Stoughton
“Our family will take good care of your family.” Family Owned, Family Operated, Celebrating 97 Years Of Service
(608) 873-4590
Thursday, April 9, 2020 • Vol. 138, No. 38 • Stoughton, WI • ConnectStoughton.com • $1.50
www.gundersonfh.com East Madison/Monona • West Madison/Middleton • Mt. Horeb Stoughton • Black Earth • Oregon • Cross Plains • Fitchburg • Lodi
adno=151647
Courier Hub The
COVID-19 response
Preparing for the hit Stoughton dons masks, hunkers down as state COVID-19 death toll spikes JIM FEROLIE Hub editor
With face masks now commonplace, and a fight over whether to postpone a statewide election, constant change was the norm in Stoughton during the fourth week in which the coronavirus and COVID-19 has turned our lives upside-down. Stoughton began discussing how to replace the loss of Syttende Mai and its economic impact on businesses and nonprofits and Stoughton Hospital eliminated all visits, even from close family members, as did other hospitals in the area. The number of COVID-19 cases in the country more than doubled to 360,000 as of Monday, April 6, the number of deaths more than tripled in the past week to 10,000. The illness crept further into Dane County, which reported more than 300 cases as of Tuesday. Updated information on the spread of the virus led
Inside Learning to cope with self-isolation Page 2 SASD gets going on virtual learning Page 3 Stoughton Hospital says no visitors Page 3 EMS director uneasy about supply of PPE Page 5 Golf courses unhappy with closure order Page 7 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to recommend the use of face masks – even homemade cloth ones – for any public
Turn to Quarantine/Page 9
Photo by Mackenzie Krumme
Rachel Tuberville leaves Stoughton Trailers on Wednesday, March 25. She is wearing a mask to protect herself from COVID-19.
Stoughton Trailers, Cummins affected differently by COVID MACKENZIE KRUMME Unified Newspaper Group
The coronavirus pandemic continues to affect the economy; including two of Stoughton’s largest employers. Stoughton Trailers and Cummins Inc. have responded to COVID-19 in different ways. Stoughton Trailers gave shop floor hourly employees a temporary pay increase, while Cummins cut salaried employees’ pay between 10-25% and reduce working hours. Chief executive Tom Linebarger’s salary will be cut in half. The cuts at Cummins are in line with national trends, with U.S unemployment at a historic high. The US
Department of Labor registered 7.14 million unemployed claims in March, obliterating the previous record set in October 1982 of 695,000 unemployed workers. And it is only going to get worse. “It is important to keep in mind that the March survey reference periods for both surveys predated many coronavirus-related business and school closures in the second half of the month,” the department of labor survey states. Katie Zarich of Cummins Global said the cuts were made in U.S facilities, and international employees and all hourly employees are not impacted by the order.
The Syttende Mai that will never be Photo by Mackenzie Krumme
Stoughton Walmart restricted entrances to one door on Sunday, April 5. A line of customers entering the building are required to stand 6-feet away from each other.
Courier Hub
Weekend festival cancellation felt by community members, businesses MACKENZIE KRUMME Unified Newspaper Group
Although Patrice Roe knows she’ll miss out on quite a bit of revenue in her store when May 17 comes around, the Nordic Nook owner said what she and everyone will miss more is the pride the community feels of our town. “On that weekend, I’ll bring out my Norwegian flag and fly it anyway,” Roe said. But in the face of growing
health concerns about the n ove l c o r o n av i r u s a n d COVID-19, Syttende Mai organizers decided they had to cancel this year’s celebration of Norway’s independence day. T h e a n n u a l f o u r- d a y event, which had been planned for May 15-17, is the biggest by far of the hundreds of Stoughton area events that have been canceled over the past month. Stoughton’s Syttende Mai generally brings in around thousands people from all over the world, and the only known way to prevent the spread of the virus, which was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11, is to keep
Turn to Festival/Page 9
“It is definitely a tough decision but one that is made in the best interest of the company. It helps to ensure the sustainability of the company long term,” she said. The company employs 61,000 people globally, and has had to temporarily close one facility in Indiana as a result of the primary customer temporary closing, Zarich said. Zarich said at this time there is so much uncertainty about the global supply chain she can not say how COVID-19 will affect other U.S facilities, including Stoughton. Previously reported by the Hub,
Turn to Manufacturing /Page 9
Voting proceeds despite pandemic High courts overturn postponement, deadline extension RENEE HICKMAN Unified Newspaper Group
Election Day continued as planned Tuesday, April 7 despite the ongoing threat of COVID-19. In Stoughton, a steady stream of people walked into the Stoughton Wellness and Activity Center to vote in person. Voters, many of them wearing masks and carrying their own pens, stayed six feet
apart while poll workers counted absentee ballots. In an effort to halt the possible spread of the virus at voting sites, Gov. Tony Evers issued Executive Order No. 74 on Monday, April 6, which would have postponed the election until June 9. But by late afternoon that same day, the Wisconsin Supreme Court had overturned the order on a 4-2 vote, stating that Evers lacked the authority to move the vote on his own. More changes came that evening when the U.S. Supreme Court overruled a previous extension of the
Turn to Poll workers/Page 12