Year in review

Top stories for 2018, part 1

Another year has passed into memory, and local history was recorded in the pages of the community newspaper.

Waupaca County Post reporters covered tragedies and controversies, homicides and heroin abuse, a record-breaking spring blizzard, the opening of the renovated Weyauwega-Fremont High School, as well as state and local elections.

The is the first in a two-part series on the top stories for 2018.

January

Austin Hovarter, 18, Waupaca, entered a plea of no contest to a felony charge of first-degree reckless homicide. On July 26, 2017, Hovarter fatally shot his 15-year-old friend, Jacob Peglow, with a .22-caliber handgun. In March, Judge Troy Nielsen sentenced Hovarter to 10 years in prison.

Emily Heideman started the new year with a new position at the Waupaca Area Public Library. Jan. 2 was her first day on the job as the library’s new assistant director and IT coordinator.

F+W Media announced plans to lay off 41 people at its facility located at 715 E. State St., Iola.

The Waupaca School Board approved a five-year contract for a new charter school. Called the Chain Exploration Center (CEC), the school had students in third through fifth grades when it opened in the fall of 2018.

The Waupaca Common Council approved a marketing plan for 23 lots the city acquired in the Woodland Park Estates Subdivision and the Buffalo Ridge Subdivision after developers failed to meet their development targets.

When Weyauwega-Fremont High School students returned for the second semester of the 2017-18 school year, a new space greeted them.
The school’s Innovate STEAM Wing opened on Jan. 22, and included four new classrooms for chemistry, physics, biology and agriscience, as well as a collaborative space.

February
After almost five years heading Waupaca’s Parks and Recreation Department, Aaron Jenson resigned to take a position with the Waupaca School District. He became the district’s new extracurricular activities/athletics coordinator.

The Weyauwega-Fremont School District voted to move its Early Childhood and 4K classes from Fremont to Weyauwega, beginning with the 2018-19 school year.

Waupaca County deputies Nate Nelson and Dan Lewinski found an unusual object while patrolling the Wolf River.

The officers were on snowmobile patrol south of Gill’s Landing in rural Weyauwega when they came upon a device that was connected to a balloon. The device was part of a research project and had been deployed from Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

March
Waupaca County and Jeff Maiman, the owner of the Wheelhouse, resolved a dispute over the restaurant’s offsite parking lot in Farmington.

Under the terms of a settlement approved March 2 by U.S. Magistrate Judge William Duffin, the Wheelhouse will continue to provide off-site parking for its employees.

Mary Jo Booker received the Wisconsin Council for Exceptional Children’s Clarissa Hug Teacher of the Year Award. She works with students at Fremont Elementary School and in the district.

Waupaca County Judge Raymond Huber sentenced Zachary T. Hohn to 30 years in prison.

Hohn was convicted of first-degree reckless homicide in the death of 25-year-old Matthew Pagel. Hohn was 16 years old when he and Adam Ozuna, who was then 24, killed Pagel on April 11, 2016.

Hundreds of students participated in gatherings at high schools in Waupaca, Weyauwega and Iola in response to the Feb. 14 shooting spree that killed 17 students and staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

The Waupaca County Board approved $27.87 million in general obligation bonds to finance construction of the new Waupaca County highway facility.

April
The Iola and Rural Ambulance service received a new 2018 Ford Braun ambulance. The vehicle cost $203,645.

An anonymous donor ensured that Weyauwega-Fremont High School’s new Performing Arts Center had a Steinway grand piano with an initial donation of $25,000.
Patrol Sgt. Tim Wilz filed to run for Waupaca County sheriff against incumbent Brad Hardel in the Aug. 14 Republican primary.

Patrick Martin was the recipient of a 2018 Herb Kohl Educational Foundation Fellowship.
A math and Project Lead the Way teacher at Weyauwega-Fremont High School, Martin received $6,000 and the high school received $6,000.

Matthew J. Mead, 36, New London, was charged with first-degree reckless homicide as party to a crime following the March 26 overdose and death of 50-year-old Sheila A. Behm in the town of Farmington.

Mead is scheduled for a jury trial in May 2019.

Waupaca County highway crews worked around the clock, battling to remove more than 2 feet of snow that fell during a spring blizzard.

Wisconsin First Lady Tonette Walker led a delegation from Norway to visit the Waupaca County Health and Human Services Department to learn about the effectiveness of Trauma-Informed Care.

The Manawa School Board removed Brad Johnson as the head football and wrestling coach, at an April 16 special meeting of the Manawa School Board.

Mary Johnson, the coach’s mother, said Johnson was punished for providing athletes with creatine and protein drinks.

The Waupaca Common Council approved a plan to temporarily install stop signs at two downtown intersections during the summer tourist season.

The city of Waupaca returned the Oz Natural Area to the family who donated the property to the city almost 20 years ago. City Administrator Henry Veleker said Kari Esbensen and Russ Butkiewicz signed the papers on April 19.

May
Construction began on a 3,060-square-feet expansion that will host the children’s section and programming area at the Iola Village Library.

The Waupaca Common Council approved Rick and Tammy Wolter’s request for a special use permit at 112 N. Main St., as well as the rezoning of their property and 20 other downtown parcels.

This was the first development of a live-work building in Waupaca’s new Riverfront District.

The Waupaca School Board voted to enter into a five-year contract with Go Riteway Bus Service.

Carl Hayek, the district’s business manager, projected Waupaca will save $930,762 over five years by privatizing its transportation services.

Sarah Hillenbrand, vice president of PRE/3, a Brookfield developer, presented a proposal to the Waupaca Plan Commission to build a 48-unit apartment complex at the corner of Commercial Drive and Webster Way, near the State Highway 22/54 bypass.

Ten months after becoming Weyauwega’s city administrator, John Foss resigned.

June
Construction crews began work on a $1.6 million project to repair exterior sections and upgrade office space on the second and third floors of the Waupaca County Courthouse.

Work began on a $965,000 project to create more parking spaces in downtown Waupaca prior to the reconstruction of Main Street in 2021.

The redesign and reconstruction of Main Street, from Badger to Water streets, will result in a loss of about 30 parking spaces.

A strike by communications workers with AT&T delayed construction of a new bridge on Berlin Street and County Trunk E in Waupaca.

Slated to start the first week of June, the project had come to a halt because an AT&T utility line that runs across the bridge had be moved before work could begin. The strike lasted about a week.

Waupaca County Sheriff Brad Hardel announced he would not seek re-election and would retire at the end of this year.

Because he missed the deadline, Hardel’s name appeared on the Aug. 14 primary ballot.

Andrew Whitman became the city of Waupaca’s new parks and recreation director.

The Waupaca native had been the city’s recreation program supervisor since February 2014, and also its interim parks and rec director the prior three months.