News & Events

By Lynn Binnie
Whitewater Banner staff
whitewaterbanner@gmail.com

On the beautiful Sunday morning of June 7, approximately 320 people of all ages responded to the request of Whitewater Unites Lives (WUL) to join the countless people around the world who are calling for change. An invitation from Mary Sue Reutebuch of WUL stated, “We are looking forward to sharing the March for Racial Unity with all of you. Our effort here is to unify ourselves as a community and walk in solidarity for all people who suffer under racial injustice. The heartwrenching, infurtiating, pointless, death of George Floyd has certainly stunned our nation and WUL is called to move. Our movement forward is that of a peaceful march together.”

As the group gathered at the Cravath Lakefront Park, many mentioned how difficult it was to recognize other persons, as virtually everyone was following the request to wear a mask and to maintain distancing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Marjorie Stoneman called for a moment of silence for those who have lost their lives unjustly. As the marchers proceeded down Whitewater Street to Main Street and assembled at the Birge Fountain, many drivers expressed their support with friendly honks and cheers. At the park Christine Hayes, accompanied by her guitar, sang several appropriate songs including “We Shall Overcome.” City Manager Cameron Clapper thanked the crowd for everyone’s participation and expressed the hope for respect and justice for all of humanity.

Walworth County Public Health Provides Guidance to Community Following the End of the Safer at Home Order

Per a press release on May 14, “In the wake of the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the Safer at Home Order, effective immediately, businesses can open and people can travel and gather in large groups. Walworth County’s Division of Public Health will not be issuing orders that replace Safer at Home at this time.

Today, Walworth County released guidance on the county website for area businesses on how to implement protocols to protect their customers. County Public Health Officer, Erica Bergstrom stated, “We have faith in our business leaders and believe they will follow these guidelines and implement strategies to protect their customers and staff.” The risks to the public from COVID-19 are ongoing and will extend beyond the next week or the next two weeks.  As such, short-term public health orders are not likely to have a significant lasting impact.  Any effective solution will be dependent upon individuals and businesses making personal decisions to proactively protect themselves, their guests, and their customers. 

Walworth County places great importance on the health and safety of the public. We have already seen businesses take extraordinary steps to continue to provide services while keeping their employees and members of the public safe. “Novel Coronavirus 2019 is still circulating in the community, and we need all businesses, residents and visitors of Walworth County to actively participate in controlling the spread of disease,” said Bergstrom. “Even though the Safer at Home Order has been overturned, we strongly advise that everyone voluntarily comply with its key components: physical distancing, limited travel and gatherings, and frequent cleaning.” Walworth County will continue to perform communicable disease surveillance and prompt follow-up with confirmed cases and close contacts.

The Division of Public Health, Emergency Management, first responders and local government will continue to work together to keep people safe. Public Health advises everyone take the following steps to avoid getting sick or spreading COVID-19:

• Frequent and thorough handwashing with soap and water, or hand sanitizer.
• Stay home when sick, including even mild symptoms, and discuss your health with your primary medical care provider.
• Practice physical distancing.
• Cover coughs and sneezes.
• Avoid touching your face.

View the guidance document for business here: https://www.co.walworth.wi.us/856/COVID-19.

Banner opinion: The above guidance document has very specific strong recommendations for various types of businesses and organizations such as churches/religious entities. For example, bars and restaurants are encouraged to maintain a minimum of 6′ between parties and to limit capacity to no more than 50%. The suggestion is also given to continue limiting gatherings in a room or confined space to less than ten people. Though this guidance is not a legal order, it would be prudent for serious consideration to be given to the pertinent recommendations. There have been confirmed COVID-19 cases in Whitewater, and a significant outbreak has been identified at the Birds Eye plant in Darien.

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JEFFERSON COUNTY PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUES GUIDANCE TO PREPARE FOR A SAFE REOPENING
Yesterday, the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned the Safer at Home Emergency Order #28.
The Court determined that the order is subject to administrative rule-making, and because it
was not established in rule, but rather it was established via order, the Supreme Court found
EO #28 “unenforceable.” This ruling takes effect immediately.
Jefferson County Health Department places great importance on the health and safety of the
public. We have already seen essential businesses take extraordinary steps to continue to
provide service while keeping their employees and members of the public safe. This needs to
continue.

In light of the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling, many businesses that have been closed will
choose to open their doors soon, and many others will choose to expand their operations.
Businesses need to do so responsibly. All Jefferson County businesses should continue to follow
CDC guidelines for social distancing, cleaning, and disinfecting whenever possible. They should
also consider the guidelines provided by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation at
https://wedc.org/reopen-guidelines and consult with their respective trade or business organizations to identify
industry best practices to safely welcome back employees and customers.

Businesses may also want to check with their legal counsel to see how to open safely during a
pandemic while also considering legal implications of cases that may be related to their
business operations. (Emphasis added by the Banner.)

ThriveED, Jefferson and Dodge County Economic Development Consortium, will be holding two
peer to peer virtual meetings to assist businesses on how to open safely. They will continue to
assist businesses by providing information on state and federal funding and programing
available to help them recover from the effects of COVID-19. They have many COVID-19
resources on their website: https://www.thriveed.org/. Jefferson County Health Department
will continue to collaborate with ThriveED and the business community to allow for the safest
operations of businesses while the virus is still a threat to the health of our residents.
Jefferson County will continue to operate safely. For information about Jefferson County
operations residents can get more information at https://www.jeffersoncountywi.gov/Health/COVID19/Jefferson%20County%20Services%20COVID%20Status.pdf.

The Health Department will continue the strong partnership with the Department of Health
Services and Fort HealthCare in the response to this pandemic and monitor trends, testing
capabilities, and needs should there be a surge in cases and need for patient care. The need for
personal protective equipment for all emergency responders and medical providers has been
an issue during this pandemic and will continue to be monitored and resources provided as
available.

Jefferson County Health Department will continue to have an active and aggressive response to
the COVID-19 pandemic. The Health Department, along with Emergency Management,
emergency responders and other municipal departments continue to work together to keep
residents as safe as possible while assisting our community to recover and continue to remain
safe from the effects of COVID-19.
In order to protect the health of our community, the Health Department will continue with the
following:
• Continue to provide active surveillance in the community and look for trends including
location of cases and demographics including occupations of those affected

• Tracking active cases of COVID-19 in a timely manner
• Increasing the number of contact tracers to mitigate disease spread
• Working closely with local hospitals, neighboring counties and the state to ensure
continued adequate testing capacity
• Continue to be a resource to the community

Even though the Court ruled in this way, Jefferson County Health Department strongly
encourages all Jefferson County residents to voluntarily comply with the key components of the
Safer at Home Order. Guidance on large gatherings will be coming out soon. For now it is still
recommended to continue to limit numbers of people gathering to limit spread of the virus.
These include:
• Maintain at least 6 feet between yourself and others;
• Do not congregate in groups larger than 10 people without physical distancing between
groups;
• Wash your hands frequently;
• Disinfect frequently touched surfaces.
• If you are considered high risk due to age or health condition continue to remain safer
at home and take precautions – only going out for essential reasons and working from
home as much as possible.

There are many things that businesses and organizations should be doing to prepare for a safe
reopening, including:
• Develop flexible sick leave policies that encourage staying home when ill
• Set aggressive infection control policies (hand washing, surface cleaning, barriers to
reduce contact between customers and staff)
• Source needed disinfectants, soap, sanitizer, and PPE if used
• Ensure all operations support 6 feet physical distancing
• Create a system to monitor any symptoms your employees may have
• Cross train and prepare for absenteeism
• Implement a system to limit and direct traffic in your business
• Communicate your plan to employees and customers
Covid-19 has not gone away and will not in foreseeable future. The Health Department will
continue monitoring for increased cases and may need to target certain areas for restrictions
based on those case increases.

A strong economy is vital to public health and safety. We can’t have healthy residents and a
healthy community without people working and our businesses providing the goods and
services needed. We simply want everyone to continue to be safe.

Per the Jefferson County Daily Union on May 30, “the Nasco Retail Store has closed its doors permanently, idling 46 employees as of Saturday, May 30. Nasco officials told the Daily Union, “…product needs and shopping habits are changing, particularly in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, and Nasco must change with them.”

Nasco had operated two stores until 2017, when they merged the outlet stores to make more room for administration offices. Since the closing of Shopko last year, the Nasco Catalog Outlet Store has been Fort’s largest retail store, and per Fort Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Carrie Chisholm, was a popular stop for bus tours to the Fireside Dinner Theater, together with the Jones Market.

Click here for the article in the Daily Union, which includes information about Nasco’s history.

MADISON (May 29) — Gov. Tony Evers today released the following statement on the death of George Floyd:

“Earlier this week, another Black life was extinguished before our eyes. His name was George Floyd. He was 46. His life matters and his family deserves justice.

There was no empathy or humanity in his death. This was not an anomaly. We hear the echo of the words of Eric Garner. We relive the pain of the death of Black Wisconsinites like Dontre Hamilton, Ernest Lacy, and Sylville Smith. Frustration and anger about systemic injustices are always justified.

Folks in Wisconsin should be able to protest peacefully and to report on these events without the fear of being unsafe or arrested. And if you’re exercising that right, please wear your masks and keep social distance as best as you can.

We must see the trauma, fear, and exhaustion of being Black in our state and our country. We must offer our empathy, we must offer our support, but most of all we must offer our action. The solution isn’t in one person, it’s in all of us, together. We must confront our comfortability with racism. We must reestablish trust with communities of color. We must be willing to listen, we must be willing to be uncomfortable, we must be willing to do the work.”

Attention restaurants and other businesses: as reopening progresses, The Banner will be featuring an update page.

The Banner does not normally include announcements regarding businesses. However, we have done so during the “Safer at Home” order, and we recognize the ongoing challenges as businesses continue to reopen. Consequently we are happy to announce that for the next several weeks we will include a continuously updated article for business updates. Owners/managers are welcome to submit information for our review and consideration for posting. We encourage mentioning any steps that you are taking in an effort to minimize the risks of COVID-19 transmission to your staff and customers. Among the items that restaurants may wish to include is if they are offering curbside pickup and/or delivery. The Banner may be reached at whitewaterbanner@gmail.com.

Fortunately, many of us in Whitewater still don’t personally know anyone who has passed away from COVID-19; in fact, we may not even know anyone who has had a confirmed case.

The New York Times indicates that “As the death toll from Covid-19 in the United States approaches 100,000, a number expected to be reached in the coming days, editors at The Times have been planning how to mark the grim milestone….Simone Landon, assistant editor of the Graphics desk, wanted to represent the number in a way that conveyed both the vastness and the variety of lives lost…The New York Times gathered names of the dead and memories of their lives from obituaries across the country.” Names and memories of hundreds of those people covered the entire front page of the newspaper on Sunday, May 24, and were continued inside the paper. Still, only about 1% of the victims were named. The online version, which may be viewed by clicking here, includes a figure to represent each of the persons who has lost their life. As a reader scolls through the list, on the right side of the page, dates of the deaths are shown, together with the mounting toll.

A copy of the front page itself, together with the story of how the remembrances were compiled, may be seen here.

The comments that have been made on the article certainly indicate that the gesture was much appreciated, especially by those who have lost loved ones. Here are a couple that The Times selected to especially feature.

Sherry Hornell, NY

“I literally stared for unknown minutes seeing the NY Times front page online, attempting to process what I was seeing. Trying to understand how I “fit” into this moment. Yet, for the first time since I lost my mom to the virus in March, I finally felt I wasn’t alone. How strange to find belonging in such a place. I quickly scanned the names to see if my mom might be there. I soon realized, I didn’t have the additional pages, and like some others, Covid was not noted in her obituary by the funeral director, in an attempt to mitigate any issues with a public pronouncement. (Arrangements across state lines was reminder enough.) So as of this moment I don’t know if my mom is listed here. Regardless, I am heartened by this remembrance. I read an on-line magazine piece regarding the struggle related to Covid grieving, so many layers to be grieved. That is me. No generations of family to share grief, or the memories and stories that initiate healing and immortalize my mom in a loving family circle. I feel the loneliness of three generations of only children. My mom probably is not listed here but for a brief moment I didn’t feel so alone. Even as I cried, not only in my own loss, but for these wonderful real people on this list and their families. It’s not quite what any of us would have anticipated in the death of a loved one. Thank you NY TIMES for trying to capture the indescribable. All the love. And a place to belong when few can understand your unique kind of grief.”

abigail49, Georgia

“Thank you, thank you for this memorial. We have heard and read the numbers. day in and day out and those of us who do not know a victim of the virus can slip into a very self-centered state of mind. In that state of mind, we can focus on our differences — political, cultural, racial, and class — and not our commonality and our interdependence. It is fitting that this memorial to the victims of a pandemic is presented on a weekend when we remember our fallen soldiers. Our military includes all Americans from every walk of life. Each of their lives is equally valuable. Each of their contributions to the defense of our nation is equally valuable. Each of them sacrificed much, even their lives, to serve us all. I hope that reading these names and learning a little about their lives will unite us as a country in common cause to defeat it and we will willingly sacrifice something in that cause.”

Eid Mubarak to the Banner’s readers of the Muslim faith.

Eid al-Fitr in 2020 is on Sunday, the 24th of May (24/5/2020).

Note that in the Muslim calendar, a holiday begins on the sunset of the previous day, so observing Muslims will celebrate Eid al-Fitr on the sunset of Saturday, the 23rd of May.

Visit https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/05/eid-al-fitr-2020-200518142558169.html for more information about Eid al-Fitr/