Your Daily Guide

📞 Dane County Dispatch Will Use AI in Calls

• In nonemergency calls, Dane County Public Safety Communications will use AVA, an AI assistant designed specifically to help in non-life-threatening situations.
• Calls made to the county’s nonemergency line, 608-255-2345, will be handled by AVA. Of the over 375,000 calls Dane County Public Safety receives annually, nearly 200,000 are for nonemergency needs like noise complaints and animal control requests.
• According to the developers, if AVA detects the situation is becoming an emergency, it will transfer the caller to a live telecommunicator. Callers also have the option to request a real person at any time during a call, but may experience wait times.
• Dig deeper: On today’s episode of City Cast Madison, host Bianca Martin chats with executive producer Hayley Sperling about this new tech and its implications — because folks around town already have thoughts. [WKOW, 🎧 City Cast]

🥵 UW’s AC Problem Explained

• UW-Madison has been without most of its air conditioning and had to close over 30 buildings on campus temporarily to preserve cooling since late June. A pipe that was essential to their cooling system broke on June 17, and given that it’s 20 feet below the ground and surrounded by other buried utilities, the repairs are complicated.
• The university has had to cancel some of its summer programming, including Cinematheque’s summer film screenings, but has managed to relocate other activities and operations to cooler parts of campus. [🔒Wisconsin State Journal]

🏫 Student Discipline Policies Under Review?

• The Madison School Board has indicated they may soon form a dedicated board to review the district’s Behavior Education Plan. The plan, which was created in 2014-15, had the goal of reducing how often students were taken out of classrooms through suspensions or other punishments for their behavior.
• The plan was created because students with disabilities and Black students were being suspended at disproportionately higher rates, but those disparities have continued even under the plan.
• Through the review, board members hope to address consequences for repeated low level behavioral issues and meeting support needs of high need students. [The Cap Times]

💰 Garver Feed Mill’s Economic Impact

• A study commissioned by the company behind the restoration of the Garver Feed Mill found that the building has generated an estimated $85 million in local economic activity since 2019.
• The building got its start as a sugar factory that processed sugar from beets, and got its name from its second owner James Garver, who turned it into a factory to produce nutrient rich livestock feed.
• Want more insight on the fascinating history of a Madison modern staple? The City Cast Madison team took a trip to Garver to learn about just that, plus they dig into its role in the city’s food scene. [🔒 Wisconsin State Journal, 🎧 City Cast Madison]