliation might look like.

“We will sit down and do the due diligence,” Little said, “to understand who we are, what our cultures are — all the specifics. We will see if we can [reach] some level of agreement.”

“This is about being fiscally responsible,” Feeney said, not-ing he wants to ensure CHN patients have “greater access to care at an affordable rate.”

MERGE/Process will take months continued from page 1

Yeah, he’s adorable,but you have six of him.

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