By Kim McDarison
The City of Whitewater Common Council Tuesday received a presentation from Police Chief Dan Meyer, addressing, according to the agenda, an “increase in new members to the community, opportunities to connect with new members, and safety issues.”
The presentation centered around statistics associated with what has been described by city and school district officials as an “influx” of residents from Central America, including Nicaragua.
During his presentation, Meyer said that he was responding to a request for updated information made by the council during its Aug. 16 meeting, about the “ongoing influx of new community members arriving from outside the U.S.”
Meyer said that while it was difficult to estimate the number of new residents included in the recent influx, numbers provided by the Whitewater Unified School District initially estimated 120 new students who had enrolled over the course of the last school year.
Additionally, he said, 33 new students had registered with the district in the “2022 school year,” with 28 of those students arriving from Nicaragua.
Included within the meeting packet as part of the presentation, Meyer pointed to several charts showing statistics, which, he said, were impacting police department operations.
Among statistics offered in the meeting packet were “previous estimates of new community members,” which, the material noted, were estimated in the spring at between 400 and 500 residents.
Increases in traffic citations
Meyer said that the increase in community members coincided with “notable traffic enforcement increases.”
Looking at the number of citations issued for traffic crashes, and offenses such as operating without a license (OWL), and operating while intoxicated (OWI), between January and August for three consecutive years — 2020, 2021 and 2022 — Meyer said there was a noticeable uptick.
Looking at traffic crashes over the eight-month period, in 2020, the department wrote 78 citations; in 2021, it wrote 97 citations, and in 2022, it wrote 129 citations.
Looking at the infraction of driving without a license, Meyer said, over the eight-month period, the department wrote 66 citations in 2020; 76 citations in 2021, and 201 citations in 2022.
Looking at OWI and absolute sobriety infractions, Meyer said the department wrote 58 citations in 2020, 81 citations in 2021, and 62 citations in 2022.
In addition, Meyer expressed concerns with housing, citing issues with over-occupancy, noting that recent information shared with the department alleged that there were apartments in the community with three and four families living in them.
Costs of interpretation services
Meyer next shared information associated with the cost of interpretation services, noting that in 2020, the department spent $382 dollars for the year. In 2021, the department incurred an expense of $963.81 for the year. In 2022, year-to-date, he said the department had spent $3,651.65.
“Costs associated with language interpretation have increased dramatically,” he said.
Costs included services from Southern Wisconsin Interpreting and Translation Services (SWITS) and Language Line, Meyer said, noting that officers typically use SWITS for interpretation services during criminal investigations. The department’s dispatchers use Language Line when callers do not speak English.
To reduce costs, the department was considering a new service called Propio, which would provide interpretation services by voice or video over the phone within 30 seconds.
Staff was also working with the public library to access Spanish Law Enforcement classes and was looking into prepackaged tutorials such as Rosetta Stone. Meyer said recent versions of Rosetta Stone cost $199 per person, which, he said, was not within the department’s budget.
Meetings with the school district
Citing a meeting with members of the Whitewater Unified School District held in August, Meyer said topics discussed included the creation of three new district positions and the hiring of staff to fill them. Among new hires are Jorge Islas Martinez, serving as the district’s bilingual liaison; Cesar Valadez, serving as the district’s new homeless outreach coordinator, and Terilyn Robles, serving as the district’s new multilingual coordinator.
Also discussed was the consideration of a ride-share option which could be offered within the community or by some of the area’s larger employers to help reduce incidences of unlicensed driving.
Meyer said Lisa Huempfner, a University of Wisconsin-Whitewater professor, will be engaging with her Spanish-speaking students, looking for opportunities where they might be of service within the community.
He noted the possibility of providing information to new community members in October when the school district plans to hold its Fall Festival at Cravath Lakefront Park.
Concerns with over-occupancy
Pointing to a chart presented within meeting packeted materials, Meyer said: “There has been a marked increase in calls for service at Fox Meadows in 2022.”
Fox Meadows, according to its website, is an apartment building located on the city’s northwest side, directly west of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater campus. The building has one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments.
Looking again at an eight-month period, from January to August, during three consecutive years, 2020, 2021 and 2022, Meyer said in 2020, the department responded to 30 calls for service at Fox Meadows; in 2021, the department responded to 26 calls, and in 2022, the department responded to 125 calls.
Among his concerns, he said, was a large amount of turnover with on-premise property management.
In common spaces within the building, Meyer said, his officers were reporting missing smoke detectors, drug paraphernalia, and stains from excrement and urine.
“(An) exterminator has been on premise almost daily, if not daily, due to (a) cockroach problem,” Meyer wrote in his presentation.
Meyer cited concerns stemming from over-occupancy and loss of life in the event of a fire emergency.
Enforcement plan
During the meeting, Meyer shared with council members plans for enforcement to correct the enumerated concerns.
In August, he said, he met with Neighborhood Services Director Chris Bennett and the city’s building inspector to enlist their help.
The enforcement plan, which, he said, is being implemented primarily through the city’s neighborhood services officers and building inspectors, will begin with the issuance of letters to property owners, followed by “consistent inspections” of common areas and consistent, “potentially daily,” fines for noncompliance.
When the department has an indication of probable cause that over-occupancy is taking place, enforcers will “follow up” on an “apartment-by-apartment basis,” Meyer said.
According to Meyer, in August, the property management at Fox Meadows said it would be implementing some changes. Among them, he said, management will set up cameras around the entire property; locks will be installed on all the doors, with tenants gaining access by use of key fobs, and, among changes already begun, notices for removal are being placed on junk vehicles, and tenants with municipal code violations are receiving warnings, with further stipulations that unresolved violations will lead to fines.
Tenants who are not in compliance with their lease are receiving 14-day notices to vacate the premise, Meyer said.
How did the influx begin?
Washington Elementary School multilingual teacher Sandra Ramirez, speaking with Fort Atkinson Online by phone, noted that the influx began last school year.
Ramirez said at the beginning of the last school year, in August, after a staff member who had previously served as a district liaison left the position, she was given an extra role.
At the time, she said, the district only had a few families who were identified as coming from Central America. She believed she could handle the additional work.
Over the course of the school year, more families enrolled, she said, adding that this year, after experiencing the influx from last year, the district has hired a full-time liaison and she no longer serves in that capacity. Her tenure as liaison ended in June.
Ramirez said she has been a teacher within the Whitewater Unified School District for 12 years. Prior to September of 2021, she was working with families mostly of Mexican descent. Last September, five Nicaraguan families enrolled children in the district.
As the year progressed, and new families enrolled, she noticed many were from the same province in Nicaragua, she said.
“It started with five families and then others in Nicaragua would want to come,” Ramirez said. Those families that wanted to come would know someone who had already come, she said, adding: “So now they have a place to stay. So most of the families that are here know each other or are from the same location in Nicaragua.”
After the first families came, other followed. Ramirez described a pattern, noting that the first families to arrive would become the sponsors of the next families to arrive.
Ramirez said when families emigrating from other countries arrive at the U.S. border, they have to disclose to such agencies as the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) where they will be staying.
“When they come through Immigration, they are given permission to be here and they are supposed to be taken care of by their sponsor. They have asylum status, most come here seeking asylum,” she said.
As the school liaison, last year, Ramirez said she was enrolling families mostly from the Nicaraguan province at a rate of about one family per week. The trend continued through May of this year, she said.
Ramirez estimated that the community now has some 80 families with children enrolled in the district and between 50 and 80 single adults, whom she described as young, and mostly male.
“They come to work. The adults come first and then the rest of the family comes over. The idea is that the men come first and get a job, and get established, and then they send for the family,” she said.
Fox Meadows has become home for many of the families because they had space, they have an application process that accommodates first-time renters, and other family members with cars may have already been living there, Ramirez said.
“Because so many Nicaraguan families live there, they can share a ride with people in the same building to go to work,” she said, adding that many of the Nicaraguan workers are employed by the same few companies.
“The men go to work and establish themselves, but it does take a while to become established,” she said.
Looking at solutions to such issues as language barriers, transportation and housing, Ramirez said: “Transportation in the city of Whitewater is a big thing. They don’t have a drivers license, but they need to get to their job. If the city or their job could provide transportation, that would help.
“They do want to speak English and they want to learn, but they spend all of their time working. They like overtime because it pays more money. Some work overnight, which makes it hard. If you have classes scheduled at night, they can’t come, and when they are in the day, they are sleeping.
“I had tried to get students and families together and have workshops, and it was hard to get even five adults together on the same day. It’s not their priority. They come here to work … and make life better for their families.”
Ramirez said programming allowing adults to learn English on their own time might be a good option.
Additionally, she said, churches in the community have stepped up to help. They have collected donations, most of which are used to buy mattresses.
“When they come, they come with nothing. Immigration takes their Nicaraguan IDs, so they show up with a cell phone and the clothes they are wearing. When they get here, they need a bed, so that’s a big thing.”
Looking ahead, she said, she believes the influx from Nicaragua will begin to slow.
Said Ramirez: “As a university town, Whitewater offered more housing options than its surrounding neighbors. But now we are at the limit. So now that the housing is full, they are looking for housing in Beloit and Janesville … even though their families are here, they will locate somewhere else where they can find housing.”
To learn more about conditions in Nicaragua, the U.S. Department of State offers a document titled: U.S. Relations With Nicaragua. A link is here: https://www.state.gov/u-s-relations-with-nicaragua/.
File photo/Kim McDarison.
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