Calumet County's unemployment rate was 5.0%, just behind La Crosse County with 4.9% and Dane County with 4.4%. The State of Wisconsin's unemployment rate for December 2011 was 7.1%. Calumet County's low unemployment rate may be attributed to the county's strong agricultural and manufacturing base that provides stable employment for the county.

Currently, Calumet County is working to enhance economic development efforts with the guidance of their Calumet County Economic Development Strategic Plan.

The plan recommends developing or joining an economic development corporation to create a public/private organization. Specifically, the county is looking at joining the Economic Development Corporation (EDC) of Manitowoc County.

If you own a business in Calumet County and are interested in supporting such an effort, please contact EDC Executive Director, Connie Loden, to discuss further details and funding contributions. Her contact information is 920-482-0540 or at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

To view the Strategic Plan, visit CalumetBusiness.com.

Local firefighters using ice rescue tools had already recovered the apparently lifeless bodies of Savannah Kleinhans, 9, and her best friend, 7-year-old Tiffany Dombrowski, nearly 30 minutes after the truck broke through near a pressure crack in the ice. Miraculously, Tiffany would recover, but tragically Savannah did not regain life.

Loewe stood by for what turned out to be an hour and a half before divers from the Fond du Lac County Sheriff's Department reached the scene and recovered Dan Kleinhans body.

"It was terrible standing there. I knew then we needed our own dive team so we could be there in a minute. If we can save just one life it's all worth it," said Loewe, captain of the Stockbridge Fire Department's First Responders and one of 12 certified divers on the new Calumet County Dive and Rescue Team.

With the sturgeon spearing season approaching and thousands of sturgeon hunters making plans to venture out onto frozen Lake Winnebago, dive team members from seven Calumet County fire departments tested their diving skills Saturday on the thin ice of a Town of Harrison pond.

In the first real-life ice training since going active on Oct. 1, dive team members practiced not only how to search underwater for victims, but also how to avoid becoming victims themselves in the murky lake waters.

"You always have to have a backup diver, no matter what. You never know what is going to happen," Harrison Fire Department dive team member Jared Gerl told fellow team members in a meeting before they donned bright yellow diving suits and slid beneath water lapping through a triangular-shaped hole in the six-inch-thick ice.

Loewe, a Stockbridge village board member, certified diver and dive master with more than 100 dives to her credit who watched Saturday's training, led efforts to raise the $100,000 donated thus far to fund dive team training and operations.

"It costs about $10,000 to train and equip one diver," Loewe said.
Fund raising efforts received an early boost with a $20,000 donation from the Savannah's Pay It Forward Foundation (S.P.I.F.F.), an organization aimed at helping youth in various ways.

The dive team also received a sizable, but undisclosed donation from Joe Nelesen of Hickory Hills Country Club in Chilton, said dive team president Eric Burich, a lieutenant with the Brillion Fire Department.

Burich said between 60 and 70 individuals expressed an early interest in being dive team members. That has narrowed down to a core group of 25 members, including the 12 certified divers.

"When we formed we looked into how other dive teams operated. We didn't rush into anything," Burich said. "Now we are ready to go. We are ready to respond to any part of the county within minutes."

Many dive team members at Saturday's training session anticipated getting their first rescue call this weekend as anglers looked to test the Lake Winnebago ice in the face of a week of above-freezing temperatures and open water in some places.

"It's keeping us on pins and needles," Burich said.

The team has two sets of diving equipment stationed at each of three locations along the lake including the Town of Calumet Fire Department in Pipe, the Stockbridge Fire Department and the Harrison No. 2 Fire Department.

Burich noted the Calumet County team is totally volunteer and is not supported by any tax funds.

"We get no dollars from any government organization. And we are self-insured," Burich said.

Currently the dive team has six suits to spread among its 12 divers.

"We would love to get a boat and suits to outfit everyone," Burich said.

The team also has weighted buoys to mark the location of underwater objects on its wish list.

But for now the team is just glad to be ready to be poised to respond ice and water rescues virtually at a moment's notice.

"Knowing Tiffany (Dombrowski) has recovered, that's what has us pumped up," Loewe said.

Samantha V. Smith was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the accident and was ejected from the car. She was pronounced dead at the scene. She was alone at the time of the accident.

According to Calumet County Chief Deputy Brett Bowe, authorities backtracked from the site of the crash to piece together Smith's route, which included a car-damaging ride on Lake Winnebago.

"We backtracked to the landing on Fire lane 8," Bowe said. "Ice was broken on a runoff creek on the west side. It's probably where she came off the lake, but we don't know where she got on."

Bowe said Smith apparently blew out the front driver's side tire when she went through the ice, and by the time she came to the roundabout, "She had no rubber left on that tire,," he said. The vehicle was also leaking fluid.

The cause of the crash has not been determined, though the vehicle damage and possibly excessive speed could have been contributing factors, Bowe said.

Smith, a mother of two, was employed as a server at The Bar in Appleton.

The Calumet County Sheriff's Department was assisted by the Harrison First Responders, Harrison fire Dept., Gold Cross Ambulance and Calumet County Medical Examiner Mike Klaeser.

And it's not a playground, at least not one open to the public.

That large and expensive structure rising from farmland just north of Hilbert is classified on a village building permit simply as a storage building.

But it's not just your typical storage building.

The building, valued at $850,000, will house a collection of antique tractors, mostly those of retired bridge builder Paul Gehl of Hilbert.

"It will be a storage building for myself and my friends," said Gehl, former president of Lunda Constuction Co.

The upper portion of the building, its gambrel roof resembling that of a barn, will be a loft and play area for his grandchildren, he said.

"It will not be open to the public," Gehl said.

The building is also not a typical pole building found in rural areas, but a timber frame building with beams weighing as much as a good-sized polar bear, bound together by pegs, also known as pins, partly hand hewn from oak.

"There will be about 1,500 oak pins in this building. The structural part of the building is held together by mortise and tenon joinery. It is actually a superior way to fasten timbers together," said Paul Swan of Swan Timber Frames of Wisconsin Rapids. "We spend a lot of rainy days cutting the tips on those pins."

The building, of post and beam design, is made primarily from logs harvested in central Wisconsin.

"We have our own sawmill and cut our own wood," Swan said.

Some of the posts measure 12 inches by 12 inches square and are connected to the beams by pins up to 18 inches long.

The huge timbers are cut after the logs air dry for two to three years, Swan said.

He said 85 percent of posts and beams for the Hilbert project were cut by his wife, Kari.

Kari also shows the men on her husband's work crew how to correctly use steel chisels as long as her forearm.

"We do a lot of chiseling. It's a must for timber framing. And my wife is really good with chisels," Swan said.

Not all the beams come from Wisconsin.

Some of the eight-inch by 16-inch floor joists are up to 34 feet long and weigh 1,000 pounds, Swan said.

"Those are Douglas fir and we have to get those from the west coast," he said.
Construction managers on the project are Frontier Builders and Consultants of Kaukauna.

Frontier designed the building with help from Gehl and Swan, said Frontier spokesman Jeff Stodola.

Stodola said it will take a total of six months to build the Hilbert storage building, or about twice the time it takes to build a conventional building.

"But when you are looking for authenticity and old world construction timber framing is the way to go," Stodola said.

Wisconsin Agriculture Secretary Ben Brancel and Jennifer Lu, an economic development consultant with the Dept. of Agriculture, Trade & Consumer Protection are traveling to Ho Chi Minh City, Vinh and Hanoi through Jan. 14.

"The purpose of this visit is to identify opportunities and challenges for Wisconsin businesses hoping to export in the Vietnamese marketplace," said Brancel. "Because of Vietnam's sincere interest in expanding their dairy and livestock economies, there is great potential for a strong trade relationship with Wisconsin."

Funding for the trip was provided by the U.S. Livestock Genetics Export, Inc. While in Vietnam, Brancel and Lu will attend meetings with officials, retailers, importers and farmers.

Vietnam is one of the fastest-growing economies in Southeast Asia with a young and dynamic population of nearly 90 million. No other market for U.S. agricultural products has grown as fast as Vietnam in recent years. In 2006, the United States was the 49th largest agricultural export market for Vietnam. In 2010 the U.S. ranked 15th largest. This past July, Vietnam opened its market to allow live U.S. breeding cattle imports.

In 2010, trade between Vietnam and Wisconsin increased 101 percent above 2009 figures, ranking Wisconsin 15th in the nation for agricultural exports to that Southeast Asian country. In 2010, 40 percent of Vietnam's whey imports came from Wisconsin, totaling more than $5 million. Besides whey, Wisconsin exports to Vietnam in 2010 included hides and skins, sugars, dried distillers grains (livestock feed) and soybeans.

"In the past, the Vietnamese marketplace has been limited to only a few businesses in Wisconsin," added Brancel. "Through this educational and exploratory visit, we hope to identify additional prospects for many Wisconsin companies to have a successful export market in Vietnam."

Following this visit, DATCP's International Trade Team will work to encourage and assist business partnerships between Vietnamese buyers and Wisconsin agribusinesses.

"In recent years Wisconsin has seen some very promising export numbers, and we hope to open additional doors," concluded Lu. "We are very appreciative that the USGLE has recognized the further export opportunities in Vietnam by providing support for this very important visit."

If your business is interested in learning more, contact DATCP at 800-462-5237 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . You can also connect with DATCP on Twitter at twitter.com/widatcp.

To protect law enforcement officers, tow truck operators, emergency responders, road maintenance workers and others who work on the side of roadways, Wisconsin has a Move Over Law. The law requires drivers to shift lanes if possible or slow down in order to create a safety zone for a law enforcement vehicle, ambulance, fire truck, tow truck or highway maintenance vehicle that is stopped or parked on the side of a road with its warning lights flashing.

"To create a safety zone on interstate highways and other divided roads with multiple directional lanes, you must move over to vacate the lane closest to the law enforcement or other emergency vehicle if you can safely switch lanes," says Wisconsin State Patrol Captain Nick Scorcio of the Northeast Region, Fond du Lac Post. "If the road has a single directional lane or you can't safely move over because of traffic, you must reduce your speed until safely past the vehicle."

Violating the Move Over Law can be expensive as well as dangerous. A citation costs $263.50 with three demerit points added to your license.

"When drivers disregard the Move Over Law, they are putting lives at risk.
Failure of motorists to create a safety zone by moving over or slowing down is one of the major reasons that motor vehicle crashes kill more law enforcement officers on duty than any other cause," says Captain Scorcio. "Tow truck operators, highway maintenance workers and emergency responders also are killed and injured when drivers don't move over or slow down.

"By obeying the Move Over Law, drivers can protect themselves, their passengers, our officers and others who work on highways from needless injuries and deaths."

During its annual budget meeting on Oct. 31/Nov. 1, the County Board rejected a proposal contained in County Administrator Jay Shambeau's budget to replace the existing facility due to structural, ventilation and disabled access issues.

The board, instead, approved spending $2.7 million to fix the problems.

At the Dec. 20 County Board meeting, Supv. Pat Laughrin asked Shambeau for an update on the remodeling project.

"What's happening?" Laughrin said.

Shambeau said a Nov. 17 joint meeting of the Public Grounds and Property and Highway committees drew no consensus among committee members on what direction the county should take in addressing issues at the garage.

Shambeau told The Times-Journal on Dec. 22 that inspectors from the state Department of Safety and Professional Services will examine the building before any remodeling plans are drawn up for the building.

Shambeau said the inspectors will include Susen Trail, a hygienist who will check air quality and general safety conditions for employees; Jane Drager, a commercial inspector who will look at building code issues and compliance; and an unidentified inspector from the state Division of Safety and Health.

"They will all be providing an on-site safety and health consultation program," Shambeau said. "Jane Drager has been here once and will come again in February. There are no dates set for the others to visit."

Laughrin said he wants regular reports on the status of the remodeling project.
Supv. Kenneth Draheim, who sits on both committees, said there is simply nothing to report at this time pending the state inspections.

"We are waiting to see what we really need to do," Draheim said. "All the studies have said what we need to do and we are in the process of getting that confirmed right now."

Draheim said once the state issues inspection reports the information will be discussed in a joint meeting of the Public Grounds and Property and Highway committees.

Wisconsin Agriculture Secretary Ben Brancel spoke to Milk Products employees and customers at the Milk Products plant on Dec. 20 to celebrate the first 100 years of the Chilton business.

Wisconsin Agriculture Secretary Ben Brancel was on hand to wish Milk Products of Chilton a happy first 100 years in business at a gathering at the milk replacer manufacturing plant on Dec. 20. It also gave him the opportunity to talk up Calumet County's important role in agriculture, which is why the company first located here in 1911.

"How many companies do you know that have served the public for 100 years? Think about it," Brancel said before launching into a roundup of the role agriculture plays here in Calumet County.

"As far as we know there are still 153 active dairy farms here in this county," Brancel said. "Twenty-three percent of all the income in this county comes from agriculture. That's pretty substantial."

He added that 99.5% of Calumet County farms are family owned and operated, and that farming generates $117 million annually in this county.

"So it's a family network. It's a community," he said.

Milk Products President Dave Kuehnel gave a brief history of the business, which began in 1911 when the Pacific Coast Condensed Milk Company – later to become the Carnation Co. – chose Chilton as a milk supplier for its access to fresh milk and rail lines. From 1911 to 1954 the plant produced condensed milk for Carnation.

In 1954 the plant was converted to produce powdered milk for Carnation, which it did until 1978 when it was converted again to make milk replacer products for calves and, eventually, other young farm animals.

Carnation was purchased by Nestle in 1985, which wanted to focus on human food manufacturing, so the next year Mann Pro was formed in a management-led buyout of Nestle's feed division, including Milk Products. In 1992 Milk Products was sold to a privately held company and remains under that ownership.

Today Milk Products makes more than 700 different products for numerous independent feed manufacturers and wholesale distributors. The company is the only ISO (International Organization for Standardization) certified manufacturer of baby animal nutrition products in North America.

ReportIt is a free, secure online service that allows citizens to record serial numbers and upload images for phones, electronics and other valuables. Should those items ever be stolen, Chilton PD says having the information will go a long way in accurately and quickly identifying your property. The site can be accessed at reportit.leadsonline.com.

The ReportIt service is part of LeadsOnline, an online system that works with police across the country to track and recover stolen property. The Chilton PD uses LeadsOnline to help track and recover everything from jewelry to electronics to sporting equipment, computers, cameras and many other items. The system allows detectives to search for the items using a variety of parameters, including item descriptions and serial numbers.

When an item is sold to a pawn shop or secondhand store, the product information is entered in the LEadsOnline database and is immediately viewable by participating law enforcement agencies across the country.

Chilton PD recently began using LeadsOnline and has reported successes using the online investigation system, enabling them to recover thousands of dollars in stolen property for Chilton and surrounding area residents.

Citizens can store an unlimited number of serial numbers, item descriptions, pictures and scans of receipts so items may be more easily identified in the event of theft. This record may also come in handy when filing claims with insurance providers in the event of loss.

Citizens wanting to participate in ReporetIt can register for the free service at reportit.leadsonline.com and begin building a personal property inventory list.

The county saved $344 in health care costs in 2011 for every employee and family member par-ticipating in a health and wellness program begun in 2005, said Dr. Brian Harrison, medical director of health and productivity management for Affinity Health System.

Harrison oversees the county's employee wellness program, which has earned two state awards as well as recognition from the American Heart Association for encouraging improvement in employee health.

The county board approved the wellness program and an annual health risk assessment in 2005 as a way to fight skyrocketing health insurance costs.
"It's not just a one-time-a-year focus on wellness," said Patrick Glynn, county human resources director.
Harrison told county supervisors on Dec. 20 that the 2011 version of the annual health risk assessment shows Calumet County all but flattened its health care costs over the past four years.

Health insurance claims billed for both participants and non-participants in the county's health insurance rose 0.2 percent from 2007 to 2011.

"That's much different than the trend you hear about in the news," Harrison said.

Harrison said 323 of 428 eligible people with an average age of 46 par-ticipated in the assessment, including 185 employees and 138 spouses.

He said participants scored three gold stars in the most recent assessment by increasing levels of HDL (good cholesterol) and decreasing LDL (bad cholesterol).

Participants lowered their already very low use of tobacco products. Harrison said nine percent of county employees and their spouses use tobacco products as compared to the state average of 19.5. percent.

Of those who smoke, 36 percent report smoking one-half pack of cigarettes or more each day. That compares to 29 percent in 2010.

"High risks mean high costs," Harrison said. "But more people are living less risky lifestyles."

The survey shows more people than ever use seat belts. Just 6.5 percent of participants in the program admitted to not wearing seatbelts, compared to a statewide average of 26 percent, according to the state Department of Transportation.
"Employees are getting smarter," Harrison said.

On the down side, blood sugar levels showed an increase, with read-ings at or above 100, nearly doubling from 10.6 percent in 2010 to 18.8 percent in 2011.
An estimated 20 percent of county employees and spouses in the health risk assessment engage in binge drinking. The good news is the percentage of binge drinkers dropped from 30 percent to 20 percent between 2010 and 2011.

"We have a huge problem with binge drinking in Wisconsin," Harrison said.
Despite reports of binge drinking, 50 percent of the participants say they exercise at least four days a week, up from 34 percent in 2008.

And absenteeism at work is improving, the study shows.

"It's a result of hard work on part of our employees over the last four to five years. We're beginning to reap the benefits of that hard work," Glynn said. "If they are sick less it just stands to reason they will be at work more."

Glynn said wellness is becoming a lifestyle for more employees, and the health risk assessment identifies deviations from normal conditions.

"The assessment establishes benchmarks and allows us to focus our educational efforts on specific conditions, such as diabetes," Glynn said. "It allow us to fine tune the needs we really have to address."