Verona Press The
I’M STILL HERE! 26 years in VASD Housing Market
Thursday, March 26, 2020 • Vol. 55, No. 45 • Verona, WI • Hometown USA • ConnectVerona.com • $1.50
adno=129952
Kathy Bartels 608-235-2927
KBartels@StarkHomes.com
Verona Area School District
COVID-19 response
Verona adapts to a new normal As the health crisis deepens, state limits public interactions
Inside Food pantry switches to drive-thru model Page 2
STAFF REPORT Unified Newspaper Group
Photo submitted
From left, Sugar Creek Elementary fourth grade teachers Chris Westberg, Lori Martin, Edgewood College student teacher Sarah Fetter and Justin Rippl wok on creating virtual learning curriculum on Tuesday, March 17.
‘Rising to the challenge’ District educators keep students engaged through virtual learning KIMBERLY WETHAL Unified Newspaper Group
COVID-19 is a respiratory illness that was declared a pandemic March 11 by the World Health Organization. It’s caused by the novel coronavirus, which is so contagious, the state of Wisconsin has limited public gatherings to 10 people or fewer and is encouraging households to avoid all unnecessary contact with other people. It’s unclear how long schools will be teaching virtually. The state’s latest order
Turn to Learning/Page 10
Corned beef and coronavirus How two St. Patrick’s dinners were affected by social distancing NEAL PATTEN Unified Newspaper Group
Just as people donned their green hats, shiny plastic shamrock necklaces and “Kiss me, I’m Irish” shirts preparing for an evening of food, drinks and revelry on St. Patrick’s Day, Gov. Tony Evers announced that mass gatherings would be
limited to 10 people beginning that night. That was a significant reduction from his previous order of 50 or less, a result of concerns about the spread of the novel coronavirus. On opposite sides of Verona, two corn beef and cabbage dinners had been set to get underway. At one location, The Draft House Bar and Restaurant, 1010 Enterprise Drive, the celebratory crowd was already
Turn to Dinners/Page 7
Photo by Neal Patten
The Draft House was starting to fill up for the corned beef and cabbage dinner before Gov. Evers announced stronger restrictions on social gatherings.
Effect on the Census, voting and open meetings Page 3 Listing of restaurants still open Page 6 How businesses are coping Page 7 School district adds two locations for graband-go meals Page 10 in addition to influenza-like symptoms. By March 23, it had claimed more than 16,000 lives, with 375,000 confirmed cases worldwide, about 10 percent of them in the United States, according to the Center for Science Systems and Engineering. In five days, it went from a curiosity and a concern to many people in Verona and elsewhere to a national emergency. By March 13, almost all major American professional and college sports were canceled as a handful of high-profile positive tests made the spread of the virus more tangible. In Wisconsin, all schools were either closed or soon to be closed and high school sports and other school activities canceled. Three days later, state orders prevented restaurants, bars, churches and many other businesses from functioning by restricting the number of people allowed to
Turn to Crisis/Page 12
The
Verona Press
151
University of Wisconsin
PLACES like no OTHER
Downtown State Capitol
MADISON Mineral Point Rd
M
University Research Park
Lake Monona
12
ON
14
18 151
FITCHBURG PD
4
151
1. Raven
2. Vista
Fish Hatchery Rd
L
ori Martin found herself having to push fear aside to teach her students last week. That fear was of being recorded, the Sugar Creek Elementary School fourth grade teacher said. But she decided having the students see her face on their first day of virtual learning, Thursday, March 19, was more important.
“It’s a different twist, even though they see you every day,” she said. “One of the teachers just said, ‘If you’re afraid, just get over it.’ So this morning, I got over it … I read them the picture book and said, ‘Here goes nothing!’” With schools closed throughout Dane County because of the COVID-19 crisis starting March 16, Verona Area School District teachers and staff began teaching their nearly 5,500 students with recorded video and online lessons that week.
As the COVID-19 crisis continues to grow more real to Verona residents, businesses and other organizations have been adapting to what seems like new realities every day. National, state and local restrictions aimed at stemming the worldwide spread of the novel coronavirus grew tighter every few days, with Gov. Tony Evers declaring on Tuesday, March 24, that only essential business operations may continue. What qualified as essential was a long list that included all food service, professional services, charity organizations, construction, delivery and financial institutions. That 16-page edict – foreshadowed four days earlier with an update to the governor’s March 17 mass gatherings order – still forced many Verona businesses to adjust their models or close, at least temporarily. Sit-down restaurants and bars either stopped serving or switched to curbside pickup, funeral homes restricted visitors and fitness centers limited their hours or turned to online videos, while grocery stores and drive-thru restaurants stayed as busy as ever. While Badger Prairie Needs Network served dozens of guests in a makeshift drive-thru, Little Free Library contributors started putting food in some of the stations around the city, rather than books, and the Verona Public Library held online storytimes. And schoolchildren in the Verona Area School District got their first two days of online schooling – something that seems increasingly likely to finish out their school year. The COVID-19 crisis accelerated quickly in the United States starting March 11, when the World Health Organization declared it a pandemic. At that point, just over 4,000 people had died of the disease, which causes respiratory distress
3. Prima
D
7
3
2
UPTOWN
1
5 6 FITCHBURG TECHNOLOGY CAMPUS
14
CONTACT US
NEW YEAR, NEW APARTMENT! 4. Riva
5. Turnberry
6. Tralee
7. Kinsale
120 E. Lakeside Street Madison, WI 53715 www.avanteproperties.com (608) 294-4080
adno=130431