Letters to the editor, Oct. 24, 2009
Don’t let DirecTV change local channels
Everyone who is using DirecTV listen. Your local channels are being changed to Wausau and Rhinelander from Madison. Everybody should complain like we did last time they tried this including the City of Wisconsin Dells. They are saying we requested this.
The following is the letter I sent to Nielsen.com and DirecTV.com;
You are doing a big disservice to the people of south central Wisconsin. Our local area is just down the road from Madison, not 135+ miles to the north in Wausau or 250+ miles to Rhinelander. You sit in an office and tell me where I live. That is wrong. I live in Columbia County, and get my local news and weather from Madison not from the forest where the trees are.
So change where you put your pin because DirecTV is trying, no, doing right now, a change in where you get your news and weather. What a stupid mistake. We had this fixed a couple of years ago and now you want to be stupid and do it again.
Earl Laske, Columbia County, Wisconsin Dells
Reasons to vote no on school referendum
I agree totally with the letters in the Dells Events from Daniel Defosse Sr., and Ralph Jacobson.
I have a few more reasons for voting no on this latest school referendum that are too long to go into here.
Property taxpayers shouldn’t have to finance 4-year-old pre-kindergarten classes, which are nothing more then free day care for parents. Parents should be responsible for 3- and 4- year-olds, not only for providing day care for them, but also in their required pre-school educational learning process. It should not be the burden of taxpayers.
I found on an Internet Web site search that 15 students per classroom is almost private tutoring.
The bottom line of my reasons stems from three generations of actual experience in education in my own family, and the results that were accomplished. Two prior generations were educated in parochial schools by the parents’ choice, and now grandchildren are being educated in the Plainfield, Ill. public schools with two of them graduating number one in their class, and with both going on to again graduate number one in their technical college class. This was accomplished with far more students per class than any 15 per classroom.
Also, we seniors are not getting one dime more in a cost of living increase in our Social Security checks for the next two years. All seniors in this town are not in the upper bracket income. The majority, like me, are on strict budgets to make ends meet with the up-keep of our homes, property taxes and now high homeowners’ insurance premiums to pay. It’s the same with middle income workers losing their jobs and even losing their homes. Who is speaking up for us?
Joan E. Forsythe, Wisconsin Dells
Addition should be at Lake Delton School
I have written a few letters to the editor the past few years on the school addition/building ideas Chuck Whitsell has brought up, me asking questions, but they are never answered.
Is there going to be a walk through at the Lake Delton School? The last time I was there it was in very good shape. Jump up and down and look at the floors. They are in very good condition and the walls and ceiling are very well taken care of, but it is crowded.
The existing gym should be used for three or so more rooms and a new gym built so parents, grandparents and others who attend the children’s plays, Halloween parties and other events can be seated.
It seems like during the last referendum that the only thing needed was a new heating system.
A rebuilt or new Delton school is not needed. As I’ve stated before, there is plenty of land there, and I heard the village would hand over or sell adjoining land for the school. I go by there two to three times a week and never see the end by Fireman’s Park being used.
Why should the district send more Delton children to the Dells for the many activities after school that our children do plus the parents, too?
I’m sure if you crowd them into Spring Hill, it will be more like a can of sardines where the children can get the swine flu together.
Bigger is not better! How many more buses will be added and fuel used?
Communities are built around their schools.
Many of our business owners live in Lake Delton, but may have a mailbox on the street, which gives them, and many others, a Dells address. Lake Delton Post Office needs a route driver, which would be less confusing.
I live in Dellona on the edge of the Dells and Reedsburg school zone, have a Lake Delton P.O. box and my physical address is Wisconsin Dells. It confuses some bill senders.
Now, I read there are more people in Lake Delton, so it seems more emphasis would be for an addition on the Lake Delton School!
Also, many of our prominent business owners went through the Dells school system, and they and others must be very intelligent, as are our teachers, so why send our children to other school districts?
P.S. Why can’t the law be changed to get an extra quarter for our schools? Laws can be changed. Our options are as limited as your mind.
Chuck Volkey, Dellona
Remove disincentive for providing free care
Wisconsin can put a “Welcome” mat at the door of community free clinics for doctors, and other health care providers willing to volunteer their services, by enacting a bill I helped pass in the state Senate Tuesday.
For many people with no health insurance or unable to afford out-of-pocket costs, free clinics are the only option for medical or dental care.
Free clinics are not the entire answer, but the bottom line is they serve hundreds of people that otherwise go without care. Free clinics don’t wait on government for an answer. They happen because of services and dollars given by local folks who care about their fellow community members.
We can be grateful to community members making free clinics a reality in Sauk Prairie, Richland Center and other Wisconsin communities. These clinics depend on volunteer doctors and other health care providers. Because volunteer providers must still have medical malpractice coverage, our state’s Volunteer Health Care Provider Program gives retired providers malpractice coverage.
For working physicians and other care providers, if they treat patients as a volunteer, their malpractice insurance premiums can increase by thousands of dollars. I support changing state law to remove that disincentive.
Senate Bill 80 would add working providers to retired providers as “agents of the state” when they provide care as volunteers. This is the least we can do.
Contact me at sen.schultz@legis.wi.gov, P.O. Box 7882, Madison, WI 53707 or www.senatordaleschultz.com.
State Sen. Dale Schultz, R- Richland Center
Retail changes bode well for downtowns
The last decade has been a period of unusually strong retail growth. In the midst of a severe recession it is easy to look around and say that the changes in today’s retail environment are the result of a faltering economy. To do so would be an oversimplification that fails to take notice of dramatic changes going on in the ways we live, work, plan and shop.
This golden age of retail has come to an end. Our downtowns may be in a better position to capture future retail development.
Bankruptcies, mergers and acquisitions have all but eliminated local and regional chains, and increasing concentration is robbing us of the variety that makes shopping interesting. Malls are struggling, and the recession is making it clear that we have overbuilt. It appears as if change is needed.
Four trends are converging in a “perfect storm” that will dramatically impact the retail sector.
Every generation follows a spending curve. We start out as children spending very little and increase our purchases as our income grows. Around retirement age we begin to spend less. The Baby Boomers, the largest generation, is retiring. Generation X is much smaller, and Generation Y is beginning to spend. To complicate the picture, the younger generations have much different interests and desires.
Growing ethnic populations are a second demographic trend shaping retailing. We are beginning to see efforts among chain retailers to reach diverse populations, as well as the arrival of new or foreign chains to accompany the independent merchants serving these markets.
Smart Growth has always been embraced by advocates of downtowns, as many see its principles as benefitting urban centers and redirecting development inward. The real test is whether the general public embraces it, and evidence is starting to pile up to say that it has. Walkable downtowns and neighborhood shopping districts have been reinvigorated, which most analysts believe will continue to grow once the housing market sorts itself out and begins to grow again.
Fewer retailers are around. Decades of consolidation have left us with a handful of department stores, three major office supply chains, three major hardware dealers, two-and-a-half discount store chains, one electronics giant and one bed and bath outlet. We are bored. Boredom demands a counter-trend. It can happen downtown.
Lastly, we should consider the Internet. A growing proportion of sales are occurring online. Online sales will continue to grow, but what may be the long-term prognosis for retail in general, and downtown in particular? Will online sales lead to a scaling back of the major chains and expanded reach for smaller retailers? The Internet could be an opportunity for downtown businesses to supplement their sales and compete effectively against larger local competitors. The jury is still out and we will have to wait to see the end result.
Michael Stump, AICP, CEcD is principal of Place Dynamics, a Milwaukee-based consulting firm