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*Ride Restrictions: callers must call at least one day in advance to schedule their ride; all trips leaving town must be scheduled for the top of the hour and all riders must expect to share the ride with others. All trips leaving clinics must be scheduled for the bottom of the hour and all riders must expect to share the ride with others. On school days Brown Cab won’t schedule Ride United program rides that compete with the demands of the school-children, so rides will be scheduled from 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m. and 4 p.m.-5:30 p.m.

(Walworth County Div. of Public Health press release – Dec. 17) – Consistent with CDC and Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) guidance, the Walworth County Division of Public Health continues to recommend a 14-day quarantine as the safest option to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in our communities. However, they are also now supporting two options for a reduced quarantine period. “We recognize that there are many different circumstances that may make a 14-day quarantine difficult for individuals. As allowable by the CDC and DHS we will support a shortened quarantine period for close contacts, as long as they remain symptom free, are able to self-symptom monitor, and can immediately isolate if they become symptomatic,” said Public Health Officer Erica Bergstrom.

The CDC and DHS released late last week guidelines that allow for either a 10-day quarantine or a 7-day quarantine with a negative novel Coronavirus 2019 test result within 48 hours of the end of quarantine for asymptomatic individuals. The health department stresses that it is still possible for individuals to become symptomatic after day 10 and spread the virus. Anyone choosing to utilize the shortened quarantine should ensure that they continue to monitor for symptoms and immediately isolate if they develop any.

If individuals choose to end their quarantine at day 7 with a negative test, they will need to coordinate with their employer or school for early release. The Walworth County Division of Public Health is not able to provide proof of negative test results to end quarantine. Test results may be obtained via email when tested at a Wisconsin National Guard or community testing site, or should be requested from the medical facility that ordered testing.

“We still recognize the 14-day quarantine as the best way to slow the spread of the virus in our community and encourage everyone to utilize this recommendation whenever possible,” said Bergstrom.

Find out more about the quarantine guidelines on the CDC website.

Graphic provided by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services:

By Lynn Binnie
Whitewater Banner volunteer staff
whitewaterbanner@gmail.com
December 22, 2020

Recently the Wisconsin Department of Health Services has, for the first time, started providing COVID-19 data for each municipality and school district in the state. This is particularly helpful for Whitewater, as the previous information that was enumerated by census tract did not isolate the portion of the city that is located in Jefferson County. The statistics for the seven days ending December 21 reflect a significant reduction in new cases compared with the seven days ending December 12. Many parts of the state have also experienced a downward trend of new cases during this period.

The city’s rate per 100,000 population is now one of the lowest among the cities/counties shown on the chart below; however, it must be noted that with many of the UW-W students having returned home, Whitewater’s current population is overstated for this purpose. Even given that factor, the current 29.1 rate still slightly exceeds the Jefferson County Health Department’s recommendation that in-person instruction not occur when the rate exceeds 25. The Whitewater Unified School District initially used that measure, but no longer utilizes a rate based policy.

In response to a request for an update regarding COVID-19 testing and reporting at UW-W, Jeff Angileri, Director of Public Information, indicated that as of December 18 there had been 12,466 “surge” tests conducted. Further information will be forthcoming.

Eighteen deaths related to COVID-19 have been reported in the city, an increase of three from last week; twenty-one have been reported in the school district. It is believed that the majority of the deaths that have been reported in the city have taken place in senior residences.

New daily confirmed cases reported as an average over the last 7 days and rate per 100,000 population:

Rates per 100,000 population for selected municipalities as of 12/21

Article by Pamela Sonmor-Wintz
Whitewater High School National Honor Society Advisor
psonmorwintz@wwusd.org

Whitewater High School is proud to present the 2020 National Honor Society Virtual Induction Ceremony. Twelve juniors and seniors were chosen for membership to honor their outstanding qualities of leadership, character, scholarship & service to school and community.  These students have worked very hard to achieve at the highest level in school.  

Congratulations to the following new members:

• Alayna Alvarado
• Olive Coburn
• Arno Crowley
• Carter Friend
• Brock Grosinske
• Cooper Hammond
• Nikita Hartzheim
• Savannah Hill
• Avery Hintz
• Denver Isbell
• Audrey Mayer
• Sophia Walton

Congratulations to senior members who were inducted in December 2019:

• Reilly Aschenbrener
• Grace Black
• Lydia Bols
• Jenna Caldwell – Secretary
• Kacie Carollo – Treasurer
• David Cushman
• Carson Ellenwood – President
• Elizabeth Katzman
• Kiyla Kopecky 
• Leiha Kuhnke
• Cora Linos
• Hannah O’Brien
• Jazmine Peterson
• Catherine Skindingsrude – Vice President
• Ella Smith
• Amanda Tovar
• Diego Tovar
• Carter Waelchli
• Abigail Weeden
• Abigail Wildenberg
• Trenton Zahn
• Molly Zimmerman

(Whitewater Kiwanis Breakfast Club submission) The Whitewater Police Department is participating in a program, Kiwanis “Cops ‘N Kids,” that promotes literacy and community trust in law enforcement with the goal of getting free books into the hands and homes of children.  Whitewater police officers picked up the first donation of gently used books, from the Whitewater Unified School District Library Media, at Washington Elementary School.  Whitewater Kiwanis Breakfast Club is organizing the Cops ‘N Kids program, which was the brain-child of the WI-UW District Kiwanis Governor Jean Long Manteufel.

Deputy Chief Daniel Meyer, who was on-hand to pick up the books, said, “We would like to thank Kiwanis and the Whitewater Unified School District for their donation of books through the Cops ‘N Kids program. WPD is committed to serving our community, and these books will help our officers connect with some of our youngest residents. Thank you!”

Jean Bromley, President of the Whitewater Kiwanis Breakfast Club, said, “Our Kiwanis approached the Whitewater Chief of Police Aaron Raap, who immediately supported the program.  We are excited to see another opportunity where children can have direct contact with the police through books.”

The officers will keep the books in their vehicles and read to children they meet while out in the community.  The children will then be able to keep the book. 

Manteufel said, “As incoming governor of the Wisconsin-Upper Michigan Kiwanis, I was looking for ideas.  We needed a service project that we could do with ALL our Kiwanis clubs.”  She asked herself, “What if…it could be something we could do during COVID, what if…it would be low cost because we all lost our fundraisers this year, what if…it involved children (our mission is:  Serving the children of the world), and what if…we could help build community.”

Bromley said, “Clearly, we are all in.  This project is a wonderful collaboration of many groups and is a great community initiative.” 

The Kiwanis Whitewater Breakfast Club is made up of dedicated volunteers who help children in the Whitewater community and the world, all with 100 percent of funds raised going directly to projects and zero to administrative costs.  Each year, the club distributes approximately $20,000, with over half going to the Whitewater Unified School District, including scholarships.  Kiwanis helped to build and maintain the Flowing Well Shelter, the shelter and accessible playground at Starin Park and Treyton’s Field of Dreams, the WHS football field lights and press box, as well as adopting a highway to clean up.  In addition, the group donates to the Whitewater Youth Soccer Club, the Friends of the Whitewater Aquatic and Fitness Center Family Partnership Fund, the Whitewater Food Pantry, Bethel House and more. More information can be found on the Whitewater Kiwanis Breakfast Club Facebook page.

Kiwanis is a global organization of volunteers dedicated to changing the world one child and one community at a time.

(Lima 4-H submission) One of the four H’s in 4-H stands for “Hands” for a larger service.  In November at the Rock County 4-H Awards night, Lima 4-H received a Silver Award for Outstanding Commitment to Serving the Community.  In a time where we cannot come together in person for meetings and other club activities due to COVID-19, Lima 4-H has continued to find ways to serve the community safely. 

This past month has been a busy month for Lima 4-H.  In November, a small number of club members helped to assemble the Thanksgiving meals baskets at the Whitewater Food Pantry.  In December the club members made fleece tie blankets at their homes which were all gathered up and delivered to the House of Mercy homeless shelter in Janesville.  The club also “adopted a family” for the holiday through Rock County Human Services.  The gifts were a combination of new gifts, homemade gifts (4-H projects) and gift cards for food for the family.  Finally the club members wrote out over 250 Christmas Cards for the residents at Fairhaven in Whitewater.  All of these community service projects would have been completed together as a group but our club members have found ways to come together as a group to serve the community without physically being together! 

Lima 4-H continues to meet monthly via Zoom.  If you are interested in joining Lima 4-H, please reach out to lima4h1@yahoo.com for the meeting times and to get the Zoom link!

(Whitewater Lions Club press release) – We Got Your Hide and we truly appreciate it. The Whitewater Lions Club has received over 150 deer hides this season! Congratulations to the successful hunters and thank you for giving us your hides. The Wisconsin Lions Clubs collect the hides to help support the Wisconsin Lions Camp in Rosholt, Wisconsin. The last day of hide collection is December 26.

This quality camping experience is provided free-of-charge to eligible children and adults with disabilities from Wisconsin. We serve children and adults who are blind or visually impaired, Deaf or Hard of Hearing, children with intellectual disabilities or autism, children with diabetes, and children with epilepsy. A chance remark, “Blind kids can’t go to outdoor camps and stuff like that…” started it all in 1955 and in 1956, the Lions Clubs of the State of Wisconsin founded the Wisconsin Lions Camp and the Wisconsin Lions Foundation, Inc. to administer the Camp program. From that humble beginning with 26 campers, we are proud to serve 1,200 campers a summer.