News & Events

(Whitewater Fire Dept. Facebook page) On Tuesday January 5th at approximately 1 p.m., the WFD was dispatched to a report of a garage on fire in the 500 block of South Franklin St. First arriving units found the detached garage to be fully involved and immediately worked to protect a vehicle in the driveway. Crews were on scene for about an hour and a half. The cause is suspected to be heating related. The garage and contents were a complete loss.

Whitewater Fire Department, Inc Business Meeting – Thursday @ 6:30 p.m.
Click here for agenda.
Due to Coronavirus Concerns, this will be a VIRTUAL MEETING.
Please join the meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone.
https://meet.google.com/brt-btif-ezw
You can also dial in using your phone.
United States: +1 240-366-5335
Access Code:
638 277 999

(Whitewater City Market Facebook page) Happy New Year market friends! Now that the outdoor season is over (brrrr), we are thrilled to announce the details of the 2021 indoor market season.

Beginning this Saturday, Jan. 9, the market will be held 10 a.m. to noon every Saturday through March at the UW-Whitewater Community Engagement Center, located at 1260 W. Main Street, adjacent to Walmart — also known as the old Sentry building.

We are very grateful that, through a partnership with the university, we can continue to provide a safe venue for our vendors and market-goers to share local food and other goods. The fully refurbished CEC offers both the space and up-to-date air filtration systems needed to ensure a safe environment. Capacity will be limited to 30 in the building at any one time, including vendors, and traffic flow will be one way. More detailed information regarding these precautions will be announced this Friday.

Below is the list of vendors who have signed up for the 2021 indoor season; about 12 vendors will be at the market each week. Every Friday we’ll post a list of the vendors you can expect the next day.

Belt Me Beef
Bowers Lake Coffee
Clark Family Garden
Coco’s Cakes
Fremont Sweets
Helena’s Plant Closet/Whitewater Egg Delivery
Hoots Fruits and Vegetables
Kettle Moraine Honey
Komboocho Brewing
Kit’s Knits
Kristie’s Creative Kitchen
Margie Hammerl
My Farm
Pat Hall
Soap of the Earth
Stephani’s Spot
Sunny Brook Farm
Wood Street Bakery

Many thanks to all the people who are working to bring the 2021 Whitewater City Market indoor season together!

By Lynn Binnie
Whitewater Banner volunteer staff
whitewaterbanner@gmail.com
January 4, 2021

In December the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, 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 January 4 reflect a significant reduction in new cases compared with the seven days ending December 28. Nonetheless, eleven new cases were identified in the city during the week. Most of the other municipalities we have been tracking experienced increases in new cases during the week.

The city’s rate per 100,000 population is now 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. For the first time in months, the current 10.6 rate is substantially below the threshold of 25 beyond which the Jefferson County Health Department recommends that in-person instruction not occur. 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.

Twenty-five deaths related to COVID-19 have been reported in the city, an increase of three from last week; twenty-eight, and increase of five from last week, 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:

City of Whitewater	Average new daily cases	Rate per 100,000 population
12/5	7.14	48.4
12/12	10.57	71.6
12/21	4.29	29.1
12/28	3.00	20.3
1/4	1.57	10.6
Whitewater Unified School District
12/5	9.29	46.1
12/12	13.14	65.2
12/21	5.00	23.4
12/28	4.57	22.7
1/4	3.00	14.9

Rates per 100,000 population for selected municipalities based on past 7 days as of 1/4

	12/12	12/21	12/28	1/4
Madison	35.1	25.8	24.3	27.9
Jefferson	39.4	43.1	46.6	55.6
Palmyra	49.5	40.9	24.8	57.6
Fort Atkinson	50.6	52.9	25.3	50.6
Jefferson County	53	42.2	33.4	45.4
Entire state of WI	65	61.4*	51.3**	40.1***
Milton	66.5	17.9	20.4	89.7
Walworth County	67.5	49.4	31.9	34.4
Milwaukee	67.8	53.4	30.1	34.5
Rock County	67.8	50.1	33.5	40.4
Whitewater	71.6	29.1	20.3	10.6
Elkhorn	73.6	56.2	33.2	27.4
Janesville	78	60.4	34.8	35.0
Cambridge	80	45.6	0	45.6

(Jefferson County Parks Dept. press release)

THE JEFFERSON COUNTY SNOWMOBILE TRAILS WILL CLOSE
@ 5:00pm TODAY, SUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 2021
DUE TO WEATHER CONDITIONS AND ARE CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT THE
24 HOUR SNOWMOBILE HOTLINE AT: 920-699-7669

The Walworth County Snowmobile Alliance, as of Sunday at 11:50 a.m., indicates that their trails are still open.

Every week the Irvin L. Young Memorial Library offers a new take home craft activity!
Craft videos are posted Mondays at 11:00 a.m. and take-and-make kits are available during that week.
Children’s Crafts – January 4 and 19
Adult Crafts – January 11 and 25
Visit the Library’s Facebook page or YouTube channel to view live programs or watch recordings of past library programs. Visit our website for more information.
whitewaterlibrary.org

Per an article in the December 29 Wisconsin State Journal titled, “Despite half century campaign, salt continues to threaten Madison lakes, drinking water,” salt that is applied to roads, driveways and sidewalks, “…dissolves in water that finds its way into lakes, streams and even the groundwater that provides the city’s drinking water.” It’s predicted that within fifteen years the water from one of Madison’s wells will begin to taste salty.

Whitewater’s Urban Forestry Commission is concerned about the negative affects of salt on the quality of our lakes, including the wildlife. They encourage you to “Salt smarter at home!”

Residents should try to manually remove snow as soon as possible to avoid slick conditions and unnecessary salt use, especially on paths and sidewalks.

A good rule of thumb is to use 12 ounces of rock salt on 10 sidewalk squares or a 20-foot driveway. How much is 12 ounces? Use an old coffee mug as a salt scoop, and you’ve got it.

You do not have to feel “the crunch” for salt to do its job. Salt lowers the freezing temperature of water so snow and ice can be more easily removed. Putting more salt on a surface does not make snow and ice melt faster or eliminate the need for plowing or shoveling.

If the air temperature is below 15 degrees, sodium chloride won’t work! Switch to sand or a different ice melter.

The Wisconsin Salt Wise Partnership is a partnership of Dane County organizations working to reduce salt pollution. Though we aren’t in Dane County, their concerns should be ours as well. Salt Wise is urging homeowners, municipalities, and private contractors to make a commitment to reduce salt use this winter. Using excess salt harms plants and animals, pollutes our water, damages buildings and corrodes vehicles, roads and bridges. Once you put salt down, it doesn’t go away. Instead, it travels into our lakes, rivers, streams and wetlands, putting our aquatic life at risk and endangering our freshwater resources. Salt also alters the composition of soil, slows plant growth and weakens the concrete, brick and stone that make up our homes, garages, bridges, and roads.

According to a recent report from Public Health Madison Dane County, more than 38,000 tons of salt were spread on Madison and Dane Co. roads during the winter of 2016-2017, and that doesn’t include what was spread on parking lots, sidewalks and driveways. That is enough to pollute over 29 billion gallons of water. There is a way to cut down on salt use and keep our roads, parking lots and driveways safe: Use only what you need — and that’s less than you might think!

Believe it or not, just a coffee mug of salt is enough to treat an entire 20-foot driveway or 10 sidewalk squares. Scatter the scatter salt so the pattern should look like the image below.

Other strategies include:

• Shovel: Clear walkways and other areas before the snow turns to ice. The more snow you remove manually, the less salt you will have to use and the more effective it will be.
• Sweep: Sweep excess salt from walkways and parking lots after a snow event, especially before a rain event to prevent salt from washing down the storm drain to our waterways.
• Switch: When pavement temps drop below 15, salt composed of sodium chloride won’t work. Switch to sand for traction or a different ice melter that works in lower temperatures.
• Hire a Certified Contractor: If you hire a contractor to do your snow and ice removal, check to see if they are already certified through the City of Madison’s Winter Salt Certification Program. If not, encourage them to become certified and to follow locally developed application rates.
• Look for proper salt use at the stores & businesses you visit. If they’re using the right amount of salt, thank them! If not, let them know you are concerned about over salting and direct them to www.wisaltwise.com for more information.
• Love the lines: the stripes on roadways before a storm are made of anti-icing brine. Using brine can reduce overall salt use by 70%! If you see brine lines, you know that your winter maintenance crew is protecting public safety while saving time, money and caring for the environment.
• Be Salt Wise all year! The salt you put in your water softener ends up in local freshwater streams. New, efficient softeners use less than one bag per month. If you’re using more – have a professional tune yours up – or, replace it with a high-efficiency model.

Do your part to help out our community and local water resources. Be Wisconsin Salt Wise! Find out more at www.wisaltwise.com.