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11/06/2020

USS Marinette Launched
Into Menominee River

Today’s Peshtigo Times.) The future USS Marinette’s awe inspiring sideways launch into the waters of the Menominee River on Saturday, Oct. 31 was witnessed by only a handful of dignitaries and a small crowd of the Fincantieri Marinette Marine employees who helped build her, due to Covid-19 restrictions. Lack of spectators did not diminish the impact of the splash-down as the littoral combat vessel hit water for the first time.
The day was clear and cold, with the mercury at about 30 degrees at the time of the launch. Some spectators not admitted to the shipyard were able to watch the launch from the Interstate bridge and from other sites along the river.
Shipyard officials have expressed hope that the ship’s christening in spring or summer of 2021 can be a more impressive event, complete with the usual gathering of dignitaries from all over the nation. LCS is the 13th littoral combat vessel to be built at the Marinette shipyard, and the final three Freedom-Class LCS are under construction there for the United States Navy

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Caption: The launching of USS Marinette Freedom-class littoral combat ship at Fincantieri Marinette Marine
on October 31, 2020.

11/06/2020

Peshtigo Times Wisconsin Community Newspaper

Officers On Leave While State
Investigates Goodman Shooting

The five Marinette County Sheriff’s Department officers who were involved in the shooting death of a murder suspect in Goodman on Friday, Oct. 23 will remain on administrative leave until after the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) Division of Criminal Investigation turns its findings over to District Attorney DeShea Morrow and she makes a determination on how to proceed.
The murder suspect killed by officers has been identified as John R. Lipski, 62, of Milwaukee, and the man investigators believe to have been shot and killed by Lipski was Richard J. Gibbs, also 62, and also from Milwaukee. They were reportedly co-owners of the dwelling in Goodman, where they came for hunting and other recreational pursuits.
The officers involved, each with their years of experience in law enforcement, have been identified by the DOJ as Lt. Barry Degnitz, 27 years; Deputy Jesse Parker, 19 years; Deputy Patrick Callahan, 4 years; Deputy Dave Oginski, 15 years, and Deputy Steve Schmidt, 12 years.
Morrow said DOJ investigations generally take three or four weeks to complete, and the officers cannot return to duty until her office receives results of the investigation and she makes a determination on how to proceed.
The investigation began after officers responded to a call to Marinette County’s 911 Dispatch center reporting that someone had been shot in a home in the 600 block of 5th Street, almost directly across from the Goodman football field.
Marinette County Sheriff Jerry Sauve said a man they believe to have been Lipski called Emergency Dispatch Friday evening to report the shooting at the home.

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Peshtigo Times, Wisconsin Community Newspaper featuring searchable news, classified, e-commerce advertising, current events and community sites.

11/06/2020

Three Area Hunters Rescued
After Canoe/Kayak Overturns

Three area duck hunters are lucky to be alive after a canoe and kayak they were in capsized in the bay of Green Bay off Harbor Road in the Town of Peshtigo, early Sunday morning Nov.1. The Town of Peshtigo Fire Department was paged out for the rescue at 5:30 am according to Fire Chief Mike One of the hunters was lucky to have a cell phone that worked and alerted Marinette County Dispatch. Dispatchers tried to keep the hunter on the phone but poor reception in that area made that difficult. The dispatchers maintained contact with the victims and guided rescuers to their location. Folgert said, “The dispatchers were the key to the whole operation, without them who knows what could have happened.”
Firefighters were told three men were in the water approximately 300 yards off shore.

Rescue Scene-Firefighters from the Town of Peshtigo and City of Marinette Fire Departments worked together to rescue three hunters whose canoe and kayak capsized in the bay of Green Bay early Sunday morning.

Continue reading this front-page story here:
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11/06/2020

Mike Biehl/UP Paper Receives Rick
Snyder Spirit of Entrepreneurship Award

The Small Business Association of Michigan recently honored Michael Biehl, representing the ownership group of UP Paper LLC, as the recipient of the 2nd annual Rick Snyder Spirit of Entrepreneurship Award.
The Award is named in honor of former Governor Rick Snyder in recognition of his work reinventing Michigan. The award-winning small business must have fewer than 500 employees, be headquartered in Michigan, and have a turnaround story that allowed it to achieve substantial growth.
“UP Paper LLC is an exemplary recipient of the Rick Snyder Spirit of Entrepreneurship Award,” said SBAM CEO Rob Fowler, “The work Michael and the rest of the ownership group behind UP Paper LLC have done to restart what had been a closed mill and convert it into a successful operation is truly remarkable. Their vision, desire, and drive characterizes the very spirit of entrepreneurship.”
UP Paper LLC was formed in 2015 with the sole purpose of reopening the Manistique paper mill, which had shuttered its doors earlier in the year after 95 years of operation. The ownership group behind UP Paper LLC recognized the mill’s potential, but quickly realized success would depend on transitioning the mill away from newsprint paper products to 100% recycled kraft paper for use in bags and packaging.
The decision to convert the mill to kraft paper, along with significant investment in capital improvements over the past four years have turned a once failed mill into a thriving company that generated over $57,000,000 in sales during 2019.
UP Paper LLC provides over 100 jobs and indirectly helps to support several hundred others in the Manistique community.
The Small Business Association of Michigan focuses solely on serving the needs of Michigan’s small business community through advocacy, collaboration and buying power. Today they serve over 28,000 members in all 83 counties of Michigan. SBAM is located in Lansing, just one block from the capitol.

11/06/2020

Enlarge Area

Volunteers worked Tuesday, Nov. 3 to expand the cement sidewalk area by the pavilion in Badger Park in Peshtigo for handicapped individuals with wheel chairs to attend summer activities. Chuck Kafura who owns Arbor Village in Peshtigo spearheaded the project. Kafura along with his employee Art (Einstein) Puresmer and volunteer Carl Malke donated their time and half of the cement for the 8’x70’ addition. Marinette Concrete donated the other half of the cost of the cement for the project. Kafura said once completed there should be enough room for a person in a wheel chair along with a chaperone.

Pictured is Chuck Kafura, standing and Art Puresmer smoothing the newly poured cement, in the background is the Marinette Concrete truck driven by Nels Peterson who delivered the cement.

11/06/2020

Halloween Fun

The fifth grade class from Peshtigo Elementary School paraded around Rennes Health and Rehab Center West on Thursday and Friday, Oct. 29 and 30 as part of the Adopt-a Grandparent program between Rennes West and Peshtigo Elementary. The students stopped at several of the resident’s rooms as they paraded around the nursing home. The students were also given treat bags from the facility according to Michele Swiatnicki, Activity Director at Rennes West. The Adopt a Grandparent program has been in existence for several years.

10/29/2020

DAR Has Two New People At The Helm

For more than 100 years, the DAR Boys & Girls Club of Menominee and Marinette has been providing a place were boys and girls of the community aged 7 through 18 can gather for supervised fun while school is not in session - fun that is aimed at helping them develop self-esteem and eventually reach their full potential. The cost is low. The benefits are great.

Recently two new people were placed at the helm, and they are faced with the task of keeping things going at the DAR Clubhouse at 901 8th Ave. in Menominee with Covid-19 restrictions in place and planning for ways to make things even better after the restrictions are lifted.

The new people at the helm are Koreen Gardon, who took over the role of Executive Director effective September 1, and Alyssa Wellman took over as program director. Gardon had been the program director for the DAR since October 10, 2000.

Continue reading this front-page story here https://www.peshtigotimes.net/?id=40824

Caption: The DAR Boys & Girls Club of Menominee recently had two individuals take over leadership at the organization. Koreen Gardon, seated, is the new Executive Director, and Alyssa Wellman, standing, is the new Program Director. Gardon took over her new role on Sept. 1 and Wellman started in her new position in June. The DAR Blub has been in existence for over 100 years.

10/28/2020

Sheriff Sauve Reports “Busy
Times” at County Board

“We’ve been extremely busy lately,” Sheriff Jerry Sauve told Marinette County Board of Supervisors when he briefly addressed them at the start of their monthly meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 27. He reported some of the recent events and declared, “It’s been a challenging time, but we will meet the challenges.”

He was referring mainly to the shooting incident in Goodman on Friday, Oct. 23 in which officers shot and killed a fleeing murder suspect. Sauve said all five officers involved in that incident are now on administrative leave while the incident is being investigated by the Wisconsin Department of Justice Criminal Investigation Division.

“We essentially lost our whole night shift patrol,” Sauve declared. He said the officers remaining on active duty have been good about stepping up to fill the shifts, but it will result in considerable amounts of overtime.

Sauve reported that Deputy Spencer Elias is back at home, but remains off duty. Elias is was one of four men from Marinette and Oconto counties who were severely injured on Saturday, Oct. 10 when their vehicle struck an elk and tumbled off a road while they were en route to go elk hunting in Montana. Sauve said Elias, who suffered multiple fractures and other injuries, is still recovering and is in excellent spirits.

Sauve began his report by introducing Deputy Andrew Rogers of Crivitz, who will officially become the department’s newest lieutenant on Sunday, Nov. 1, replacing Lt. Jason Ducaine, who resigned recently to accept a position in private industry. Rogers also serves as a supervisor on the Town of Stephenson Town Board.

Keeping the roster of civilian jailers filled also remains a challenge, Sauve said. He reported that one of the people hired to fill jail attendant vacancies lasted six hours before quitting, and another worked for one shift and never came back. They will be doing more testing in hopes of finding other qualified people to fill those vacancies quickly, Sauve said.

Adding to challenges at the jail is the return of McClintock Park murder suspect Raymand Vannieuwenhoven to Marinette County for a competency hearing that is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 4. Vannieuwenhoven, now 84 years old, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of first-degree sexual assault for “cold case” crimes that happened 44 years ago in McClintock Park.

Sauve said due to his medical condition Vannieuwenhoven will need care by Certified Nurses Aides while in jail here, and Sauve declared providing the care and security he needs will be expensive, particularly if he is found competent and must be kept here throughout what could be a long trial.

Court documents indicate Vannieuwenhoven may have suffered a stroke while being held at Mendota State Mental Hospital for competency examinations but must be in Marinette County personally for the Nov. 4 court proceedings, Sauve said.

Vannieuwenhoven is charged in connection with the shooting deaths of a Green Bay couple - David Schuldes, who was 25 at the time, and his fiancé, Ellen Matheys, who was 24, on July 9, 1976. Matheys had been raped before she was shot.

Thanks to the preservation of evidence by investigators at the time and new technology developed in the intervening four decades, Sheriff Sauve and his investigators believe they have solved the decades-old cold case. With the help of Parabon Nanolabs of Virginia, DNA evidence was used to identify national origin, family groupings, and then individuals, which eventually led to Vannieuwenhoven. He was arrested on March 14, 2019 at his home at 17043 Remus Lane in the Oconto County Town of Lakewood, about 25 miles southwest of McClintock Park. In the intervening years he had lived quietly and raised a family.

The County Board meeting was held in the Theatre on the Bay on the Marinette Campus of UW-Green Bay, and parked outside was the Sheriff’s Department’s brand new armored rescue vehicle that was delivered on Friday, Oct. 23. County Administrator John LeFebvre thanked Sauve for bringing the vehicle so supervisors could see it.

10/28/2020

Shootings in Goodman Leave Two
Men Dead, Five Officers On Leave

Separate investigations are underway after two men died of gunshot wounds in related incidents that began at about 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23 in Goodman. One of the deaths was an officer-involved shooting, and the other an apparent homicide in a home in the 600 block of 5th Street, almost directly across from the Goodman football field.

The man killed by responding officers has been identified as John R. Lipski, 62, of Milwaukee, and the man investigators believe to have been shot and killed by Lipski was Richard J. Gibbs, also 62, and also from Milwaukee.

The two men reportedly did not live in the area, but owned the house in Goodman together and came there for hunting and other recreational pursuits.

Marinette County Sheriff Jerry Sauve said a man they believe to have been Lipski called Emergency Dispatch Friday evening to report the shooting at the home and officers were sent to investigate.

They found Gibbs dead in the home. The suspect, Lipski, was also there and fled in a vehicle when sheriff’s department officers arrived, Sauve said.

About a quarter of a mile from the home, heading west from Goodman, Lipski reportedly turned the vehicle down a gravel road, stopped, got out, and pointed a gun at authorities. Sauve said the man, later identified as Lipski, was then shot and killed by the pursuing officers after he refused to follow commands.

Sauve said the five officers involved have been put on administrative leave, per Marinette County Sheriff’s Office policy. Due to the DCI investigation in progress, the names of the officers have not yet been released.

According to an official report from the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ), the first death is being investigated by the Marinette County Sheriff’s Office as a homicide, with the second being investigated by the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) as an officer-involved shooting resulting in a death (OID).

DOJ says this was an isolated incident and the public is not at risk.
No law enforcement personnel were injured during the incident.

The DOJ report states that all involved law enforcement is fully cooperating with DCI during this investigation. DCI is continuing to review the evidence and determine the facts of this incident and will turn over investigative reports to the Marinette County District Attorney when the investigation concludes.

Also assisting in these investigations are Marinette County District Attorney, Marinette County Medical Examiner, Goodman Fire and Rescue, Florence County Sheriff’s Office, Forest County Sheriff’s Office, Marinette Police Department, Wisconsin State Patrol, DOJ Office of Crime Victim Services, and the Wisconsin State Crime Laboratories.

10/28/2020

Samantha Roman and Isabella Logan are shown with their Lego robots constructed in Mr. Graves' Engineering/Design/Technology class. One, a robotic crane/arm, the other a robotic dog, both controlled with an app on their smartphones.

10/28/2020

The School District of Wausaukee was honored to receive a donation of winter clothes from North Lakes Community Clinic. The District is grateful for their generosity. Items donated will be distributed to Wausaukee students in need.

Pictured from left are Jared Deschane, Wausuakee Schools Superintendent, North Lakes Community Clinic Representative Ashley Guarisco, and Katey Ambrose, Elementary/Middle School Principal at Wausaukee Schools.

10/28/2020

There have been great additions to the Clip Clop Trail Riders camp area at Horseshoe Falls Equestrian Camp and Trail system in Dunbar, courtesy of a grant from the Wisconsin Horse Council. There are now new picnic tables, fire rings, and high lines. The Clip Clop Trail Riders club spent many hours of volunteer time to do this work, which has already been enjoyed by countless trail riders/campers.

At the Middle Inlet Horse camp, a new manure bunker was installed and an equine obstacle course was added. Both of these features will enhance the camp and riding experiences.

This work was also enabled from a separate grant from the Wisconsin Horse Council.

The Clip Clop Trail Riders club has worked closely with Marinette County Forestry and Park and thanks them for all of their support. Both camps and trail systems are in Marinette County and offer many miles of horseback trail riding.