By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
About the only people in Burlington happy Monday and Tuesday this week were the students.
With base temperatures at a high of about -10 Monday and about zero Tuesday – and wind chills dipping into the -40 to -50 range – Burlington Area School District called off school both days.
So did private schools in Burlington.
But while students were settled warmly indoors, the adults in Burlington found themselves hard at work – either forced to brave the temperatures for their job, or forced to brave the temperatures for a job that required helping others get to a job.
Those in the heating, plumbing and electrical businesses have been busy the last two days, doing everything from trying to fix frozen or burst pipes to jump-starting vehicles.
“Very much so,” said Sean Sullivan, a job coordinator at Bruesewitz Plumbing, when asked if the company had been busy. “A lot of frozen pipes.”
Tanya Nellen, an employee at Merten’s Auto and Towing Service in Burlington, said that the business had received more than 30 requests for jumpstarts on both Monday and again Tuesday.
Despite the frigid temperatures and biting wind chill, Aurora’s hospitals in Burlington and Elkhorn had not seen a rise in cases.
“We’ve had a smattering of cold-related injuries, but nothing real dramatic,” Adam Beeson, hospital spokesman, said on Monday. “Throughout our system, we’ve had a handful of cases here and there of frostbite and hypothermia, that kind of thing, but not anything dramatic. People have been pretty responsible with handling the weather.”
Instead, the majority of weather-related medical needs came in last week at Aurora, Beeson said.
“There was a huge increase last week in slips and falls, especially in slips and falls resulting in fractures,” Beeson said.
Meals on Wheels, meanwhile, was forced to halt delivery to local citizens on both Monday and Tuesday.
Tina Kirk, the Director of Nutrition at Lincoln Lutheran and Racine County Human Services Department Nutrition Program, said temperatures were just too low to risk the safety of volunteers going in and out of vehicles to deliver the food.
As for BASD, Superintendent Peter Smet said on Tuesday that he was uncertain on whether the district would have to make up the time missed.
Smet explained that, contrary to popular belief, there are no “snow days” built into the district calendar. Instead, the district has to schedule 180 days, and then meet a specific number of hours and minutes.
“It has not been determined yet,” Smet said on possibly having to make up time.
BASD made the call to close Monday earlier than expected. Smet said Friday that the district wouldn’t make the call until Sunday afternoon, but phone calls to district residents went out shortly before noon on Saturday instead.
On Monday, the district began calling residents around 2 p.m. to inform them school would be closed on Tuesday as well.
Smet said he could remember the last time the state experienced weather like this – in 1996 – and that the district closed for two days then as well.
So far, things have been quiet at the district office over the latest closings.
“The feedback I’ve received has been very limited,” Smet said. “I have not received any complaints.”
Craig Workman, the City of Burlington Director of Public Works, said the department shifted work inside as much as possible, and so far, has been fortunate to have no water main breaks.
“I shouldn’t say that out loud,” said Workman, “because then it always happens.”
Meanwhile, the winter in general so far has been difficult for the Transitional Living Center. Director Cristen Chaffee said Tuesday that there wasn’t a huge rise in need of shelter because of the cold snap – just simply a rise in need of shelter.
“We’re just constantly seeing increased need,” said Chaffee, who confirmed the shelter is essentially full.
The agency will be doing its annual homeless survey – called a point in time survey – the last week of January, with volunteers looking for homeless in Burlington from about 8 p.m. to about 2 a.m. on a given evening.
Staff Writer Anne Trautner contributed to this story.
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