Local Antigo Headlines

Thursday afternoon, officers with the Antigo Police Department were dispatched to Langlade Hospital for report of a child who had fallen out of a 2nd story window of a Virginia Street residence. The 11 month old was in the living room with his 6 year old brother while his mother went into the kitchen to check on a pizza. When she returned less than a minute later, the baby was gone. She looked out the window and saw him lying in the grass and crying. She rushed him to the hospital and he was flown to Marshfield for precautionary purposes.

Read more: WACD

The Antigo Farm Market will open for the spring and summer season on Saturday, and favorable spring weather should mean plenty of early-season produce will be available.

The market will run from 8 a.m. to noon in the Country Store parking lot, located at the corner of Superior Street and Fourth Avenue downtown.

“This opener promises to offer far more produce than the market opener in 2014, which was preceded by a very harsh and long winter,” Renate Bromberg said. “Most of our vendors from previous years will be back selling a variety of products, possibly including head and leaf lettuce, radishes, carrots, fresh herbs, spinach, green onions, kohlrabi, rhubarb and asparagus.”

Full story: Antigo Daily Journal

According to a news release from the Tomahawk Police Department, a volunteer track coach has been arrested, accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a 16-year-old high school student.

The department's investigation revealed Colton J. Chase, 23, had sexual relations on three separate occasions. He's charged with three counts of sexual assault of a child by a person who works or volunteers with children.

He's behind bars on $2,500 cash bond.

Read more: WACD

In about 24 hours, when the school buses roll out of the Mid-Wisconsin facilities on Forest Avenue, it will be a tough time.

It will mark the end of the school year and Mid-Wisconsin Buses, Inc. Ron and Kathy Nonnemacher, who have been involved in the school bus business here for 50 years, will be done. Kaput — just like that.

“We wanted to retire,” Nonnemacher said, “but not quite like this.”

Full story: Antigo Daily Journal

With 54 traffic fatalities, May was the deadliest month on Wisconsin roads so far this year, according to preliminary statistics from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT).

Traffic fatalities last month were six more than May 2014 and five more than the five-year average for the month of May. The deadliest month of May occurred in 1968 with 123 fatalities, and the safest was in 2013 with 32 fatalities.

As of May 31, a total of 207 people have died in Wisconsin traffic crashes this year, including 20 motorcycle operators, two motorcycle passengers, 20 pedestrians, and two bicyclists.

Read more: WACD

Stressing that the matter had “all the hallmarks of a case that is emotionally driven,” which in turn could potentially raise the risk of future trouble, Reserve Judge Mark Mangerson denied a request for reduction in bond today for an Antigo man facing a charge of stalking.

The ruling for 42-year-old Jeffrey Marciniak of Antigo came following completion of a preliminary hearing at which the defendant was bound over for trial on the felony count plus two additional charges — intimidation of both a victim and a witness. He has pleaded not guilty to all three counts.

Marciniak is accused of sending harassing and threatening text messages to a female acquaintance, including after law officers warned him to discontinue contact. He is also accused of insinuating a threat against a sheriff’s deputy.

Read more: Antigo Daily Journal

Antigo’s summer Music in the Park season got off to an outstanding start Monday evening under sunny and pleasantly cool conditions. The Antigo High School Jazz Band, with conductor Jeff Dewey doing double duty on trumpet (shown above) kicked off the summer series, which also included pie and Culver’s frozen custard served by school district music faculty. Music continues most Monday and Thursday evenings through Aug. 31. The next concert, on Thursday, will feature the country sounds of Gary’s Basement Band...

Read more: Antigo Daily Journal

The Langlade County Public Safety Committee met for their monthly meeting Tuesday morning. One item on the agenda prompted a half hour of discussion, which regarded around mental health services in the county.

Sheriff Bill Greening requested the county seek "Request For Proposals" to different agencies and companies to find out the services they could provide. Langlade County is currently part of North Central Health Care Center, which also involves Marathon and Lincoln Counties. Sheriff Greening said there have been numerous problems at the jail with mental health, including one individual who attempted suicide, and making the situation worse, is there is no staff available on weekends, nights, or holidays. North Central Health Care used to have urgent care, where someone would be available 24/7, but there weren't enough calls to justify paying a person the entire time. The issue also presents itself in the public, as many incidents happen late at night.

Greening added that while the agency has been open to hearing the Sheriff's Department's concerns and changing, the problem usually reoccurs within a few months. Toni Simonson with NCHC, says they would be willing to try out different services including an on call counselor and psychiatrist for the jail whenever they needed it.

Read more: WACD

Elcho High School commencement speaker Kim Schoenrock gave seniors one final assignment prior to them receiving their diplomas Saturday afternoon.

During her presentation at the school’s commencement ceremony, she asked seniors to reach under their chairs and pull out a card, one she suggested they keep in their wallet and look at occasionally.

It read: “In my future, how will I use my talents and skills to better the lives of the people around me?”

Full story: Antigo Daily Journal

An ever-growing list of summer musical entertainment—which has now spread to encompass Elcho and White Lake—kicks off Monday evening.

Antigo’s acclaimed summer Music in the Park series will open its 14-week season with the Antigo High School Jazz Band and Honors Choir. Music kicks off at 6:30 p.m. with pies and hot dogs, along with Culver’s frozen custard, served by Antigo music faculty beginning at 5:30 p.m.

The kick-off marks a full summertime of music that will bring 26 musical groups to the bandstand on Monday and Thursday nights through Aug. 31.

Full story: Antigo Daily Journal

Each month, reports show Wisconsin is increasing their lead over 2nd place California for most Dairy production in the country. One farm helping that cause is Schuessler Dairy Farms, located on Mayking Road off of County Road S in Antigo.

Constructed finished in January on a new barn that houses calves up to age four months. A robotic feeding system allows the calves to drink from a machine any time they want, instead of being fed twice a day by workers. Schuessler says the new technology cuts the labor in half, and the operation is running much more efficiently since it was installed. The technology costs around $40,000.

Before the barn was constructed, the farm was raising the calves in hutches and the process was much more labor intensive...

Read more: WACD

Nursing homes in Wisconsin are rated higher than the national average when it comes to quality care, but roughly one-fourth of the state's nursing homes are still getting the lowest ratings.

The Kaiser Family Foundation recently analyzed ratings for the state's nursing homes.

Overall, 55 percent of the state's nursing homes received the two highest ratings from the federal government, compared with the national average of 42 percent.

Read more: WACD

Langlade County joined all of the others in the state of Wisconsin showing declines in the rate of joblessness for April.

The state Department of Workforce Development reported the latest figures this week.

Racine had the highest unemployment rate last month at 6.8 percent, which was down from 8 percent in March. The second highest was Beloit at 6.4 percent and Milwaukee at 6.3 percent.

Full story: Antigo Daily Journal

Twenty-one seniors are expected to receive their diplomas when Elcho High School holds commencement ceremonies Saturday.

The program will begin at 1 p.m. in the school gymnasium.

Valedictorian is Cheyenne Bloechl, who will be attending the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in fall in the pre-dentistry program. Salutatorian is Bradley Bennett, who plans to major in genetics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Full story: Antigo Daily Journal