Buy Local in Oregon
Thursday, March 8, 2018 • Vol. 133, No. 36 • Oregon, WI • ConnectOregonWI.com • $1.25
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Oregon Observer The
Village of Oregon
Big picture on village campus discussion was “very conceptual.” “It’s talking the big picture,” he said. The Village Board, and Trustee Jeanne Carpenter in particular, have wanted a discussion to show there is some movement and planning on what is going to happen with the Village Hall. Gracz thought it was a good time to revisit ideas for Village Hall and the senior center after several months of focusing on the library. He said in any plans for a civic campus, downtown parking becomes a central issue.
Concepts discussed include indoor gym for seniors BILL LIVICK Unified Newspaper Group
Photo by Helu Wang
Dan Bertler, owner of Supreme Structures, built the Oregon Area Food Pantry last year, donating his time and labor. He plans to do the same when he and his crew builds the Oregon Youth Center later this year.
Supreme support Bertler contributes to build healthier kids BILL LIVICK
In 2010, when he was a member of ‘I don’t think we would have the Oregon Athletic Booster Club, he been able to build the food renovated a concession stand at the Oregon Panthers’ football stadium. Dan Bertler and his family have pantry without him.’
Unified Newspaper Group
Working with the school district, he brought sewer and water to it and addRandy Glysch, OCRN chair ed new interior finishes and cabinetry. Two years later, he launched the Area Food Pantry last year. And the Oregon girls’ lacrosse club, serving as company will soon break ground on a an organizer, financial supporter and club president. new youth center. But the food pantry wasn’t Bertler’s Turn to Bertler/Page 10 first act of community philanthropy.
Library adds new outreach librarian SCOTT DE LARUELLE Unified Newspaper Group
For the past seven years, Kara Ripley has been helping connect educators across the state with library resources. Now, the Indiana native has brought her talents to Oregon to lead adult services and outreach efforts here. Ripley started in her role of adult services and outreach librarian on Feb. 1, and has hit the ground running, already working on an
assessment to see what programs people are interested in. “I’m still getting acquainted with all the needs of the community,” she told the Observer on Ripley Tuesday. “I could put together a series of classes or programs that are great, but maybe not what everybody needs.” Ripley said she had
always been interested in being a teacher, after overcoming early difficulties at reading. “I wasn’t reading at grade level until high school, then I just took off from there,” Ripley said. “In college, I became more interested in adult education, and rather than becoming a professor or something like that, it seemed libraries were doing a lot of that work, so I decided to pursue library science.” Ripley earned a Master’s
Degree in Library Science from Indiana University in 2007 (no, she’s not bothered being surrounded by Badgers fans), and after working for a public library in Kentucky, was hired as the BadgerLink Training Librarian at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. For the past seven years, she’s coordinated state’s online library, which provides access to materials and information
Four options discussed One option for the civic campus shows the village retaining the southern part of Village Hall, demolishing the other half of the building and constructing an addition to expand the building toward the south, adding about 4,000 square feet to its size. The part of the building that would be demolished could be used for parking. A new senior center would be built on the site where the library currently exists. A second option envisions demolishing Village Hall entirely and constructing a new two-story facility on Janesville Street a few hundred feet south of the existing building. The former building site would
Turn to Campus/Page 10
Inside Find activities for your children, youth trends and a summer sports schedule in our annual “Kids” section A 2018 spec
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on-area A Madis guide parent’s ing to everyth kids!
Turn to Ripley/Page 9
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lived in Oregon for two decades, long enough for the building contractor to call the village home and have an interest in improving it. And he’s done a lot toward that end. Bertler is the owner of Supreme Structures, the commercial general contracting company that donated time and labor to build the Oregon
Wi t h a n ew l i b r a r y planned to be built in 2020 on North Main Street, village officials discussed options Monday for the rest of the downtown civic campus – a two-block area around Spring Street and Brook Street. They reviewed concepts and talked about potential options for the senior center and Village Hall – upgrading one or both or building new – in anticipation of finalizing a civic campus master plan this year. Village planner Mike Slavney presented two concepts for the buildings, and senior center director Rachel Brickner introduced some new ideas for the center, including building a gymnasium with an indoor walking track when a new center is built in four or five years. Village administrator Mike Gracz urged elected officials not to get “hung up” on square footage estimates and stressed that any plan would be only a guide. “It’s a working document that’s going to change over time,” he said, “similar to what we did with the downtown master plan.” He noted that Monday’s