Covid-19 and Vaccine News, Tenant Support and F-35 updates

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I have been carefully following the Dane County Covid-19 dashboards. The good news is that the number of people who have received at least one dose of vaccine in Dane County is now more than double the number of people who have gotten COVID-19 over the past year. The bad news is that we are fighting the more infectious B.1.1.7 strain.

In this update I will cover the current state of Covid-19 and vaccination, programs to help support tenants, F-35 updates and neighborhood news.

Covid-19 and Vaccine Updates

Dane County is aggressively vaccinating the community. 16.7 percent of Dane County (91,000 residents) have been vaccinated and group 1B will be eligible for vaccination starting March 1st.

Group 1B includes educators, individuals in long-term programs, food chain workers, public transit employees, non-frontline healthcare essential workers and congregate living staff and residents. I want to emphasize that just because a person is eligible that does not mean there will be vaccine available as demand is still ahead of supply.

Dane County has requested about 14,000 doses to be prioritized for teachers and staff. However with Madison schools having K-5 staff returning to buildings on March 1st and Kindergarten students having the option to return in-person on March 9th, it will be virtually impossible to administer both doses of the vaccine by March 9th. It was recently just announced that the vaccination of teachers and staff will be delayed. These delays could be at least two weeks according to the State Journal.

I signed on to a letter with 12 other supervisors that urges to continue remote learning for students until all MMSD staff are given the opportunity to be fully vaccinated. I am particularly perplexed that one of our neighborhood elementary schools Marquette will have staff return on March 1st when the earliest that any students will be in the building will be April. This is because grades K-5 are split between Lapham (k-2) and Marquette (3-5). I am doing my best to reach out to public health, local elected officials and leaders, and state officials to advocate to vaccinate everyone in Group 1B as quickly as possible.

F-35, PFAS and Airport Updates

I am pleased that resolution 548 opposing the siting of the F-35 squadron at Truax Field passed with this amendment that I offered:

“BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, Dane County will not authorize any agreement, including but not limited to the Airport Joint Use Agreement (AJUA), with the National Guard Bureau or any other parties, which would allow the demolition, construction and expansion projects at the airbase until such time as a complete site investigation, clean-up feasibility study and remediation plans for PFAS are completed, and remediation of all PFAS contamination has been funded and has begun.”

We are still working on a resolution to strengthen the Illicit Discharge Ordinance which will help protect our community from PFAS contamination. We should absolutely do no construction or demolition on land that has been exposed to PFAS until that land is fully cleaned up and remediated. PFAS is a forever chemical that is extremely harmful in small doses so we need to prioritize keep our community and natural resources safe.

Thanks to the many community members who registered and testified in support of the resolution.

Dane CORE provides $15 million for Rental Assistance

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Dane County and the City of Madison have established an emergency rental assistance program called CORE using federal funds. There is $16 million in emergency rental assistance that is allocated to Dane County and the City of Madison, respectively, and the program will be facilitated by the Tenant Resource Center (TRC).

From the TRC: The program provides rental assistance for those who are behind on rent, reside in Dane County, are at or below 50% of area median income, and have experienced economic hardship due to COVID-19. For more information on eligibility, please see this link. Programs details and applications are available on the TRC web site:

https://core.tenantresourcecenter.org/

Prioritization of assistance is based on the following:

  1. Currently in default of court order payment plan

  2. Income (below 30% AMI)

  3. History of past eviction judgment on CCAP

  4. Property is locally owed (within Dane County)

Please reach out if you need more details and I will connect you with the right resources.

Land Conservation Committee Investments

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As Chair of the Land Conservation Committee (LCC), I was happy to work with staff to secure $225,000 to help lower the phosphorous and sediment inputs into the Wisconsin River. This money will be used to abandon existing manure storage facilities and outdoor lots replacing them with proper roofing and manure storage to lower the total maximum daily load (TMDL) into our waterways.

Every month we oversee thousands of dollars to projects like cover crops, nutrient management, prescribed grazing fences, and native grasses and legume seeding. I look forward to continuing this strong mutually beneficial rural-urban partnership.

Neighborhood News and Quick Updates

The snow is melting and this brutal February is winding down. We can see the end of the Covid-19 pandemic on the horizon but let’s stay vigilant this spring so we can all stay safe and reconnect in person hopefully later this summer.