A snow emergency has been ….
A snow emergency has been declared at 404 E. First Street. Yes, that’s right, a real emergency. The snow has gotten deep enough on the roof to cover my TV dish. So there is little left to do but start my column for next week.
It is simply beautiful out there. Both crabapple trees in the front yard are sitting full of snow. It appears the wind hasn’t picked up yet, but as I look out, the trees across the street are starting to wave back and forth.
While it sure is pretty to look at, I also have been watching the weather forecast and it doesn’t look good. Cold temperatures and high winds. That should really create a mess, but then right after that it should warm up. Let’s hope so.
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Snowstorms are kind of like hurricanes. You always get plenty of warning in advance. The problem with hurricanes comes when they issue an evacuation order and everyone heads out of town away from the pending storm.
The next question would be, so where do you go? That can be a major question. As you drive through the south, many highways are marked as emergency evacuation routes.
I guess I’ll just settle for sitting home during a snowstorm and hope the furnace keeps humming along. Or, maybe time to add another piece of wood to the furnace or wood stove.
The extra warning allowed me to adjust my schedule and I ran to Marshfield yesterday and picked up some medicine I hadn’t planned to get until later in the week.
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Last fall a story ran in the TRG about the Loyal Ambulance Service receiving an anonymous gift of $60,000 to use for buying some much needed equipment. I thought it was pretty nice, but about the same time I was looking through my handbook for the Loyal Housing Authority. In it was a brief history I had written up about the housing authority. I had gone down to the TRG office and looked in their old files from 1969, since I knew it all came about right after we had moved here in the fall of 1968.
So I began my search in the 1969 files. The housing authority had begun that fall. Along with seeing the stories about the housing authority, I also ran across some articles on the Loyal Ambulance Service in later issues. Seems at the time we were getting our ambulance service from Neillsville, which, the city council at the time, felt was good enough.
Some people didn’t agree and a referendum was held in the spring of 1971, in which 210 people voted for an ambulance and only 37 opposed it.
The rest is now just a memory but at the time Clark County was alone with a single representative in the Assembly. Our Assemblyman was Gene Oberle who lived just west of Thorp. Gene was also a Legion member and it was through that that I got to know him.
While I was just a reporter at the council meeting I often would comment, especially when they wanted to know how something was being handled in Spencer or Greenwood, since I was also covering their meetings.
One night someone asked the council about the ambulance and they added that I was supposed to be looking into it, which I don’t recall ever having the assignment.
So I called Gene again and he set up a meeting with the Highway Safety Coordinator in Madison. Dennis Cook, Dick Roycraft, myself and Lawrence Davel, city clerk, made the journey to Madison.
When the coordinator heard our story he sat right up in his chair and started the paper work. As luck would have it, we would be the 100th community to get an ambulance grant.
So a big celebration was planned. We met for a luncheon at the Star Lodge Motel. I believe there is a picture hanging in city hall of everyone that was there for that.
It wouldn’t be long and the same highway safety coordinator came with some sad news. Our ambulance didn’t meet the necessary standards and we would have to replace it.
The reasoning behind it was, if you had ambulance service in your community you would feel you should also get the same level of service if you needed it in your travels.
A good point to consider came when we started visiting Texas in the winter. Texas does not have townships. Only cities and counties. In most cases the cities will have an ambulance, but getting one to come out to an accident in the rural areas can be iffy.
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I’ve mentioned before about some of the stories I’ve read on Facebook. I know they are stories, but who has the time to think up that stuff.
Seems this lady was going to have twins, but suddenly passed into a coma. The babies were born, a boy and a girl and were fine. When the lady did come to, she was told about her children. When she found out they were fine she asked about naming them.
One of the relatives said it was all taken care of. Uncle George did it.
This kind of threw her in a fit since she knew Uncle George. What did he call them?
The first one, the girl he called Denise.
That was fine, but how about the boy. He called him De-nephew.
