Inside this edition
Sauk County hires public health officer Page 5
An Outdoorsman’s Journal Page 6
We are once again asking you to read: Page 8
Spring Green, Wisconsin
Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2021 Vol. 2, No. 4 Free, Single-Copy
Spring Green Medical Center offers COVID-19 vaccine clinic Emilie Conlon, Editor-in-Chief
Photos contributed by the Richland Hospital
Frontline healthcare workers receive their COVID-19 vaccination at the Richland Hospital. The Richland Hospital Spring Green Medical Center now offers a vaccine clinic Monday-Friday with appointments 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for eligible individuals to receive a COVID-19 vaccination. The Richland Hospital also holds clinics as its campus.
The Spring Green Medical Clinic, a subsidiary of the Richland Hospital, is hosting daily COVID-19 vaccine clinics to distribute vaccines to eligible individuals in the area. The clinics offer vaccines to individuals who fall into the current distribution phase, Monday through Friday, with appointment slots available approximately 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Currently, the clinic is servicing individuals 65 years and older, along with individuals who fall into phase 1A, which includes frontline healthcare workers, first responders and phase 1B, including additional healthcare workers, corrections workers and funeral workers. “We plan to be doing this here for the next two to three months,” said Lyle Kratochwill, Richland Hospital Emergency Management coordinator. “We’ll be expanding based on the vaccine allocations that we get.” The vaccination is provided to community members at no charge, however the hospital does charge an administration fee that can be fully covered by health insurance, medicare, medicaid and employer or the federal government. The Richland Hospital is also providing vaccine clinics, Kratochwill said the hospital is waiting for the Muscoda Health Clinic to receive their status as a vaccinator, and plans to hold clinics there as well. “The vaccine comes in a multi-dose vial, so when you plan a vaccine clinic, you try to plan a certain number of doses that are in multiples of six, we want to try to avoid wasting any one dose,” said Kratochwill.
See page 4
Village of Plain set to receive $190,000 in community grant funds for road work Emilie Conlon, Editor-in-Chief The village of Plain was recently awarded approximately $190,000 in community grant funds for structural upgrades to Nachreiner Avenue. The village was officially awarded Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds from Sauk County at the county board Jan. 19 meeting. The funds were originally earmarked for a low-to medium income housing development in Reedsburg, but developers for the project fell through, leaving the county to find a new, eligible project by the end of January. “If we don’t assign them by Jan. 31, they will revert back to the state and we sure don’t want that, we want to keep it all in Sauk County,” said Supervisor Wally Czuprynko of
Lake Delton. The $190,000 funds will cover the entire cost of the project for the segment of Nachreiner Avenue from Oak Street to Main Street. The project will include removing and replacing over 700 feet of existing water main, 545 feet of existing sanitary sewer, 400 feet of sewer and water materials and three sewer manholes. The sewer and water materials currently there are over 60 years old, according to the project proposal. The proposal said, according to the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the system has outlived its useful life by approximately 25 to 30 years, and “the problems on Nachreiner Avenue will not improve if left untreated. They are only going to get progressively worse,” according to the proposal.
The proposal said if the upgrades are not completed, the frequency of water main breaks and sewer back-ups will increase, although residents in the village have yet to experience any sewer problems. Additional work includes widening the west side entrances of the road, and completely reconstructing the roadway to allow for two-way traffic and street parking. Currently the road way is not large enough to allow for two-way traffic and street parking, and was declared a one-way about two years ago by the village. The curbs and gutters on the road will also be reconstructed. The sidewalks will be lowered six inches to be flush with existing lawns and walkways, to improve safety for pedestrians. CDBG funds are designed to provide or improve low to medium
income housing, and for projects to be eligible a certain number of residents in the area must fall into that category. Village Clerk Sheila Carver said she felt the village’s project was being “swept under the rug” at the county level because county officials were concerned the village did not meet the income qualifications. However, over 60% of the residents on Nachreiner Avenue fall into the low-to-medium income bracket. “Jared Pinkus, the guy who is kind of in charge of all of this, thought that Plain wouldn’t qualify with the low-to-moderate income, I said ‘I did a target survey and we are qualified’,” said Carver. “I felt like we were kind of being swept up under the carpet and I was like, ‘We really
See page 4