GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) - All of Green Bay’s pools and aquatic centers will be closed for the season as of this week, just when things are starting to heat up again. 

Joannes and the Resch aquatic center are set to close Thursday. 

Recreation Director Ann Moeller says the closing dates were predetermined before the season began.

Many lifeguards are college students and won’t be around to extend hours. 

Colburn Pool closed this past weekend. The city’s wading pools for younger kids have also closed. 

Splash pads will be the only alternative to beat the August heat.

GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) - Construction is expected to begin this fall on a downtown Green Bay 84-unit apartment complex. 

The Green Bay city council approved $2.3 million in tax increment financing for the $10 million project at Tuesday’s meeting that will be called City Deck Commons. 

The development is from T. Wall enterprises and will involve underground parking as well as ground floor retail and office space. 

The five story building will be constructed next to The Flats on the Fox along the Fox River on the corner of Main St. and North Washington Street.

The apartments are expected to be higher end market rate units. 

This one of two downtown apartment complexes moving forward. 

The other project is called Metreau and is similar in scope.  The nearly $15 million development from Dermond Property Investments will involve 93-units, underground parking, plus ground floor retail space and viewing terrace at the corner of Walnut and Washington. 

Construction is expected to begin at the end of the year. 

GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) - A zoning changed has been approved by the Green Bay city council that clears the way for Titletown Brewing Company to expand its bottling and manufacturing operations. 

It’s the part of the first phase of a development and restoration of the old Larson vegetable canning factory buildings located on Broadway Avenue in downtown. 

The project also includes retail and office space as well as a banquet room with roof top access. 

On Broadway’s Executive Director Chris Naumann thinks this could be the start of a brewing district, with Hinterland Brewing and Restaurant and House of Homebrew nearby.

Final approval is still needed on a development agreement for the phase one of the Larsen Green project.

The second phase of the project includes warehouse style apartments for the other historic canning factory buildings. 

GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) - City inspectors in Green Bay are dealing with several calls each day about a spreading problem...rats.

At his home near Marquette Park last fall, Bob Zdiarstek says he caught a rat about 18 inches long.

“I thought it was a muskrat, but it was an actual rat,” Zdiarstek told FOX 11.

Zdiarstek hasn't seen one since, but city officials say many of his west side neighbors have.

“It kind of started in the near downtown area,” Bill Paape, the city’s compliance inspector, told FOX 11. “It made sense because of the factories and the water sources, but in the last several years, you kind of started seeing them pop up in the residential areas.”

Paape says most complaints are coming from residents in the 7th, 8th, and 9th aldermanic districts on the west side. He says the worst among the region is the Marquette Park neighborhood.

This week, city officials began stuffing mailboxes to alert residents about the issue. They hope educating the public about rats can help solve the problem.

“The biggest thing that folks can do is storing their garbage correctly,” said Paape.

The city also recommends setting out bait and traps. Eliminating excessive food sources, yard vegetation and water sources is also suggested.

City inspectors will be in the affected neighborhoods in the near future. They'd like to hear from residents if they are having any rat issues. The number to call is (920) 448-3300.

MADISON, WI (WTAQ) - The request for federal assistance to help out small businesses in Outagamie County has been approved.

The U.S. Small Business Administration expedited the ability for those affected by storm damage two weeks ago to apply for low-interest loans.

On August 16, county officials accompanied SBA representatives on a tour of the county’s hardest hit areas and developed plans to establish a Disaster Loan Outreach Center, at which to process assistance applications. 

Outagamie County Executive Thomas Nelson underscored the benefit of the county’s prompt action.

“I’d like to extend my thanks to Emergency Management staff for facilitating the SBA assessment team’s ground-level review last Friday,” Nelson said. “Thanks to Governor Walker for requesting the disaster declaration and to the SBA for their prompt, affirmative response.”

The SBA offers low-interest loans to help qualified victims pay for damages and for economic hardships incurred from natural disaster.

Other counties are also eligible including Brown, Calumet, Shawano, Waupaca, and Winnebago Counties, which are contiguous to Outagamie County. 

“If you rent or own your own home or your business suffered damage during the storm, you may be eligible for a low-interest loan,” Governor Scott Walker said in a statement.  “These loans will help in the recovery by allowing people to begin much-needed repairs.”

Loans up to $200,000 will be available to homeowners to repair or replace damaged or destroyed real estate.  Homeowners and renters are eligible for loans up to $40,000 to repair or replace damaged or destroyed personal property.  Businesses and non-profit organizations of any size may borrow up to $2 million to repair or replace damaged or destroyed real estate, machinery and equipment, inventory, and other business assets.

Assistance efforts continue through the county’s additional service branches.

On August 7, storms spawned six tornadoes, five of them in Outagamie County. Officials there estimate more than $30 million in damage.

GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) - Wisconsin can expect one more day of warm, humid weather before a cold front moves in and cools things down.

The northwest was the state’s hot spot Tuesday, with highs in the 90’s in some places. The mercury hit 92 near Grantsburg in Burnett County.

It’s a sticky morning throughout the state, with temperatures in the 60’s and 70’s and humidities above 80 percent in most places. It was 75 in La Crosse at 5 a.m.

The National Weather Service has posted a heat advisory for nine counties in the northwest from noon to 7 p.m. Wednesday. Those counties are Eau Claire, Chippewa, Dunn, Pepin, Pierce, Saint Croix, Polk, Barron, and Rusk. Forecasters say the heat index could hit 101 in those areas.

All of Wisconsin could see 90 Wednesday before the cold front brings showers and thunderstorms to the region Wednesday night. Some of those storms could be severe.

Once they clear out, a much cooler day is predicted for Thursday with highs around 80. Dry weather is expected until Saturday, when storms could return generally in the northern half of Wisconsin.

Another warm-up is forecast for Sunday, when some areas could see 90 degrees again. 

KESHENA, WI (WTAQ) - Authorities have burned over 900 marijuana plants seized in an ongoing drug investigation at the Menominee Indian Reservation in northeast Wisconsin.

Federal, state, and tribal agencies are still investigating the operation. As of Wednesday morning, no one’s been arrested yet.

Officials said the pot was worth just over $1.3 million. It’s one of the largest drug discoveries in recent years in the woods of northeast Wisconsin.

Twelve people were charged in 2010, and 7 others last year, as officers broke up separate marijuana operations at the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest that covers much of northern Wisconsin. 

GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) - Last month’s unemployment rate for the Green Bay Metropolitan Area improved as seasonal hiring continued. 

The jobless rate was 6.2 percent in July compared to 6.5 percent in June.

The change was due to more people working and less people claiming to be unemployed.  College and high school students typically stop looking for work towards the beginning of July and drop out of the labor force.

There was a reported net loss of 1,200 jobs in the area, but construction and manufacturing added around 500 positions, and around 900 jobs were added by tourism related businesses. 

Local governments reported 2,700 fewer positions; however there is no explanation on why there was such a large swing.  

The Green Bay Metropolitan Area includes Brown, Kewaunee, and Oconto Counties. 

OSHKOSH, WI (WTAQ) - Police in Oshkosh need your help finding the suspect pictured above for stealing a donation jar.

Authorities say it happened at the Kwik Trip, 215 W. 20th Avenue on Sunday around 11:35 p.m.

The photos show the white female suspect entering the store and buying lottery tickets at the front counter. The clerk reaches down to get the lottery tickets and the suspect removes the plastic donation box and places it in her purse.

The donation jar was for Neighbors Helping Neighbors, a group that assists people in finding jobs.

The woman takes her lottery tickets and leaves, with the clerk unaware that the donation box had been taken.

If anyone can identify this female or has information regarding the theft, please call the Oshkosh Police Department at (920) 236-5700.

If you have information and would like to remain anonymous, please contact Winnebago County Wide Crime Stoppers at (920) 231-8477 or text "IGOTYA" and your crime tip to "274637" or go to www.winnebagocrimestoppers.org and submit your text via the web. You may be eligible for up to a $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

MADISON, WI (WTAQ) - Green Bay Rep. Chad Weininger is introducing legislation to help Kewaunee Co. after massive jobs losses from the closure of the nuclear power station.

The bill would expand development opportunity zone tax credits to areas that experience job losses of at least 100 employees. 

Currently, the zone tax credits are only available Janesville, Kenosha and Beloit. Those areas have experienced massive layoffs in recent years. 

The opportunity zone tax credits provide tax benefits for job creation, for environmental clean-up, investment in property, property rental as well as research expenses. 

Weininger says this could help attract new business or help with expansion of a current business.

KEWAUNEE, WI (WTAQ) - The U.S. Department of Labor has awarded a $807,000 grant to help the laid off workers from now closed Kewaunee Power Station. 

The nuclear facility closed in May, and will lay off around 650 workers by September of next year. More than half of those workers have already been laid off. 

The National Emergency Grant was issued to the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development. 

DWD Regional Labor market analyst Jeff Sachse says the same grant helped 200 workers who were laid off from the now closed Thermo Fisher plant in Two Rivers back in early 2012.

The Bay Area Workforce Development Board will administer the grant that will provide support services, skills assessment, help with job searching, and training. 

APPLETON, WI (WTAQ) - A lawyer in the Fox Valley is on the other side of the law, after being charged with allegedly beating and raping his wife.

49-year-old David Dudas is facing 31 charges, including first and second-degree sexual assault, strangulation and suffocation, and substantial battery.

Dudas appeared in Outagamie County Court Wednesday. He is currently out on $750,000 cash bond, after the court denied Dudas' request for a lower bond.

He's also not allowed to have contact with his children.

According to court documents, the children witnessed some of the alleged abuse.

MENOMINEE COUNTY, WI (WTAQ) - Officials in Menominee County say one person has died as a result of strong storms Wednesday night.

Authorities say there were multiple traffic accidents as a result of trees falling onto roads, one of them deadly.

Menominee Indian Tribal Chairman Craig Corn tells FOX 11 the victim is Marlo King.

A major part of Menominee County remains in the dark as of 11 a.m. Thursday. 

Alliant Energy is working to restore the power, but there isn't an estimate on when it will be back up. As of 1 p.m., about 2,200 customers are still without power in Menominee County.

For updated information, residents should call (715) 799-7000. 

Menominee County is asking residents not to call 911 to report electrical outages.

SHAWANO, WI (WTAQ) - Shawano County Emergency Management officials are working on assessing the damage from Wednesday night's powerful storms.

Officials say there are no reported injuries or fatalities in connection with the storms as of 7 a.m. Thursday.

The National Weather Service will be in Shawano County Thursday to verify if damage were the result of straight line winds or a tornado.

Local crews are working to restore power to about 1,000 residents still in the dark. Residents are advised to stay away from downed power lines and call their power companies for updates.

During Thursday's clean-up, residents are encouraged to exercise safety as they remove debris, including while working with chain saws.

Meantime, emergency management officials are collecting information to assess economic impact to the county. People are asked to provide information and photos of their damage on the Ready Shawano County Facebook page; however, they will need to coordinate with their individual insurance agents.

Officials say about 11 homes were damaged in the Bonduel area. Citizens are being asked to report damage to Shawano County Emergency Management at (715) 526-6774.

KESHENA, WI (WTAQ) - The Menominee Indian Reservation has activated its emergency government system.

A command center has been set up at the Tribal office building.

This comes in the wake of severe storms that rolled through the area Wednesday night. Damage assessments are underway.

Officials want residents to be careful if they go out due to electrical lines hanging low or on the ground.

A couple emergency shelters have been opened:

• Menominee Tribal Offices, W 2908 Tribal Office Loop Road in Keshena 
• Menominee Nation Casino and Hotel (Maple Room and Ada Deer Room) 
• College of the Menominee Nation- Community Technology Center

There are a couple delays in the Keshena area due to the storm damage:

• College of Menominee Nation: Closed Until Noon
• Menominee Indian -Administration: Closed Until Noon

GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) - A man charged with causing a crash that severely injured a Green Bay police officer is headed to trial.

Ryan Rivard is charged with causing injury by intoxicated use of a vehicle and reckless driving. He had his preliminary hearing in Brown County court Thursday.

Officer Tracy Liska was pulling out of the Kwik Trip parking lot on Lombardi Avenue when her squad car was hit at approximately 81 miles per hour.

Court documents show Liska suffered a broken collar bone, a broken ribs, and a punctured lung in the crash.

Rivard's arraignment is scheduled for September 20. 

DE PERE, WI (WTAQ) - A former IT worker for the De Pere School District is facing felony charges after he gained access to the district’s secured computer system and deleted most of this past school year’s data and information. 

30-year-old Jared Carlson worked for the district for nearly 10 years until he resigned in January.

He used a current district employee’s username and password to gain access to his own personal data.

“Mr. Carlson had a pending Social Security claim, a worker’s comp claim, he believed the information was not being turned over by De Pere in the format that he wanted it” Brown County District Attorney David Lasee.

De Pere Police Detective Thomas Schrank says the district lost data entered from September of 2012 up until Carlson allegedly hit the delete button on April 29^th, 2013. 

“He went into the system, he was disgruntled, he said he wanted to delete the system and he shut the network down” said Schrank.

Carlson is charged with five felony computer crimes and one misdemeanor charge. He could face more then 30-years in prison if convicted of all charges.

GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) - If you live in the greater Green Bay area and have to start looking at purchasing health insurance or want to make a change to a different provider, there will be five different insurers to choose from come October first. 

That’s when enorllment begins under the state’s ojnline health care exchange. 

Citizen Action of Wisconsin released a report that shows there will be ten plans to choose from in the Green Bay area.

The federal healthcare mandate requires everyone have health insurance starting in 2014, or be subject to a tax penalty.  The federal government is providing subsidies for those who can't afford health insurance.

An estimated 40,000 people don’t have health insurance in the Bay Lake Consortium area that includes Brown, Door, Marinette, Oconto, and Shawano counties. Also, more than 7,700 people in the constorium area will be dropped from BadgerCare, after Governor Walker tightened the eligibility for enrollment.   

KESHENA, WI (WTAQ) - Almost 450 electric customers were still in the dark Friday morning, after Wednesday night’s thunderstorms in northeast Wisconsin.

Over 24,000 customers lost their electricity at the height of the storms.

Alliant Energy said 330 customers in Menominee County were still without power as of 4:30 a.m. – and about 80 in Shawano County were still out.

We Energies had a dozen outages Friday morning near Clintonville. Wisconsin Public Service says all its customers are back on.

One person died in the storms. Menominee tribal member Marlo King was killed when a tree fell onto the car she was driving on Highway 47 in Keshena.

The National Weather Service inspected parts of Shawano County Thursday to see if a tornado landed there. There’s no final word on that yet.

About a dozen homes were damaged in the Bonduel area, and lightning started a nursing home fire in which 13 residents were moved to another facility.

The storms were caused by a passing cold front which also brought heavy rains to southern Wisconsin Thursday.

Parts of the south have dense fog advisories Friday morning. When that clears, a sunny day is in store statewide with highs of around 80.

A chance of rain returns during the weekend, along with warmer temperatures that could hit 90 again on Monday. 

SHAWANO COUNTY, WI (WTAQ) - A woman died and another person was injured in a two-vehicle crash on the Highway 29 expressway in Shawano County.

It happened around 2:30 p.m. Thursday.

Authorities said a Tigerton woman turned left onto the expressway from County Trunk J, and was hit by an eastbound vehicle also driven by a Tigerton woman.

The first driver was later pronounced dead at a hospital. The surviving driver was hospitalized. Her condition was not disclosed.

Shawano County authorities continue to investigate.

Meanwhile, a man was killed in Kenosha County when his SUV left a wet pavement and struck a utility pole.

It happened late Thursday morning on a town road in Somers. The names of both fatal victims were not immediately released.