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It’s your paper! Friday, July 12, 2019 • Vol. 6, No. 5 • Fitchburg, WI • ConnectFitchburg.com • $1
46 stolen vehicles this year
Inside N. Stoner Prairie density reduced Page 3
Up from 38 at this time last year, PD reports SCOTT GIRARD Unified Newspaper Group
table.” Following his grandfather’s suggestion, Popp applied to the youth version of the program, having to submit his school transcripts, a list of his extracurriculars and an essay he wrote on what he thought leadership to be. From there, he was one of six students interviewed by a panel of four law enforcement officers at the Appleton Police Department, and received the call he’d been selected later that night. “The whole process of him going through the motions of him applying made me really proud,” Popp’s mother Sarah said. “I think it was such a great experience at such a young age to go through
As a Fitchburg police officer responded to a report of a stolen car located in the city around 3 a.m. June 21, he noticed an open garage door. Then he saw a group suspiciously entering a home on the 2800 block of Ivanhoe Glen. As it turned out, he was interrupting a burglary in which the garage door had been opened by a garage door opener left in an unlocked vehicle parked outside. That story is an example of what Fitchburg Police Department Sgt. Edward Hartwick says is an upward trend over the past few years in the number of stolen vehicle reports in the city. So far, he said, there have Hartwick been 46 compared to 38 at this time last year, when 64 were stolen by the end of the year. “It’s a bit of an alarming trend that these stolen vehicles are now being used to commit other crimes and facilitate other crimes,” Hartwick said. “From a homeowner’s perspective, it’s alarming that someone is going to enter your home to look primarily for vehicle keys. “We obviously have a significant concern for everyone’s safety at that point.” As in the past few years, Hartwick said, it’s primarily juveniles committing the crimes, some as young as 12, and many repeat offenders. That can make a solution more complex. “The challenge is coordinating a community-wide response between law enforcement, juvenile justice providers and the criminal justice system … to adequately provide resources and address whatever issues are going on with these juveniles on a case by case basis,” Hartwick said. “Making arrests is not going to necessarily solve the problem.” In 2017, there were 72 car t h e f t s ove r t h e e n t i r e y e a r
Turn to FBI/Page 19
Turn to Cars/Page 19
Williamsburg Way reopens to northbound Verona Road Page 10 Three candidates to vy for District 3 seat Page 18
Business Pinnacle Health adds outdoor pool Page 16
Sports
Photo by Kimberly Wethal
From right, Fitchburg residents Will Popp and Tom Marquardt hold onto their Yellow Bricks earned from their time with the FBI Leadership Program. Popp completed the Youth Leadership Program as a delegate for the state of Wisconsin late last month.
Following in his footsteps Fitchburg resident reps state at FBI National Leadership program KIMBERLY WETHAL Unified Newspaper Group
Golden Girls win soccer state Page 11
Schools VASB prefers boundary option E Page 15
For most, the phrase “yellow brick road” conjures up thoughts of a fairy tale, where a young girl is trying to find her way home to Kansas. I n F i t c h bu rg r e s i d e n t Wi l l Popp’s case, a “yellow brick road” symbolizes a few early mornings, some mental stamina and a chance he received to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps, after completing the FBI National Academy Youth Leadership Program. Popp was the Wisconsin delegate for the 2019 program, a teenage version of the FBI National Academy, from June 20-28. Popp, who is starting his sophomore year this fall, was one of 60 students aged 14-16 selected to attend from around the world, he spent a little over a week in Quantico, Virginia, at the end of June. The FBI Leadership Program is an “intense eight-day program (with) classroom lectures on leadership, ethics, values, juvenile crime and character strength,” a news release from Lakeside PRSRT STANDARD ECRWSS US POSTAGE
PAID
“Going into it, I wasn’t a really confident person. But I learned that I can be a confident leader and outspoken, and be a leader not just by actions, but through words.” – Will Popp Lutheran High School, where Popp attends, said. Popp found out about the program from his maternal grandfather Tom Marquardt, who is a retired FBI agent and served as a counselor at the professional FBI National Academy, meant to educate U.S. law enforcement officers. Marquardt’s career spanned more than three decades, working in Boston, New York City and Detroit before coming to the Madison area in 1979. He was asked to be a counselor for the National FBI Program in the early 2000’s, and completed four thirteen-week sessions in a single year. “I had officers from Chile, Switzerland, Lebanon,” he said. “Everyone brings something to the
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