Local

MIDDLETON–Responding to an increasing number of noise complaints the Middleton Airport Commission last week simplified the noise complaint reporting form aimed at making it more user friendly.

Commission Chair Ald. Robert Burck drafted a revised form that removed a space to insert the aircraft’s tail number, information many said was impractical if not impossible to obtain from a moving plane.

The form requires the street address of where the noise occurred, which has been a sore spot for those who have filed complaints and say they then had planes fly low and loud over their address in retaliation.

The section requiring the filer’s email addresses and phone number has been omitted from the new form.

“What information we do need is to identify the time, date and location of the noise concern,” Burck said, in order to investigate the complaint.

MIDDLETON–Middleton High School hockey player Ava Jambor is organizing the Third Annual Super Noah Hockey Game, a fundraiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The fundraiser began a way to support Noah Sanger, a hockey lover who was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) at the age of four and a half. He has been cancer free since March 2020 after three and a half years of treatments.

This year Middleton High School hockey team and local community will be celebrating Noah’s victory over cancer. There will be raffle baskets, homemade food, and a 3v3 hockey tournament.

The event was to be held on Feb. 6 at Penni Klein Park, 8780 Airport Rd., Middleton, but cold temperatures have moved the event to Feb. 20 after previously being rescheduled for Feb. 13..

MADISON–No one was happy with the number of vaccines they received last week, Julie Willems Van Dijk, Wisconsin Department of Health (DHS) Deputy Secretary told a group of reports in a virtual press conference on Tuesday. Willems Van Dijk was referring to the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines to health care providers and health departments that requested nearly 300,000 doses.

“We could only fulfill 27 percent of their requests,” she said.

She reiterated that more vaccine is needed in the state and said that supply is one of three things needed to deliver vaccines, public demand and infrastructure to deliver the vaccines are the others. “We have public demand, and we have built the infrastructure to make vaccinating successful,” she explained, and said she knew waiting was difficult.

TOWN OF MIDDLETON–An Oklahoma woman was arrested in the Town of Middleton last week for her alleged involvement in a homicide prosecutors and law enforcement have described as “grisly,” “brutal” and “bizarre.”

Kore Adams, also known as Kore Bommeli, 59, was arrested last week after law enforcement officials discovered the body of her former roommate, Talina Galloway, 53, dismembered and stuffed into a chest freezer that was dumped in an Arkansas national forest. 

Oklahoma District 27 District Attorney Jack Thorp said the Dane County Sheriff’s Office was contacted in the case when they learned Bommeli was in the area. Thorp said Bommeli’s mother lives in Dane County. 

“She was pulled over as she left work,” Thorp told the Times-Tribune over the phone and added she had been in the area for a few months, leaving Oklahoma after she was released on a charge of a Felon in Possession of Firearms.

MIDDLETON–Conversation at the Middleton Equity Team (MET) meeting last week centered mostly around the redistribution of wealth within the community and how that could be achieved. 

After watching a short video about redlining, the practice of rating neighborhoods and drawing red lines around those deemed least desirable, the committee broke into small groups to discuss the practice and what it means in regard to wealth, how racist neighborhood covenants have affected the city and the impact of redistribution of wealth. The members returned to as a whole and discussed the factors that affected wealth distribution. 

One concern was some of the neighborhoods with infill housing lack green space and transportation options. One idea was to include green space when planning infill projects in existing neighborhoods. 

WISCONSIN–Wisconsin Department of Health Services Deputy Secretary Julie Willems Van Dijk told a group of reporters at a virtual press conference Monday that slow shipment of COVID-19 vaccines by the federal government is to blame for the low number of doses administered in the state. She joined Gov. Tony Evers in asking that the feds step up their shipment of vaccines. She said that although Pres. Elect Joe Biden has said his administration will get one million doses shipped per day, at that rate it would still take nearly a year to vaccinate all adults in the United States. As of Monday, 151,502 doses had been administered, 11,586 of which were second doses.

“This is a great accomplishment, but it’s not enough,” Willems Van Dijk said.

DANE COUNTY–Meinholz Quarry LLC, (owned by Yahara Materials), filed a writ of certiorari seeking to have the Dane County Circuit Court reverse the Dane Town Board of Zoning and Appeals (BZA) decision, which affirmed the Springfield Zoning Administrator’s finding that the non-conforming use status of the quarry was invalid. Meinholz also filed a declaratory relief against the Town of Springfield. On Dec. 23, two years after the Town of Springfield Board of directors initially approved the quarry’s proposed expansion, both filings were dismissed by Judge Frank D. Remington.

At a Dec. 2, 2019 meeting the BZA made a decision on a piece of land slated for quarry expansion by Yahara Materials. The board found that the 40-acre parcel, known as the Meinholz property, was conforming status and did fall under the Town of Springfield ordinance jurisdiction, which would require a conditional use permit from the town for mineral extraction.

WISCONSIN–After the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) emergency use approval (EUA) of the Moderna vaccine, the second in as many weeks, on Dec. 18, Wisconsin is poised to 101,000 doses this week.

Unlike the Pfizer vaccine, approved on Dec. 11, the Moderna vaccine can be handled like other vaccines and does not require extreme cold temperatures. It will be distributed directly to health care providers rather than follow a hub and spoke model of distribution which is the distribution model for the Pfizer vaccine.

In spite of reports of several allergic reactions to the Pfizer vaccine, inoculations continued around the country, including Wisconsin. Though the company has told recipients with reactions not to get a second dose of the vaccine.

MIDDLETON–Parents and students took to streets on Dec. 21 calling for the school district to implement in-person learning for students in all grade levels beginning at the start of the second semester. About 50 people gathered at Middleton High School (MHS) and marched to the district administration building on South St. hours before the board voted on implementing a blended instruction model for all students.

An organizer of the march and parent of a student at MHS, Joel Moyer, said families want a commitment from the board that the district will implement in-person learning as soon as possible. Moyer says he supports getting kids back in schools even if that means only partially in a virtual/in-person blended instruction model, which the school district did approve for grades 4K-2 beginning Feb. 1.

DANE COUNTY–The Dane County Sheriff’s Office is urging people to stay off the ice. Although ice has been forming on area lakes throughout the week, the conditions are still unsafe for ice fishing and other activities.

Marine and Trail deputies, along with Madison Fire and Rescue, have responded to at least three calls already today to rescue individuals who have fallen through. One ice angler on Mudd Lake was able to get himself out of the water but lost all of his fishing gear.

It’s understandable that people are anxious to get outside and enjoy winter activities, but safety needs to be the top priority. If you do decide to take the gamble, make sure you are wearing a life jacket and that you have communicated with a friend or family member on your location.

Above all, remember that the ice is never 100 percent safe.