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Kathy Bartels
Friday, January 8, 2021 • Vol. 7, No. 11 • Fitchburg, WI • ConnectFitchburg.com • $1
608-235-2927
KBartels@StarkHomes.com
Inside
Stories of 2020
City of Fitchburg
Redistricting committee planned to start in 2021
Inclusive playground designing to start at McKee Park
City cannot take future Town of Madison annexation into consideration
Page 5
KIMBERLY WETHAL Unified Newspaper Group
ICity named 2020 climate champion
Sports
Photo by Kimberly Wethal
Playgrounds in Fitchburg, and around the state, were ordered to close on March 25 by Gov. Tony Evers’ “Safer at Home” mandate that limits public interactions.
Adapting to the pandemic Education, elections take center stage in a newly virtual world
UNG STAFF
Hockey, boys swim teams bring home gold Page 12
Schools Clardy chosen for top post
Unified Newspaper Group
U
sually, the Fitchburg Star is good at predicting what news will grace our front pages as it looks forward to the upcoming year. But we didn’t see the COVID-19 pandemic coming. While some of the things the Star listed in its 2020 Stories to Watch happened – construction commenced on Fish Hatchery and
McKee Roads, and two Madison Metropolitan School District referendums graced the November ballot – they were muted in comparison to the havoc COVID-19 wreaked. Others didn’t happen, or were altered because of the pandemic. Officials made government decisions virtually over Zoom, such as approving an external investigation into the city administrator’s conduct, or relocating District 1’s polling place back to the Jamestown neighborhood.
For that reason, COVID-19 is our top story of the year, because of how it seeped into every single aspect of life as we knew it. No school, business or person was unaffected, and it has been the cause of significant pain and grief throughout our community. High school students didn’t get a spring sports season or a traditional graduation, many businesses closed temporarily or permanently.
Turn to 2020/Page 8
Page 16
Business
Stories to watch 2021
Awaiting the COVID-19 end Potential recovery will define 2021
HighLine Apartments offer seniors housing options Page 19
KIMBERLY WETHAL Unified Newspaper Group
As much as we all hoped for 2020’s mess to disappear on Jan. 1, the reality is we aren’t quite rid of it. Unfortunately, our Fitchburg Star headlines will reflect that for
at least the beginning of 2021. But with COVID-19 vaccine distribution underway, there’s a sense of renewed hope that this year we might glimpse what “normal” used to look like. But we’ll be following other stories too, ones that aren’t necessarily related to the pandemic. One we know about is more construction along Fish Hatchery Road. Another is the discussion of redrawing aldermanic lines from the
2020 federal census and city growth – with the expected addition of part of the Town of Madison in 2022 in mind. Also likely to be worth following are the unveiling of new schools in the Oregon and Verona districts, the possible creation of community centers in the northern neighborhoods of the city, attempts to reduce flooding on the southern and western borders of the city and the addition of
Turn to Redistricting/Page 5
Turn to 2021/Page 10
151
University of Wisconsin
Downtown State Capitol
MADISON
Prima
Mineral Point Rd
PLACES like no OTHER
MONON
University Research Park
Lake Monona
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MADISON
14
18 151
FITCHBURG PD
5
151 Fish Hatchery Rd
Page 7
The City of Fitchburg will start the process of aldermanic redistricting in 2021. Mayor Aaron Richardson announced during the Tuesday, Dec. 8, Common Council meeting that the city would form an ad-hoc committee for redistricting to be chaired by Ald. Randy Udell (Dist. 4). It will include six residents – one from each district and two at-large, with one person being specifically from a rural area – and city staff such as the clerk and the administrator. Recruiting for the committee will start in January and go through March, Richardson said. Members will be appointed in April, and by June, they will provide options to the council before it votes on redistricting in July. The state requires that municipalities redistrict following the decennial federal census, and do so in a way that keeps districts contiguous. What district a person lives limits who can run for a position – only those who live in a specific district are allowed to represent it. Residents on the ad-hoc committee will be able to vote on the restricting proposals, while city staff members cannot, Richardson said. He added that he doesn’t want redistricting to be a political exercise, so anyone he appoints to the ad-hoc committee cannot have previously been an elected official, and anyone who serves on the committee can’t then run for Common Council within a year. Anyone who was on the redistricting committee 10 years ago also won’t be appointed, Richardson added, to ensure new voices are brought in. He said the most important aspect of the redistricting committee is ensuring there isn’t any gerrymandering of districts and that new districts don’t create voter confusion. “I don’t think that’s been a problem in the past, but I think that’s an important thing to say and more of an issue on the state and federal level than it is here,” Richardson said. “I also want to
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