Thursday, April 11, 2019 • Vol. 134, No. 41 • Oregon, WI • ConnectOregonWI.com • $1.25
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Flooding victims seek help ALEXANDER CRAMER Unified Newspaper Group
The flooding along Badfish Creek has been bad for years, but as about a dozen residents told the Village Board on Monday night, it’s going “from bad to worse.” About 20 residents who live along Jefferson Street between the railroad tracks and Ash Street attended the April 8 meeting to ask for help in dealing with flooding that has gotten worse over recent years. “There has to be a sense of urgency,” one homeowner who lives on the western edge of the affected area – where Keller Alpine Meadows Park starts – told the board. “You’re going to have parts of Oregon that have been tenable for years that will be untenable (if nothing is done.)” The board referred the
problem to the May meeting of the village’s Public Works committee, which will work through different options and present a plan of action back to the board. For some, the flooding has meant sump pumps running 24 hours a day; for others, it’s led to multiple basement refinishings. Many seemed to blame ongoing construction on the west side of the village for adding to the flooding problem, though public works director Jeff Rau pushed back slightly against that assertion. “You’re going to see more water, no doubt; that’s just the nature of development,” Rau said. But there are systems in place that slow the water’s path and allow the sediment to fall to the bottom, which results in “much less peak (water flow.)” “I know people have heard this to death,” Rau said, “but we have a tremendous amount of water everywhere in the village.
Turn to Jefferson/Page 13
Oregon School District
New staffing plans approved Board allots around $500K more in salary for 2019-20 staff SCOTT DE LARUELLE Unified Newspaper Group
As enrollment in the Oregon School District grows, so does the need for more programming and teachers. Monday night, the
school board approved around $500,000 in funding for new staff for the 2019-20 school year. The approval followed the recommendation of the OSD administrative team to hire the following positions for next year, mainly due to enrollment growth in the district: a full-time Oregon Middle School science/social studies teacher ($70,000),
Turn to Staffing/Page 12
Photo by Emilie Heidemann
Lori Kay smiles while holding the 2018 published version of “Scampy and Frisky.” Oregon Public Library will host a reading of the children’s book Monday, April 15.
An ode to ‘Nana’
Book published in Kay’s grandmother’s memory, reading is April 15 EMILIE HEIDEMANN Unified Newspaper Group
When long-time Oregon resident Lori Kay spent weeks bed-ridden as she recovered from a childhood illness in 1952, her grandmother had a
solution to help her feel better. Squirrels that played in the elm trees of her Davenport, Iowa, backyard, inspired stories she wrote and read to Kay. The main characters were based on two ceramic squirrels that resided on a living room shelf
named “Nutsy” and “Frisky.” Sixty-eight years later, Kay published a book, “Scampy and Frisky,” which featured seven of those 28 stories her grandmother Edith Cameron
Turn to Nana/Page 8
Village of Brooklyn
Springer: Development, reviving economic committee is key Buildout of BBC, increasing community involvement priorities ALEXANDER CRAMER Unified Newspaper Group
Brit Springer knows there are good things going on in the Village of Brooklyn. And as incoming village president, she wants to make sure everybody else knows it, too. “We have residents who are really investing their time and energy into making their community better,” Springer told the Observer, “but a
bigger thing is communication. The No. 1 complaint is that nothing’s happening. I want to get more visible things going so people know things are happening.” Springer, a trustee since 2017, defeated Trustee Kyle Smith 157 to 114 to become the next village president April 2 after surviving a primary with a third candidate for the office, Jim Bakken, in February. Todd Klahn and Heather Kirkpatrick were reelected to the board, and former village president Pat Hawkey was elected as a write-in candidate with seven votes. “I’m so happy that this year we had more people running for president,” Springer said. “I’ve never seen that in
Brooklyn. The candidates were awesome, as well … I’m so thankful that people stepped up.” The 2017 election featured a single candidate for president on the ballot running for reelection, though she lost to a write-in candidate who began his campaign late. Springer said her first priority is to get the Economic Development Committee (EDC) back up and running and focus on building out the Brooklyn Business Complex (BBC) on the village’s east side. The committee hasn’t met since May 2017, and not regularly since 2015. But Springer thinks the village is in a good position
Turn to Election/Page 14
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Jefferson Street ‘going from bad to worse,’ they say