The River Valley School Board may have intended to grant fair raises, but its execution is a bureaucratic nightmare. Vague motions and hidden spreadsheets create confusion, leaving taxpayers in the dark. To restore trust, the board must codify compensation in clear policies, ensuring transparency in public finance.
This election, we’d be voting for Paul Pustina for Arena village president and Steve Wilkinson, Joseph Hipsky and Don Helt for village trustees. We encourage you to do the same.
We always wanted our first endorsements as an editorial board to be founded upon a well-thought out rubric that was replicable and transparent. We have not had the time or bandwidth to yet set up such a rubric. However, the stakes in the Village of Arena in the upcoming election on April 1 are so dire that we feel compelled to take a position as an editorial board.
The Village of Arena Police Department announced its shift to part-time service, citing “low morale” due to issues with the village board. This change sparked concerns among residents about potential increase in emergency response times. Village President Kate Reimann’s response to these concerns — “No records were requested so no answer is given” — is inappropriate and inadequate. Something needs to change.
Sunshine Week is a time to celebrate government transparency and public service, as well as a time to address lapses in the same. In October 2020, shortly after incorporating and shortly before our first edition, we sent out a Wis. Stat. 19.84(1)(b) written request by email from news media to our local governmental bodies asking that Valley Sentinel be sent meeting notices for the respective governmental bodies. Recently, we sent reminder letters by mail to the local governmental bodies in our immediate coverage area that have not been consistent in sending us meeting notices, with several having sent none at all in the past nearly 2.5 years.
Richland County and the greater community were disheartened just over a month ago when a unilateral directive from University of Wisconsin System President Jay Rothman directed the administration of the University of Wisconsin-Platteville Richland campus in Richland Center to start winding down operations and to plan to discontinue in-person instruction starting fall 2023, with the directive also promising a transition plan that floated the red herring ideas of online instruction and continuing education.
It’s become increasingly clear that the only way to save UW-Richland is inside a courtroom.
We hope for a day when this is a given in our society, but put simply, it is the editorial policy of Valley Sentinel that love is love. Period.
Occasionally, when perhaps a devil’s advocate is needed or more circumstances should be considered, we find ourselves at odds with our readers in our very unscientific weekly (okay, okay, it’s semi-regular at best) social media poll. This is one of those occasions.
Sunshine Week – Examples of Open Government
As covered in the March 11 River Valley School Board story, board member Sara Young proposed an ‘Equity and Understanding Work Group’, composed of teachers, administrators, a community representative and a parent, who would be charged with admirable equity, diversity and inclusion tasks, including proposing district policy.
On Tuesday, President Joseph R. Biden announced that the US expects to have enough coronavirus vaccines for all adults by the end of May, two months earlier than anticipated.
As winter gives way to spring (seriously, 40 degree weather? At least a few of you are guilty of breaking out the shorts this week), we’d like to revisit some of the ideas we’ve heard most over this past winter, while acknowledging that it’s never too early to start planning out next year’s winter activities and how we make them happen.
This week, the WisconsinEye Public Affairs Network, also known as WisEye, a non-profit State Capitol broadcast organization, announced they intend to implement a paywall on their content. We regard this move as disastrous for open and accountable government at the state level in Wisconsin.
🎶 Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of angry men? 🎶
Just kidding… but not really.
Having at least one History minor on our editorial board requires us to differentiate between the anti-monarchist insurrection of Parisian republicans (little ‘r’) in 1832 (as beautifully adapted in song by Les Misérables) and what happened last Wednesday at the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C.
And indeed, what happened?
For most people, the start of this week was the first day back to a regular work schedule following the winter holidays, and despite the holidays looking a little different this year, going back to work is never easy.
Last week the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) announced a new smartphone COVID-19 exposure app which is intended to notify state residents when they have been in close contact with a positive case of the virus.
Doesn’t have quite the same ring we’ll admit, however the sentiment is still important. When we introduced the River Valley Think Tank and River Valley Resolutions initiatives we certainly viewed them as holistic and able to be approached from several angles and possibly while wearing several hats. We still believe that, however it’s important to note several things.
As we head into 2021, let’s take a moment to consider what the goals and resolutions of our area should be. Our area has so much to offer. However, we talk with readers every day about issues and opportunities that face our area: from flooding and groundwater issues, to a rural brain drain, to attracting and retaining young people, creating jobs in our community, ensuring we have workforce housing, creating recreation and leisure opportunities, to properly and adequately fostering the arts and much, much more — all currently in the face of COVID-19.
Later this week Valley Sentinel will be sending out short questionnaires to the villages and their elected officials in the River Valley area. These questions will seek to inspire forward-thinking actions that can be taken to help our area not only thrive, but survive. We would encourage the surrounding municipalities, townships and even residents to engage as well.
It can sometimes be easy to feel a certain line of division between citizens and the public officials that serve them, as it seems there is a strong separation between a person who decides policy and budgets, and a person who doesn’t.
Two weeks ago, we asked you to ask your elected officials and your own selves to put aside political differences and work together on a shared set of values. Last week, we asked you to think of ways to get involved and work together to keep the feedback loop of ideas and initiatives that serve to build community going. This week, we ask that you do your part to keep and boost the cycle of our local economy going by shopping local.