Hometown Broadcasting News Friday 2/26/21
26 February 2021 News
Waupun Creating EMR Unit
Waupun Fire Chief B.J. DeMaa says the idea behind creating an Emergency Medical Responder unit for the city is to have someone available with basic training to respond in medical emergencies when an ambulance isn’t available. He says their call volume increased by 30 percent in the last quarter of 2020 compared to the year before and by 25 percent at state prisons in the city. He says purchasing a third ambulance is too expensive. But someone with basic training might be able to stabilize a patient until an ambulance can be there. “We wanted to take a look you know was there other lower cost alternatives that would still guarantee that in those instances where an ambulance may not be immediately available that we could still ensure we have a responder group that could at least start working with a patient.” He says there are four levels of emergency medical responder in Wisconsin with emergency medical responders being the most basic. DeMaa notes Moraine Park Technical College would train the emergency medical responders at the Waupun Fire Station. The city hopes to have the unit in place next year.
COVID By The Numbers
While the rate of new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations has dropped the nation marked a grim milestone this week when the U.S. surpassed 500,000 deaths due to the coronavirus. Ripon Community COVID-19 Task Force member Jeff Puhlmann-Becker says it’s a good reminder of the real human toll the pandemic has had even as we become a bit jaded by the numbers themselves. “In the midst of a lot of very good news we can’t get complacent because it is still very real and all of those deaths are somebody’s family member, somebody’s loved one, Dad, brother, sister. We’re getting numb to the numbers.” He notes during each benchmark we’ve compared the death toll to events that claimed a lot of lives starting with 9/11 and working are way up to the World Wars. The state of Wisconsin has seen more than 6,300 deaths from COVID-19.
Good Decisions
Ripon Schools Superintendent Mary Whitrock says the return of a number of students to in-person learning five days a week in a way is like the start of school. For 6th through 12th grade students that have been switching between in-person and virtual learning several days a week it will be. Meanwhile she feels all of their students and staff has exercised good judgement in masking, social distancing and taking other precautions during the pandemic. “Our faculty and staff as well as our students have just done an exceptional job. They want to be in school they want to be engaging with each other and they are making good decisions not only in school, but outside of school.” Whitrock says they worried a little about the contact between athletes in their sports programs particularly wrestling, but that too turned out well.
Applicants Sought For Green Lake County District Attorney
Governor Tony Evers is accepting applicants for Green Lake County District Attorney. The appointment will fill a vacancy created by District Attorney Andrew Christenson’s resignation, which becomes effective next Friday. The new district attorney will serve for the remainder of the unexpired term that ends January 6th of 2025. Christenson is running for Fond du Lac County Circuit Court Judge for Branch 3 and received the most votes in this month’s Primary Election for the seat. Applications for the District Attorney’s position are available on the “Apply to Serve” page of Governor Evers website and need to be completed and sent with supporting materials to GovDApp@wisconsin.gov by 5 pm on March 17th.
School Zone Safety
Ripon’s Police Department is asking drivers to be more cautious in school zones as 6th through 12th grade students get back to school for in-person instruction starting next Monday. Those students had split their time between in-person and virtual learning. Police officials say with students returning to class instruction there will be an increase in traffic and student pedestrian traffic in school zones before and after school. Officers will be monitoring school areas for traffic related issues to ensure the safety of the children.
Oshkosh Fire Department Insurance Rating
The Oshkosh Fire Department has received its first ever Insurance Service Organization Public Protection Classification of 1. The ISO rates over 40,000 fire departments all across the country on a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being the very best. In 2020, only 388 departments nationwide received a rate of 1. Of those, only 8 were in the State of Wisconsin. For the average citizen and business in Oshkosh, this could mean a drop in insurance rates once the new rating takes effect on June 1st of this year. Oshkosh Fire Chief Mike Stanley says, “We have always known we are a first class department, it’s great to have our efforts publicly recognized as such.”
RAFD Chicken BBQ Postponed
The popular Chicken BBQ hosted by the Ripon Area Fire District will not be held this year. It’s been postponed due to the need for social distancing with the COVID-19 pandemic. District officials may consider doing it at another time later this year. Fire Department officials say it was a very hard decision for the department to make, but they feel at this point it was the safest option for all involved. Typically over 2,000 half-chickens are cooked up during the BBQ. Fire Department officials thank area residents for their support.
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