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Thursday, January 11, 2018 • Vol. 133, No. 28 • Oregon, WI • ConnectOregonWI.com • $1
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Oregon Observer The
Oregon School District
Honing in on growth Task force recommendation due next month SCOTT DE LARUELLE Unified Newspaper Group
Behind the scenes, the work has been going on for nearly a year. Next month, a task force charged with examining growth in the district will make its recommendations to the Oregon school board. It’s a decision that could go a long way in determining how the district looks in the future. Faced with a student population estimated to rise 50 percent by 2030 from planned developm e n t s i n O r eg o n a n d Fitchburg, the board is taking a long-term look at growth and how to best proceed with any expansion of existing schools or construction of new ones. The district task force on growth, created by the board in January 2017, has met frequently in the past year as it studied
area population trends and capabilities of district schools. The 10-member group includes district administrators, teachers, school board members and residents from Fitchburg, Oregon and Brooklyn. To assist, the district hired urban and regional planner Mark Roffers as a consultant. The group, directed to come up with recommendations on student enrollment population esti mates, long-term capacity of schools and potential areas for new schools, is nearly to that point. Task force and board member Courtney Odorico told the board Monday night the group has narrowed down options for a recommendation and has begun “fine-tuning” a report for the board’s vision/steering committee meeting on Jan. 31. She encouraged all board members to attend. “There will be a lot of important information coming from the task force,” Odorico said.
Turn to Growth/Page 5
Spring election
Peterson to join Village Board in April Local activist is only candidate for open seat BILL LIVICK Unified Newspaper Group
Amanda Peterson has lived in the Village of Oregon since 2004 and had “always thought about running for public office,” she said. It wasn’t until a Village
Board meeting in December, however, that she decided to act on her thoughts and run for a seat on the board. Peterson said the “catalyst” Peterson for her decision came when she attended a joint Library
Turn to Peterson/Page 5
Photo by Amber Levenhagen
Erica and Isaac Gonzalez build a Lego house.
‘Brick Mania’
Inside
The Oregon Public Library held the monthly Lego craft day on Jan. 6. “Brick Mania” is a two hour, open craft period for kids of all ages to flex their creative skills. The library provides all kinds of Legos, from standard bricks and blocks to cars and people. The next “Brick Mania” will be held at noon Saturday, Feb. 3. For more information about library activities, visit oregonpubliclibrary.org.
More photos from the Lego event at the library Page 2
Village of Brooklyn
4 newcomers, 1 incumbent in board race Former village president, board member among candidates SCOTT GIRARD Unified Newspaper Group
Village of Brooklyn voters will have plenty of options on their ballot this spring, with five candidates to fill out three Village Board seats. Only one of those five, Susan McCallum, is an incumbent, but two of the others – Pat Hawkey and Kyle Smith – were on the board as recently as April 2017. The other two come from different backgrounds, as Lyle Hawkey (Pat’s husband) has lived in Brooklyn for 35 years and Scott Rosenow moved here in 2015. Current board members Bruce Crubaugh and Russell Cazier will not run for re-election. The top three vote-getters April 3 will be elected to two-year terms on the board. While the village has had
Community Banking Since 1904
high-profile, public dustups in recent years over the Fire/EMS district and the police department, it also has regularly faced tight budgets. Two years ago, the board spent a November meeting going line by line through the budget to find enough to cut to get below the state-mandated levy limit. Rosenow, an attorney for the state of Wisconsin, graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison for both undergrad and his law degree, 2010 and 2013, respectively. He wrote in an email to the Observer that he is “passionate about public service and my community” and wants the village to take care of its police and fire departments while making property taxes and water bills more affordable. “My wife and I looked at many houses and vacant lots for sale in the greater Madison area, but we fell in love with Brooklyn the first time we checked it out,” Rosenow wrote. “Brooklyn is a great place to live, and I want to help keep it that way and work to make it even better.” Pat Hawkey, who was village
president from 2015-17 before losing to write-in candidate Clayton Schulz last April, said she decided to run again because there will be “high-dollar” projects coming up like street work and issues with sewer plants. “There’s a lot of things that are happening within the village right now; they have a lot of projects coming up,” she said. “I think it’s really important to be consistent and follow up on things that were started.” Kyle Smith did not return a pair of voicemails requesting comment. Lyle Hawkey, who is retired from working in the HVAC industry, said Pat running had no effect on his decision, and that he has no specific issues he’d want to tackle on the board. “It’s just that people aren’t stepping up, so I thought I’d step up,” Lyle said. “I really don’t feel as though the board is doing a bad job; they’re doing a decent job.” McCallum, who has served as a trustee or village president from
Turn to Brooklyn/Page 5
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