Beloit - Community Shoppers, Inc.

2 Stateline News Sunday, April 6, 2008
STATELINE
BIRTHS
Boy, March 20, to Aubrey and
Jeffrey Gaulke of Beloit
Boy, March 20, to Modesta
Romero of Beloit
Girl, March 20, to Andrew and
Jennifer Yeadon of Beloit
Girl, March 22, to Tica Lowe and
Fernale McAtee of Beloit
Girl, March 24, to Noemi and
Victor Salazar of Beloit
STATELINE
DEATHS
March 21, Beverly Jean Olson,
78, of South Beloit
March 23, Nancy Davis, 76, of
Loves Park
March 24, Rose Ann Wolf, 66,
of Beloit
March 25, Linda A. Lang, 39,
of Beloit
March 25, Richard Gary Pond,
74, of South Beloit
March 25, Jeffery Paul
Rushing, 45, of South Beloit
March 25, Charles E. Johnson,
79, of Rockton
March 26, Melissa Thomas,
39, of Beloit
March 26, Gerald J. Shea, 82,
of Roscoe
March 26, Carroll D.
Tangeman, 80, of Rockton
March 26, Juanita Finley, 84,
of Loves Park
March 26, Roberta L. Malthe,
68, of Loves Park
March 26, Gwendolyn “Gwen”
Sylvia Johnson, 76, formerly
of Beloit
March 28, Ruth A. Winton, 99,
of Beloit
March 28, Carl Krisco, 85, of
Beloit
March 28, Thomas E.
Brewster, 68, of Beloit
March 29, Lois M. Anderson,
73, of Beloit
March 30, Loren J. Simpson,
89, of Beloit
March 31, Angela Andreola,
84, of Beloit
March 31, Howard J. Cox, 84,
of Beloit
March 31, Gene Vollmer, 76,
of Beloit
March 31, Coleen Watson, 77,
of Beloit
March 31, Betty Jean Day, 58,
of Orfordville
March 31, Cecelia T. Aumann,
84, of Machesney Park
WEB POLL
RESULTS
Question: The Wisconsin
Senate is proposing more
than $500 million in tax
hikes to make up for a budget
shortfall. Is this:
Too much . . . . . 58 percent
Too little . . . . . . 27 percent
About right . . . 15 percent
To vote in Stateline News
Web polls, go to:
www.
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Name: Levi Cousin
Age: 28
Hometown/residence: Born,
raised and live in Beloit.
Occupation/civic memberships:
Facility and hospitality
manager for Atlanta Bread
Company, promotions committee
member for the Downtown Beloit
Association, member of the Beloit
Fine Arts Incubator Programming
Committee and board member for
the Beloit Historical Society.
Family: Mom Shelley, dad Bob,
sisters Jane and Anna and niece
Lillyanna.
Favorite food: Anything
seafood, and asiago cream pasta
■ GRANT
Continued from page 1
online as well, and will receive
updates on emergency situations
without clogging the radio airwaves.
“We’re very pleased that we’re
going to be updated to this level
of technology,” said Beloit Fire
Chief Brad Liggett, whose
department currently has one
laptop in its command vehicle,
but that computer does not have
the communication capacity of
the new units.
The FEMA funds will allow
the department
to install 15
computers —
one in each vehicle.
The technology
will close a
significant communication
gap,
officials say.
“This need
was always
there,” said Rock
County
Communication
Center Director
David Sleeter.
“We just didn’t
have the money
for it … we’ve
been discussing
it for years.”
The county
board finalized
the grant March
27 by approving
a 20 percent
local match, or roughly $250,000.
The county will pay half that
amount, and the county’s 10 fire
departments will split the other
half.
“(The grant) made the project
doable and affordable,” said
Assistant Rock County
Administrator Phil Boutwell.
“We didn’t consider it up to this
point.”
The grant also includes funds
to install at least one high-speed
Internet access point in each
municipality within a year. Each
access point has about a 300-foot
radius.
When in range of an access
point, the computers can receive
high-resolution photos and
streaming video images. If an
emergency occurs in a building
with surveillance cameras,
responders are able to see the
situation in real time.
Initially, access to the highspeed
network will be limited to
areas near police and fire sta-
FOR THE RECORD
The Stateline News is ...
People You Know
from the Atlanta Bread Company.
Favorite music: Depends on
my mood. I love jazz, reggae, rock,
hip-hop, R&B and pretty much
everything.
Favorite movies: My all-time
favorite has to be “Usual
Suspects.” Close seconds are
“Shawshank Redemption,”
“Memento,” “Donnie Darko,”
“American Beauty,” “Stand By
Me,” “No Country for Old Men,”
“Crash” and so many more!
Favorite books: “Nickel and
Dimed,” “Da Vinci Code,”
“Freakonomics,” “Marley and Me”
and “The Life of Pi.”
Favorite vacation place: The
SLEETER LEETER
UPGRADING PGRADING
A $1 million federal grant will
allow Rock County fire departments
to purchase 57 mobile
data computers. Here’s a list of
how many each agency will
receive:
Janesville ................................. 16
City of Beloit............................ 15
Evansville................................. 6
Milton........................................ 5
Orfordville ................................ 4
Edgerton .................................. 3
Footville ................................... 3
Clinton...................................... 2
Town of Beloit.......................... 2
Town of Turtle .......................... 1
tions, but
Sleeter said
the network
will be
expanded
countywide as
funding
allows.
The com-
puters also allow easy access to
building plans, emergency procedures
and address information,
and provide better and faster
communication with dispatchers.
“With this new program, it’s a
one-button push,” Liggett said.
“What it also does is give us a
more accurate time for response
— it reduces our radio traffic.”
Currently,
when a call is
received,
responders
radio their status
to the communications
center and
receive only sporadic
updates
en route. With
the computers,
responders can
key in their status
and receive
more updates,
which they say
will help them
arrive at the
scene better
prepared.
“You’ll see our
response times
improve because
we’ll have a
quicker way to
record all that information,” said
Bryan Northrop, deputy chief of
the Beloit Fire Department and
president of the Rock County
Fire Officers group.
Sleeter agreed.
“Every time you don’t have to
tell someone, ‘10-four, OK,’ it
just speeds up the whole
process,” he said.
Dennis
Ahrens, the
town of Beloit
fire chief, said
the technology
also makes
investigation
forms available
at the
scene.
AHRENS HRENS
“There are so many things
these computers can do relating
to our operations,” Ahrens said.
In Winnebago County, there is
plenty of interest in installing
mobile computer systems in fire
trucks, but few departments can
afford the upgrade.
ski slopes of Colorado; the views
are absolutely breathtaking.
In my spare time I: Have
recently been in the yard trying to
turn this brown thumb green.
I think the most important
issue in the Stateline area is:
Making everyone feel like this is
their community — a place where
they want to stay, and a place
where others want to come.
If I could change one thing:
There would be no such thing as
illiteracy.
Pit experience: Being told
that my father was diagnosed
with stage III lymphatic
leukemia.
Peak experience: Hearing my
father say, “I am a survivor.”
If I could sit down to dinner
with anyone, living, dead or
fictional: I would love to have
dinner with all of my grandparents.
Most people don’t know:
That I started working in restau-
“There’s so many uses for it,”
said South Beloit Fire Chief
Kenneth Morse. “I know all the
police in Winnebago County
have it, but it hasn’t spilled over
into fire services yet. We don’t
have the financial resources to
do it here.”
The Harlem-Roscoe Fire
Department is one of the few in
the county with mobile computers.
“We’ve been using the program
for three years,” said Deputy
Fire Chief Kirk Wilson.
He estimates 17 of his department’s
vehicles have such com-
LEVI EVI COUSIN OUSIN
rants at the age of 16.
I can’t stand: People who snap
their gum.
I wish I knew how to: Play
the acoustic guitar.
Motto, inspiration or
favorite quote: Live simply so
that others may simply live. —
Gandhi.
SAM KILLIAN/STAFF
Janesville Fire Department Shift Commander Bill Ruchti hooks the
department’s mobile data computer into the command vehicle. A federal
grant will allow the department to install similar computers in 16 of its
vehicles.
puters, including all ambulances
and front-line fire engines.
Sleeter said the new equipment
and high-speed network
make additional improvements
possible. If the network becomes
accessible countywide, Global
Positioning Systems could be
installed in each vehicle to make
response times even faster.
“This really puts our foot in
the door for the future of what’s
coming,” he said.
Liggett agreed.
“There are a lot of great things
that are going to come out of
this,” he said.
A CSI Publication
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