I’M STILL HERE! 26 years in VASD Housing Market
It’s your paper! Friday, February 14, 2020 • Vol. 6, No. 12 • Fitchburg, WI • ConnectFitchburg.com • $1
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Kathy Bartels 608-235-2927
KBartels@StarkHomes.com
Inside Alders pass AirBnB regulations Page 3 Star seeks editorial board members Page 5
Business Sisters aim to create dream homes
Renderings courtesy of COPA
The COPA is a proposed performing arts center planned for the Fish Hatchery Road opportunity zone, which may open in 2022.
Performing arts center sets goal of opening in 2022
Page 15
70,000 square foot facility would provide space for theater, music and dance NEAL PATTEN Unified Newspaper Group
Sports Wildcats secure fouth straight Big Eight crown Page B1
A new community organization is hoping to give Fitchburg a $35 million home to host the performing arts by 2022. Community Organizations Promoting the Arts presented the proposal to build a 70,000 square foot, three-story, multi-use performing arts event center to the Common Council at its Wednesday, Jan. 22 Committee of the Whole meeting. The proposed development would house classrooms, practice spaces,
rehearsal halls and administrative offices for several performing arts-related organizations, centered around a 400-seat auditorium. It’s the brainchild of Fitchburg-area business owner and longtime Verona resident Dale Sticha. Sticha, who has worked for over two decades as Elton John’s piano technician and tuner, spent three years developing connections with potential donors and partner organizations, several of which have signed on to the fledgling project.
Turn to COPA/Page 11
Community Organizations Promoting the Arts brochure.
Spring election
Displaced polling places won’t change until 2021 BRMS Circle provides support for black girls Page B6
KIMBERLY WETHAL Unified Newspaper Group
As Fitchburg voters head to the polls Tuesday, Feb. 18, for local and state primary elections, they’ll be traveling outside their respective districts for the
eighth straight election. Though city leaders considered that a temporary problem when they made the change for the April 2018 election, it’s likely to be at least four more elections before they settle on a solution. While two potential options have surfaced in the past few months – a nearby church and the return of the previous District 1 polling place to government hands – the city plans to wait until it redraws district lines in 2021 before
making any changes to polling places, city administrator Patrick Marsh told the Star on Tuesday Feb. 11. The unusual problem started when the city closed its King James Way fire station in 2017. Because that building was no longer staffed, meant the District 1 polling place had to be moved, and the replacement for that building, the Marketplace Drive fire station, is east of Verona Road. That made walking
Inside More election coverage and District 4 candidate questionnaires Pages 12 and 13
Turn to Polling/Page 10 151
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