RHINELANDER - Ice shanties protect us from the cold when we go ice fishing. But we need to think about protecting our shanties from break-ins. The Oneida County Sheriff's office says there haven't been many break-ins this year.
"It goes in cycles some years we'll have a rash of them and some years we won't have any, but this year there's been a couple," says Oneida County Sheriff's Recreational Officer Brad Fogerty. "Due to the seclusion of the shacks out in the middle of the lake, non-lighted areas, so those kind of give people opportunity to go out and vandalize and break into them."
Most of those break-ins have been on Lake Julia. There are some precautions you can take to protect your ice shanties.
"Keep your shack locked and don't keep any valuables in it," says Fogerty. "That's the main stuff they're looking for. They're looking for high item items you know ice augers, tip ups, locaters, that type of stuff," says Fogerty.
"So when they see that in there those are the shacks that typically get targeted. So the best thing to do is keep them locked and keep valuables out of them," says Fogerty.
There have been around 10 break-ins or vandalism incidents reported in Oneida County this year.
MOSINEE - From here on out, Mosinee's Kevin Osterbrink will plow snow with a Stormy Kromer hat on his head--and a Stormy Kromer pattern on his plow.
Osterbrink entered his wife, Kayla Cisler-Osterbrink, in a prize drawing from Stormy Kromer and BOSS Snowplow. Her entry won, and BOSS delivered the red plaid patterned snowplow on Friday in Mosinee.
"I was tapping maple trees, and my wife showed up and said I had some homework to do because she won the plow," Osterbrink said, remembering how he found out they won.
"The first thing I told her was, 'That's the last thing I need, more work to do.' She said, 'Well, I think you want to do this, because you just won the Stormy Kromer plow," Osterbrink said.
RHINELANDER - Oneida County needs more foster care homes. Right now, there are nine licensed foster homes in the area, most of which are full according to the county's social services department.
Foster Care Coordinator Rachel Nelson says that in Oneida County there are 24 children currently living in foster homes. The department participated in a statewide foster care recruitment project last fall, and discovered just how great the need is.
RHINELANDER - A snow storm caught Hanson's Garden Village in Rhinelander off guard last weekend and collapsed a greenhouse. Now that spring weather is here, Hanson's is ready to move forward by making some adjustments. "We got by for 25 years doing what we were doing," said Hanson's Garden Village Co-owner Brent Hanson. Last weekend's spring snow storm set back Hanson's. "We thought we were ahead of schedule having that greenhouse nice and filled," said Hanson's Manager Beth Hanson.
"One bad storm and there you go. Things happen," said Brent. The storm collapsed a greenhouse holding thousands of plants. "For years we've gotten by with these lighter cheaper green houses," said Brent. "We'll be down a greenhouse for a little bit here," said Beth. Now Hanson's will only use sturdier and solid greenhouses so that collapses don't become a pattern.