Valley Sentinel - 02-24-2022 by Valley Sentinel

Spring Green, Wisconsin

Thursday, February 24, 2022 | Vol. 3, No. 7 FREE, Single-Copy

Inside this edition

FLW Foundation announces Taliesin Institute

Community Calendar: Live music, comedy, wine, trivia and more

Open Meetings Law complaints filed in Arena

Pages 1, 11

Page 6

Pages 1, 2, 5

Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation announces creation of Taliesin Institute, sparks conversations about educational legacy Taylor Scott, Managing Editor The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation recently announced the creation of the Taliesin Institute, a new collection of programs that seek to advance the principles of organic architecture, seen as the core of architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s work. However, other stalwarts of Wright’s legacy debate the need for such an initiative following the Foundation’s ﬁnal split in 2020 from the school of architecture previously in residence at Taliesin. The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, is a nonproﬁt organization founded by Wright himself in 1940 to continue his ideas of organic architecture. Organic architecture is Wright’s philosophy promoting harmony between human habitation and the natural world. The Foundation explains, for Wright, a truly organic building develops

from within outwards and is thus in harmony with its time, place, and inhabitants. After Wright's death in 1959, ownership of his Taliesin estate in Spring Green, as well as Taliesin West in Scottsdale passed into the hands of the Foundation. According to the Foundation, the new Taliesin Institute will focus on providing education, outreach, and information to architecture and design students, new and established design professionals, and the broader public interested in learning about the history and future of organic architecture principles. The Foundation said in a statement that it believes those principles are more relevant today than ever before and are evolving to respond to the changing needs of our world — citing climate change and sustainability, cultural and economic development,

and new modes of living to help design, build, and live better now and in the future. According to the Foundation, the Institute will have a particular focus on hands-on work aligned with Wright’s insistence on learning by doing, creating public classes, symposia, and workshops that reﬂect the evolving nature of Wright’s principles of organic design and their relevance to the way we live now, and in the future. To lead these programs, the Foundation has brought on Jennifer Gray, Ph.D., a Wright scholar who recently was the Curator of Drawings and Archives at Columbia University’s Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library. Dr. Gray was responsible for the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives, containing more than one million elements including Wright’s drawings, writings, and photography.

Dr. Gray is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia and has taught at Cornell University and The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Dr. Gray was also the co-curator of the MoMA exhibition Frank Lloyd Wright: Unpacking the Archive. The Foundation notes that in addition to her expertise on Wright’s work, Dr. Gray’s research explores how designers, notably Dwight Perkins and Jens Jensen, used architecture, cities, and landscapes to advance social and spatial justice at the turn of the 20th Century. She also is interested in contemporary social practice, curatorial practice, the history of architecture exhibitions and questions of critical heritage.

continued on page 11

Arena Public Works superintendent resigns, rush to fill position internally leads to open meetings law complaints Nicole Aimone, Editor-in-Chief On Feb. 15, Village of Arena’s Public Works Superintendent Michael Schmidt submitted his resignation, with a month and a half notice. By the next week, the village was already holding a meeting to interview internal candidates. That rush to hold an interview resulted in several village officials having open meetings law complaints filed against them. In his letter of resignation, Schmidt thanked the village board for the opportunity to work in and improve the town that he grew up as a part of, while stating his last day will be March 31. Hired several years ago in the midst of complete turnover in the village public works department, in a matter of months Schmidt rose from a part time position, to full

time, to the department’s ﬁrst formal superintendent. In his letter of resignation, Schmidt encouraged the board to continue with projects they had worked to begin: the second well and improvements on the sewer system he said are necessary long term investments to make for Arena, seeing the parks as an asset that can bring families into the village and work with the community to use the parks and improve them, continuing to work for village employees to retain the talent the village already has. With a second municipal water well and a long-sought path to the village's West Pond Park incoming, as well as a dog park and more established during Schmidt’s tenure, Schmidt was humble when asked what he was most proud of. “I am proud of the things that we have

done, and I appreciate the opportunity I had here,” said Schmidt, demurring. “But I feel that the focus now should be on the future. The village board and whomever they select as the next superintendent will be able to decide what that future will look like.” As for the future? “The board should ask [public works assistant] Andrew Bauer to take on the superintendent position. Andy has the knowledge, work ethic, and judgment to take on this role. He is the best person for this position,” said Schmidt. “During the remainder of my time I will work with Andrew to make sure he is prepared to take on the superintendent position.” Seeming to take Schmidt’s advice, the Village of Arena Personnel Committee set a meeting for Feb. 22 in order to

interview Bauer in closed session. However, notice of the meeting wasn’t legally sufficient and the committee went into closed session without the requisite roll call vote, both violations of Wisconsin’s Open Meetings Law. Editor's Note: Due to multiple violations of open meetings law, Valley Sentinel filed complaints with the Iowa County District Attorney’s office on Feb. 23. The complaints are civil and may result in forfeiture or, in some cases, voiding of the meeting. The complaints will be available online at www.valleysentinelnews.com. Legal analysis of the meeting and the application of Wisconsin’s Open Meetings Law can be found in our legal editor’s column on page 2.

Page 2

Commentary/Opinion

Thursday, February 24, 2022

Katie Green's Plain and Simple Correspondent: Black History is Our History Katie Green, Columnist Just underneath the thin sheath of pigmented skin we all wear, all humans are the same. Scientists agree race is a complete ﬁction. But race has been used for far too many centuries to assign worth to human beings in the interests of power, money and ego enhancement, among other ignoble aims. February was Black History Month, one of the numerous periods set aside in hopes of prodding forgetful people to remember and honor all kinds of things. Famous people. Births. Deaths. Diseases. Movements. Preoccupied with other demands on my time and health, I failed to lift up this important national event – at least it is important to me and multitudes of others – in a timely manner.

Katie Green In my high school days, as my family moved from notably homogeneous territory in the Sierra Nevada mountains to the cosmopolitan Bay Area, the literature and culture (at ﬁrst especially music) of the Blacks burst in upon my consciousness as a revelation. Black church music broadcast on the radio, so highly ornamented, often in call and response patterns, was as exciting as a jolt of espresso. The Methodist Church I grew up in was like cold decaf diluted

with cream and sugar. Black music helped me throw off the straight jacket and open myself to many changes. The poetry, plays and prose of Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Richard Wright, Maya Angelou, and Toni Morrison, none of whose works were taught in any of my classes, I discovered slowly. They were followed inevitably by older and younger spokespeople for justice over centuries, the likes of Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Martin Luther King, Jr, W.E.B. DuBois, Malcolm X, Angela Davis and on down to present writers such as former President Barack Obama. The poet Nikki Giovanni is my current teacher. My report card may not be so good yet. I still have much to learn about what it has meant to be Black in America, to sincerely try to get inside the beings of our preyed upon or dismissed fellow citizens. Being an elderly female has provided some good training over the years, since so many opportunities were closed off to those of my sex when I began life's journey in 1939. I have my friend Emily Benz to thank for introducing me to poet Nikki Giovanni. Emily and her husband, Jeff Wright, were involved with a mostlyBlack school on the South Side of Chicago for the better part of a decade. She taught and he was Principal in this full-immersion experience. I'm not sure what impulse caused Emily to gift me with a huge volume of the first thirty years of Giovanni's collected poetry and for months I struggled with it, not because the poems were obscure. No, no, but because the early poems were only too clear. So direct, so to the point, so hostile toward Whites...and toward male Blacks who didn't allow equal roles for their womenfolk, who were mostly considered only handmaidens during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. The incendiary flames of her anger, frustration, and ongoing

pain as a young woman scorched me through and through and I had to lay the book aside. I told Emily that it was too raw for me to read. For half a year it sat sizzling on my bedside table, steam rising from the unread pages, although the cover photo shows a broadly-smiling woman, welcoming the reader to enter her orbit.

Photo contributed by Katie Green Katie Green's reading glasses on her copy of Poetry of Nikki Giovani. This summer, I nerved myself to pick up the book again. I survived past the smoldering poetry of the early years and into the period when she moved on to concentrate on sisterhood, the need for love, tenderness and motherhood, the joys and fears thereof. This familiar territory allowed me to lower my guard. By now Ms. Giovanni is 78 years old, has been practicing her art for half a century, honored at universities, conducting workshops many places, and I'm sure to ﬁnd much to appreciate in her mature work as I continue to explore it. My family has not been innocent where race relations and exploitation are concerned. One esteemed ancestor

“adopted” a Native American child in the 1600s, a child who I've read was essentially a slave. And one branch of my mother's Virginia plantation owner kin were wealthy enough to possess and enslave Black human beings in the 1700s. Of course I feel a dab of guilt by association, enough that I decided it behooves me to up the ante, sensitize myself to the ongoing situation because I'm an inheritor of profit from a despicable practice. I know I take much for granted, conditioned into my genes, much I don't see. It doesn't take much brainpower to perceive that there's a long way to go in this country toward accepting people of color into full participation and opportunities. An uncle I prized, whom I thought perfect, fell off his pedestal one evening when he revealed his ugly racial bias in the presence of my children, who were as shocked as I. Whether I shall ever truly comprehend what it is like to be Black in America is debatable, but the attempt is worthwhile. Skin tones are so variable. As I have written in some other essay, my husband and I sometimes call each other Brownie and Pinkie. I am brown with polka-dotting freckles, he is definitely pink as Winston Churchill's famous pink silk pajamas, but we are supposedly White. It seems like a great deal of fuss about nothing significant. Since every day is Mother's Day as far as I'm concerned, I'll close by quoting the beginning of Nikki Giovanni's exceptional poem “Hands: For Mother's Day.” I think hands must be very important...Hands: plait hair... knead bread ...spank bottoms... wring in anguish...shake the air in exasperation...wipe tears, sweat, and pain from faces...are at the end of arms which hold...Yes hands...Let's start with the hands... And now I hand it off to you.

Legal Column: Complaints filed with DA against Arena officials, open meetings law violated - analysis Gary Ernest Grass, esq., Legal Editor On Tuesday, February 22, at 8 a.m. the Village of Arena Personnel Committee met, made a recommendation to accept the resignation of Arena’s superintendent of public works effective March 31, and started right in working on interviewing for a replacement. If nothing else, the committee moved with laudable speed to fill a hole that was not even official yet. By the next day, the Valley Sentinel was lodging complaints with the district attorney. Why? Not because of anything specific to do with the candidates for the position, nor the way they were interviewed. The issue was one of transparency. The Valley Sentinel

On the cover

A winter day at Taliesin, Photo (2022) © Mark Hertzberg

From the artist: I have been to Taliesin countless times, but never in winter, until [recently] when we had a lunch date with our friend, Minerva Montooth. It had snowed overnight. We would not be able to get to Spring Green until noon, so there would be no photos in the morning’s “golden light.” — Mark Hertzberg Mark Hertzberg is the author and photographer of Wright in Racine (Pomegranate, 2004), Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hardy House (Pomegranate, 2006) and Frank Lloyd Wright’s SC Johnson Research Tower (Pomegranate, 2010) and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Penwern: A Summer Estate (Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2019). Hertzberg, the retired Director of Photography of The Journal Times in Racine, has won numerous awards for his work. You can ﬁnd more of his work at: www.wrightinracine.com Cover line trace graphic illustration by Julianna Williams

believes in open and above-board government, and it believes that to preserve this, open meetings laws need to be enforced with some degree of rigor. There were two main violations: the notice of the meeting was issued late, and the mechanism for going into closed session was faulty. According to the Attorney General, the “two most basic requirements of the open meetings law” are to give advance public notice of each meeting, and to operate in open session unless an exception is carefully satisﬁed. Here both were faulty. One needn’t worry that because the Sentinel went to the district attorney that it wants anyone locked up over this. That isn’t part of the law. The ﬁrst

step in enforcing the open meetings law is a complaint to the district attorney or the attorney general. Usually in local matters, a complaint to the DA is typical. Nor does the Sentinel want to nullify the meeting and have it done over, although the law provides for that. There isn’t any reason to think that the Personnel Committee would have taken diﬀerent substantive actions in this case had there been greater public scrutiny. There was no direct harm. But the Sentinel and I think a reminder is useful that transparency laws are important. We want public oﬃcials to strive to operate as openly as possible. The least they can do is follow the law. The Wisconsin Open Meetings Law

is not hard. Sure, it has its tricky bits. It has covered tens of thousands of government bodies for decades, so lots of interesting questions have arisen and some do not have definitive answers. But on the whole it’s not that difficult, and there’s a lot of help available. The DOJ has a nearly exhaustive manual for public officials and UW has some excellent video tutorials. Let’s talk about notice first. First, the Valley Sentinel receives direct notices by email. The open meetings law allows news media to request direct notice independent from that given to the public. Part of this is because the media play a special role in watching over government actions, and notice to news

Grace Vosen, Columnist I used to think that I hated February, but then I moved 300 miles north and encountered March. A short month of predictable cold, I learned, beats a month of expecting warmth and continually getting my hopes crushed. This year, though, I ﬁnd myself already anticipating spring. The longer days and greater frequency of bird songs are clear signs of change to me. While I’d like to say I’ve grown more attuned to nature, I’ve really just been spending more time looking out the window. The result is the same.

It’s no secret that I hold prejudices against certain months, on this blog and elsewhere. But I also have the capacity to hope. There’s at least one instance in my journals from those years up north when I headlined a January entry with, “Spring!”. And even now, the plastic comes oﬀ of my windows on the ﬁrst day of March – no exceptions. Of course, it’s all about what you value in a situation. I often equate cold weather with isolation and an inability to enjoy the outdoors. But from another vantage, the cold means

I can get comfortable indoors while not having many demands on my time. People who love snow sports might even prefer the winter months (the horror!). I resolve to start appreciating each month for what it is — for the joy it brings — and not for how much closer it gets me to another month I think I’ll like better. Grace Vosen is a writer and conservation educator living in Spring Green. She blogs about both the human and nonhuman communities of our region at DriftlessGrace.com.

continued on page 5

Community Column — Driftless Grace: Perspective

Commentary/OpInIon

Thursday, February 24, 2022 Page 3

Chris Hardie's Back Home Column: Don’t throw it out, wear it out - out of the chore clothes closet

Chris Hardie, Columnist I pulled some old clothes from the closet the other day because I had some chores to do. Chore clothes have always been old clothes to me. Once I’ve put a T-shirt, shirt or a pair of pants through the paces at the office, they are then moved from the good clothes closet to the chore clothes closet. While others might choose donating to a thrift store, I am my own charitable entity. I, however, do not consider them as tax write-offs. There are no hard and fast rules that apply to the precise time the closet transition is made, but it may include stains, balky zippers or holes, which usually develop in the back pocket where my wallet rests. Yes, my better half has often teased me about working “so hard” while I sit on my butt all day. As long as it still functions, it’s perfectly fine to wear. The heck with fashion. One of our founding fathers — Thomas Jefferson — reflected my view when he said: “In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.” My clothing principle is if it still covers, snaps, buttons or zips — sometimes partially but still enough to prevent wardrobe malfunctions — then it’s still good enough to wear. That’s why safety pins, duct tape and twine are useful. Some would say I suffer from clothing hoarding. I prefer to think of

it as wardrobe purgatory — a resting spot where the clothing can still be reclaimed, like misguided souls. While sometimes the clothes end up in the wrong closet, it’s a system that has served me well for many years. If I added an old tie and a sweater, I might even be confused for a gentleman farmer, although those are dangerously loose terms to apply. One category of old T-shirts is those that came from the various fun runs that I used to compete in during my running days. For the record, I have not competed in any such events since 1998, which gives you an indication of how long I hold on to clothing. That was evident when I pulled a very faded blue T-shirt that is nearly transparent when held up to the light. But you can still make out the lettering that dates it to June 1994 as part of the West Salem June Dairy Days Fun Run.

Photo contributed by Chris Hardie The same ﬂannel shirt from 1977 to 2016, when the second photo was taken. Both the shirts and the hair have faded over time.

the same fate if Sherry decides to do some clothes culling. I may have to move it to the old clothing protection program, which is also where my high school football jersey resides. But my bright blue leisure suit has mysteriously disappeared. Chris Hardie spent more than 30 years as a reporter, editor and publisher. He was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and won dozens of state and national journalism awards. He is a former president of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association. Contact him at chardie1963@gmail.com. Chris Hardie That, however, as longtime readers may recall, is not my oldest piece of clothing. In 2016, I wrote about my blue, green and white flannel shirt that dates to 1977. I wore the shirt for my eighth-grade class picture. Although the colors have faded and one sleeve is missing its button, it’s still a fine shirt. Yes, I still have it and I can still wear it without too much gut-sucking. Besides, flannel dates back to the 17th century, so it never goes out of style. I once wore an even older T-shirt well into the 1990s that proudly proclaimed I was a junior high wrestling champion. Yes, it had a few holes, but in the end was no match for Sherry, who with very little effort tore it in two and threw it away. I am clearly taking a large risk that my vintage 1994 shirt will now suffer

Photo contributed by Chris Hardie Threadbare might be one way to describe Chris Hardie’s T-shirt from June Dairy Days 1994.

Better Broadband Policy: Bill improves program to send funds where they are needed most Senator Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) My bill to send precious rural broadband expansion grant funds to the communities where they are needed most, Senate Bill (SB) 365, passed the State Senate Tuesday, February 15, 2022. This bill modernizes the Rural Broadband Expansion Grant program to direct state investments to communities without broadband, prioritize investments in higher speeds and projects with matching funds and prevent wasteful overbuild of federallyfunded projects. Wisconsin has made tremendous progress in rural broadband expansion since we ﬁrst started this grant program in 2014. I am very proud of our state’s investments. In order to continue our progress, each session

we have fine-tuned the grant program to ensure that we are continuing to make smart investments and to reach communities that are not connected. This bill is one more step to modernize our approach and focus our efforts to reach communities that do not have broadband. SB 365 as amended eliminates the “underserved” category and redefines “unserved”. Under current law, underserved is defined as areas that are served by fewer than two broadband providers. This means that a location could have one provider with fast speeds and still qualify for state assistance. SB 365 eliminates this category so that we are only investing in communities that actually need our funding. In the past, grants have been made to communities that already had

one decent provider while communities in our Senate District are left with nothing. This is not acceptable. The bill also redeﬁnes “unserved”

Senator Howard Marklein

continued on page 5 Deadlines: The display and classiﬁed advertising deadline is Monday at noon for that week. If you would like our design team to design the ad then please allow extra time for the creative process and prooﬁng. Ad team: ads@valleysentinelnews.com

PO Box 144 Spring Green, Wisconsin 53588 USA (608) 588-6694 editor@valleysentinelnews.com valleysentinelnews.com Editorial Editor-in-Chief Nicole Aimone Managing Editor Taylor Scott Legal Editor Gary Ernest Grass, esq.

to be areas that are not served by an internet service provider (ISP), of any type that provides actual speeds of 100 Mbps down and 20 Mbps up. Current law deﬁnes unserved as areas that do not have a provider that provides service of at least 20% of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) standard. Right now, that means anyone who isn’t at 20% of 25 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up. This complicated speed standard is incredibly slow and does not work for most consumers. This low standard also holds back some communities from receiving grants to improve service because it looks like they are served, but they are not. The average family of four needs at least

Contributors Arts & Culture/Editorial Columns Graphic Design/Pagination Bill Gordon Grace Vosen Anna Stocks-Hess Arts & Culture/Editorial Sports Editorial Intern Alison Graves Mike McDermott Adeline Holte Arts Community/Opinion Graphic Design Intern Jen Salt Katie Green Julianna Williams Our team will be growing and changing as we settle into publishing regularly, please stay in touch. Thank you to all of our contributors for believing in our community.

Editorial Policy

On certain topics in areas of great community interest, the editors of the Valley Sentinel may take positions they believe best represent and serve the interests of the community. Any opinions or positions taken by the editorial board are separate and distinct in labeling and substance from the community journalism that appears in the rest of the publication and does not aﬀect the integrity and impartiality of our reporting. .

Est. 2020 igne conﬂatum “Forged in Fire”

Letter to the Editor Policy

Letters submitted for consideration are subject to fact-checking and editing for space and clarity. Submissions must have a compelling local community interest. Letters to the editor must ﬁt within a 500-word limit, and include name, city and phone number. Phone numbers are for oﬃce use only and will not be published. Letters of a political nature, without chance of rebuttal, will not be published the week before an election.

Valley Sentinel is a free, bi-weekly single-copy news publication, available on newsstands in the area. Covering Arena, Lone Rock, Plain, Spring Green and the surrounding areas in Sauk, Iowa and Richland counties.

Column Policy

Community Discussion Policy

Subscribe Want the paper delivered to your home or business? Subscribe online at valleysentinelnews.com/subscribe or subscribe annually with your name, phone number, address and $30 sent to: Valley Sentinel, PO Box 144, Spring Green, WI 53588

Valley Sentinel is published in Spring Green, Wisconsin every other Thursday by Lower Wisconsin River Valley Sentinel, LLC. ISSN 2694-541X (print) — ISSN 2694-5401 (online)

Editors may feature opinion columns written by public figures, members of the public or other publication staff. Columns reflect the opinions of the individual contributors and do not represent positions of the publication. Guest columns of an anticipated length more than 500 words should seek prior editor authorization. .

From time to time the editorial board may select letters to the editor of a particular compelling community interest where a public ﬁgure or accountable public action is the recipient of criticism and allow, in the same issue, the subject of the criticism chance for rebuttal, with expounded independent input. The format shall be point, counterpoint and expert analysis. This community discussion shall serve as a moderated dialogue that presents multiple views of important community topics.

Page 4

OpInIon/Outdoors

Thursday, February 24, 2022

Your Right to Know: Local news deserves a break today, proposed tax break would assist local businesses and news Dee J. Hall, Managing Editor of Wisconsin Watch and Secretary of the Wisconsin FOIC In recent years, the news business in Wisconsin has seen a lot of bad news. Dozens of newspapers have closed. Revenues are way down. Staffs are being trimmed. And “vulture” hedge funds are circling, threatening to pick clean the bones of this once robust industry. But there is at least one piece of good news: A bipartisan bill working its way through the Wisconsin Legislature would help local news outlets by offering a tax break to small businesses that advertise in newspapers, TV or radio stations or online media in the state. The Wisconsin Local Media Advertising Tax Credit would offer credits to advertisers with fewer than 100 employees and less than $10 million in revenue. The credit would be based on 50% of the cost of advertising in local media, for a maximum of $5,000. Sen. Roger Roth, R-Appleton, and Rep. Todd Novak, R-Dodgeville, former editor of the Dodgeville Chronicle, are co-sponsors of Assembly Bill 762.

Dee Hall “Having worked in the newspaper industry for 25 years, I think this proposed credit will make a real diﬀerence,” Novak told fellow lawmakers during a Jan. 19 Assembly Ways and Means Committee hearing. “I believe this advertising incentive creates a win-win scenario for small businesses that want to advertise, customers and workers, and for local media.” Steve Waldman leads the national

Rebuild Local News Coalition, which backs the measure. He said the Wisconsin bill could be a model for other states — and Congress. “I think its significance is in the leadership and the nature of the coalition. It’s led by Republicans and backed by an amazing collection of groups — both news orgs and business groups (restaurants, banks, chiropractors, small businesses etc.),” wrote Waldman, who also is president and co-founder of Report for America. Beth Bennett, executive director of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association, said the measure’s impact is twofold: helping businesses reach their customers, and supporting local journalism by increasing local advertising dollars. The state estimates the tax credit would save businesses at least $65.7 million a year in taxes — meaning twice that amount would be spent on ads. In 2018, about 163,000 small Wisconsin businesses claimed deductions for advertising expenses, according to the bill’s fiscal note. The cost of the tax break could be “significantly higher” than $65.7

million if many of them claim the tax credit, it said. Richard Lee, president of the InterCounty Cooperative Association, told lawmakers the bill would provide needed revenue to a newspaper group that saw ad sales drop 20% in two years. The cooperative owns a weekly newspaper, the Inter-County Leader in Frederic, and ﬁve shoppers covering a 5,000 square-mile region. It was founded in 1933 by area farmers hungry for local information. Nearly 90 years later, keeping people informed in northwestern Wisconsin is still a struggle, Lee said. Many of Lee’s readers get their TV news from Minnesota. And internet access is spotty. Without the ads he runs for available jobs, restaurant specials and grocery sales, Lee said, “Many of the small businesses don’t have a way to let the local residents know what is happening.” AB 762 deserves to pass, because preserving the public’s right to know hinges on keeping local news outlets — and the local businesses that advertise with them — alive and well.

Wisconsin FFA is acting on The Time Is Now Celebrating National FFA Week and the Impact on Wisconsin Youth Mia Hillebrand, Wisconsin FFA Association State Secretary Wisconsin FFA members are acting on The Time Is Now as they are transitioning into in-person events once again. Wisconsin FFA members are celebrating National FFA Week from February 19th-26th by strengthening communities and advocating for agriculture education. Over the state of Wisconsin, 252 chapters and 19,908 FFA members are celebrating National FFA Week. Wisconsin Association of FFA develops each of its members into prime professionals that employers are looking for each and every day. Corn Gold and National Blue is

worn across all 50 states including Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, representing the extracurricular of agriculture education. Currently, there are 735, 038 FFA members across the Nation participating in endless activities strengthening their Premier Leadership, Personal Growth, and ensuring their Career Sucess. National FFA is the world's largest student-led organization that is tailored to students from 7th grade through 15th grade. Possibilities in the FFA organization are endless and there is an activity and an event for each student. Wisconsin FFA members take pride in their involvement in the National FFA Organization from participating

Supervised Agriculture Experiences (SAE) which are based on work-based experimental learning projects that are hands-on expiration through employment, entrepreneurship, research base, school-enterprise, and service-learning. FFA members learn SOFT skills through their day-to-day work based on their SAE. Wisconsin FFA members are phenomenal all around as they have participated in their own chapters and taken them to the next level. Be sure to support your local FFA chapter during National FFA Week! If you would like to learn more about the Wisconsin FFA Organization check out our website wisconsinaged.org

in various activities advancing to National competitions, earning heir American Degree, and attending National FFA Convention in October. Today students are preparing and participating in Leadership Development Events, otherwise known as speaking contests, and preparing for Career Development Events that focus on teamwork and career-ready practices. Members also attend state and national leadership conferences across the state to strengthen their leadership skills and learn new ideas to take back to their chapter. Beyond the classroom and FFA students utilize their skills in

Riverway Board chair announces retirement, board hears report on Bakken’s Pond dike Mark E. Cupp, LWSRB Executive Director Muscoda, Wis. — The Lower Wisconsin State Riverway Board met virtually on Thursday, February 11th, to conduct a regular monthly business meeting. The board learned that longserving member and current LWSRB Chair Gerald Dorscheid will not seek re-appointment when his term is up in May. Dorscheid was ﬁrst appointed as the Iowa County representative to the Riverway Board in 2004. Dorscheid said he feels it is time for him to step away and noted he has enjoyed serving the people of Iowa County and the citizens of Wisconsin while on the board. Mark Cupp, Executive Director, said, “Jerry Dorscheid will be missed greatly. He has served as Operations Committee Chair and now Riverway Board Chair and has brought a valuable perspective to the board from his experience as an engineer and as an avid outdoorsman. I have appreciated his enthusiasm for the project and his willingness to lend

a helping hand, especially with the hundreds of miles we have paddled together on the river and the numerous bluffs we have scaled.” Cupp said persons interested in serving as the Iowa County representative must be either a local resident or local elected official. A list of a minimum of two names will be submitted to Governor Tony Evers by Iowa County. The Governor then will appoint the new representative from the county nominees. Persons interested in more information should contact Cupp at the Riverway Board office or Iowa County Administrator Larry Bierke. Nancy Frost, Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Wildlife Biologist, gave a report on the Long Lake Dike in the Town of Spring Green, Sauk County, located near Lone Rock. The dike, which serves as a water control structure for Bakken’s Pond, is in need of repairs. Frost provided aerial photographs showing the dike under normal conditions and then under flood conditions. The dike is breached

DONATION

DRIVE

Recently we received word from our press that costs for materials have risen over 19% in the past few months and that our printing cost will go up accordingly. If we charged $1 for each copy of Valley Sentinel, just half of the copies that are picked up each week would entirely cover our printing costs — however, we are committed to remaining a free

publication with an accessible, hybrid model that allows anyone that wants to read local news to have access to it. We do not believe ﬁnancial ability should be a barrier to reading local news. We may be a free paper, but unfortunately it’s not free to print papers. Valley Sentinel will stay a free and truly independent and accessible paper. Please frequent our local businesses and let them

when stressed and does not function properly. Frost said funding for repairs is in the works and engineers are looking at ways to address the problem but implementation likely won’t occur until 2024. Frost also reported wildlife crews will be doing a marsh burn near Arena to assist with habitat restoration. The “cattail” burns usually emit large plumes of smoke which are readily visible to local residents and travelers. She said the burns have proven effective in assisting native plants to thrive amidst invasive species. The board approved issuance of a management permit to Frost for habitat work at the Lone Lake Dike. Removal of invasive woody vegetation and trees will occur to enhance wildlife access to the shoreline and to create a better pathway for turtles to find nesting habitat. The board also issued a permit to Danielle Roder and Clay Yapp for construction of a new house and garage in the Town of Wauzeka, Crawford County. The property is located atop the ridge on Sprosty know you read Valley Sentinel each week. What does independent news mean to us? It means NOT influenced by corporations or government, NO big corporate backers, NO corporate umbrella organizations, NO big money investors. Just a handful of people with a dream to build community. Valley Sentinel is all-volunteer, independently owned and operated by its editors and is a majority woman-owned business. Community fueled and community focused. We only succeed if the community succeeds. For more about Valley Sentinel and our model, visit us at valleysentinelnews.com/about

Hill Road. A barn already has been constructed. Cupp explained the height of the house was a key factor in achieving compliance with the Riverway performance standards. The approved permit will require a limitation on height of 24 feet along with retention of screening vegetation and use of exterior colorization that harmonizes with the natural surroundings. Cupp said he had issued a timber harvest to Joe Dremsa for a parcel in the Town of Marietta, Crawford County, and noted the harvest has been completed. He issued an extension to a timber harvest permit for the DNR for a site at the southern part of the Black Hawk Unit in the Town of Mazomanie, Dane County. The next meeting of the Riverway Board will be Thursday, March 10th. The current plan is to hold the meeting in-person at the Muscoda village hall. However, the board will monitor COVID protocols and may meet virtually. Check the Riverway Board website for updates or call 608-7393188.

If you are able and enjoyed this week’s edition, please consider donating $1 today.

Scan to support local journalism!

Commentary/OpInIon

Thursday, February 24, 2022 Page 5

Legal Column: Complaints filed with DA against Arena officials, open meetings law violated - analysis continued from page 2 media is thus especially important; another consideration is that a news outlet may cover many public bodies for its readers, and it would be difficult to have someone make the rounds to go to all the different places that the various bodies post their notices. So the Sentinel gets its notices by email, and relies on email notices. Second, the rule is that unless there is good cause for a special exception to be made, every notice must be given at a time reasonably proximate to the date and time of the hearing, but at least 24 hours in advance. In emergencies, notice may be reduced to as little as two hours. Of course, governments often want to move quickly. Simply wanting to move more quickly and flexibly is not an excuse to offer less than 24 hours notice. In this case the Sentinel received notice by email at 10:09 a.m. the preceding day. However, the preceding day was a state holiday, and the day before that was a Sunday. That means legal notice needed to be issued by 8 a.m. Saturday. It was 50 hours late and counted only as 8 hours notice. (There is actually a state statute that says to start counting from midnight.) This may seem like an obscure rule, but the notice would still have been late without it. Furthermore, the Village of Arena had previously been alerted to the rule and was forced to cancel some of its meetings because it noticed them on Sundays. Of course, it would be a good idea to provide notice more than 24 hours in advance. Nothing in the law requires a committee to wait until just before the deadline to send out notices. There is a balance to be made between allowing members of a body greater liberty to add items to an agenda close to a meeting, versus affording greater notice. A committee well-organized enough to have candidates lined up for interviews before a position is even vacant should probably have been able to manage earlier notice. The other issue was the closure of the interview portion of the meeting. The interview of a prospective public employee is allowed to be held in closed session. The exemption exists because a person is more likely to apply, and an applicant is more likely to be forthcoming in an interview, if guaranteed confidentiality. A public body may fear a lawsuit if private information is made public. Such a lawsuit might happen. Even allowing a candidate to be interviewed publicly may cause other prospects who place a premium on privacy to feel that this

is expected, and not seek a position. So if the Committee wants to have interviews in closed session, the law allows it. Here is what happened: The committee has three appointed members, plus the village president is a member of all standing committees. The chair, village president, and one other member were present. One minute into the meeting, the chair read verbatim from the public notice that the item was closed session pursuant to section 19.85 of the statutes, for purposes which were described in language taken directly from the statutes: “considering employment, promotion, compensation, or performance evaluation data of any public employee…” and so on, to interview candidates for public works superintendent. The chair stopped and asked how to proceed, and another committee member moved to close the meeting. The chair seconded. Seemingly there was no discussion or vote. Members of the public were directed to leave. Under the law, members of a parent body cannot be excluded, so at least one other Arena village trustee remained. The announcement did not give subsection and paragraph of the provision that allowed this, but it quoted the statute, directed interested parties to section 19.85, and was specific about the kind of activity (applicant interviews) and the position (superintendent of public works). This follows almost perfectly the suggested manner for making such an announcement. So what was wrong? Here is a case where sloppy parliamentary procedure collides with the law. The Village of Arena has adopted Robert's Rules of Order as its parliamentary authority. This is the little book that tells how to make a motion, when it can be made, and so on. In a small committee like the Arena Personnel Committee, the rules are intended to be looser and more informal. But even still, it is useful to both the government body and the public to be organized. What happens in a large deliberate assembly is a model for what happens in a tiny committee. When someone moves that an action be taken, that is not a vote for the position, nor even a signal of support. It is merely a means of bringing it to the floor for discussion. The mover may vote yea or nay. Once an agenda item is brought to the floor, the chair should call for statements for and against the motion, recognizing speakers until

debate is exhausted or called to a close by another motion. Then there is a vote, or the chair may see that agreement is unanimous and hold the vote only if someone rises in dissent. Either way, the members of the body have the chance to commit themselves for or against. In the case of a motion to close a meeting, the law requires this. There must be a vote by which the position of each member is clear, and this must be placed in the record. If there was a vote here, it escaped the notice of the audio recorder and the other trustee who was present. People who know about this requirement typically think it is for the public, so that they can know who voted to close a meeting and hold them accountable for that decision. But the requirement also disciplines members to think about their votes. Each member of the governmental body is supposed to know what the motion for closure is for and make an informed decision how to proceed. There is no law that interviews of applicants must be held in secrecy. Perhaps they should be. But each member of the body is expected to seriously consider the interests of the public in an open meeting against the common interest to be safeguarded by closure. Once an open meetings law complaint is filed, the DA has the opportunity to pursue the matter, but does not have to. Sometimes the DA will try to broker a settlement where the government agrees to reform its procedures or better train its officers in order to better protect public access to its proceedings. Or the DA may file a lawsuit, or may decline to do anything. When the DA refuses to sue, or lets 20 days go by without suing, the complaining party may sue in the name of the state. In open meetings lawsuits, unlike most, the person filing the lawsuit is not considered the plaintiff: the state of Wisconsin is. In 1987, the state supreme court chided an official who was sued by the publisher of the Milwaukee Journal that it it did not matter how the newspaper was affected, because the “fundamental issue” wasn’t the right of the media or a particular reporter, but “the right of the public to be fully informed regarding government business.” This is of course what matters to the Sentinel. If the DA does not pursue this matter, the Valley Sentinel will. Its lawyers will represent the people of the state of Wisconsin in a suit against the village officials. The Sentinel will not be eligible to recover a cent in damages, because it will not be the plaintiff. It

will not seek to void the meeting. It will ask for its attorney fees, which it will try to keep modest. And it will ask for the one other remedy available: forfeitures. In an open meetings lawsuit, officials can be forced to pay small forfeitures (as low as $25 for a minor violation). This may not seem like much, but it’s fair for very minor violations. In most lawsuits against public officials they typically pay nothing, letting the public purse bear the costs. Here that is not true: the law forces the official to pay personally. More serious violations may warrant pretty serious penalties. An official who repeatedly and egregiously violates the statute may be fined up to $300 per violation, still not a fortune, but there have been cases where an official has been accused of dozens or scores of violations. Our supreme court explained way back in 1979 that access to government functions was so important that the legislature intended all public officials to “practice a high degree of diligence for the protection of the public” so that unfairly limiting access would be virtually “impossible.” The law is very strict because an official must “at his peril see to it that the regulations are not violated” — not just by his own acts but by the actions or omissions of others over whom he has authority. Some local officials have lost sight of this high duty. Editors at the Sentinel are in a position to see that these lapses occur all the time. Often they are treated as no big deal. Previously, the Village of Arena attempted to pass an ordinance that would have illegally concealed some public documents from the people and allowed them to be deleted in violation of various laws. The same ordinance would have added illegal fees for records. The ordinance was blocked by a court and withdrawn. The suit cost the Village a few hundred dollars. When the chair of the Personnel Committee asked conscientiously how to proceed there was laughter. This is not a laughing matter to the Sentinel. A sense of perspective is important. No one here is seeking blood. But it would also be wrong to keep looking the other way. That would lead to more of the same, but with bigger stakes. Eventually, there would be a lawsuit from the Sentinel or someone else, and it would not be about forfeitures, it would be about voiding a government action, maybe some contract with lots of money at stake where the public did not have their say. Maybe something unpopular, or illegal, or harmful. The Valley Sentinel is a watchdog. Mostly watchdogs bark when something is amiss. Sometimes, this one bites.

Better Broadband Policy: Bill improves program to send funds where they are needed most continued from page 3 25 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up to participate in basic online activities like Zoom meetings, online school or telemedicine; and even at this speed, they will likely see delays. ‘Good enough’ service is not good enough and we should change our standards to reflect that. In addition, this bill prioritizes fiber projects, but does not prohibit fixed wireless, DSL or cellular projects. In order to meet consumer expectations, the bill says that if a project is going to put fiber into a location where another project is offering a fixed wireless solution, the fiber should be prioritized. It also prioritizes projects that bring at

least 50% matching funds. If a community and telecommunications provider is willing to invest in a project, the state should give priority to a project where the locals are invested in the project. We have communities and telecommunications companies that are willing to heavily invest in rural broadband and we should recognize this commitment. Finally, this bill creates a challenge process for an ISP in or near a project area to challenge the project grant application if they currently – or will be providing – the same or higher speeds in the same location no later than 24 months after the date that the grants are made. This is meant to prevent state investment in projects that are

already receiving signiﬁcant federal funding. More than $2.8 billion has been dedicated to broadband expansion in Wisconsin since 2014. A lot of these funds are still in process as telecommunications companies gear up for the next construction season this spring. We must respect the plans that are in place and the companies that are heavily investing in infrastructure so that we get the most bang for our buck. We must continue to ﬁne-tune and target Wisconsin’s investments in rural broadband to reach the communities who are still waiting to be connected. Our small, local telecommunications companies, as well as larger providers throughout the state, are working hard to reach customers and we must

support this work so that our people will be connected efficiently and effectively, as soon as possible. I am optimistic that the Assembly and the Governor will approve this effort and work with us to make sure our investments in rural broadband are reaching the people who need it. Every session, we have taken meaningful steps to dial-in and focus our work on rural broadband expansion. This bill is one more step in this process. We have made tremendous progress and we’ll continue to evolve until every consumer is connected. As always, please do not hesitate to connect with me to provide input, ideas or to seek assistance. Send an email to sen.marklein@legis.wisconsin.gov or call 608-266-0703.

Page 6

Community

Thursday, February 24, 2022

COmmunitycalendar Events for February 25 - March 11 Saturday,February 26 Pop-Up Spring Green Farmers Market 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM . S230 E. Monroe St., Spring Green . The Spring Green Farmers Market is continuing in the Spring Green Community Public Library Lot through the winter every Saturday morning. Pre-orders are recommended. Visit our Facebook or Instagram page or email SGFarmersMarket@gmail.com for a list of participating vendors and their contact information. February Yoga Classes with Rural Remedy 10:00 AM- 12:00 PM . S11105 Fairview Rd Spring Green (lower barn) . ruralremedy.com . Group yoga classes for all levels. Class will be shortened 2/26 due to the special Yoga Nidra workshop. Email embenz@gmail.com for more information.

Saturday,March 5 Arena Pines & Sand Barrens - Women Only Workday 10:00AM - 1:00PM . Arena Pines & Sand Barrens State Natural Area, Arena . RSVP's preferred but please just feel free to join the day of! Learn about equpiment and techniques with chainsaw and brushcutter use, herbicide use, brush pile burning, Firebreak improvement in preparation for prescribed burning, and Winter plant identiﬁcation. Please email Britta Petersen at bpetersen@pheasantsforever.org.

Botham Vineyards 2022 Season Opening 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM . Botham Vineyards, 8180 Langberry Rd, Barneveld . bothamvineyards.com . Join us as we kick off the 2022 season. Join us for an early season tasting of your favorites, or get to know us for the first time. Relax with a glass or a bottle, a snack and a game of Scrabble in the COMFY Lounge. Shop the tasting room gifts and gourmet foods or grab a pair of binoculars (thanks to our friends at Vortex Optics) and do some bird watching on the grounds. We look forward to welcoming you. The Tasting Room will be open weekends 10 a.m.-5 Yoga Nidra Workshop with Rural Remedy 12:00 PM . S11105 Fairview Rd Spring p.m. throughout March and April. Beginning May 1, hours will return to 12-5 p.m. Green (lower barn) . ruralremedy.com . Yoga nidra is "vogic sleep" and vou can expect a Friday and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. big rest, a big pause, and a big reset. After a short bit of movement you will enjoy a long, LIVE MUSIC: The Blue Olives 7:30PM - 10:30PM . Slowpoke Lounge, 137 W Jefferson guided meditation while lying down comfortably. Benefits including stress relief, deep St., Spring Green . slowpokelounge.com . Tickets $15 in advance, $20 at the door . calm, and a restored sense of self. Bring your mat, a bolster or firm pillow if you have Regular artists at House of Blues- Chicago, The Blue Olives (based out of Madison, WI) one, a favorite blanket, and a journal or small notebook. $40 No experience needed. have performed over 3500 shows nationally. Once described as "tight enough to be Pricing is always flexible. Just reach out or register at linktr.ee/ruralremedy professional. yet loose enough to be really fun..." we feature a hornline, killer vocal harmonies, searing guitar and funky rhythm section. Known as one of the fiercest jam SOLD OUT — River Valley Royals Drag Show 3:00PM and 8:00 PM - 10:30PM . Slowpoke Lounge, 137 W Jefferson St., Spring Green . rivervalleyarts.org . Fundraiser for bands around with a huge repertoire, we easily go from playing formal corporate events to large venue rock concert atmospheres. Proof of vaccination against COVID-19 River Valley Arts featuring some of Madison’s hottest Drag Artists. Proof of vaccination required for all Slowpoke events. against COVID-19 required for all Slowpoke events. LIVE MUSIC: Jammin at Traders 7:00 PM . Traders Bar & Grill, 6147 US Highway 14, Spring Green . www.psycherelic.rocks . Psycherelic is a band of with a playful stage energy and tremendous intensity, performing everything from classic rock favorites to blues and soul.

Monday, February 28 POETRY: A Night of Words 7:30PM - 10:30PM . Slowpoke Lounge, 137 W Jeﬀerson St., Spring Green . slowpokelounge.com . An open mic. Friends sharing words. Watch. Listen. Speak. Share. Maybe you have a favorite poem, or passage from a book you’d like to share. Or maybe you write your own and are ready to share it with the rest of us. Maybe you just want to tell a story. Or maybe you just want to listen. It’s all good. Let’s hang out and share words together. Poetry. Stories. Original work and old favorites. This and that. A Night of Words. Proof of vaccination against COVID-19 required for all Slowpoke events.

Tuesday, March 1 Winter Family Storytime 10:15 AM - 11:00 AM . Kraemer Library, 910 Main St, Plain . kraemerlibrary.org . Come join us for 45 minutes of fun-ﬁlled interactive stories, songs and rhymes! Meet new friends, sing songs, and have fun! Enjoy a story session that encourages a love of reading and fosters the development of early literacy skills. Ages 0-5. Masks encouraged. River Valley Area Community Gardens Spaghetti Dinner Fundraiser 4:30 PM 7:30 PM . Spring Green Lions CLub, 150 W Adams Ct, Spring Green . springgreen.com . Proceeds from the Spaghetti Dinner will come back to the RV Area Community Gardens to build an equipment shed. Adults: $7 Advanced --$8 at the door. Children (K-8): $5 Advanced--$6 at the door. Advanced tickets available at The Oﬃce Market, Pamela’s Fine Jewelry, The Shed, as wella s from Spring Green Lions’ Club members and River Valley Area Community Garden members.

Wednesday, March 2 Indoor Storytime 10:30AM . Spring Green Community Library, 230 E. Monroe St. Spring Green . (608) 588-2276 . Join Ms. Grace this morning for INDOOR STORYTIME. We'll have stories, songs, and fun! There is no sign up required for now, but attendance is limited to 19 people, so get there early to reserve your spot! We do require masks for everyone age 2 and up and will be socially distanced around the room for safety.

Thursday, March 3 Stitch and Bitch 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM . Spring Green General Store, 137 S. Albany St. Spring Green . springgreengeneralstore.com . The Spring Green General Store’s Stitch and Bitch handwork group meets Thursday afternoons weekly. All are welcome. Knit Night at Nina’s 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM . Nina’s Department Store, 143 E. Jeﬀerson St. Spring Green . ninasdepartmentstore.com . Every Thursday from 6 to 8 pm. All knitters and crocheters are welcome. Store closed after 5:30 pm.

Saturday,March 5 Pop-Up Spring Green Farmers Market 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM . S230 E. Monroe St., Spring Green . The Spring Green Farmers Market is continuing in the Spring Green Community Public Library Lot through the winter every Saturday morning. Pre-orders are recommended. Visit our Facebook or Instagram page or email SGFarmersMarket@gmail.com for a list of participating vendors and their contact information. North Earth Crystals & Gifts Grand Opening 12:00 PM Ribbon Cutting . North Earth Crystals & Gifts, 124 W. Jeﬀerson Street, Spring Green . northearth.com . North Earth Crystals & Gifts is excited to announce a grand reopening at its new location. We will be celebrating the move with a ribbon cutting at noon as well as giveaways throughout the day and a grand prize drawing. We look forward to welcoming long-time friends and new customers to our new store. Rocks, crystals, fossils and a wide selection of unique gifts, jewelry, home décor and wellness products. To learn more, visit northearth.com or follow us on Facebook. You can also email jenafer@northearth.com or call (608) 588-3313 with questions.

Sunday, March 6 Botham Vineyards 2022 Season Opening 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM . bothamvineyards.com . Botham Vineyards, 8180 Langberry Rd, Barneveld . Join us as we kick off the 2022 season. Join us for an early season tasting of your favorites, or get to know us for the first time. LIVE MUSIC: Champagne and Strings 2:30PM - 3:00PM . Slowpoke Lounge, 137 W Jefferson St., Spring Green . RuralMusiciansForum.org . Rural Musicians Forum winter concert, “Champagne and Strings: An Afternoon of Chamber Music at Slowpoke Lounge.” The concert will feature the Madison based LunART String Quartet with violinists Leanne League and Wes Luke, violist Marie Pauls, and cellist James Waldo. Champagne and other beverages will be available for sale. There is no cover charge, however a free-will donation will be accepted and appreciated to help defray Rural Musicians Forum concert production costs.

Monday, March 7 Annual River Valley High School POPS Concert 7:00PM . River Valley High School Old Gym, 660 Varsity Blvd, Spring Green . Doors open at 6:30. *Tickets are $5 at the Door (tickets at door only, no pre-sales)* The POPS Concert is an annual event that features RVHS students and a live house band! You do not want to miss this! Trivia Night 6:30PM - 9:30PM . Slowpoke Lounge, 137 W Jeﬀerson St., Spring Green . slowpokelounge.com . Join us for a night of Trivia! Kyle Adams will host as we put teams together for a contest of trivia. Come for the prizes, stay for the fun! First Question at 7:00 - and it should last about 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Proof of vaccination against COVID-19 required for all Slowpoke events.

Tuesday, March 8 Winter Family Storytime 10:15 AM - 11:00 AM . Kraemer Library, 910 Main St, Plain . kraemerlibrary.org . Come join us for 45 minutes of fun-ﬁlled interactive stories, songs and rhymes! Meet new friends, sing songs, and have fun! Enjoy a story session that encourages a love of reading and fosters the development of early literacy skills. Ages 0-5. Masks encouraged.

Wednesday, March 9 Indoor Storytime 10:30AM . Spring Green Community Library, 230 E. Monroe St. Spring Green . (608) 588-2276 . Join Ms. Grace this morning for INDOOR STORYTIME. We'll have stories, songs, and fun! There is no sign up required for now, but attendance is limited to 19 people, so get there early to reserve your spot! We do require masks for everyone age 2 and up and will be socially distanced around the room for safety.

Thursday, March 10 Stitch and Bitch 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM . Spring Green General Store, 137 S. Albany St. Spring Green . springgreengeneralstore.com . The Spring Green General Store’s Stitch and Bitch handwork group meets Thursday afternoons weekly. All are welcome. Knit Night at Nina’s 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM . Nina’s Department Store, 143 E. Jeﬀerson St. Spring Green . ninasdepartmentstore.com . Every Thursday from 6 to 8 pm. All knitters and crocheters are welcome. Store closed after 5:30 pm.

Friday, March 11 Ridgeway Pine Relict Workday 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM . County Highway H, Ridgeway . Our winter workdays will focus on cutting, treating and burning of invasive brush. Seeds are collected in the fall to spread in the cleared areas. For questions or to RSVP to attend this workday, contact Mary Kay Baum at marykbaum@gmail.com or 608-935-5834. COMEDY SHOW: Arthur’s Supper Club – Dinner & A Show 5:30 PM - 8:30 PM . Arthur’s Supper Club, E4885 Hwy 14 Spring Green . Ticket includes dinner and show –$30 preorder, $35 at the door . Join us at Arthur’s Supper Club for night of mingling and laughter! Heavy appetizers will be served buﬀet style prior to the show. For reservations, call (608)588-5790. Comedians Mark Poolos headlining and Randy Ankarlo as the opening act.

Community

Thursday, February 24, 2022 Page 7

COVID-19 Dashboard Wisconsin Summary Cases as of 2/23/2022

1,378,564 Positive Cases +18,061 from 2/9

11,800 Deaths +317 from 2/9

Updated: 2/23/2022

Vaccine Summary Statistics

covid case activity level

Updated: 2/23/2022

This graph shows information on case burden and trajectory. Burden (case rate) is the total number of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 Wisconsin residents in the last two weeks. Trajectory is the percent case change from the previous to the current week. These are different from Community Transmission Level, which is the total confirmed cases per 100,000 persons reported in the past 7 days. Case activity is a combination of burden and trajectory over the prior two weeks.

Iowa County

3,510,644

342,423

Total doses administered

Pfizer doses administered

Moderna doses administered

Johnson & Johnson doses administered

1,909,029

1,091,208

793,041

24,780

Total boosters administered

Pfizer doses administered

Moderna doses administered

Johnson & Johnson doses administered

These two core measures are measures of herd immunity in Richland, Sauk and Iowa County. We do not yet know what level of vaccination leads to herd immunity for COVID-19, or how current or future variants might affect herd immunity. We know based on other diseases that herd immunity is likely at least 60%, and if more transmissible variants become more common, that threshold may become higher, so the current target range is 60-90%. -Adapted from Madison Public Health and Dane County

+65 from 2/9 +3 from 2/9

5,143 Positive Cases 25 Deaths

5,412,534

Vaccine Data

county level weekly statistics Richland County 3,783 Positive Cases 42 Deaths

9,265,601

Richland

+120 from 2/9 +0 from 2/9

Sauk County

15,748 Positive Cases 111 Deaths

+231 from 2/9 +9 from 2/9

Target Range

Sauk

Target Range

59.5%

64.9%

Percent with at least one vaccine dose

57.2%

61.5%

Percent fully vaccinated

Percent fully vaccinated Target Range

Iowa 70.0% Percent with at least one vaccine dose

67.1%

Updated: 2/23/2022

Percent fully vaccinated

Cases per zip code

Percent of Wisconsin residents ages 5-11 who have received at least one dose by county

Cases as of 2/23/2022

Updated: 2/23/2022 Lower %

Richland County

18.0%

Ages 5-11

Iowa County Ages 5-11

Higher %

Percent of Wisconsin residents who have received at least one dose

30.8%

Sauk County Ages 5-11

Ages

24.3% Dane County Ages 5-11

Graphic by Anna Stocks-Hess

56.1%

5-11 12-17 18-24 25-34 35-44

Updated: 2/23/2022 26.3% 60.6% 59.4% 63.5%

45-54

68.8% 71.3%

55-64 65+

77.9% 85.7%

Data From: https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/covid-19/index.htm

“The good stuﬀ.”

Page 8

Community

Thursday, February 24, 2022

At 28, recent UWO business grad became one of Culver’s youngest franchisees Shane Nyman, UW Oshkosh Today Not all graduates from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh College of Business march off to an office job with a jacket and a briefcase. Some, like Alexandria Mahoney, opt for a blue apron, frozen custard and ButterBurgers. Mahoney, who graduated from UW Oshkosh in 2016 with a management degree with a focus on entrepreneurship, last year at 28 became one of the youngest Culver’s franchisees in the country. She’s the owner-operator of the Culver’s in Sun Prairie, part of an ownership team with a pair of brothers who have a stake in dozens of locations in four states. “It’s the hospitality part I like most,” said Mahoney, who landed her first Culver’s job at 15. She’s now 29. “And at the corporate level, they really care about every franchisee.” “The regular guests that come in,” she said, continuing her list of favorite parts of the job. “And, of course, the food.” The first member of her family to earn a college degree, Mahoney started at

UWO with the intention of studying education and becoming a teacher. After her ﬁrst semester, though, she had a long conversation with her general manager at hometown Culver’s in Spring Green who stressed to her that she had a knack for business and there were opportunities ahead with the company. She changed majors and didn’t look back. “It helped tremendously,” she said of her UWO education. “The business management classes especially. I do a lot of Excel spreadsheets, so the Excel classes, the accounting classes—all of those, once you get into the classes for your degree, those really helped.” For those unaware, the Culver’s story began here in Wisconsin. The ﬁrst restaurant opened in Sauk City in 1984 by the Culver family, including Craig Culver, a 1973 UWO alumnus and one of the University’s best-known and most impactful graduates. There now are more than 740 Culver’s restaurants nationwide—and one Culver Family Welcome Center on the Oshkosh campus. As a testament to her work ethic,

Photo Contributed by UW Oshkosh Today Alexandria Mahoney pictured in Culver's uniform, custard scoop in hand. when not in class or studying, Mahoney was likely running. She spent most of her college career as a member of the Titans’ cross country and track and ﬁeld teams. She also worked at the Culver’s on Kohler Street while in Oshkosh, and back home at the Spring Green location when on breaks. Even during a seven-month stint working for an insurance company—”It just wasn’t for me,” she said—she stayed on at the Spring Green

restaurant. Now she’s running toward more opportunities in entrepreneurship. Another Culver’s is planned to go up in Sun Prairie this year with Mahoney and the same partners—brothers Jeﬀ Liegel and Chad Stevenson—as owners. It’ll essentially double her workload, but she says she’s up to the challenge. After all she’s accomplished since ﬁrst putting on the blue apron as a teenager, who can doubt her?

4PeteSake spring recipients application deadline approaching, due March 19 Jennifer Moore-Kerr, 4PeteSake It is hard to ask for help. And yet that is what 4PeteSake is here, in our community, for. To provide help for people in need who live within the River Valley School District. The organization is driven by their motto, “when you see a need, fill it.” But in order to see that need, you have to make that call. You have to fill out that application. You have to do the hard thing, and ask for help. For many of us that means swallowing our pride. It isn’t easy to do, but I have been assured by previous recipients that everyone you encounter on the board at 4PeteSake (4PS) will treat you with incredible respect, kindness, and, yes, generosity. They will listen. They will care. And they will help. When John Acker, 56, with encouragement from his family, turned to 4PS, he says, with tears in his voice, that he almost walked away. He felt like he was begging, and he never wanted to “be that person.” He had always been the one to provide the help when neighbors, family, or friends needed it. But he also knew that without asking for help now he was going to lose the home he had put so much hard work and love into over his entire adult life. In August of 2020 he had fallen two stories off of a roof on which he had

been working, shattering a vertebrae, breaking his pelvis, femur, and multiple other injuries. The surgeries, healing, and recovery have been excruciating, and he still struggles, a year and a half later, to just move. 4PeteSake can’t change the horror of his accident, or bring back the “fit roofer body” that he had before, but they have paid his mortgage for the last year, and he can’t put into words how grateful he is for that. And how immensely glad he is that he held his pride in check and did not walk away. If you have medically related needs that have put you in a financial bind, and live within the boundaries of the River Valley School District, you can apply for assistance by downloading the form available on the website (www.4petesake.com), or pick one up at Arcadia Books in Spring Green, fill it out and turn it in. The deadline for Spring recipients is March 19. If you need help figuring the form out, you can call Todd Miller at 608-588-4619. Then, if chosen, the organization will work with you to find the best solution that fits your circumstances. They do not just give out money. Rather they look for your specific need, and work to fill that need. For John that meant paying his mortgage. In the case of Don and

EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY Looking for a challenge? We are looking for interns/volunteers who want to be in the unique position to learn the nuts and bolts of a news media publication that started from the ground up. You will have the chance to make an impact at the ground level of a startup and see the effect of your work and ideas carried out with a lot of flexibility, in an environment and creative culture you can help influence and create.

Available subject areas: EDITORIAL/JOURNALISM SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING/MARKETING

GRAPHIC DESIGN/PAGE DESIGN/LAYOUT DISTRIBUTION/CIRCULATION/CRM MNGMT PODCASTING/AUDIO PRODUCTION

We are a new, all volunteer local news source that holds a strong belief that by working to keep our communities informed and engaged on a variety of topics including arts & culture, events, community news and serving as a watchdog for our local governmental bodies, we can help create a strong identity for our community and ignite positive growth and change throughout the area. Interested? Send us your area(s) of interest and a resume to: editor@valleysentinelnews.com Internship will be unpaid, interns will be required to sign a FSLA-compliant internship agreement. If credit is available from intern’s educational institution for participation in an internship, we are glad to work with you to meet any requirements for receiving credit.

Jordean Grass, it meant a slew of repairs to their trailer home. 4PeteSake worked with contractors to replace the rotting floor throughout, repair the bathroom fixtures, replace the kitchen cabinets, fix the leaking roof, and as a touch of extra kindness, bring in a simple round kitchen table at which they can now welcome a stranger, me, into their home. Tears also came to Don’s eyes as he spoke of his difficulty asking for the help. And yet they were out of options. Don had suffered a stroke several years before and then was struck by Stage 4 colon cancer. Jordean struggles with her own health issues. Neither of them can work. But they still manage to pay their bills, they just never had the money left over to pay for repairs. And the things that needed repairing kept adding up. For years this couple had helped out at the food pantry in Spring Green, and it was there that they heard about Neighbors helping Neighbors, another organization in our community whose sole purpose is also to provide help to those in need. Through that organization they were directed to 4PeteSake, and the journey to the home into which they had graciously welcomed me began. Jordean glowed as she told of their delight when they returned to their newly fixed home,

describing the moment like “This Old House” when they were ushered in to see the amazing transformation. They had been put up in a hotel in Platteville for a week while the work was done, which by itself had brought them joy, then when they returned home to the beautiful refurbished trailer home, they could hardly believe how fortunate they were. Next month they plan to renew their wedding vows right there, in their living room, surrounded by family. They know that they couldn’t have done that without the help from 4PS. The organization does these things with compassion, celebration of the human spirit, and deep respect for those they help. And the broader community who donates the monies to make it all possible, donate out of kindness, with the hope that their money will find its way into the homes and lives of people in their communities who need the help. They hope that you will overcome the difficulty you may feel in asking for help. Please, if you are in need, and live within the River Valley School District, contact 4Petesake, fill out an application, and let this organization, and all the wonderful people behind it, help bring some peace and joy and security into your life.

CLASSIFIEDS

Healthcare Employment Opportunities *Director of Heart, Lung & Sleep Services – seeking an experienced RT for this full-time exempt leadership position, $7,500.00 Employment Bonus! *Respiratory Therapists – Evening/Night shift position, 12 hour shifts available during the week days. .6 FTE evening/night Weekender Program working 2-12 hour shifts in a Premium Pay position! $5,000.00 Employment Bonus available for benefit eligible positions! *Director of DME services – full-time management position located in Platteville. *CRNA – full-time position with excellent compensation/benefits and incentive package! *RN Float Nurse –.75 FTE evening/night shift position. $3,750 Employment Bonus Eligible! *RN OB unit - .75 FTE evening/night shift position. $3,750 Employment Bonus Eligible! *RN/LPN Nursing & Rehab Center - .6 FTE p.m. shift position. $3,000 Employment Bonus Eligible! *Certified Nursing Assistants – part-time positions available in our Nursing & Rehab Center on day, evening and night shifts, $3,000 Employment Bonus included along with a competitive wage and benefits package for part or full time work! *Dietitian - .5 FTE day shift position. *Imaging Technician – premium pay Weekender Program with 2 -12 hour day/evening shifts! As well there is a 1.0 FTE p.m. shift position. Up to a $5,000 Employment Bonus, prorated based on FTE! *MRI Imaging - .5 to a 1.0 FTE day shift position. Up to a $5,000 Employment Bonus, prorated based on FTE! *Patient Access Specialist – part-time position, with benefits. *Vice President of Finance – full-time financial management position. *Health Information Management Supervisor – 1.0 FTE exempt supervisory position. *Environmental Services Supervisor – full-time exempt supervisory position. *Environmental Services Staff – full-time p.m. and full or part time night shift positions. *Phlebotomist - .8 FTE day shift position. *Clinic X-ray/Lab Technician - .5 FTE position *Culinary Aide – half time day shift position with full benefits! To find out more detailed information about all open positions and to apply, go to our website at www.uplandhillshealth.org. Upland Hills Health 800 Compassion Way Dodgeville, WI 53533

Community

Thursday, February 24, 2022 Page 9

River Valley Mock Trial gets third at Regionals, narrowly misses State Championships Jason Hollenberger, River Valley Mock Trial Coach River Valley Mock Trial competed in the Wisconsin High School Mock Trial Regionals on Saturday, February 12 and Sunday, February 13. The regional was conducted virtually with the River Valley trial members performing at the high school and the opposition schools at their homes or local campus. The tournament was coordinated from Wausau with judges from the Wausau area. The regional consisted of two civil trials per day, with River Valley representing the plaintiﬀ thrice and the defendant once. On Saturday’s morning trial, River Valley drew one of D.C. Everest’s two teams in the tournament. D.C. Everest is a Wausau area school, serving over 6,000 students in their district. Despite junior attorney Denisse Carrillo’s perfect direct examination performance and nearperfect witness performances from senior Seth Neuheisel and sophomore Isaac Daniel, the Blackhawks lost the round. Both schools took a judge card a piece, with the ﬁnal scoring judge nudging out River Valley by a single point on his card, 86-85. River Valley drew the second of

D.C. Everest’s teams in Saturday’s afternoon trial. The Blackhawks pulled away early on the strength of nearperfect cross examination scores by senior attorney Juliet Humphreys and sophomore attorney Gigi RoykoMauer. Valley would close out the trial with a near-perfect direct examination between Neuheisel and senior attorney Madeline Hutnik, followed by a nearperfect witness performance by senior Anna Johnson. River Valley cruised to a 176-158 victory on the combined judge’s cards. On Sunday’s morning trial, the Blackhawks met St. Mary Catholic School, a Neenah area private high school. Out of the gate, Valley took an early lead, garnering two direct examination combinations that were just short of perfect from senior witness Nicholas Daniel and Humphreys, followed by Neuheisel and Hutnik. To ﬁnish the trial, Humphreys would score 9 out of 10 for both her cross examination and her closing argument. Despite losing on the presiding judge’s card, which does not record point totals, the Blackhawks soundly defeated the Zephyrs on the two performance

Photo contributed by Jason Hollenberger The River Valley High School Mock Trial team pictured in the school library. judges’ cards with a total score of 182168. In the last trial of the tournament, River Valley was power-matched into the championship round with 15-time state champion Rhinelander, who was undefeated in their first three trials. Valley finished strong, fueled by near-perfect cross examinations by Humphreys, Hutnik, and Carrillo. In a carbon-copy repeat of Valley’s first loss of the tournament, both schools took a judge card a piece, with the final

School District to hold referendum presentations The River Valley School District recently released the language that will appear on ballots this spring for their referendum. At an election in the River Valley School District on Tuesday, April 5, 2022, the following question will be submitted to a vote of the people: "Shall the revenues included in the budget of the River Valley School District, Sauk, Iowa, Richland and Dane Counties, Wisconsin, be authorized to exceed the revenue limit speciﬁed in section 121.91, Wisconsin Statutes, by $2,800,000 for the 2022-2023 school year, by $3,800,000 for the 2023-2024 school year and by $4,300,000 for the 2024-2025 school year for non-recurring purposes, consisting of paying the costs of maintaining educational programs, and maintenance of the District?" A copy of the entire text of the resolution directing the submission of the question can be obtained from the oﬃce of the school district clerk. The school district also announced the following community information presentations on April 5, 2022, referendum: Sunday, 2/27 - Lone Rock - Community Center (6:30-7:30 pm) Monday, 2/28 - Plain - Early Learning Center (6:30-7:30 pm) Wednesday, 3/2 - Arena - Grandma Mary’s (6:30-7:30 pm) Monday, 3/7 - Spring Green - Middle School Library (6:30-7:30 pm) Tuesday, 3/8 - Facebook Live (6:30-7:30 pm) More information about the referendum can be found at: www.rvschools.org/district/2022Referendum.cfm

Local. Natural. Delicious. We strive to serve specialty coffee and baked goods created with ingredients that are locally sourced, all natural and sustainable. Our schedule is posted each week on social media.

Get in touch with us today! www.butternutroadcoffee.com butternutroadcoffeetruck@gmail.com 608-459-5016 Butternut Road Coffee Truck butternutroad_coffeetruck Butternut_Road

Coffee & News A collaboration by Valley Sentinel & Butternut Road Coffee.

Stop by the coffee truck starting mid-week to pick up a copy of Valley Sentinel with your coffee, while supplies last.

scoring judge handing Rhinelander a single point edge, 93-92. The loss allowed D.C. Everest to move ahead of River Valley in the ﬁnal standings and so the Blackhawks were awarded third place in the tournament. The Wisconsin Bar Association has deemed only regional winners and one second-place wildcard will continue on to the State Championships this year due to COVID restrictions. The State Semiﬁnals will be conducted virtually on March 5 and 6.

Plain Briefs Straka to open Block 23 At their February meeting, the Plain Village Board approved an application for a Liquor License, Class "A" fermented malt beverages and "Class A" intoxicating liquor, for Straka Meats, Inc., dba Block 23, 1050 Wachter Avenue, Agent Caitlin K. Straka, for the period March 1, 2022 through June 30, 2022. So what is Block 23? We asked Caitlin Straka: "So Block 23 is a division of Straka Meats. It is located at 1050 Wachter Ave in Plain (where 'The Cheesemaker' was for many many years). We will bring back all the loved WI cheeses with a variety of 100 different flavors! Every cheese will be made in WI only! We will also feature some of Straka Meats' products as well, snack sticks & summer sausage. Block 23 will have ready to go lunches (sandwich, chips & pop all WI made products as well), made fresh daily. We are also doing Ready-To-Serve-Catering. We will have a variety of Main Dish, Side Dish and other options on our menu. This isn't your typical catering service. Everything we will offer will be made either at Straka Meats or from local distributors. We will not cater the event, such as I won't bring it to you and make sure all is well when you're serving it. This setup is where: you order... we get it ready in say nesco cookers, trays, bowls all with serving utensils.. and you pick it up at our location and it is ready to plug in to warm up and ready to serve! Our retail store will have the variety of cheeses I explained but also a variety of products made in WI as well. Such as, crackers, jams, jellies, roasted nuts, popcorn, bloody mary mix, pickled items, apparel, cutting boards, charcuterie boards, knives, serving utensils and much much more. We are hoping to cater many graduation parties, holidays and family get-togethers! We are so excited to serve our community with only local WI made products!"

Want to be the ﬁrst to read Valley Sentinel? More subscriptions mean more routes, and our distribution intern is back at college, so we’re looking for help distributing the paper! We can’t thank those who have recently stepped up to oﬀer to help enough, thank you! Paper Distribution Routes Arena Subscribers: COVERED Arena Businesses: COVERED Lone Rock Subscribers: AVAILABLE Lone Rock Businesses: AVAILABLE Plain Subscribers: AVAILABLE

Plain Businesses: AVAILABLE Spring Green Subscribers: AVAILABLE Spring Green Businesses: AVAILABLE Want to enjoy scenic drives or a walk around town and assist in connecting our businesses, subscribers and community? Whether for fun or for volunteer experience, just one village, route, or more, we’d be happy to have you! Interested? Email: editor@valleysentinelnews.com or call 608-588-6694

Page 10 Thursday, February 24, 2022

Outdoors & Recreation

The Sauk County Gardener: Tasks to finish before spring arrives trees, visit https://hort.extension.wisc. edu/articles/pruning-deciduous-trees/. This will explain what should be pruned “Surely as cometh the Winter, I know there are Spring and how to prune. This is also the time violets under the snow.” to spray dormant oil to control scale –R. H. Newell (1836-1901) and other overwintering pests. Only Sooner than you think, spring will be spray when the temperature is over here and there some tasks you should 40 degrees F and will remain above complete before it arrives. One big task freezing for at least 24 hours. you need to complete is your dormant Once again, check your stored tree and shrub pruning. I recommend bulbs, tubers, corms, and rhizomes you finish it sooner versus later to and toss any that are soft or rotted. make sure you complete it before the Pot up your tuberous begonias and trees break dormancy. Some reasons caladium. Moisten the storing medium to prune your trees include controlling if necessary for the remaining stored size and shape, influencing flowering bulbs, tubers, etc. or fruiting, or helping maintain the Don’t be in a hurry to start too many tree’s health and appearance. Another seeds yet. However, February is the reason to prune is to improve the safety time to start leeks and onion seeds. of the tree by removing broken, dead, Also start impatiens, vinca, pansies or diseased branches. For fruit trees, and geranium seeds. Create your seedremove no more than a third of the old starting calendar for the rest of your seeds if you haven’t already. I picked up growth. To learn more about pruning

Jeannie Manis, Wisconsin Certiﬁed Master Gardener

a seed-planting schedule at the Garden Expo yesterday. I’ll use it as a guide and validate by reading the back of the seed packets I wish to plant. Bring spring indoors and force a few branches of pushy willows or Forsythia. Cut a few branches about a foot long at an angle with plenty of fat ﬂower buds on them. Select branches you would normally plan to prune out anyway. Place the branches in a bucket of warm water. Some recommend covering them with a clear plastic bag and putting them in a cool spot for a couple weeks until the buds develop. It’s important the branches do not dry out or the buds won’t bloom. After the buds start to elongate and show color, trim them up, place them in a vase, and move them to a warmer spot. Once they start to bloom, they last about a week. Keep them out of direct sun and away from heat vents. You can also force other

spring-flowering trees or shrubs such as crabapples, start magnolia, or dogwood. As a sidenote, I worked in the Extension’s booth at the Garden Expo this past weekend. It was staffed by Master Gardeners and by Extension staff and we were excited to answer folks’ gardening questions. Some questions were “easy” to answer, others we had to look up the answers, or ask the true experts, the Extension staff members, to answer. The most important thing we did was reference research-based gardening information. When you have a gardening question or problem, reach out to your local master gardeners, your Extension office staff, or visit https://hort.extension.wisc. edu/ask-a-gardening-question/ and submit your gardening question. You’ll receive unbiased answers that you know has been thoroughly researched and proven effective.

Birding Report: Redpolls flock to feeders, swans aim for open water Ryan Brady, DNR Natural Heritage Conservation Program Biologist The season’s big story has quickly become the common redpoll, a small finch of the arctic that has inundated feeders statewide over the past month. Redpolls visit the state most years but vary in numbers annually and often prevail in the north woods where preferred foods like birch, alder and tamarack dominate. This year, they have found fewer natural foods and moved farther south in large numbers, bringing hundreds to some feeders, including first-time sightings for many backyard birders. If they haven’t visited your feeders yet, they probably will over the next 1-2 months, especially if you offer black oil sunflower or nyjer (thistle) seeds. There are plenty of American goldfinches joining the feeding frenzy, as well as scattered flocks of pine siskins and a few purple and house finches. Less frequent feeder visitors include hoary redpoll, northern flicker, red-headed woodpecker, white-throated and fox sparrows, pine

grosbeaks in the north and tufted titmice in the south. All the action is attracting the attention of bird-eating raptors too, primarily sharp-shinned and Cooper’s hawks. Keep an eye out for white-winged crossbills as well, which c ntinue to show up at spruce trees with cones but could stop by feeding stations as well. Despite all the feeder activity, increasing daylight has us optimistic about spring migration. Alas, it’s not here quite yet. But a few trumpeter swans are pushing the boundaries of open water in the far north, and watch for horned larks showing up in new locations in the south. Depending on the weather, migration often gets underway in earnest across the southeast by early March as the ﬁrst geese, cranes and blackbirds begin to return, proceeding north and west in the weeks after. Longer daylight also means the breeding season is slowly kicking into gear. Some great horned owls are on eggs now, while bald eagles are tidying up nests or even beginning to lay eggs. Red-tailed hawks and American kestrels are more commonly seen in

Photo Credit Tom Prestby Trumpeter swans overwinter in Wisconsin but some have already begun to wander northward into small patches of open water across the north woods, a sign that spring is not far away. pairs now across the south, and ditto for ravens up north. Observers have also reported nests of pigeons and doves with eggs. Cardinals, chickadees and house ﬁnches will begin to sing more frequently as February ends.

Birders have a lot to be excited about in the month ahead. Share your excitement, track your life list and help us monitor the migration by reporting your sightings to eBird @ ebird.org

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources – Garden Planning: Avoid Invasive Plants Jaqi Christopher, DNR Forest Invasive Plant Specialist, and Mary Bartkowiak, DNR Forest Invasive Plant Coordinator With winter in full swing, many gardeners dream of spring and begin planning what plants to add to their gardens. Now is a great time to brush up on what not to plant to avoid invasive species that might be hiding in plain

Photo Credit Leslie J. Mehrhoﬀ Burning bush as a forest invasive.

Photo Credit Leslie J. Mehrhoﬀ Invasive burning bush used in landscape.

sight. One common garden plant that is a harmful invasive species is burning bush. Burning bush can be a beautifully manicured woody shrub in your garden, but it can also be a signiﬁcant ecological and economic threat to our forests. Seeds from this invasive plant can travel long distances by birds and other wildlife. These new populations can quickly invade and outcompete native species in natural areas if left unchecked. Did you know that Wisconsin

prohibits the sale of 145 plants that are considered invasive and can cause ecological or economic harm or harm to human health? Not every plant vendor is aware of this rule, especially if they operate online or in a different state with different regulations. It is always a good idea to check your plant selections before purchasing as these regulated plant species can continue to be sold at nurseries, garden centers and as seeds in wildflower

mixes. For more information on invasive plants in your garden, including a landscape alternatives brochure, visit our partners at the Midwest Invasive Plant Network (MIPN) at www.mipn. org/prevention/preventing-invasiveplants-in-gardens-and-landscapes/ We can all do our part to protect Wisconsin’s forests and natural areas by purchasing non-invasive species and removing harmful plants from our gardens.

Community

Thursday, February 24, 2022 Page 11

Taliesin Fellows reacts to Wright Foundation’s Institute news: ‘The legacy of Taliesin is now gone - so it is now just a museum’ continued from page 1 As the Taliesin Institute fleshes out a strategic plan for the scope of the programming it plans to offer, it’ll be organizing a consortium of leading architecture schools that will eventually send students to study at both Taliesin campuses. “Taliesin’s future is brighter than ever. Wright always wanted it to be a place of engagement for architecture and other arts, but it was also a place where business and civic leaders, and thought leaders from many disciplines, came together and exchanged ideas that shaped the future,” said Stuart Graff, CEO of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. “With the Taliesin Institute, we’re going back to Wright’s own ideas for how both Taliesin campuses could influence how we build and live.” In a statement to the publication The Architect’s Newspaper, Graff said that the Institute’s programs won’t seek academic accreditation like a college or university, but that he expects it will offer accredited continuing education programs for professionals. However, as recently as 2020 the Foundation had a formal relationship with an accredited institution. That institution now stylizes itself as “The School of Architecture, founded by Frank Lloyd Wright as The Taliesin Fellowship in 1932” — commonly abbreviated as TSOA. The Taliesin Fellowship, Wright’s apprenticeship program designed to expound his principle of organic architecture and allied arts, continued to evolve to be more formal under the Foundation as licensing requirements for architects changed. The School and the Foundation split into two separate entities in 2017 due to accreditation requirements forcing them to maintain separate budgets and governing bodies, with a final split in 2020 coming after uncertainty about the School’s future led the Foundation to decline to renew the School’s lease for use of either the Taliesin or Taliesin West campuses. However, disagreements still linger between the Foundation and the School. Savannah Kirmis, a senior account executive at the public relations firm representing the Foundation noted along with statements that, “The School of Architecture was not founded by Wright as the Fellowship, Wright was clear throughout his life that he did not want people to have the idea

Photo by Andrew Pielage A warmer view of Taliesin in Spring Green. An announcement has sparked conversations about Wright's legacy. that Taliesin was a school - that was something that came later (1986). The members of the Fellowship created a school long after Wright had died.” TSOA, for several years called the School of Architecture at Taliesin and previously the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, gaining formal accreditation in 1986, is in its 90th year of continuous operation says Sandra Shane-DuBow, a former trustee of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and a former board member of Taliesin Preservation as well as current Secretary of TSOA’s Board of Governors. “From the creation of the Taliesin Fellowship in 1932 until 2020, the School was based and operated at the two Taliesins as part of the Taliesin Fellowship. As the inheritor of the ongoing community of the Fellowship, the School is the Fellowship.” TSOA is an accredited graduate school of architecture, awarding a Master of Architecture degree for students who successfully complete its programs. The School also oﬀers eight week immersion courses. Following the split with the Foundation, the School is now based at Arcosanti and Cosanti in Arizona and continues to teach the philosophy of Wright’s organic architecture. Last year, TSOA students and faculty returned to Spring Green as part of the School’s Immersion Program, though they were unable to be at Taliesin, instead basing themselves at the Wright-designed Wyoming Valley

School and Cultural Arts Center just down the road. According to Shane-DuBow, the School’s faculty and students will be back in Spring Green this summer at Wyoming Valley School and will continue Wright’s “learning by doing” philosophy as it extends Wright’s principles of organic architecture. In the meantime, the launch of the Taliesin Institute has sparked conversations about Wright’s legacy, the Fellowship he founded and who owns the mantle to it. Shane-DuBow said she hadn’t seen much about the Taliesin Institute yet. “I understand that it will be a collection of programs designed to advance the principles of organic architecture, and that it will be developed over time. I also have not seen any indication that the Institute will be an accredited school of architecture,” said Shane-DuBow. “What the Institute will mean for the future of Taliesin and Wright’s legacy will be shown as it develops.” Others with a stake in Wright's legacy were less equivocal. “There was a great accredited school in place at Taliesin carrying on the legacy and for some reason the Foundation removed it. The school is still alive and well but at a new location,” says Jack P. Lee, president of the Taliesin Fellows, the oﬃcial alumni organization of TSOA and its predecessors. “The Foundation should now direct its time and funds to the restoration of Taliesin and Taliesin

West, as it should be doing and there is a great need to do so.” “The legacy of Taliesin is now gone, so it is now just a museum,” Lee concluded. TSOA President Chris Lasch and Dean Stephanie Lin did not respond to requests for comment for this story. However, during a visit to Spring Green as part of their immersion program last summer the TSOA administration expressed a desire to return to Taliesin. “We too would like for Taliesin to be filled with student activity to be a living, learning site and not just a museum. The School of Architecture founded by Frank Lloyd Wright as the Taliesin fellowship in 1932 looks forward to a day when our students can return to their former campuses at Taliesin and Taliesin West,” shared Nicole Hollenbeck, TSOA’s chief financial officer. When entailing the changes the Taliesin Institute will bring for the Spring Green campus, Graff disagreed with the characterization of Taliesin as a museum. “The Foundation will be announcing specific plans in the next few months, but for now I hope it suffices to say that Taliesin won’t ever be a house museum,” said Graff. “With the restoration of the Hillside Theatre, which we expect to complete this fall, and the new Institute, we see Taliesin as a resource to the community’s cultural and civic life.” The organization responsible for the preservation and programming of the Spring Green campus agreed. “As the Taliesin Institute grows, along with our public programming at Taliesin Preservation, the estate will continue to be a laboratory for living,” said Carrie Rodamaker, executive Director of Taliesin Preservation. “We welcome the diversity of thought and the continuation of Taliesin inspiring individuals to think critically about the intersection of the natural, built, and cultural environments.” As the Taliesin Institute fleshes out their programs, partners with a consortium of architecture schools and scales up its offerings, Graff was asked if the Foundation planned on working with TSOA. “It will be up to the consortium to set standards for the schools that participate, to ensure the high quality of participation,” says Graff. “If TSOA can meet the standards, they can participate like any other school that meets those standards.”

Business/Professional

Directory ork y W red t i l a u •Qu lly Ins ates •Fu e Estim e •Fr

J J and

Total Lawn Care

M-F Sat 8am-5p 8am -noo m n E4792 Kennedy Rd.

and

Snow Removal

James Harwood •608-588-2453•

Reserve a spot in our business/professional directory! Add $30 to any ad order or as a stand-alone ad and you’ll be added to the next week’s business/professional directory.

•Natural double shredded oak bark mulch - $30/yard •Colored decorative mulch Red-Brown-Gold-Orange - $30/yard •Free delivery to the River Valley area (min. 2 yards) •Other landscape supplies available! Gravel-Boulders-Screened Topsoil-Sand, etc.

We offer complete landscape and lawn care service •Full Landscaping from start to finish •Lawn Mowing We’ re y •Plantings stop our on sho e •Grading & Seedings p! •Bark Spreading •Limestone & Boulder Retaining Walls

Business card sized, full color ad. Perfect for top-of-mind awareness. Want to run it every week? $750 for 6 months, $1000 for 1 year (26% discount).

Outdoors & Recreation

Page 12 Thursday, February 24, 2022

An Outdoorsman’s Journal

Mark Walters, Columnist

Sturgeon with a Spear Hello friends, There are some things that I am good at and many that I am not. Spearing a sturgeon on Lake Winnebago is one of the things that I try hard at but, except for one time about 15 years ago, I always come home empty handed. I try hard, I really enjoy myself and it does not bother me a bit that I really suck at embedding my spear into an 80-pound dinosaur from the deep.

Friday, February 11th High 41°, Low 9°

So here is my plan. This year I am alone, I am driving to Oshkosh, getting on the ice by South Side Ice/Yacht Club and will immerse myself for 48-hours in a city of spearing shacks. There is a sleet, snow falling, it is 2:00 p.m., the wind is supposed to pick up to a sustained 20-mph by 4:00 p.m., I have a lot of work to do and of course I have my most loyal friend, my dog Ruby, along. First job and this was physical and scary. I am going to cut a hole in the ice the size of a coffin with my Jiffy ice auger and my chainsaw which has a 20-

inch bar. My plan was to first mark the entire outside edge of the hole with the auger, then go down to about 16inches with it staying in dry ice. In my perfect world I would cut the final 4inches with my Jonsered 2165. Brief description - extremely physical while wearing chest waders with an error of cutting too deep with the auger so my hole flooded which meant the saw end of this job was in the water. In the end I was soaked with sweat and had a block the size of a bathtub to push under the ice. I decided to cut it in half with the auger and because I had to lean over so much, I had two experiences where I literally got sucked into Winnebago by the ten inch auger, both times I about filled my waders with something besides water as I got out of my predicament. I was proud as hell when the job was done, and I opened a can of beer as the wind hit gale force. I decided to turn my radio on while I built camp. Crapola, my batteries were dead. I use my Eskimo Fatshack for spearing and living in. The Fatshack is 13x8 feet, pops up like a turkey blind,

Photo by Mark Walters, Columnist Quite the adventure cutting this hole in the frozen waters of Lake Winnebago!

Photo by Mark Walters, Columnist This Sunrise on Lake Winnebago at Oshkosh.

can really catch the wind and of course you do not want to fall in the hole which you are setting it over. I get the Fatshack up, spill my beer, the wind is my music and I decide to start running my four gas lines. One for my heater, a brand new Mr. Buddy, my third one in 13 months. Another for my cookstove and two for my propane lights. More bad luck as I realize I forgot all but one of my gas lines, choices had to be made, my punishment, make due with what I had. Next, I had to put a 32x28 foot tarp on my shack so it would be dark inside. I used my truck as a wind block, but this was a gamble as it was very close to the coffin sized hole in the ice. I got the tarp on the shack and used the slush from my hole to hold it down. I set up my kitchen, cot, enjoyed a PBR and cooked an excellent supper. The wind was so powerful that sleep was not my friend as it seemed I would be blown east to the Atlantic ocean in my Fatshack.

Photo by Mark Walters, Columnist (left to right) Alicia Duffrin of Fifield and Hailey Bornemann with Alicia's 71 pound sturgeon!

Saturday, February 12th High 12°, Low -6°

Spearing hours are from 7:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. I actually enjoy this even though over

about 15 years I have only seen one sturgeon and it is dead. No one around me got one this morning and the group I speared with the last two years, the Bornemann’s who spear near Stockbridge, had the same luck. I should have been near them because they are fun, but I figured I had better mix up this story, so I went to Oshkosh.

Sunday, February 13th High 7°, Low -10°

Once again today I was not presented with a shot and at 1:00 p.m. it was time to take down the shack and pack the Chevy Hotel. I had just started my task when I got a text from Hailey Bornemann and a great photo. Alicia Duffrin, who is from Fifield, was sitting with her husband Leon and she had thrown her spear into what would be a 71-pound sturgeon with just 15 minutes left in the spearing day. Congrats Alicia and Leon, next year I will be back! —Sunset

Want to read more?

Check out previous weeks’ columns at www.outdoorsmansjournal.com

Call now for a no-cost, judgement free consultation about your legal situation.

(608) 588-0585