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It’s your paper! Friday, April 12, 2019 • Vol. 6, No. 2 • Fitchburg, WI • ConnectFitchburg.com • $1
Spring election
Inside
Richardson defeats Gonzalez Lifelong Fitchburg resident ‘excited’ to begin 1-year term
Holi celebration photos Page 2
SCOTT GIRARD Unified Newspaper Group
15 nonprofits apply for Healthy Neighborhoods grants Page 3
Business Chamber welcomes new employee Page 19
Sports
Photo by Emiilie Heidemann
Allied Drive/Dunn’s Marsh neighborhood resident Marlien Arguela browses the aisles of Luna’s Groceries Monday, April 8.
Neighborhood flavor Luna’s Groceries turns former food desert into cuisine hub
EMILIE HEIDEMANN Unified Newspaper Group
VAHS alum wins three national titles Page B1
Schools Committee narrows boundary options to 3, public meetings this month Page B6 OSD music department receives national recognition Page B8
In a neighborhood with diverse “flavors,” it only makes sense to have a grocery store that celebrates what the area’s residents bring to the table. That’s the way Luna’s Groceries owner Mariam Maldonado put it when describing why she opened the first grocery store in the Allied Drive/ Dunn’s Marsh neighborhood since the 2009 closing of Cub Foods. Since opening in January, customers have been able to credit Maldonado’s 2,240-square-foot store – located at 2010 Red Arrow Trail just across the Fitchburg boundary in Madison – for turning what might be a long walk for fresh food into mere minutes. The shelves are restocked every Thursday with an abundant supply of fruits and vegetables for customers to choose from seven days a week, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Maldonado told the Star. It took years of saving, help from government grants and loans and weathering some unexpected storms at the start, but Maldonado and her partner Joe – both longtime residents of the Allied Drive/Dunn’s Marsh neighborhood – are providing specialty items and standard convenience-store options to an area that has been lacking for a long time. Allied Drive/Dunn’s Marsh neighborhood resident Marlien Arguela said she enjoyed shopping PRSRT STANDARD ECRWSS US POSTAGE
PAID
Luna’s Groceries
Cooking classes
Luna’s Groceries 2010 Red Arrow Trail 245-5422 Hours: Daily from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Luna’s Groceries will receive a $1,750 grant to teach cooking to youth this year, according to a March 29 Dane County news release. The grant will fund the “Cooking for the Culture” program, a oneyear, 10-session curriculum “designed to engage racially, culturally and socioeconomically diverse” youth in all aspects of food. The release states that participants will be recruited to represent the “diversity of the neighborhood.” In monthly, three-hour sessions, the curriculum will have 20-25 youth take classes focused on food culture, chemistry and creation.
at the store. “It’s very convenient, and I find everything I’m looking for,” she told the Star. Another customer, Madison resident Jeff Mack, said he believes in the grocery store’s cause and always enjoys shopping local when he can. “What the owners did here is something not a lot of people are encouraged to do,” he told the Star. “The selection resonates with the community.”
‘Your corner store’ As customers walk into what’s billed as the “Your corner store,” they’re greeted with a rainbow of produce. There’s orange and yellow peppers, rich, dark green and spicy poblano peppers, avocados and plantains, just to name a few. There’s also a mix of origins, too – tastes from Honduras, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic, where Maldonado grew up in a family of grocers, she said.
T h e r e wa s n o m a y o r of Fitchburg when Aaron Richardson was born here in 1976. Seven years later, the Town of Fitchburg became a city; and April 2, 2019, Richa r d s o n wa s elected as the 13th mayor of that city. The firstt e r m D i s - Richardson trict 3 alder defeated incumbent Jason Gonzalez by a resounding vote of 3,929 to 2,240. He w i l l s e r v e Gonzalez one year in the position before it’s up for election again, and at that time, it will be for a three-year term that Richardson has said he will run for. “It’s a little bit surreal,” Richardson told the Star two days after the election, sitting in the “mayor-elect’s office” in City Hall. “There’s a lot to learn, to do, and I’m just excited I’m already getting started.” The result continued a decade-long trend of Fitchburg voters being unhappy enough with an incumbent to oust them after one term – or two, in the case
Turn to Mayor/Page 15
The store was named after Maldonado’s grandfather who died last year. “He was the one who brought us to the United States (from the Dominican Republic),” Maldonado said.
Turn to Luna’s/Page 19
Inside Regular turnover makes ‘stability’ a challenge Page 15
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