I’m always here I’M STILL HERE!for you! 26 years in VASD Housing Market
It’s your paper! Friday, May 8, 2020 • Vol. 7, No. 3 • Fitchburg, WI • ConnectFitchburg.com • $1
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Kathy Bartels 608-235-2927
KBartels@StarkHomes.com
The early phases
Inside
Promega researches COVID-19 immunity response tests EMILIE HEIDEMANN
Planting hope (and trees)
Unified Newspaper Group
Page 2 70% have responded to Census Page 3
Home & Garden Photos by Neal Patten
Thirsty Goat employee Freddie Schulz waits with a food order outside the restaurant.
Miller & Sons Your Home & Garden Headquarters!
Adapting for survival Food service industry faces challenges to get through pandemic
Green Garden Supplies
from our Greenhouse! • Many Varieties of Bedding Plants and Shrubs • Roses • Bagged Potting Soils • Vegetable and Flower Seeds
NEAL PATTEN Unified Newspaper Group
210 S. Main St. Verona, WI • (608) 845-6478 Monday - Sunday 6:30am - 9:00pm
Pages 9-13 adno=151012
Sports WIAA cancels spring sports competition Page B1
Schools
Families adapt to stay-at-home schooling Page B8
Ever since the state ordered all non-essential businesses to shut down March 25 to curb the spread of COVID-19, there’s been a debate over what is essential. Tanya Laiter argues her business, Rolling Pin Bake Shop, is essential because of her comforting food. That’s one reason the Fitchburg bakery at 2935 S. Fish Hatchery Road has remained open. “We are a community bakery, the owner said. “I feel like I am helping my community by providing essential foods like breads and desserts. Sometimes you are sitting at home and you have to have brownies or breads. You need your sweets.” Even before the Safer at Home order, most businesses had been forced to adapt to new conditions since a March 17 order limited gatherings to under 10 people. It’s been especially complicated for restaurants, cafes and bars. Many switched to carryout only business, some have closed altogether, and others have adjusted week to week to keep their employees working. Quivey’s Grove, 6261 Nesbitt Road, remained open for two full weeks after the order was issued.
Carla Williams and son Malik keep their physical distance while picking up sweet treats from Rolling Pin Bake Shop. Then it shut down, then reopened. Caleb Percevecz, one of the managers, told the Star everything was going perfectly fine at first, but as the spread of the virus progressed, there was concern customers would congregate while waiting for orders – which would lead to gatherings of 10 or more – especially during Friday fish fries. And Quivey’s, like so many other establishments that have adapted to a new way of doing business, was simply not built to do an all carryout business, Percevecz said, as part of its appeal is the ambience of the rustic barn and stone house it operates in.
“It’s really hard to figure out the best way to do it,” he said. “It’s definitely been hurting us, but luckily we have 40 years under our belt and really great owners who have put the work in to make sure we have a strong foundation.” One universal sentiment among food- and drink-based establishments has been the difficulty of weathering the pandemic financially over the course of several weeks. At Barriques, 5957 McKee Road, for example, its core business is its coffee and cafe food, but most of what it’s been selling
Turn to Sustaining/Page 15
Turn to Promega/Page 15
Promega 2800 Woods Hollow Road #5399 Around 1,500 employees Founded in 1978 492-3747 promega.com
151
University of Wisconsin
PLACES like no OTHER
Downtown State Capitol
MADISON Mineral Point Rd
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University Research Park
Lake Monona
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ON
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FITCHBURG PD
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151
1. Raven
2. Vista
Fish Hatchery Rd
A 2020 special section by
As the novel coronavirus has made its way around the planet, so too has the effort to understand how the disease spreads and who develops immunity to it. Companies both here at home and globally are racing to achieve that understanding. One of those is Promega, which is in the early research phases of evaluating COVID-19 immune response tests, senior communications specialist Karen Burkhartzmeyer told the Star. As part of that evaluation, the Fitchburg biotech business is seeking participants who have previously contracted SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, to be involved in an antibody study. Promega staff will test each participant for disease antibodies using tube samples of their blood — a test known as a serological assay. Promega’s chief medical officer, Ashley Anderson, wrote in an April 8 blog post that such testing, already carried out by laboratories around the country and world, suggests there might be far more people who have had the disease than previously thought. That could have profound implications for how governments and businesses will continue to respond to COVID-19 in the coming months. “The need for reliable virus detection methods is central to the global response to COVID-19,” Anderson wrote. “The test results not only inform health decisions for individual patients, but they also help us build projections of how the virus will spread, which can in turn influence policy decisions.”
3. Prima
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UPTOWN
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5 6 FITCHBURG TECHNOLOGY CAMPUS
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CONTACT US
NEW YEAR, NEW APARTMENT! 4. Riva
5. Turnberry
6. Tralee
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120 E. Lakeside Street Madison, WI 53715 www.avanteproperties.com (608) 294-4080
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