Hometown Broadcasting News Friday 4/16/21
16 April 2021 News
Sirens Sounded Just A Bit Early
Dodge County authorities jumped the gun for this week’s tornado drill sounding warning sirens a whole night earlier. The state had scheduled a statewide drill for Thursday at 1:45 and 6:45 pm, but Dodge County inadvertently sounded tornado sirens across the county Wednesday night during the planned drill time. Sheriff Dale Schmidt posted an apology on his department’s Facebook page saying you can never practice important lifesaving skills too much. The county participated in Thursday’s drill as well. Not every county sounded sirens during the drill.
Waupun School Board Race Recount
A school board race in Waupun will stand the way voters cast their votes for it following a recount this week. In the Tuesday, April 6th election Jodi Schultz defeated Jessica Standke by one vote in the race for a seat on the board representing the Fox Lake/Westford area. Schultz got 807 votes and Standke 806. District officials say there was no change in the voting totals declaring Schultz the winner after this week’s recount.
State Park Restrictions Being Relaxed
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is relaxing some of the COVID-19 restrictions at the state’s 49 state parks and over 5,000 campsites. Changes will be implemented starting April 30th and include the opening of observation towers and playgrounds, increasing the size of volunteer groups to 50 people, increasing the capacity for open-air shelters, amphitheaters and outdoor group campgrounds to 100 people. Also non-department led special event capacity will increase from 50 to 100 and stand-alone concession facilities will open to the public at 50 percent capacity including staff.
Vaccine Should Be Available In Doctors Offices
A member of the Ripon Community COVID-19 Task Force says he wishes the vaccine could be distributed in physician’s offices in addition to pharmacies, health departments, and through mass vaccination efforts. Jeff Puhlmann-Becker says some people are leery about getting shots from someone they don’t know. He notes people develop a comfort level and trust with their own doctors and would probably be more willing to be vaccinated against the coronavirus by them. “You’re sitting there with your doctor and you ask questions and your doctor answers questions and you say okay I should do that. Your doctor should be able to pull it out and pop you in the arm right away.” As of Thursday 33.9 percent of Fond du Lac County residents or 35,066 people had received at least one dose of the vaccine and 25.3 percent or 26,195 residents had completed their vaccine series.
A Gift Of Life
For Brenda Cortez of Franklin and Paul Osterholm of Fond du Lac donating a kidney changed their lives and the lives of those they donated them to. Cortez wrote a book called “Because of Organ Donation: A Collection of Inspiring Stories Celebrating the Gift of Life.” Both of their stories are in the book and 23 others. The book comes out a week from today the 16th anniversary of Cortez’s donation of a kidney to another Mom. Osterholm donated his in October of 2018 to a woman he first met while working at Marian University in the early 2000’s. The surgery was done at the U-W Madison Hospital a leader in organ donation surgeries. “Our donation was at U-W Madison. Last year alone U-W Madison had a record 315 kidney transplants. This is during COVID.” Osterholm says testing to see if you’re compatible with someone who needs an organ donation is an all-day affair and only a small percentage will meet the criteria. To learn more about the book or preorder it go to becauseoforgandonation.com.
Brunswick Corporation Safety Awards
The Brunswick Corporation this week announced the recipients of its 2020 awards for exceptional safety performance in a year in which Brunswick achieved the lowest recordable incident rate in history. Four facilities are receiving Brunswick Safety Leadership Awards with each location receiving the award and $10,000 to donate to a local charity. Among those winners was Mercury Marine Plant 17 Castings in Fond du Lac. Eight facilities earned the Brunswick Award for Sustained Safety Excellence and $2,500 to donate to a local charity. Among those eight winners was Mercury Marine Plant 33 Engineering in Oshkosh.
Town Square Farm Markets
The next two Saturdays the Town Square Community Center in Green Lake will have indoor farm markets from 9 am to noon. Executive Director Fran Hill says on Friday, May 14th they will switch over to outdoors markets from 3 to 6 pm each Friday. “We have more vendors than ever this year it is outside on the lawn of Town Square from 3 to 6 pm Friday afternoons. It’s a lot of fun it is so much fun to meet the people who are really growing food.” She says they will also have a large number of artisans bringing their creations to the markets this year.
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