The Washington County Sheriff’s Office Communications Center received a report of an accident which involved a bike and vehicle. It happened on Thursday, September 3 at 4:13 p.m. on Division Road and Western Avenue in the Town of Jackson. Washington County Sheriff’s Office deputies, the Jackson Police Department, and Jackson Fire and EMS were dispatched to the scene.

While responders were en route, witnesses reported that the striking vehicle had fled eastbound from the scene. The Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Office was notified and asked to watch for the suspect's vehicle. Upon arrival, first responders confirmed the vehicle had left the scene.

The bicyclist, a Germantown man in his mid-60s, sustained serious but non-life-threatening injuries. He was transported by Jackson EMS to a medical facility.

Based on witness statements and evidence collected at the scene, investigators identified a suspect's vehicle and driver. During the ongoing investigation, Washington County deputies located the suspect's vehicle in Ozaukee County. Deputies initiated a traffic stop; however, the driver failed to yield. A brief pursuit involving Washington and Ozaukee County law enforcement followed before the driver stopped and was taken into custody by the Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Office.

The driver, an out-of-state man in his early 30's who was in the area for work, is believed to have been impaired by alcohol at the time of the crash.

The Washington County Sheriff’s Office and the Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Office intend to seek charges related to this incident.

This investigation remains ongoing.

Highways are expected to bottleneck during Labor Day weekend.

The final travel weekend of the summer will be busy, with peak travel time on Monday, September 7  from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wisconsinites can expect higher travel costs and heavier traffic.

Hotel costs have gone up, with domestic bookings rising 9% this year compared to last season.

Wisconsin's gas prices are averaging $3.80, at the time of this writing. AAA says prices could rise further, with the national average potentially exceeding $4 for the first time. Wisconsin may see record-high Labor Day gas costs.

The Washington County Sheriff’s Office is investigating an incident involving a Johnson School Bus driver after a 4-year-old child was left unattended on a school bus following the completion of the child’s route on Wednesday, September 2. 

At approximately 5:47 p.m., the Kewaskum Police Department received a call from the child’s mother, who resides in the Town of Kewaskum, after the child did not arrive home. A Kewaskum Police officer responded to the Johnson School Bus Service facility, located just outside the Village of Kewaskum, and located the unoccupied bus assigned to the child’s route in the facility’s outdoor parking lot.

While checking the facility grounds, the officer observed the four-way emergency flashers were activated on a different school bus parked outside. The officer investigated and located the child inside the closed bus at 6:18 p.m. The child was visibly hot and partially clothed.

Washington County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to the scene and determined that the original bus had been parked at 5:30 p.m. Of particular concern to investigators were the temperatures inside the buses. Due to the outdoor conditions and the buses being closed and unoccupied, internal temperatures inside the buses were in excess of 100 degrees. 

Deputies met with representatives of Johnson School Bus Service who fully cooperated with the investigation. The company has a standard safety protocol requiring buses to be checked at the completion of each route. Kewaskum School District leadership also responded to the scene to conduct an internal assessment of the incident.

As part of the investigation, deputies also learned that the bus driver had previously reported a malfunction involving the bus’s electronic child reminder alarm system. The Child Check-Mate System is designed to audibly alert the driver after the bus is turned off to remind the driver to check the bus for any remaining students on board. The system requires the driver to walk to the rear of the bus and manually disengage the system and provides an additional opportunity to check the entire bus for children. 

During the investigation, the driver admitted that he did not conduct a manual check of the bus after completing the route, despite the malfunctioning alarm system.

The investigation indicates that the child likely fell asleep during the bus route and was unintentionally left on the bus. Investigators have found no evidence that the driver intentionally left the child on the bus or acted with the intent to harm the child.

Due to the child’s age, the length of time the child remained unsupervised, the extreme temperatures inside the bus, and the circumstances surrounding the driver’s failure to check the bus with the known alarm issue, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office will refer a child neglect charge to the Washington County District Attorney’s Office for review.

The driver, a 69-year-old man with nearly five years of experience as a school bus driver with Johnson Bus Service, was not taken into custody.

The child was not injured, and the parents declined emergency medical services.

The Washington County District Attorney’s Office will determine whether criminal charges will be pursued.

Strong thunderstorms certainly packed a punch during morning drive time and during the start of school on Thursday, September 3.

A Severe Thunderstorm Warning was issued until 8:51 a.m. by the National Weather Service for area counties, including Washington, Waukesha, Ozaukee and Milwaukee. This band of storms included strong rain, lightning and winds up to 50 miles per hour.

Village of Richfield Department of Public Works crews were busy on Thursday, September 3 clearing many trees that were knocked down across roadways, due to the storm.

The National Weather Service then issued a flood advisory around 9:30 a.m. for Washington County, Waukesha County, Ozaukee County and Milwaukee County until 12 p.m. 

We Energies reported over 21,000 customers without power in southeast Wisconsin, at the time of this writing. It included 4,479 in Washington County, 3,995 in Milwaukee and 1,544 in Waukesha.

Hartford’s Jack Russell Memorial Library has started adult programs, including Coffee and Community, and it takes place on the first Friday of every month.

As soon as the doors open at 9 a.m., hot coffee is available. They will present a speaker at 10 a.m.

Hartford's Library Director Vanessa Taylir told WTKM about the speaker for Friday, September 4 along with a few upcoming speakers.

"We have Mark from the Ice Age Trail, he will talk about their Mammoth Challenge that they are having. We will also have someone from the Hartford Community Service and the Hartford Food Pantry."                                          

It’s Coffee and Community at the Jack Russell Memorial Library, in Hartford.

An ongoing EHD outbreak has been confirmed in wild deer in Washington County and suspect cases are also being reported from northern Waukesha and Ozaukee counties. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources continues to catalogue all reports of potentially impacted deer. 
The DNR is tracking this outbreak through reported sightings of recently dead deer in the area.

Hemorrhagic disease is an acute, infectious, often fatal, viral disease that affects white-tailed deer and other hoofed animals. It is caused by either the bluetongue virus or the epizootic hemorrhagic disease virus. In areas where HD regularly occurs, death rates are lower, usually less than 25% of the population, in areas where the disease rarely occurs. In Wisconsin, death rates can be much higher and high-density deer herds may have higher mortality rates.

The disease was diagnosed for the first time in Wisconsin deer in the fall of 2002, when approximately 14 deer were found suddenly dead in Iowa County, according to the DNR. Between 2002 and 2011, blood samples from deer were collected and tested. The results did not find antibodies to the viruses that cause HD, which suggests that deer in Wisconsin are not routinely exposed to these viruses. Sporadic outbreaks of epizootic hemorrhagic disease occur in Wisconsin. 

The viruses that cause hemorrhagic disease do not infect humans.

It won’t be long until harvest time. What about corn and soybeans?

USDA’s National Ag Statistics service says corn development is ahead of schedule. 85 percent now in the doe stage.

Five percent of the corn is mature. And some corn silage harvesting has begun, with five percent already in the books.

96 percent of the soybeans are setting pods, that’s three percent more than the five-year average.

John Heinberg of Total Farm Marketing, in West Bend says there is concern about the soybeans. 

"A slip of two percent from last week on that soybean crop condition, we are now under the five-year average, which was sixty percent. We are seven percent under last year. Some of the concerns is the bean crop is not finishing out, and it seems to be coming true with more chatter of disease possibly showing up. I've noticed some things in some of our fields around here too, we have had so much moisture here in the end and that's one of the last things beans need."   

Suitable days were reported for fieldwork during the week ending August 30, according to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service.

Potato harvesting was underway, while some farmers had begun limited fall tillage.

The Alzheimer's Association Walk to End Alzheimer's - Washington County takes place on Saturday, September 26 at Regner Park in West Bend. It's a free, family-friendly event.

On Walk day, participants honor those affected by Alzheimer's with the poignant Promise Garden ceremony. It's a mission-focused experience that signifies their solidarity in the fight against the disease. During the ceremony, walkers will carry flowers of various colors, each color representing their personal connection to alzheimer's disease.

More than 7 million Americans are living with alzheimer's disease. In Wisconsin, there are more than 110,000 people living with the disease and over 206,000 caregivers.

The Alzheimer's Association Walk to End Alzheimer's is the world's largest event to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer's care, support and research.

Visit act.alz.org/washingtonco to register.  

The Jackson Fire Department announced that the department will officially transition to providing 100% paramedic-level emergency medical services to the communities they serve. This transition, beginning Tuesday, September 1 at 7 a.m. represents a significant advancement in the level of emergency medical care available to residents in the Village of Jackson, Town of Jackson, Town of Polk and the Town of Germantown.

This level of service will allow their paramedics to perform more advanced skills and administer more life-saving medications that can be critical during life-threatening emergencies. 

Their goal is to provide the right care, at the right level, as quickly as possible.

The extensive work of the Jackson Fire Department EMS Committee made this transition possible. The committee was involved in the planning, development, review and implementation of the many changes necessary to move from a flex staffing model to a full paramedic-level EMS system.

The Jackson Fire Department has operated under a flex staffing model since 2019. In fact, the Jackson Fire Department was the first fire department in Wisconsin to implement flex staffing for EMS.  

Hartford’s Joint 1 School District’s first day of school is Tuesday, September 1.

It’s been a busy summer, according to District Administrator Dr. Tara Villalobos. 

"In the summer we have a lot of things to do, whether it's related to facilities and getting all of the buildings ready. Whether it's our Summer Academy, where we get our students continued enrichment during the summer so there is continued learning. Our Middle School Connections program just happened, along with the training for all of our staff."

They are looking forward to another great school year, with Central Middle School, Lincoln Elementary and Rossman Elementary.

They continue to improve the curriculum for the students.

"Our school board just approved our curriculum review cycle last month," according to Dr. Villalobos. Along with that, in the spring we adopted several new pieces of curriculum. We adopted ELA curriculum, which is english language arts at all grade levels. Then we adopted a new science curriculum."                                      

Many students and parents attended the Joint 1 School District's annual open house events on Wednesday, August 26 and Thursday, August 27. It was a chance to prepare for the upcoming school year by visiting classrooms and meeting their teacher.     

The Dodge County Sheriff’s Office investigated internet crimes, after they received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

As a result of the tip and the investigation, 60-year-old John Bauer, of Mayville, and 42-year-old Jason Van Dyke, of Burnett were booked into the Dodge County Jail. Each suspect face a felony charge in this case.

These charges are being requested to the Dodge County District Attorney’s Office.

All individuals arrested and booked into the Dodge County Jail can be found on the “Arrest” tab of the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office App.

The Washington County Humane Society is inundated with cats. 

Event and Cultivation Specialist Hannah Noegel told WTKM that the number of cats and kittens is growing at the shelter.  

"It was a big late summer cat and kitten boom. Right now, we need the community's help to find homes for these fantastic felines. We are caring for a wide variety of ages, breeds, energy levels and personalities."                                      

Visit the cat’s page on their website, wchspets.org or visit the shelter which is located between Slinger and Jackson, on Highway 60.

The Washington County Humane Society is open to the public for adoption viewing hours on Monday and Wednesday from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m., Thursday and Friday from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.