News & Events

Huge rummage sale Thursday and Friday 9-4 p.m., and Saturday 9-Noon 1/2 price (some exclusions) Aug 3-5th. 502 Ventura Ln, Whitewater. Charming decorative home items like pictures, new couch pillows, candles, lampshades, canister set, entire beautiful king comforter set with coordinating curtains, valances, pillow shams, euro shams, bed skirt, and four decorative throw pillows. Dining chair covers, Twin GB Packers comforter and accessories. Luggage and lots of other miscellaneous household items. LOTS of clean, well-kept name brand clothes. Men’s size M,  XL and XXL. Dress shirts and dress pants/jeans mostly 36×32 or 38×32 and  women’s clothes SM/M sizes 6-8. Men’s shoes/boots size 12 and women’s shoes size 8.

We are so excited to support our young talent! Please join us on Thursday, August 3rd @ Cravath Lakefront Park starting at 7 p.m. to welcome the UW-Whitewater Pop, Rock, and Music Production Camp.

These young musicians have worked so hard and would like to showcase their talents for the entire community. This event is free and open to the entire community!

Thank you to this years sponsor Whitewater TDS @tdsfiber

Editor’s note: The following press release was received from the Irvin L. Young Memorial Library.

Join the Jefferson County Health Department at the Irvin L. Young Memorial Library to learn how to recognize, prevent, and respond to an opioid overdose by using naloxone (Narcan). Naloxone is a medication used to reverse an opioid overdose. The community is welcome to attend this free training on Wednesday, August 9 at 5:30 p.m.  

During this one-hour training, participants will take a deeper dive into learning what an opioid is, how they affect the brain, and how an overdose occurs. With these fundamentals, participants will also learn how to recognize the signs of an overdose, how to administer Narcan correctly, and provide care for someone who overdoses.  

Participants will receive a free kit of Narcan and a certificate of completion wallet card. Additional opioid resources will be available as well.  

Please call 920-728-7687 to register in advance or visit the library’s website at whitewaterlibrary.org and click on “Events—Registration Forms.” Note that there must be a minimum of five participants signed up for each training or it will be canceled.  

All adult community members are welcome to attend. The library is located at 431 W. Center Street in Whitewater. Contact Sarah French with questions at sfrench@whitewater-wi.gov or 262-568-2782. 

Editor’s note: The following announcement was submitted by Jeff Weigel.

The Creek is looking fantastic due to the consistent efforts of an amazing volunteer crew, but there is still plenty of work to do! Join members of the Whitewater Creek Coalition every Wednesday at 5:00 p.m. at the skate park (Brewery Hill Park) to get involved.

Click on the link below or send an email to friendsofwhitewatercreek@gmail.com for more information. See you at the creek!

https://forms.gle/4bkrv64EcbjnG8ZA7

According to the We Energies website, as of Tuesday evening there were only 43 remaining outages in their entire system from last Friday’s thunderstorm. Whitewater, Fort Atkinson, and all nearby communities are not shown as having any outages.

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

The multiple rounds of thunderstorms that hit Southeast Wisconsin late on Friday evening, July 28, caused significant tree damage in many communities, but perhaps none were more affected than Fort Atkinson. One resident there told the Banner that at the peak of the storm the view outside his home looked “apocalyptic.” Fort’s power has taken longer to restore than any other community served by WE Energies. As of Monday at 11:30 p.m., WE reported that 328 customers were still in the dark out of their entire service area, with 67 being in Fort. At one point on Sunday it was reported that 90% of that city’s customers did not have power.

Fort’s tree damage was so substantial that its compost site was opened on Sunday. Tree lawns in many areas of the city are lined with mounds of branches. It appears that damage to buildings was limited, however. The appearance of some of the tree damage led some residents to speculate that there had been tornadic activity.

On Saturday the National Weather Service (NWS) indicated that they had not seen any damage reports that indicated tornado damage across their forecast area. They stated, “all the reports we have received so far suggest widespread 60-70 MPH winds, with some embedded areas of winds in the 75-80 MPH range. One thing that was unique about last night is how long the winds lasted in some places — 60-70+ MPH winds for 10 minutes or more in some cases. This likely accounts for the amount of widespread tree damage (especially in places like Fort Atkinson), while there was a relative lack of structural damage beyond that caused by falling trees. Trees are often able to handle short bursts of 60 or 70 MPH winds, but long duration winds like last night put enormous force on the trees, and over such a long period of time many will fall or otherwise be damaged….The damage in Fort Atkinson was due to very strong straight line winds.” On Monday NWS announced that it had determined that a “short-lived tornado did tree damage in a narrow, convergent path along Mill Road” about two miles east of Palmyra. It was a category EF-1 with peak winds estimated at 95 mph. The path length was 1.25 miles and the maximum width was 50 yards.

The Fort Festival store was without electricity for long enough that they had to throw out a large portion of their refrigerated and frozen products, though some had been saved with the use of refrigerated trucks. On Sunday employees were beginning to restock the cases, but most of the shelves were still empty, with the promise of a special delivery on Sunday evening.

The city of Whitewater also sustained considerable tree damage, though it did not appear to be anywhere near that of Fort Atkinson. On Saturday morning nearly 2000 customers here were affected by the outage. As of 11:30 p.m. on Monday, 17 customers in the city were still without power, only one of which was in the Jefferson County portion. It was announced that residents do not need to call for brush pickup, as crews will be conducting chipping throughout the city all the week.

Other area communities still reporting power outages as of Monday evening include Hebron (1), La Grange (6), and Village of Palmyra (2).