Joining us in the studio this morning, we have Matt Bandicoke, who is the Chief Deputy for the Green Lake and County Sheriff's Office.
Morning.
Good morning.
Thanks for having me again, Bob.
Good to see you.
Made your way through the smoke and, you know.
Yeah, it's pretty rough out there.
It's, you know, it seems like last year we had a lot of this and now this year some more.
And I know it's impacting the community quite a bit.
Obviously millions of people are affected by it right now with how it's covering so much of the Northern tier of the US.
It's been a struggle.
Yeah, it's um It seems to me in the years past it was they would have these air quality alerts, but it would be the people that are you know have What would it be?
Um Just are more at risk with their
health like asthma.
Yeah,
right.
So respiratory type of illnesses
That had to take the precaution but now they're saying hey everybody if you can spend less time outdoors spend less time outdoors, you know So anyway,
yeah, it's been it's been crazy Wednesday driving and I could see it literally coming down almost like a bank of fog Yeah, and then just got thicker and thicker and then I was along the lake later on and It literally was probably less than a mile visibility at the lake.
So it's very thick
Right.
So today we're going to talk a little bit about boat safety.
And I know that recently there was personal watercraft collision involving some younger people.
But maybe that's something that
we should take a look at is no matter what kind of craft you have on the water, you still have to be careful.
Right.
Obviously, you know, the middle of summer for us and our waterways across the state really are very busy.
Everybody's enjoying the beautiful lakes that Wisconsin has and that's great.
We just got to be mindful of the traffic and be safe.
You know, you can have fun and be safe at the same time.
You don't have to be reckless or anything like that.
In this circumstance, a recent crash being investigated by Wisconsin DNR, there were five juveniles on two different PWCs, and they were operating in proximity to the place they were at, and they collided, and a couple of the juveniles were injured and transported, and last I heard everybody's doing well, and there's no indication of long-term issues for either of the victims.
We're thankful for that.
It certainly could have been much, much worse in that specific circumstance, but it's just important for people to, you know, give space to others and have a good time, but be cautious.
Stay sober as well.
You know, boating is not free of the impact of OWIs either.
And then also, you know, on busy waterways, you know, like Green Lake, for instance, you have to be defensive actually when you're operating, especially, you know, like on a midday on a Saturday or Sunday when
the lakes it's busiest.
Just operate in a way that you're defensive to all the other boaters out there.
We know that it's busy.
We know that there's violations that occur.
Unfortunately, the DNR and the Sheriff's Office cannot be everywhere on the lake.
We try to get out there and do as much patrol as possible.
But we really rely on the community and those enjoying the lake to do it in a safe manner.
And we need that to continue for the rest of the summer.
and going forward.
Not only at Green Lake, but across the state.
You know, just common sense really applies in a lot of boating circumstances.
Just being smart, taking your time, and recognizing that not everybody's going to operate as safely as you.
Are your PFD, personal flotation
device?
Yeah, absolutely.
PFDs are huge, and good point on that, too, in this crash that we had.
All of them were wearing their PFDs, and it was definitely critical for that.
and kill switches as well.
Everybody should be wearing their cutoff switch and using that when they're underway so that if there is an incident the boat stops and doesn't cause more damage to other boats or individuals.
Some simple things like that, obviously having your boat in good working condition, making sure that things are properly ventilated for fuel systems and
and battery terminals are covered and all those sorts of things can make for a good safe boating season and a good day on the lake.
Looks like we're going to have good temperatures this weekend.
I don't know if the smoke's going to be around or not, but you know with those good temperatures it's going to be a great boating weekend.
I know this weekend on Green Lake there's Boat Jam so they're going to have a good time out there in Norwegian Bay and we'll be out there on patrol as well, but you know
With that comes more boat traffic and hopefully everybody has a great time and stays safe, you know, that ultimately that's the goal for everybody.
So you have a bicycling event as well, I believe this
weekend?
Yeah, you may have seen Green Lake, City of Green Lake Chamber of Commerce that are putting out or coordinating with the triathlon group.
And so there'll be a swim out of Deacon Mills Park in the City of Green Lake right up from the marina.
I believe the boat launch there is going to be closed during that time.
And then a bike that is going to come out from the city and it's going to go out on South Street and go across County Highway A, over across the sunny side.
And it's actually going to come all the way into Fond du Lac County and then down Reed Street and then back on K. And it's going to loop around a couple of times there and then return to the city.
And then from there, those athletes are going to be running from Deacon Mills Park toward the Greenlight Conference Center and back, is my understanding.
Quite the event.
A lot of great athletes are going to be here doing that and give a lot of credit to those folks that are participating in that triathlon.
It will have some impact though to our morning travels on Sunday the 19th.
We're going to have some closures, intermittent closures anyway on A and South Street sunny side area there.
and then also some impact on County Highway K. So people should be mindful of that, especially, you know, I know there's a lot of morning traffic going to church and going to and from church that could be impacted.
So plan accordingly.
Of course, in the city of Green Lake, we still have the Mill Street Bridge out, so that also impacts traffic in the city of Green Lake.
So that's going to be a busy morning.
Just be mindful of that and allow some extra time to get to church.
Okay.
Matt, we did want to talk a little bit about
A lot of communities have what's called the National Night Out on August the 4th, I believe, is this year.
But some communities do it a little differently.
Greenlight County included not on August the 4th, but you have a hosting city each year, and there's a rotation for that, I believe.
Right, yeah.
We've been doing that now for a few years, and we bounce from one city to the next.
We now call it Greenlight County First Responders Community Event.
And this year it's in Princeton.
They got the beautiful city park there in Princeton.
It's a great place for us to meet and greet with the community.
We'll have folks from the Sheriff's Office, all the police departments in the county, fire, EMS.
Everybody's going to be there.
And there's going to be food and games for all those who attend on the August 18th, 4.30 to 7.
Should be a great time.
And we're looking forward to
seeing as many folks that can attend.
We always enjoy getting together as a group.
We don't have that many opportunities for the first responders to get together in a fun circumstance like that, right?
A lot of times we're going to call us together and things, so we're going to enjoy it as well and we're going to spend some time with the community and just have a great evening there August 18th, 4.30 to 7.
Matt, thank you so much for joining us this morning.
Appreciate your time.
Always good to see you,
Bob.
As Matt Bandicoke, who is the Chief Deputy for the Green Lake County Sheriff's Office.
