Round Up – Monday and Tuesday, April 7 & 8

By
Brenda Konkel
-
round up

Elections (old news), homeless services and alder updates.  Bus survey, demolition, Adams Outdoor advertising and more.

ELECTIONS UPDATES

Probably a moot point, but for the record!

City Attorney 4/6/20 6:29 PM

In a 5-4 ruling, the Court said that Judge Conley could extend the time for receipt of absentee ballots to April 13, but not the time for delivery or postmark. Absentee ballots must be postmarked or delivered by tomorrow, April 7, the date of the in person voting.

City Attorney 4/6/20 4:52 PM

Subject: Supreme Court overturns Gov. Evers order. Election is on
Importance: High

More to come.

MPMay
City Attorney
City of Madison

ALDERS ROUND UP – 4/6/20

From The Governor:

Gov. Tony Evers, in the absence of legislative action, today signed Executive Order #74, suspending in-person voting for the April 7 spring election, moving in-person voting to June 9, 2020. The order also directs the Legislature to meet in special session on Tues., April 7, 2020 to address the election date. If the Legislature does not enact legislation to change the new election date, in-person voting will occur on June 9, 2020.  (Please note that the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down the Governor’s order).

From Streets:

The drop-off sites have been closed to help residents comply with the Safer at Home Order.  We expect to open the drop-off sites again once the Safer at Home Order has been lifted.

Curbside yard waste collection begins today (April 6).  This is our usual spring collection service for yard waste.

Today, crews are working in the area of the city that has a Monday trash collection day.  They will stay in this section of Madison for as many work days as necessary until each street has been serviced once and then they will move to the area of the city that has a Tuesday trash day.

Considering that many people have used the relatively nice weather and the Safer at Home Order to perform yard work, there is a lot of material out right now, which means crews will be working slow.  We also need to consider potential staffing issues that may arise if we need to start reassigning individuals from yard waste collection to perform our core essential services like trash or recycling pickup.  Our collection progress may be slower than in previous years.

The best tool to use to learn when to set out yard waste for collect is the Pickup Schedule map. You can find it at our website, www.cityofmadison.com/yardwaste.

When on the map, if your neighborhood is shaded green for Pickup Pending get the yard waste to the curb. Crews will be around as soon as we can.

The map cannot tell you when exactly the yard waste will be picked up because arrival time depends on volume of material set out ahead of you in line and the number of people we can assign to the collection task.  But, if you follow the map, your material will be out before crews arrive, it will minimize the amount of time it sits out at the curb, and it should not be missed

The map is updated at the end of each work day when collections occur, so right around 3:00pm.  I recommend checking the site regularly to be sure you do not miss your chance.

From Engineering:

Engineering operations crews began fixing a sanitary sewer main pipe April 6, 2020 after 1,000 gallons of untreated wastewater was cleaned up from a sanitary sewer overflow over the weekend.

At 11:30 a.m., April 4, 2020, on the 2400 block of Grimm Street, City crews noticed the wastewater ponding in a grassy area while they were doing routine cleaning maintenance. The City reported the overflow to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and began cleanup.

City maintenance crews removed a 10-foot by 40-foot area of soil and hauled it away for disposal.  City crews cleaned and sent cameras into the sewer main pipes to search for a cause of the overflow and prevent future issues. Crews believe the cause was a clog of debris (pipe and dirt).

Residents and services were not impacted. No human contact was reported. There was no long-term effects on the environment and no impacts to surface waters.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Administrative Code and the City of Madison’s Capacity, Maintenance, Operations & Management (CMOM) Program requires City Engineering to notify the public of sanitary sewer overflows.

From Public Health:

COVID-19 Information Update 4/6/20

4/3 Data Summary

In case you missed it, in additional to our data dashboard, we released a new data summary last week.

Cloth Face Coverings

CDC recommends wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain, like grocery stores and pharmacies. The use of simple cloth face coverings are advised to slow the spread of the virus and help people who may have the virus and do not know it from transmitting it to others. They can be fashioned from household items or made at home from common materials can be used as an additional, voluntary public health measure.

4/6/20 AM COVID News Roundup

LOCAL/STATE

Kwasi K. Obeng, Chief of Staff

Common Council Office

ALDER DAILY ROUND UP 4/7/20

From Your Common Council Office:

Please get the word out, ELECTIONS ARE TODAY!!! [NOTE:  Sent at 6:24 PM]

From Public Health:

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) and Public Health Madison & Dane County are issuing a public health alert due to an increase in suspected opioid drug overdose activity in Dane County from March 29-April 4.

DHS identified 11 reports of suspected opioid drug overdoses seen at hospital emergency departments in Dane County. This is statistically higher than expected based on recent reports.

See the full alert:

https://www.publichealthmdc.com/documents/Opioid%20Alert%202020-04-07.pdf

 

 COVID-19 Information Update 4/7/20

Travel Reminders

COVID-19 is spreading everywhere, and any of us could have COVID-19 and not know it. We ask that students who have been off campus and want to return to Madison, stay in their current location. Everyone should only make essential local trips. Staying where we are saves lives.

Going to the grocery store or pharmacy for essentials is okay, but we ask that people please plan ahead to reduce trips as much as possible. Instead of visiting the store for a few things, make one weekly trip. Every trip out exposes individuals to COVID-19. Limiting trips reduces risk.

New Resource

COVID-19 Food Access Resources

The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly changed the face of food access in Madison and Dane County. There are new challenges for individuals who historically have had low access to food. There are also emerging challenges for the broader community as citizens grapple with Governor Evers’s Safer at Home order. This document serves to collect information related to food access for Dane County Households.

 4/7/20 AM COVID News Roundup

LOCAL/STATE

LOCAL/STATE

Allstate, American Family Insurance to return millions in auto premiums as drivers hit the road less during coronavirus

USA Today, April 7, 2020

Auto insurance companies Allstate and American Family Insurance said they will give policyholders millions of dollars back because Americans are driving less during the coronavirus pandemic. In a statement released Monday, Allstate announced it would return $600 million in premiums to customers. The company said most policyholders will get back 15% of their premium in April and May. The credit will arrive either to their bank, credit card or Allstate account. “This is fair because less driving means fewer accidents,” said Tom Wilson, Allstate chairman, president and CEO, in a statement. The company said it will also offer payment relief to eligible customers and will expand coverage for drivers who use their vehicles to make deliveries. Meanwhile, American Family Insurance said it will return about $200 million to its policyholders because “they’re driving less and experiencing fewer claims,” said chief operating officer Telisa Yancy in a statement. The company said they will make a payment of $50 per vehicle covered by one of their policies. The average relief check will be $100, said American Family.

Nearly $100M in transportation aid to come from WisDOT

NBC 15, April 6, 2020

Wisconsin governments will receive more than $99 million in payments for transportation from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. The quarterly payments to Wisconsin’s 1,850 villages, towns and cities total $99,147,647 for General Transportation Aids (GTA), Connecting Highway Aids and Expressway Policing Aids, according to WisDOT. “The importance of a sound transportation system is especially evident as we face the challenge of the COVID-19 public emergency,” Secretary-designee Craig Thompson said. “The local system is the essential first and last miles, making sure that vital goods like food and medical supplies are getting to where they’re needed.” The payments break down to $95,875,797 in General Transportation Aids; $3,015,875 to municipalities eligible to receive Connecting Highway Aids; and $255,975 to Milwaukee County for Expressway Policing Aids. For the 2020 calendar year, local governments will receive an estimated $521 million in financial assistance to support transportation related projects. This is a ten percent increase over the previous biennial budget, according to WisDOT.

Wisconsin banks see applications for hundreds of millions of dollars from Paycheck Protection Program

Milwaukee Business Journal, April 6, 2020

Banks around southeast Wisconsin scrambled over the past few days to make available the federal Paycheck Protection Program, which is already drawing substantial customer interest. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act, is a $2 trillion stimulus package aimed at alleviating some of the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the relief opportunities offered in the act is $349 billion the U.S. Small Business Administration can distribute to qualifying businesses to spend on their payroll and other approved expenses in a specified timeframe. Banks and other SBA lenders were expected to begin taking applications for the Paycheck Protection Program Friday. Some did, while others took additional time to set up their system. Still others have opted not to participate in the program at all. Locally, Associated Bank began accepting applications for the PPP on Friday night. By Monday morning, said Milwaukee market president John Utz, Associated Bank had received applications from more than 2,000 people. He estimated the cumulative amount requested was about $520 million.

Madison already has spent $1.2 million responding to COVID-19 pandemic

Wisconsin State Journal, April 7, 2020

The city of Madison has spent about $1.2 million responding to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, according to a financial update Monday. That’s up from the $125,000 the city had spent on the coronavirus emergency as of March 23, and just a portion of the $16 million hit to the city’s “rainy day fund” that is expected by the end of the year. The city did not have a revised estimate Monday of the potential depletion of that fund. About $700,000 of the $1.2 million has been used for city staff wages, mostly regular hours and a bit of overtime, city finance director David Schmiedicke said. At a Monday Finance Committee meeting, Schmiedicke said the economic damage to the city will be “much worse” than what was anticipated two weeks ago. Schmiedicke said the Congressional Budget Office expects unemployment to remain high at least over the next year and a half. More outbreaks of the virus are expected to occur throughout the year, and significant social distancing requirements will still be in place by the end of 2020, the office says. More events will be postponed or canceled, depressing hotel occupancy, Schmiedicke said. Finance staff are projecting about a 50% drop, or $10 million loss, in revenue from a room tax, collected for each night stayed at a hotel. Even with the losses, Schmiedicke said Madison will be able to pay its bills and its staff.

Kwasi K. Obeng, Chief of Staff

Common Council Office

HOMELESS SERVICES UPDATE TO ALDERS

HOMELESS SERVICES – RESPONSE TO COVID-19 PANDEMIC
April 7, 2020

Acting rapidly to protect the homeless community and prevent the spread of the virus, the City and County worked swiftly to launch a concerted effort designed to protect highly vulnerable, unhoused persons during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The effort included four major elements.

  1. Removing families from the Salvation Army’s shelter for women and families to allow
    more space for single women.
  2. Identifying and moving higher risk persons (those over age 60, those with underlying
    health conditions or compromised immune systems and pregnant women) out of
    crowded shelter facilities, where they are at greater risk of exposure to the virus, and
    into area hotels.
  3. Providing safer accommodations, in a separate setting, to homeless persons identified
    by, or in consultation with, medical professionals, as exhibiting symptoms (fever, new
    onset cough, shortness of breath) that are consistent with COVID-19 infection.
  4. Standing up a new overnight shelter for single men at Warner Park to offer safer and
    less crowded accommodations than what is available in existing shelter facilities.

Moving families out of shelter

The Salvation Army moved all 22 families staying at its E. Washington Avenue shelter, and ten others that had been turned away from shelter for lack of space, into two area hotels – one in Madison, another nearby. The numbers have since grown to about 45 families, with 145 persons. A local restaurant group provides meals through a contract with Dane County. The Salvation Army is supporting those families with existing staff. The removal of families, and higher risk single women, from the shelter system allows the Salvation Army to offer better, and safer, accommodations for single women that continue to rely on its facility.

Protecting higher risk persons

Approximately 165 persons – mostly single adults and a few couples – who are in a higher risk category for COVID have been placed into rooms in three other hotels secured by Dane County, one of which is in the City of Madison. While most of those moved into hotels have come from shelter settings, the number includes others who cannot, or choose not to, access the shelter system but who street outreach staff, using established screening protocols, have identified as meeting the higher risk criteria.

Hotel guests receive daily meal service provided under a contract with local restaurant groups. We continue to work to build other support systems around them. Dane County has secured the services of a local support service provider, Focus Counseling, to provide on-site support services to hotel guests.

Isolating symptomatic persons

Dane County has secured separate accommodations for housing homeless persons who may have some symptoms of illness. Some have described this hotel as a COVID-19 “medical respite shelter”. Its purpose is to offer better accommodations for people who are feeling ill but have not been diagnosed with COVID-19, and to reduce the risk that they might pose to others. Local hospitals and shelter operators refer homeless persons to the respite shelter following screening and referral protocols established with guidance from local public health officials. Similarly, established screening protocols inform departures from the medical respite shelter either to another venue (if the person fits the high-risk criteria), to return to a shelter setting or, if health conditions dictate, to a medical facility. Dane County initially secured a block of 30 rooms at the property currently in use as a medical respite shelter and is now moving to secure control of the entire 70-bed property. In the first week or two of this effort, the number of people staying at the respite peaked at about forty. As of this writing, the guest count is 22. It is important to emphasize that, to date, there have been no confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection among the guests residing in the respite shelter.

Standing up new men’s shelter

On Monday, March 30, Porchlight Inc., the men’s shelter operator, began operating out of the Warner Park Community Center. The shelter operates from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. Porchlight’s three downtown shelter locations (Grace Episcopal, St. John’s Lutheran and First United Methodist Churches) are closed. The daytime shelter, the Beacon, remains open. Porchlight staff operate the Warner Park facility, with support from Beacon staff. Madison Metro provides bus service from the Beacon to Warner Park in the evening and back to the Beacon in the morning. The shelter offers dinner and breakfast meals; lunches are provided at the Beacon. In its first week of operation, the shelter has served between 70 and 80 men per night, although it is prepared to take 135.

Early update

The initial phases of these efforts focused primarily on meeting the logistical challenges associated with identifying and locating higher risk homeless persons, securing sufficient hotel space, arranging for transportation and meal services and moving people into hotels. As people have settled into new and unfamiliar surroundings, there has been occasion for some conflict and behavioral issues at the hotels, some of which have generated police calls. It is likely inevitable with this population that some of those issues will persist. However, staff attention is now focused on strengthening support systems for residents. Focus Counseling promises to play a key role in this part of the effort; their presence is already having an impact. Efforts are also underway to strengthen staffing, including health monitoring services, at the medical respite shelter. While those plans are proceeding, they have been slowed by the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) needed to ensure the safety of both staff and hotel guests. We have now secured some of the necessary PPE, and are working with Public Health to secure nursing staff but attaining adequate staffing for the respite shelter remains a work in progress.

To protect the privacy and security of persons being assisted through this strategy of hotel placement, City and County staff has generally refrained from identifying the hotels that are collaborating with us on this important humanitarian effort.

The past weekend was marred by the untimely and very sad passing of three people in Madison’s homeless community. One was a guest at the Warner Park shelter, the second was among the population of higher risk persons placed in an area hotel, and the third had been staying at the respite hotel. These three deaths are not related to one another and they are not linked to COVID-19. All three people were tested for COVID-19 infection and the test results for all three were negative.

HOMELESS SERVICES UPDATES

Bethel Homeless Services

Bethel will curtail serving lunches on Tuesdays and Thursdays for now but will resume when we are deemed safe to open again.  However, I will continue to dispense U.S. mail on Tuesdays from the parking lot doors between the hours of 11:00 and 12:00.  Please share with all whom you know regarding this continued service.  Thank you so much,

Keeping all in our prayers for everyone’s safety.

Bev Thom
Bethel  Homeless Support Services

Childcare for Essential workers

DCF Connecting Essential Workforce Families to Child Care

The Department of Children and Families is connecting essential workforce families with available child care. To request child care, essential workforce families should fill out this form. Additionally, families can search for available care at a publicly available map. Please submit your request as soon as possible to help child care centers determine whether to stay open to meet the local demand.

3 deaths over the weekend

Hi HSC Members-

I am writing to you today with a heavy heart. Over the weekend three people who were experiencing homelessness passed away unexpectedly. When people we serve pass away, I don’t tend to make public statements. However, this feels different to me. We are in the midst of crisis and having to come to terms with three lives lost. I think now, and in the coming months, we will need to lean on and support one another in a variety of ways. Please check in with your colleagues and see if they need anything.

The community members we lost this weekend are:

Antawone Powell

Laura Thompson

Joshua Engen

Members of our faith community are in communication to help remember and honor the lives of our brothers and sister who died over the weekend during this time of the COVID pandemic. Linda Ketcham of Madison-Area Urban Ministry (MUM), Karen Andro of Hope’s Home Ministries at First United Methodist Church; and Bev Thom of Bethel Homeless Support Services at Bethel Lutheran church are in conversation with members of our greater faith community. They will share an announcement and share their heartfelt sympathies to the families and friends of Antawone Powell, Laura Thompson and Joshua Engen.

Please reach out if you need support during this time. Thank you for your work.

Take Care, Torrie

Please note that I do not know the cause of death for everyone yet.

IS THIS THE LAST WE HEAR FROM ADAMS OUTDOOR ADVERTISING?

They are a litigious group!  Update from City Attorney Michael May

As you know, Adams Advertising challenged the entirety of the City’s sign ordinance in federal court several years ago.  Today, U.S. District Court Judge James D. Peterson issued an opinion ruling in the City’s favor, and dismissing all of Adams’ claims against the city

A copy of the decision is attached. Congratulations to attorneys Sarah Zylstra and Barry Blonien of the Boardman Clark law firm, and to ACA Lara Mainella and zoning administrator Matt Tucker.

0118. (04-07-2020) ORDER denying 61 Motion for Partial Summary Judgment by Plaintiff Adams Outdoor Advertising Limite

UPCOMING DEMOLITION

Please be advised that Stacey Oehrke will be filing a demolition permit application on May 6, 2020 for Plan Commission review that calls for a 1 story commercial building located at 133 E Lakeside St Madison, WI 53715 to be demolished. For more information regarding this forthcoming application, you may contact the applicant, Stacey Oehrke, 7601 University Ave, Suite 201 Middleton, WI 53593 at soehrke@knothebruce.com or (608)836-3690.

Applicant’s Comments:
Demolish the VFW building at 133 E Lakeside St

If you have any questions about the Plan Commission demolition permit approval process, please contact the City of Madison Planning Division at (608) 266-4635.

METRO FEEDBACK ON REDUCED SERVICE

My quests is they are considering increased service with the $24.4M they are getting.  If you have needs, now would be the time to speak up.

Reduced Service Feedback

Tell us about your trip.
Metro is assessing the reduced service that is currently on the street due to COVID-19, and we need to hear from you. Are there any essential trips that you haven’t been able to make? Have there been times that the bus was at capacity and you weren’t able to board? Are there any essential destinations that aren’t being served?

Please give us the details of these trips and locations. Please tell us the date, time and route you attempted to use.

Send us your response by emailing mymetrobus@cityofmadison.com, calling
(608) 266-4466 or filling out a feedback form.

 

Provide Feedback

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