Wal-Mart movie draws crowd
-- By the time the lights dimmed Thursday evening, 75 people had gathered in the Jefferson Public Library to view "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price," and a few more came in as the movie began. "We were thinking as we were setting things up tonight that if we got 15 people, it would be a good group," said Alex Brower, a Jefferson High School senior who with 2005 Jefferson High School graduate Casey Dahl coordinated Thursday's community screening. "Then when people started to arrive at 5:30 p.m., we were like, 'Whoa,'" he added. The local audience drew mostly Jefferson residents, but people also came from across the county, including Watertown and Whitewater. The solid turnout was expected in light of the three-year fight over a Wal-Mart proposing to build a Supercenter on Jefferson's south side. The Jefferson coordinators said they also were pleasantly surprised to be joined by a couple of high-profile guests as well, who addressed the audience after the 90-minute movie. These included Brent Denzin of Madison, a member of Midwest Environmental Advocates, who has helped the local Coalition for a Better Jefferson and grassroots groups in other Wisconsin communities who have opposed Wal-Mart; Tom Boese of Menomonee Falls, a field producer for Brave New Films, which put out the "High Cost" movie; and Tim Sheehan, a regional field organizer with the national group Wal-Mart Watch.
	AT THE MOVIES — About 75 area residents gathered at the Jefferson Public Library Thursday evening for the screening of “Wal-Mart, the High Cost of Low Price.” The film will be shown at 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19, at the Dwight Foster Public Library in Fort Atkinson. Pictured above, attendees fill the library meeting room to view the 90-minute movie. — Daily Jefferson County Union photo by Pam Chickering Wilson.
"Cathy Zimmerman and I were at Wal-Mart Watch's legislative event in Madison this week, and that's how that came about," Patti Lorbecki said after Thursday's event. Lorbecki and her husband, Dave, own Dave's Piggly Wiggly, a local grocery store that has taken the lead in the Coalition for a Better Jefferson's anti-Wal-Mart campaign the past three years. "The big concern in Madison was insurance," Lorbecki said, "how much Wal-Mart employees' reliance on the state to provide their healthcare is costing the taxpayers in state after state." This was one of the topics the film brought up, talking with many current and former employees who noted that while Wal-Mart does offer insurance to all of its "associates," many find it impossible to pay what it costs to insure their families while earning an average of around $13,000 per year for "full-time" work. It's worth noting that Wal-Mart considers its employees "full-time" if they work 28 hours per week. Thus, large numbers of Wal-Mart employees instead turn to state insurance and other state and federal welfare programs. "Women, Infants and Children (WIC) is an excellent program. It saved my life," six-year Wal-Mart employee Diane DeVoy said in the movie, but she added that it is demeaning and a hassle for an employed person to have to turn to public assistance to care for his or her family. In Wisconsin, for example, 1,252 Wal-Mart employees rely on the state's BadgerCare, which picks up the tab for the healthcare of 809 Wal-Mart employees and 443 dependents at the cost of $2.7 million per year for Wisconsin taxpayers. After brief presentations by the guest speakers and local representatives, attendees could pick up additional information on Wal-Mart and its effect on the local and global community, get free T-shirts from Wal-Mart Watch, or sign up to assist the Coalition for a Better Jefferson, if they wished. The movie generated a lot of discussion among attendees too, many, but not all of whom expressed concerns about the tactics the megacorporation uses as it pursues bottom-line prices. (The full story appears in the Nov. 19 Daily Union.)

School referendum survey OK'd

Th School District of Fort Atkinson will be conducting a market research survey of the community to discern some of the reasons why the Oct. 18 referendum failed 2,097 votes to 1,305.

The board of education approved the survey -- developed and revised by Carol Knox -- at its regular monthly meeting Thursday night.

Knox served as a steering committee member for the Citizens to Protect Our Future: Vote Yes for Kids committee, which got the word out about the referendum.

The question had asked voters to allow the school board to exceed the state revenue limit on a recurring basis, by an amount not to exceed $2.1-million for the purpose of paying for the repair, replacement and upgrading of the heating, ventil­ating and air conditioning systems in school district buildings; for the purchase and maintenance of technology equipment and software; and for general operating and maintenance expenses.

In this market research survey, people who voted in the recent referendum will be asked why they voted the way they did, and what concerns or opinions they had. They also will be asked their ideas for addressing the district's three challenges, Knox said during a special board meeting on Monday.

She said she was doing this marketing plan voluntarily -- not as an advocate, but as a retired public relations professional wanting to share her expertise, engage the public and be a part of the solution.

She retired as a co-partner from Morgan&Myers in Jefferson earlier this year.

Knox said the draft survey would be mailed, with a return address, to a select number of residents who voted in the referendum. She said obtaining 500 survey returns would yield good results.

The survey, she said, will be divided into five sections in which voters would be asked to respond. They are as follows:

1) Concerns people have expressed, and do they share that concern definitely, somewhat, not much or not at all.

Concerns include: Increased property taxes I would have to pay; the permanent/recurring nature of the proposed tax increase; the fact that there was no "sunset" clause; the inability of electors to vote on each issue separately; uncertainty about the geothermal technology proposed to upgrade the HVAC systems at the four schools; the addition of air conditioning to the four schools; a belief that the employee bargaining units in the school district (teachers and support staff) would take advantage of the extra money to negotiate higher settlements; a lack of trust in future school boards to hold the line on spending and to spend money wisely.

2) Opinions, and whether voters strongly agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree or strongly disagree with the following statements: We have too many administrators in our school district; the school district has been frugal; the Wisconsin teachers union has too much power; the school district should hold a future referendum to coincide with a regularly scheduled election; the superin­ten­dent understands taxpayer concerns and is open to their input; the school district has cut out "fat."   (The full story appears in the Nov. 19 Daily Union.)

Ixonia fatality trial winds down

JEFFERSON -- Attorneys were expected to present closing remarks this morning in the trial of a Madison man charged in a three-vehicle Town of Ixonia collision that claimed the life of a Fox Lake resident three years ago.

Christopher Repenshek, 32, is facing charges of homicide by negligent operation of a vehicle and homicide by intoxicated use of a motor vehicle in the death of Russell J. Vossekuil, 40, of Fox Lake.

Vossekuil died as a result of neck and chest trauma sustained in a three-vehicle crash at the intersection of Rockvale Road and County Highway F in the Town of Ixonia on Sept. 27, 2002.

According to authorities, Repenshek was driving south on County Highway F in a Dodge Ram 1500 pick-up truck at approximately 4:15 p.m. His vehicle struck the left rear taillight area of a Ford F250 truck while apparently attempting to maneuver around the Ford as it turned right. As the Ram went around the Ford truck, it entered the northbound lane, where it collided head-on with the northbound blue 1993 Ford Ranger driven by Vossekuil.

Upon deliberating the case, the jury of eight women and six men also will consider a misdemeanor charge of causing injury while operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated, related to an alleged injury of Repenshek's passenger Mark Richter.

Testimony was presented to the jury Wednesday and Thursday.

"There's no question this is a tragedy," Repsenshek's attorney, Stephen E. Mays, said during his opening remarks Wednesday. "Accidents can happen and be no one's fault."

He encouraged the jury to listen for the multiple assumptions made by authorities that would be noted during the testimony. In addition, he suggested that in a split-second decision, there is not always time to make the right choice.

"There was no time to make that maneuver," Mays said, regarding the possibility of avoiding Vossekuil's truck after entering the northbound lane.

Following the crash, Mays said, Repenshek got out of his truck and attempted to assist Vossekuil at the scene. Photos of the Vossekuil's truck showed the driver's side door partially bent out as if someone had attempted to pull it open to gain access.

Numerous photos of the crash scene were utilized during testimony to illustrate the door of Vossekuil's vehicle. Two witnesses testified that an effort was made to pull the door open.

Repenshek, his passenger, Rich­ter, and co-worker Michael Boss­hard were working for Bob Anderson Builders at a construction site in Watertown and allegedly were en route home to Milwaukee from an Ixonia bar at the time of the crash. Richter and Bosshard each testified that the three had consumed "a few beers" at an Ixonia bar the afternoon of the crash.(The full story appears in the Nov. 19 Daily Union.)