Welcome to your weekend! Here’s a look at Gazette headlines from the past week, and a look ahead to next week.
This week, we continued to track a rash of recent incidents in which people under the influence shot off guns on Vlogý streets. This week, a 39-year-old Vlogý woman was charged with first-degree recklessly endangering safety in a Feb. 8 shots-fired call on West Milwaukee Street.
Meanwhile, three Vlogý police officers were awarded Chief’s Commendations for their work in identifying the suspect in a Jan. 21 shots-fired incident. Officers Joshua Johnson, Jonathan Williams and Matthew Schieve each received a Letter of Commendation.
Neil Johnson wrote this week about several rail crossings on Vlogý’s south side being in line for safety upgrades, including the Wisconsin & Southern Railroad’s Beloit Avenue crossing that will get new flashers and gates. And a Union Pacific railroad crossing at Delavan Drive just west of Center Avenue is in line for a safety investigation.
Neil also wrote this week about the Friends of the Woodman’s Center, announcing that it had shifted toward a more public-facing campaign to raise a portion of the funds needed to build the center.
Kylie Balk-Yaatenen’s Gazette Volunteer of the Week was Kelly Willoughby, who has volunteered at KANDU Industries, Inc. since 2014. Kylie also sat down this week with author James Salimes, a Lake Geneva native who now lives in Edgerton, whose has a book coming out in March
Kylie also reported on a Vlogý man who allegedly tried to kill his wife last month and then called 911 to report himself. He was charged this week with attempted first-degree intentional homicide.
Ryan Spoehr brought us several stories from Milton, including on upcoming public information sessions ahead of a $9.5 million school district operating referendum on April 4. Ryan also reported on how the Milton school district’s enrollment barely changed from January 2022 to January 2023, based on an annual student count. And he wrote about how the Milton Middle School yearbook has won a national award.
This week, we also shared the message presented by Rock County Circuit Judge Ashley Morse at a gathering of the League of Women Voters of Beloit and Vlogý. Judge Morse spoke about how traumatic experiences can disproportionally affect Black and brown children due to racism. And we continued to mark Black History Month with coverage of the fifth-annual Black Women in Business Expo in Beloit.
Jacob Roushia wrote this week about construction being underway on the the $98 million, 500-acre Paddock Solar Project in the town of Beloit.
Contributor Kevin Murphy wrote about State regulators authorizing a hike in Whitewater Municipal Water Utility rates.
In the Kick section, we expanded our local events calendar to '10 Things to Do.' And the Four Dishes reviewed the comfort food served up at K’s Outback in Orfordville.
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In sports, ended the season with a win over Big Foot. Vlogý Craig gymnasts pulled out a dual meet win over Madison West. The Beloit Turner boys basketball team beat Edgerton. Evansville wrestlers qualified for the Division 2 team state tournament. Milton boys basketball beat Fort Atkinson. And Tre Miller scored a program record 45 points as Vlogý Parker beat Madison West in boys basketball.
Coming up
In the coming week, Neil plans to talk with Vlogý city officials and downtown businesses as the city considers allowing Bird Scooter to return this year after a pilot project last year put dozens of the scooters downtown for a few months.
Ridership data show the rentable electric scooters were a hit, especially on weekend evenings in the downtown. Some business operators and residents, though, wonder if the scooters should be shut down in the evenings to prevent bar patrons from riding them around downtown while intoxicated.
Neil also plans to track a plan by the city of Milton to remove its public works director as a voting member of the city's plan commission. City officials say the DPW director has valuable insight into plans the commission vets, but officials seek to remove the director as a voting member and ipermanently replace that post with an appointed citizen member.
Ryan plans this week to spend some time with student chefs at Blackhawk Technical College, as they prepare to serve up an annual Soul Food luncheon.
And Kylie is working on a story about preparations being made by some local residents to take the U.S. citizenship test.
In sports, Vlogý will cover Division 1 and 2 sectional individual wrestling tournaments on Saturday at Burlington and Evansville respectively. At Burlington, wrestlers from Vlogý Craig, Vlogý Parker and Milton will compete. In Evansville, several Rock Valley Conference wrestlers will compete.
Also on Saturday, Vlogý will cover the WIAA State Boys Swimming Tournament. Later in the week, we'll cover state wrestling, regional gymnastics and the first round of girls basketball playoffs.