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Quilt project sponsored
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Gays Mills

Editor-

In the growing excitement over our newly announced Gays Mills Area Community Social and Main Street Community Building fundraiser set for Sunday, Aug. 24, from 2 to 4 p.m., with an old-time ice cream social, music, games, and silent auction, great ideas for a variety of unique and creative donated items are quickly sprouting!  See what you can come up with!

The Make 'n Mend sewing shop would like to sponsor a community quilt project we'll call ‘The Quilt Block Blitz’ (because, once you have the idea, it doesn't take long to make a block). This quilt project can include anyone who can write or draw since these blocks will be made with fabric markers and paints on a square of material, all provided. We just need you and your family and neighbors to come up with an idea!

The theme will be what each one finds special and likes about this area we call home. So think about it! See how you could express it in a few words or in a simple picture. Try sketching or writing it on a 6" x 6" piece of paper, making  it a little larger than usual since the marker tips are thicker than a pen or pencil point. And, of course, please include signing your name. We have several weeks to be doing this part, and I hope you will participate and encourage those around you to as well. The more involved, the more meaningful it will be!

Since the sewing shop will be closed July 18-25 for family needs, we will plan to have a special supply table set up the week of August 4 through 9 with the extended hours of 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. for people to stop by at your convenience to draw your design on a block.  We will also hope to have volunteers help do the transfer if that seems best for the situation. Former residents and "wanna-bes" are encouraged to send their paper designs ahead to also be included. A suggested $1 donation per block would go toward the building expenses as will the sale of this special quilt headed for the auction block!

 With appreciation for you and your part in this community, and for the whole,  

- Kay Smiley

County should extend CAFO Moratorium
More time needed for discussion
Cty Bd CAFO moratorium
ALMOST 80 citizens at-tended the Crawford County Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 17. The citizens were there to offer input to the board about whether the county should enact a one-year moratorium on CAFOs.

                 Steuben

Editor,

As a concerned citizen and landowner in Crawford County, I am grateful that the Crawford County Board of Supervisors listened to the concerns of their constituents and passed the Moratorium on the Expansion and Creation of New Livestock Facility Siting Operations, a CAFO Moratorium, in December 2019. 

They recognized then, the importance of studying an issue that affects the health, safety, and welfare of all citizens and on Tuesday, they will once again have the opportunity to show support by voting to extend the CAFO Moratorium for one more year.  

As we all know, 2020 was an unprecedented year and due to COVID restrictions, the appointed CAFO study committee did not have the time to do their due diligence researching and learning about CAFO impacts, in depth water studies could not be completed as originally planned, and Board members have not had the necessary time to read, learn about and discuss County options concerning the siting and expansion of CAFOs in Crawford County. 

By extending the CAFO Moratorium, the CAFO Study Committee would have the time needed to thoroughly investigate the impacts that increased numbers of CAFOs within Crawford County may have on the County’s economy, environment, and citizens and it would give Board members adequate time to consider the information and how to best plan for the future of CAFOs in Crawford County.  

In the Crawford County Code of Ordinances, the responsibility of public office is stated as such: “Public officials and employees are agents of the public and hold office for the benefit of the public. They are bound to uphold…and carry out impartially the laws of the …County to observe in their official acts the highest standard of morality and to discharge faithfully the duties of their office regardless of personal considerations, recognizing that the public interest must be their prime concern.”

In the past months I have read many letters and articles from concerned citizens, township governing bodies, and local organizations like the Sterling-Crawford and the Vernon-Crawford chapter of the Wisconsin Farmers Union and the Coulee Region Chapter of Trout Unlimited, to name a few, that all feel that it would be in the best interest of Crawford County citizens to extend the moratorium.

I, as a concerned citizen, am appealing to all County Board Supervisors to “recognize that the public interests”, the public’s concerns about the health, economic, and environmental impacts that increased numbers of CAFOs in Crawford County could have, “must be their prime concern,” and urge them to vote to extend the moratorium.

Gina L. Holtz