Local

DANE COUNTY–Beginning today, May 11, the Wisconsin National Guard opened a Dane County community testing site for COVID-19.

Free, drive-thru and walk-up testing is available to all residents. No appointment is necessary. Depending on utilization, the testing site will be open until further notice.

The testing will be conducted in the New Holland Pavilion at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison.  It is open Monday-Saturday, 8 a.m.-4 p.m. If you drive up, you will remain in your car the entire time. Using the Exact Sciences test, Wisconsin National Guard staff will collect specimens.

The community testing site is available to all residents.

The test is not an antibody test and does not indicate if someone has had COVID-19 in the past. Results are expected within 3-5 days.

MIDDLETON–These are uncertain times, and the entire Middleton community is faced with new challenges. While many activities have been cancelled through the spring and early summer, the Good Neighbor Festival Board of Trustees continues to plan for the 57th Annual Good Neighbor Festival on August 28-30, and they remain cautiously optimistic that the event can take place. 

Although organizers are seeking to preserve this cherished community tradition, there will be changes to adjust to the COVID-19 situation as necessary. One significant change that was already in the works is that the festival will adopt an “open campus“ concept in 2020, allowing alcoholic beverages to be consumed on most of the festival grounds instead of being limited to two separate beer tents. William “Sonny” Simon VFW Post 8216 and Middleton Youth Hockey will operate individual beer stands as in the past, with the VFW focusing on domestic beer and Hockey featuring craft beer options.

TOWN OF MIDDLETON–The Town of Middleton Tourism Commission Monday cancelled Sunflower Days this summer and cast doubt on whether the event would ever be scheduled again.

Not only does a $15,045 deficit remain from last year’s flower festival but the current COVID-19 pandemic has caused the cancellation of other long-standing summer events including Madison’s Shake the Lake and Oshkosh’s Air Adventure.

As recently as early March, the town board was considering holding a scaled-back Sunflower Days at Pope Farm Conservancy as only $8,811 in room tax revenue, which partly funds the event, was expected to be available.

First quarter room tax revenue this year totaled $4,023 but the “Safer At Home” statewide order is expected to depress travel and the resulting revenue.

The tourism commission is comprised of town board members and they expressed little enthusiasm for hosting an event this summer.

MIDDLETON–The Middleton Public Library is now offering expanded curbside pickup. Due to a variety of logistical factors, such as no inter-library delivery, building design, and staffing for social distancing, curbside pickup services are limited and vary by location www.scls.info/librariesbounceback.

Please see the below instructions for placing holds on Middleton owned materials and scheduling a pick-up time.  

Due Dates & Returns: July 1 is the updated and extended due date for all materials checked out from the Middleton Public Library. The library is asking that patrons hold on to the items they currently have checked out–all book drops remain closed at this time.

Hold Materials and Curbside Pickup: 

Color this spring scene and email it to us with your name and age and we will display it here on our webesite. 

Send your creations to timestribuneeditor@newspubinc.com. You can download the coloring page here, or look for it in the print edition of the TImes-Tribune!

MIDDLETON–The City of Middleton will be able to move forward with opening some services back up after Gov. Tony Evers slightly loosened restrictions on what can and cannot be open.

The Middleton Public Library and Pleasant View Golf Course will both be allowed to open with some restrictions. Neither can open before the original Safer at Home order runs out on April 24.

Jocelyne Sansing, director of the Middleton Public Library, said in the Good Neighbor Hub meeting last week that she is not yet sure what their opening plan will look like, and did not have a solid opening date at press time. The library will only be able to do curbside pickup.

“It will be a coordinated effort based on interpretation of the order, following a lot along the lines of restaurant curbside pickup,” she explained.

MADISON–An electric car parade has been planned in celebration of Earth Day on April 22. The parade will begin and end at Marshall Park in Madison, and is expected to kick off at 11: 30 a.m. and conclude at around 1 p.m.

The parade’s goal is to celebrate Earth Day, raise awareness of care for the environment, and promote electric vehicles, in a way that practices safe distancing during Covid-19. 

All EV and plug-in hybrids are welcome to participate in the event. 

Feel free to decorate with banners, posters, signs, flags, streamers, plants, flowers, balloons, shaving cream, tin cans, etc. Please make sure everything is well attached so we are not littering our beautiful green world or causing driving hazards. Also feel free to play music or make noise!

To add your vehicle or ask questions, contact Carol Phelps at: carolandp@yahoo.com 

MILWAUKEE–Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin (DFW) and the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) have joined forces with the state’s leading antihunger organization, Hunger Task Force, to help provide relief to the growing numbers of underfed and unemployed by connecting milk to emergency food organizations throughout the state.

With the substantial support of the local individual donor community during the COVID-19 pandemic, Hunger Task Force will commit up to $1 million to the newly created Wisconsin Dairy Recovery Program. Wisconsin dairy farmers will be paid to supply milk to farmer-owned dairy cooperative Kemps, who will kick off the beginning phase of this week by processing thousands of gallons of milk at its Cedarburg, Wis. facility.

MADISON–On April 16, Gov. Tony Evers directed Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) Secretary-designee Andrea Palm to extend the Safer at Home order from April 24,  to 8 a.m. to May 26, or until a superseding order is issued. The order implements some new measures to ensure safety and support the progress we've made in containing COVID-19, but also allows certain activities to start up again. 

“A few weeks ago, we had a pretty grim outlook for what COVID-19 could mean for our state, but because of the efforts of all of you, Safer at Home is working. That said, we aren't out of the woods just yet,” said Gov. Evers. “As I've said all along, we are going to rely on the science and public health experts to guide us through this challenge. So, as we extend Safer at Home, I need all of you to continue doing the good work you've been doing so we can keep our families, our neighbors, and our communities safe, and get through this storm together.”

DANE COUNTY–“Unprecedented.” “Historic.” “Unique.” Those are some of the words area bankers used to described the SBA (Small Business Administration), Payroll Protection Program (PPP) loans available as part of the federal CARES Act.

Jim Tubbs, State Bank of Cross Plains (SBCP) President and CEO, and Ken Thompson, Capitol Bank (Capitol) President and CEO and chair-elect of the Wisconsin Bankers Association explained how the PPP loans work, and how business owners can potentially have 100 percent of the loan forgiven by the SBA.

The PPP loan process began on April 3 and banks have been busy assisting customers and processing the loans, which vary widely in amounts. The federal government set a cap at $350 billion for the program, with no limits as to how much a particular state can use.

These are some features that set the PPP loans apart.