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Friday, January 12, 2018 • Vol. 4, No. 11 • Fitchburg, WI • ConnectFitchburg.com • $1
Jason Geiger
(608) 277-2167
Inside
Stories of 2017
Police chief hire expected this month Electoral terms staggered beginning in 2019 Page 3 Council approves new TID Page 5
Schools
Verona Area board gets virtual tour of new high school Page 9
Sports
Our top story in 2017, nonprofit funding the city’s budget, brought a crowd of more than 100 to a Common Council meeting in October.
File photo by Scott Girard
More politics, progress Political battles overshadow new fire station, VASD referendum
West hockey wins Culver’s Cup Page 11
Business
Fitchburg will always have its share of political battles, it seems. But there’s plenty more happening, even if those fights sometimes overshadow the progress in other areas. Stories about one of those two topics filled out our staff’s choices for top stories of 2017 – including some that were a combination of both. At the top was the controversy over the budget and how – or if – the city should continue to fund nonprofit organizations. That process attracted hundreds to a budget meeting, brought regional media coverage and led to a public apology. At No. 2 was how a key person
in that saga came to his position, as Mayor Jason Gonzalez defeated incumbent Steve Arnold in the spring election, part of a major turnover at City Hall that included four new Common Council members. Much of the rest of our list includes items the city or residents have worked toward for years, from the opening of the new fire station on Marketplace Drive to the Verona Area School District referendum – the largest successful capital referendum in state history. Lower on our list are a pair of parks, one for kids in the King James Way neighborhood and one for dogs. The city also took a step toward
increased public transportation with the start of a rideshare program that will help leaders make future decisions on intracity transportation, and it got the long-expected bad news that an ash tree pest was here. Public safety also experienced turnover in 2017, as the chief of the police department and director of Fitch-Rona EMS both decided to retire. Finally, at No. 10, Verona Road construction continued and included the closure of a pair of side streets as the $175 million state highway project continued on its path toward a 2020 completion.
Stories of 2017 Read more about each of our top 10 stories on pages 15-16: 1. Nonprofit funding 2. Gonzalez wins mayoral race 3. Fire station opens 4. VASD referendum approval 5. Ride Share program 6. EAB confirmed 7. Police, EMS chiefs retire 8. King James Way park 9. Dog park 10. Verona Road work
Stories to watch 2018
A waiting game on police chief, construction projects
Page 19
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from the longtime administration of retired chief Thomas Blatter. We won’t know until April whether there will be a mayoral recall, something that was promised, softened and then possibly relieved because of a compromise arrangement in the budget. On that same note, it will
be worth watching to see how the city doles out the $50,000 it has made available to nonprofits. The rest of the top stories involve building things, processes that will continue throughout the year. We’ll keep an eye on the planning of the new Verona Area High School, which
accommodates more than one-third of Fitchburg’s high school-age students. We’ll grit our teeth as Verona Road construction reroutes us occasionally. And we’ll follow the progress of the second new fire station, which is likely to open in early 2019.
Inside Read about our stories to watch in the year ahead Page 17
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For most of the top stories to watch in 2018 in Fitchburg, we’ll have to wait a bit to see how they turn out. While we’ll find out in short order who the next police chief will be, it will take some time to judge exactly how things might change under his watch