Friday, February 15, 2013

Oshkosh Public Library closed Feb. 15 for staff training


Feb. 14, 2013 – Oshkosh Public Library will be closed on Friday, Feb. 15, for our annual Staff Development Day. The library will reopen at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 16, at 9 a.m.

Visit www.oshkoshpubliclibrary.org for information about library services and programs, to use online resources and to download eBooks and audio books.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Oshkosh school district to hold Child Development Days and Family Fair


The Oshkosh School District is providing a free educational screening the week of March 5th - March 8th during the hours of 8 am and 3 pm. The screening is held at the Oshkosh Recreation Department located at 425 Division St., Oshkosh. 
 
Child Development Days is a play-based screening for children residing in the Oshkosh School District who were born between Sept 2, 2009 and September 1, 2010. While the children play, trained screeners will assess learning, motor, and speech & language skills. Hearing screenings are also available. Parents are given immediate feedback on their child's development.

A family fair will be held in conjunction with the screening, offering information on community opportunities for young children. If you have not received information about the screening or would like more information, please call Karen at 424-1004 between 8 am and 12 pm to schedule an appointment.

Friday, February 08, 2013

OSHKOSH NORTH HIGH SCHOOL FIRE IN BOYS’ BATHROOM

At approximately 12:25 p.m. on Friday, February 8, 2013, there was a small fire reported in the
boys’ bathroom at Oshkosh North High School. The fire was contained to the bathroom and did
not spread to anywhere else in the building. All students and staff followed the OASD emergency response plan and exited the building to the proper meeting areas. No injuries were reported and students and staff were orderly and calm throughout the situation.

The Oshkosh Police and Fire departments immediately responded and put the fire out. The fire
department approved school administrators to allow the students and staff back into the field
house at approximately 12:50 p.m. Students and staff remained in the field house and received
updates on the situation.

The Oshkosh Fire Department cleared the building for students and staff to re-enter at 1:20 p.m.
Students then reported to lunch and then to hour 7 classes until the end of the day.

Oshkosh City Hall set for major construction project

(Oshkosh, WI) Oshkosh residents wishing to come to City Hall beginning in March should be made aware that parking space will be limited due to the construction of an underground storm water storage tank. In addition, the work will cause many public meetings to be moved to locations outside of City Hall for the duration of the project.


The storm water storage tank is being constructed as an alternative to a ground surface detention basin, and will help reduce street flooding in the Division Street watershed. This includes areas from the Fox River to north of New York Avenue, between Main Street and Jackson Street.
 
The city opened bids for the project on Friday, Feb. 1, with the apparent low bidder being Miron Construction from Neenah, WI for a price of approximately $3.9 million. The Oshkosh Common Council is scheduled to award this bid at their Feb. 12 meeting.
 
Once the storage tank has successfully been constructed, the City Hall/Police Department parking lot will be reconstructed. The upgrade was scheduled because of the major impacts the construction of a storm water management facility will have.
 
Parking spaces will be maintained for Police Department operations, and a limited number of stalls will remain accessible near the entrance to City Hall for visitors.
 
To stay up to date on meeting locations, the public is encouraged to visit the quick link “Meeting Notices” on the city’s website at www.ci.oshkosh.wi.us.

Construction is expected to be completed in November.

For more information, call the Oshkosh Public Works Department at (920) 236-5065.  

 

Wednesday, February 06, 2013

LWV to allow write-ins to participate in candidates' forum


I read with interest a recent letter to the editor from Kathleen Propp of the Winnebago County League of Women Voters, in which she stated that those people who have registered as write-in candidates for the spring Oshkosh Common council election WILL BE invited to participate in the League’s upcoming forum.  Simply put, this is just wrong, in my opinion.

The League’s stated reason for this unusual move is that with three open seats and only two candidates whose names will appear on the ballot, it is likely one of the two write-ins will be elected to the other seat and this will give voters the right to know something about them.

I understand what they’re saying but do we really want to see either of these candidates elected to the council? Personally, I don’t think either one of the two write-ins should get elected. After all they took out nominations papers and either didn’t get them returned on time (Don Binder) or turned them in with so many errors that several names were rejected, leaving that candidate (Brian Poeschl) without enough signatures to get on the ballot. Neither of those situations instills any confidence in me that they will act with any greater care or responsibility when it comes to performing their duties, if elected. Will they carefully read the material about matters on which they’ll be voting – more carefully than they did their instructions for the filing of nomination papers? Will they take the time to read it at all, in its entirety? Or will they perform in a slack-jaw, lazy manner with this, too? I would hope they would take their responsibility seriously and read all the material, understanding time is often of the essence in politics. But they’re certainly not starting out too well, nor establishing a good track record.

If I had to pick one of the two I’d go with Poeschl, since he at least tried. But the problem I have there is he’s served on the Common Council before and has also run in other elections after his original time of service. So he knows how to fill out the forms and should have checked over his paperwork more carefully before turning it in at the 11th hour when he had no ample time to get the errors fixed.

I’ve stated in an earlier editorial that I see this move on the part of these two candidates as being very opportunistic and taking the lazy-man’s way out, especially since they know one of them is bound to get elected by default. My position is nothing personal with either of these two. I personally like Brian Poeschl, having been acquainted with him for many years; I don’t know Don Binder at all – wouldn’t even know him if I passed him on the street. My position is based solely on how they’ve approached this. I don’t think we should be rewarding write-in candidates with the same ability to participate in debates that the other candidates who followed the rules of the process get.

Finally, the League may be setting another bad precedent with this move. In the past they’ve allowed friends or family members of candidates to read prepared statements at the forums of the candidate themselves couldn’t be there; now they’re allowing write-in candidates to participate in the “debate.” Seems like just one more step down that slippery slope for the League.    

What do you think? Leave us a comment and/or vote in the poll to the right. 

Post Service to end Saturday delivery

The United States Postal Services, says it plans to eliminate Saturday delivery resulting in cost savings of about $2 billion a year. Certain Saturday services, however, will still remain, like delivery to post office boxes and post offices remaining open on Saturdays. The postal union says this is going to negatively impact millions of customers, especially those who rely on Saturday delivery. I personally cannot imagine how anyone will be so adversely affected that this move should not be allowed to happen, but am curious how others think. Will this affect you in an adverse way? Do you care? Is it a move long overdue? Leave us a comment below or take our poll to the right and let us know what you think about this.