The
Durand Fun-Fest Committee along with the Miss Durand Royalty
Committee have both announced the cancellation of Fun-Fest and the
Miss Durand Pageant for 2020. Both events were canceled due to the
current situation with the Covid-19 pandemic. Fun-Fest was scheduled
from June 5-7th
. The current Miss Durand, Caterina Wood will continue to serve as
Miss Durand and will attend any parades and community events that
would be scheduled. The Daddy-Daughter Dance along with other
smaller events will be held and the Royalty Committee encourages any
events that are scheduled in the future to contact the committee to
have Durand Royalty attend.
Pepin
and Buffalo County have partnered together to have the Wisconsin
National Guard do community testing for Covid-19. Pepin County
Health Officer Heidi Stewart says the goal is to increase testing of
symptomatic people. This
is also an opportunity for those asymptomatic or in high risk
categories to be tested. The testing will be first come-first served
on Friday from 11-7 at the Buffalo County Highway Shop in Alma.
There are 200 tests available and your encouraged to check the Pepin
County Health Departments Facebook Page to make sure tests are still
available before traveling to Alma.
The
Mondovi City Council met last night. Council members received an
update on the pilot project the the CLEARAS program for the Waste
Water Treatment Plant. The project, which uses algae to help clean
water, was tested to determine if CLEARAS was suitable for use in
Mondovi. The pilot project was deemed successful in reducing
phosphorus and other nutrients in cold water and industrial waste
conditions. The city of Roberts is installing the same system which
should go on line this summer, and Mondovi officials want to see how
the Roberts system is working before moving ahead.
The
burning ban in the Durand Fire response area has been lifted. While
the ban is lifted, those wanting to burn need to get a permit from
the town chairman, call the county dispatch center to let
authorities know you are burning and tend your fire so it doesnt get
out of control.
A
Chippewa County Circuit Court judge has sentenced a Cadott man to 15
years in prison for stabbing a deputy. The incident happened in
2018. Travis Abbiehl attacked Chippewa County Sergeant Andrew
Clark with a knife. Clark was searching for Abbiehl’s brother
at the time. Abbiehl will serve the 15-year sentence in a state
mental facility.
Some
universities in Wisconsin are shifting to a pass-fail grading system
while classes are online during the coronavirus pandemic.
U-W-La Crosse Chancellor Joe Gow says letter grades of “C” or
better would be converted to an “S” for satisfactory, while
letter grades of “D” or “F” would be converted to
unsatisfactory. Students will have until mid-June to petition
to make the switch, but they don't have to. In the long-term,
the university plans to return to traditional letter grades.
The
building containing the Boyd Feed and Supply Mill is just a pile of
rubble after a Monday morning fire. That historic building was
nearly 120 years old. It was built in 1902 and owner Jerry
Gully has operated the business since 1977. Eight different
fire departments from that part of northwestern Wisconsin responded
at about 4:30 a-m. No injuries were reported and Gully says he
doesn’t know if the business will be rebuilt or not.
The
Evers administration has filed its response to the lawsuit filed over
the governor’s Safer at Home extension. The Wisconsin Supreme
Court still hasn’t said if it will hear oral arguments.
Legislative leaders who sued -- saying Secretary of Health designee
Andrea Palm over-reaching when the order was extended -- now have
until Thursday to offer their own response. The Evers
administration says the cases of COVID-19 were doubling every
three-point-four days when the first order was issued.
Now, that doubling has slowed to every 12-point-four days.
Attorney General Josh Kaul says state statutes give broad powers to
the D-H-S in such an undisputed emergency.
Health
officials in Minnesota are concerned about President Trump's
executive order to force meat processing plants to stay open.
State Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm said, "it seems
problematic to say the least." COVID-19 outbreaks have
forced the closure of several packing plants. The Minnesota
Department of Health's Kris Ehresmann said, " in the
case of J-B-S (in Worthington), they have employees who need to be
out of work because they tested positive and are isolated."
Ehresmann says wanting to re-open is going to be a
challenge, just because of the employees who are not able to work.
Republican Congressmen Tom Emmer, Pete Stauber and Jim Hagedorn say
they support Trump's effort to "to keep the food supply chain
operational."
The
search is over for a missing Cannon Falls man. The Minnesota
B-C-A says 37-year-old Richard Sanders was found dead in Rice County.
The Goodhue County Sheriff’s Office had issued a missing
person report for Sanders in February. Sanders was last seen
the morning of February 2nd leaving a mobile home park in Cannon
Falls on foot. The B-C-A says foul play is not suspected in his
death.
Most
of the state parks that were closed earlier this month are now set to
open this weekend. State parks director Mark Aquino says some parks
will remain closed, particularly some of the natural wildlife areas
which tend to congregate people together. You
will have to have an annual pass to get into parks, because day
passes are not being sold right now. You can find a list of parks
that will be open online at DNR dot WI dot Gov.
The
Democratic Party of Wisconsin has scrapped plans for an in-person
state convention. State party chair Ben Wikler made the decision to
hold a virtual event June 12, due to the coronavirus pandemic,
according to WisPolitics-dot-com. Organizers are still trying to
figure out logistics on how to run the event virtually. It will
include election of delegates to the national convention and speeches
by some elected officials will give speeches.
One
Wisconsin lawmaker is accusing the governor of flip-flopping on which
businesses are being allowed to reopen. Governor Tony Evers
tweaked his Safer at Home order Monday to allow dog groomers, kayak
renting businesses, car washes and lawnmower repair shops to get back
to work. Others are still closed. Republican State
Representative Jim Steinke says people are getting confused by the
constant changes. Those businesses are reopening even though
they don’t meet the governor’s Badger Bounce Back criteria.
The
coronavirus quarantine has pushed the University of Wisconsin's
online learning platform to the front of the class. The U-W system
says nearly five-thousand faculty had published more than
17-thousand courses online as of April 8th. University system
officials say they launched their online learning platform in the
summer of 2017, but stay-at-home orders due to the COVID-19 outbreak
has accelerated the shift to on-line teaching and learning.
The
Wisconsin Humanities Council is offering financial relief to
nonprofit organizations hurt by the coronavirus pandemic. The
Wisconsin Humanities CARES Relief Grant program will distribute about
540 thousand dollars in federal relief funding. Individual
organizations can apply for up to 10 thousand dollars between now and
May 15th.
To be eligible, they have to be located in Wisconsin while providing
public humanities programming as a significant portion of their
mission.
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