News & Events

Editor’s Note: The following was provided by Deb Weberpal.

For November National Caregivers Month, the Whitewater Dementia Friendly Community Initiative recognized local caregivers with gift cards, flowers and cards of thanks. Pictured are some of the caregivers from Rockin’ Respite.

It’s time once again for #FlashbackFriday with the Whitewater Historical Society. This week it is Flashback Friday on a Thursday as we use this opportunity to offer everyone a Happy Thanksgiving via one of the penny postcards in our collection. We hope you are all having a wonderful holiday.

Join us next week for more from the Whitewater Historical Society.

Paul Jhona writes, “A no fly zone exists around Holy Hill for drones. You reach a point in height and closeness where you are stopped by an invisible barrier from going any higher or closer. What an impressive Religious Site!”

Our thanks to Paul Jhona AKA “A Bird’s View” for another beautiful drone photo.

— Our Readers Share: We hope that you might have something that you’d be willing to share.  Anything that’s been created by someone else should, of course, be credited, and you should ask their permission if you’re able. We cannot post copyrighted material without permission. We can’t guarantee that we’ll have space for all submissions, and contributions will be subject to editorial board approval. The one definite exclusion is anything politically oriented. We will assume that you’re willing for us to include your name as the submitter unless you indicate that you prefer to remain anonymous. Send to whitewaterbanner@gmail.com. Thanks for thinking about this!

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“3 – 2 – 1 – LEGO!” These words could be heard over and over from the announcers at Mukwonago High School on Saturday, November 18, as they counted down to the start of a match for the 36 FIRST Lego League (FLL) Teams from around southeastern Wisconsin who had gathered for their regional tournament. The Whitewater Unified School District (WUSD) was well represented with five teams participating – the Lakeview BrickLayers, Lincoln BrickLayers, Washington BrickLayers, and two teams from the middle school: WMS Iron Dragons – Silver and WMS Iron Dragons – Red.

Earlier this fall, teams learned the details of this year’s season theme – Masterpiece! All of the FIRST Robotics games this year are celebrating STEAM, adding Art to the traditional STEM acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. FLL teams were asked to prepare an Innovation Project where they explored the use of art and technology to solve a problem related to one of their hobbies. They were also presented with a playing field that celebrated all aspects of art, music, and theater. The playing field had 15 missions for the students to complete, and teams could choose which missions they wanted to try and accomplish in each 2-minute 30-second robot run with their Lego Spike Prime robot, designing attachments for the robot that would be appropriate for the variety of missions.

Sara Brautigam at Lakeview, Lisa Kaminski at Lincoln, and Chris Nate, Val Troxel, and Michelle Marshall at Washington formed their teams of 4^th and 5^th graders soon after the school year started. Teams have been meeting up to two nights after school each week ever since in order to prepare for the Mukwonago event. The Washington team was also able to participate in a scrimmage in Muskego in early October to get the feel for what a competition would be like. With so many students interested in joining FLL, Lincoln also created two additional teams that were able to compete in-house at an event at Lincoln Elementary on November 16. Kerry Ramsden at the middle school was able to register two teams officially with FIRST, and both were able to travel to Mukwonago.

When the teams arrived in Mukwonago, they were able to set up a display of their materials in the pit, the area where teams can go to work between judging sessions and robot runs. This pit also provides an opportunity for teams to check out each other’s work.

During an event, each team spends a 30-minute period with a panel of three judges. This time is divided into two 5-minute presentations (one for the project and one for the robot design) with question and answer periods with the judges in between. Teams are also allotted time to discuss the core values of FIRST (discovery, innovation, impact, fun, inclusion, and teamwork) with the judges. The judges love to hear about how everyone on the team worked together to solve problems throughout the season!

In addition to the judging session, teams were each scheduled for four robot runs in the gym. The first of these was a practice match to allow the students to work with the referees to make sure they understood what they could and couldn’t do during a match. Scores for each of their three official robot runs were compiled and only their best score counted in the final rankings. The Washington Bricklayers earned the top robot score of any Whitewater team, increasing their score from 200 in their first run to 220 in their second run, and finally to 250 in their last run. Everyone was incredibly proud of how the middle school red team responded after dropping their robot on the way to their first match and needing to rewrite all of their code on the fly between matches. In addition to recording their robot scores, referees also rated each team on their gracious professionalism (think sportsmanship) during matches, which factored into each team’s core values rankings.

A team’s final ranking was calculated by weighting scores from each of four areas: 25% from the project rubric, 25% from the robot explanation rubric, 25% from the best robot run, and 25% from the core values rubric/gracious professionalism score. While the judges deliberated the final awards and decided which teams would advance to sectionals, students and mentors participated in a team parade in the gym, followed by a dance party! Washington Elementary was nominated by the judges for both the Rising All-Star Award and the Break-through Award. None of the Whitewater teams will advance to the next level this year, but the students learned an incredible amount about teamwork, organization, documentation, and coding and are already talking about next year.

If you have questions about robotics programs in the Whitewater Unified School District, please reach out to one of the following:

• Lakeview Elementary – Sara Brautigam
• Lincoln Elementary – Lisa Kaminski
• Washington Elementary – Chris Nate or Val Troxel
• Whitewater Middle School – Kerry Ramsden
• Whitewater High School – Laura Masbruch

Article Submitted by Laura Masbruch
Whitewater High School Robotics Advisor
lmasbruch@wwusd.org
Photos Courtesy of Numerous Parents, Ferradermis Members, and FIRST Wisconsin

John’s Disposal will be closed on Thursday, November 23, 2023, in observance of Thanksgiving Day.

Please note the following route changes:

• Thursday’s (Thanksgiving Day) route is delayed to Friday, November 24.

• Friday’s route is delayed to Saturday, November 25.

Additional questions may be directed to John’s Disposal at (262) 473-4700.

By Lynn Binnie
Whitewater Banner volunteer staff
whitewaterbanner@gmail.com

It was standing room only at the Common Council meeting on November 7, and it seemed evident that most of the crowd was there to show support for the inclusion in the ’24-25 budget of the proposed $3,000,000 borrowing for the Irvin L. Young Library renovation and expansion. The council had presented the library with a challenge in 2021 to raise half of the estimated cost, with the city borrowing the other half in January, 2024 if the library completed the fundraising in time. The library raised more than $2,300,000 to be added to the library reserves of $840,000.

As was known when the challenge was made, a council cannot guarantee that a future council will support a promise of this nature. Three current councilmembers were newly elected since 2021. Recently there had been some concerns expressed about the pledge. Jill Gerber had raised the question as to whether two council members who had supported the fundraising campaign would have a conflict of interest and consequently might need to recuse themselves from voting on the library funding. Additionally, one council person is a member of the Capital Campaign Leadership Committee. Jonathan McDonell, city attorney, provided an opinion that the contributions and committee membership would not represent a conflict of interest.

At the November 7 meeting, Gerber expressed concern that the public be aware that in addition to the proposed library project, the city has “a full agenda of costly projects to prioritize,” including: $1.7 million for reconstruction of Ann, Fremont and Forest Streets and resurfacing of Walworth Avenue, demolition ($300,000) or rehabilitation ($1.5 million) of the Starin Park water tower, a $10 million streets garage, the Police Department needing three new additional officers, increased expenses for the Aquatic and Fitness Center, and possible increased costs under a new agreement with UW-W for the Innovation Center. In addition, last year the citizens approved a $1.2 million referendum for fire and EMS services. Nonetheless, Gerber appreciated the many messages of support she had received for the library, and she indicated that she would continue to support the borrowing. Positive comments were also made by James Allen, David Stone and Brienne Brown.

Lukas Schreiber obviously anticipated that there would be a large number of public comments, as he offered to use a timer to keep track of the three minute limit. The first three speakers were all leaders in the fundraising efforts: Jim Winship, Jon Kachel, and Gayle Stettler. All reflected on the rewarding experience they had in garnering support for the project. Kachel stated that when asking for money, sometimes you get the door slammed, but “the door never shut.” Kristine Zaballos reminisced that her late grandmother served on the library board, whom she knew would say “thank you” to all who have contributed to the project. Zaballos called the facility a “gem.” Allen seemed surprised when no other citizens approached the podium. City Manager John Weidl opined, “I think they heard what they wanted.”

The proposed $3,000,000 borrowing in January, 2024 for the library project will be included in the budget that is presented to the council for consideration on Tuesday, November 21.

At the