Good morning.
Saturday in Whitewater will see scatted afternoon showers with high of 79. Sunrise is 6:30 AM and sunset 7:12 PM for 12h 42m 30s of daytime. The moon is full with all of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1813, the United States defeats a British Fleet at the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812.
On Friday, the City of Whitewater published a press release on engineering bids for possible maintenance to the Starin Park tower:
Within the request for proposals released by the city and announced Friday, [Whitewater Director of Public Works Brad] Marquardt requested proposals to:
• assess the tower’s current structural viability to determine if it can be repaired or must be demolished.
• provide potential solutions for repairing the tower or for demolishing the tower, if necessary.
• provide cost estimates for all potential solutions.
• identify public safety measures to implement while awaiting restoration or demolition and removal, if necessary.
The city is anticipating the development of a full report by Dec. 2., according to its Friday release.
The tower has cultural significance to many in the community; it’s likely that some residents will have strong feelings about its fate.
There is good reason, however, to be patient and wait for the report. Whitewater has a full autumn of public policy considerations (a fire & emergency services referendum, a school district referendum, and selection of a new city manager among them). We are a small community with a few big issues before us.
Whitewater is better off, as she now is, with a tower report return date that falls after those other questions are settled.
China Restricts Domestic Travel as Covid Outbreaks Persist: