Courier Press

By Caitlin Bittner

Prairie du Chien’s Great River Relay for Life will be held on Saturday, Aug. 1, from 5 to 10 p.m.

In the past, the Great River Relay for Life has brought in over a million dollars for cancer research. “We’ve raised $1,036,051.82 to be exact,” said Mary Ann Heisz, former event co-chair. While Heisz is no longer a chair of the event, she remains synonymous with the Relay.

In the Relay’s first year, 2000, Prairie du Chien was ranked as first in the state for funds raised in its class, garnering over $82,000. The following year, Prairie du Chien achieved a national ranking of 10th, raising $115,236.

Looking back, Heisz said that she was proud of the support for the Prairie du Chien Relay. “The community is just so great. It’s such an inspiration. The money we raise is great, the physical support...now that means so much more.”

Heisz noted that the most important thing for the Relay to have is good community involvement.

By Caitlin Bittner

In order to address the public’s concerns and questions regarding the razing of the old Prairie du Chien Memorial Hospital building, the Courier Press reached out to Crossing Rivers Health. Sasha Dull, the chief development officer and external relations coordinator, Bill Sexton, the chief executive officer and Charlie Connell, Crossing Rivers Health board president, agreed to sit down to help put the confusion to rest.

“It’s sad to see it come down,” began Sexton. “But the alternative is to watch it decay over time and we didn’t want that to be the hospital’s legacy.”

The building, according to Sexton, served the community for about six decades until the hospital officially moved to its new home in June. “We’ve had the property listed for two years, and in that time, there was no viable plan presented for it,” stated Sexton.

New emergency 

government director 

takes to his role by storm

By Ted Pennekamp

Grant County deputies are looking for a man who impersonated a police officer and pulled over a woman on U.S. 151 Thursday night.

The Grant County Sheriff’s Department said the woman drove past a dark-colored SUV on 151 south of Platteville around 11:55 p.m. When the woman passed the SUV, it pulled out behind her and activated a red and blue dash light, the sheriff’s office said.

When the woman pulled over, a man in his 40s wearing a black T-shirt approached her vehicle with a flashlight. The man asked the woman if she knew why she was stopped, then asked her to leave the car to see an equipment violation, the sheriff’s office said.

The woman asked the man for ID, and when he didn’t show any, she said she was going to call 911. The SUV then drove off to the north, the sheriff’s office said.

Sheriff Nate Dreckman said several area law enforcement agencies use unmarked vehicles, with “multiple sources of emergency lights and a siren.”