The top 10 local stories for the year
By Tracy Ouellette
SLN Staff
The new year approaches and it’s time for our annual look back at the top stories for the East Troy area in the last 12 months.
Like every year, there were highs and lows, but some of the lows hit at the very heart of the community with the loss of life.
But, there was hope to be found throughout the area as the community offered new events, broke ground on new schools and set in motions plans for new attractions.
Here’s a list of the top 10 stories from 2016:
1. Four men drown in boating accident
After six days of searching, the body of the fourth man who drown in Mill Lake was recovered.
The body of 21-year-old Patrick M. Wetzel was the last victim recovered from the Jan. 3 incident, when the four men went missing sometime between 2 and 3 a.m. after taking a canoe out onto the lake, which is on the northern end of the Lake Beulah chain.
The bodies of two of the men, Lanny Patrick Sack, 20 and Christopher J. McQuillen, 21, were found late in the afternoon on Jan. 3. The third body, found the afternoon of Jan. 4, was identified as Mori R. Weinstein, 21.
According to Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Safety Warden Jason Roberts, who was in charge of the investigation, friends last saw the four men, who were from the Winnetka, Ill., at about 2 a.m. on Jan. 3. They had been staying at a home on Lake Beulah in a group of about a dozen friends and had been drinking before they disappeared.
2. Restaurant owner killed in crash
The Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department’s investigation in the car vs. motorcycle crash that killed Mark Galluzzo, owner of Roma’s Ristorante and Lounge in East Troy, on Aug. 5, has been completed but not released to the media.
Lt. Phil Carini said Wednesday morning the results of the investigation have been referred to the Waukesha County District Attorney’s Office for review. The DA’s office confirmed they are reviewing the incident.
“I can tell you the officer recommended charges be filed against the driver of the car,” Carini said Wednesday morning.
Carini said the results of the investigation will be released after the DA’s review.
The newspaper is not naming the driver of the car that killed Galluzzo because they have not been charged.
According the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department the call to report the crash came in at about 11:28 p.m. Aug. 5. The report stated a car traveling westbound on Highway NN, west of Jericho Drive in the Town of Eagle, tried pass another westbound car and struck a motorcycle. It was reported two motorcycles were travelling eastbound when the passing vehicle struck the lead motorcycle head on.
According to the Sheriff’s Department, the driver of the lead motorcycle, Galluzzo, suffered serious injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Town of East Troy Police officer Craig Knox, of Vernon, was driving the other motorcycle and suffered minor injuries.
The driver of the car, a 19-year-old woman from Palmyra, was also transported by emergency medical services for minor injuries.
3. New school construction begins
Ground was broke for the new elementary school in East Troy on April. 22. The ceremony included all the district’s elementary school students decked out in hard hats provided by Miron Construction.
The new school will be called Little Prairie Primary School. The name was suggested by the Doubek Elementary School students after a problem-based learning assignment where they campaigned and voted on several names they had come up with.
4. Library gets a new director
Jeff Gartman accepted the director position at the East Troy Lions Public Library this past summer
“I thought this would be a marvelous challenge,” he said in an interview at the time. “A library is a huge resource in the community – I like to say it’s the ‘heart of the community.’ I’m looking forward to seeing what I can bring to this. I’m up for the challenge.”
Gartman, 60, has spent his 24-year librarian career working in specialty libraries such as his most recent job as the interim director of the American Dental Association Library in Chicago. He worked there for the past 17 years and was the interim director there for the last three years.
5. Skydivers injured
Two skydivers, diving with Sky Knights Sport Parachute Club in East Troy, were injured Aug. 1 when their parachutes apparently got twisted together during their descent.
Village of East Troy Police Chief Alan Boyes said the call came in at 4:49 p.m. Aug. 1 reporting two parachutists were down and Village of East Troy Police responded to the airport on Highway L. Boyes said the parachutists suffered “numerous injuries.”
Boyes said both skydivers were in “serious condition” and were transported to Froedtert Hospital in Wauwatosa. One parachutist, a 32-year-old man from Scottsdale Arizona, was transported by ambulance and a 28-year-old man from Waukesha was transported by Flight for Life.
6. Ernie Recknagel passes away
The East Troy community said goodbye to local World War II veteran Ernest Recknagel in April. “Ernie,” as he was called, died April 12 at the age of 94.
The husband, father and grandfather was a well-respected and much-loved resident of the area who inspired others on an almost daily basis according to family and friends.
“He just was a fine man who took care of his family and his county and his faith,” his son Mark Recknagel said.
“My dad was a wonderful, wonderful man and a great example for others to how to live one’s life,” his daughter Laurie Johnson added.
Ernest was born in LaGrange worked on the family farm before enlisting in the U.S. Army repairing airplanes. He worked for Trent Tube as an electrical design engineer for many years.
After coming home from the war, Ernest married his fiancée Dorothy “Dot” Troeger in October of 1946.
They were married for almost 70 years and had two children.
7. Schools first in state to get SmartLabs
The East Troy Community School District was the first in the state to have SmartLabs in their Schools.
The new learning facilities are up and running at East Troy Middle School and Prairie View Elementary School. The district had an open house on Oct. 5 for the public to tour the new classrooms.
According to the School District, students using SmartLabs will be able to explore alternative energy, computer graphics, mechanics and structures, simple machines, scientific data, digital communications, robotics and more. It is an opportunity to not only give students practical, meaningful and personalized opportunities, but also to increase levels of learning engagement that support creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, communication and content.
8. VIPER Ride comes to village
The first every VIPER Ride stopped in East Troy for lunch and a rest on Aug. 21.
VIPER stands for Visually Impaired Patriots Experiencing the Road and the ride was the brainchild of two friends, John Carter, a blind attorney who was a United States Marine and, T.J. Oman, a retired U.S. Naval officer who loves to ride motorcycles.
The 110-mile, round-trip ride hosted about 40 veterans and began at the veterans home in Milwaukee and traveled about 55 miles through the countryside out to East Troy, where the group will stop for a picnic lunch and rest at the Village Hall.
Village Board President Randy Timms was instrumental in bringing the ride, which organizers plan a making annually, to East Troy.
LD’s BBQ made the meal with the American Legion’s famous roasted corn. Gus’s Drive-in provided the group with soda and ice cream to make root-beer floats.
The East Troy Fire Department and the Boy Scouts also helped out.
For more information, visit www.theviperride.org.
9. Where to put the archery range
After much debate by the East Troy Village Board over where to put a proposed archery range, the board approved its location on the Loxodromix site on Energy Drive, just a short drive from Village Hall.
The original location, on Village Hall property, became an issue as it was located directly behind Bright Beginnings Day Care. The owners of the day care and several Village Board members thought having an archery range in Village Hall property was too much of a risk.
There was a great deal of debate at the Village Board level before an alternate site for the range was agreed upon.
Trustee Stanford recently updated the board on the progress of the archery range, which is in the planning stages.
10. Whooping cough hits East Troy Schools
Dozens of cases of pertussis, more commonly known as whooping cough, were reported in the East Troy schools in early December.
There were 35 confirmed and probable cases of whooping cough, at East Troy High School and Middle School since November, according to a press release from the Walworth County Department of Health and Human Services in mid-December.
District officials and the Health Department urged people who were coughing to stay home and get checked out by a doctor.
Pertussis cases are up in the area over last year’s numbers. According to the Dec. 1 Pertussis Report by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, there were 51 cases per 100,000 residents in Walworth County so far this year. Kenosha County had 76 cases per 100,000 residents with Waukesha coming it at 68 and Racine at 43, per 100,000 residents.
