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F AMILY O WNED & O PERATED S INCE 1869 Stoughton • Madison • McFarland Deerfield • Sun Prairie • Waunakee
Thursday, April 25, 2019 • Vol. 134, No. 43 • Oregon, WI • ConnectOregonWI.com • $1.25
Into the big time Carpenter eyes large targets: workforce housing, business park ALEXANDER CRAMER Unified Newspaper Group
To Jeanne Carpenter, Oregon isn’t a small town anymore. And the incoming village president says it’s time to stop governing it like one. “You ever hear the quote, ‘When you’re hunting elephants, Carpenter don’t get distracted chasing rabbits?’” Carpenter asked. She’s excited to focus on bigger projects, like workforce housing and establishing a new business park, rather than “rabbits” like the beekeeping ordinance, which has been buzzing
around for at least a year. “For the love of God, write it and pass it,” Carpenter told the Observer. “Give me the elephant; let’s go.” That’s not to disparage urban beekeepers, she said – she thinks they’re great. Her point is the village doesn’t have an hour to discuss something it’s already decided. “That’s part of governing like we’re a small town,” she said. “I’m not messing around with that anymore.” Her No. 1 priority is increasing the business tax base by establishing the long-planned southeast business park on the east side of U.S. Hwy. 14. Even if it means everything else has to take a back seat “for a year or two,” Carpenter is convinced the Village of Oregon needs to make room for business to achieve fiscal balance. The Alpine Business Park is nearly full, and Carpenter said the village has had to turn away some businesses
Turn to Carpenter/Page 13
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Town of Dunn
Photo by Emilie Heidemann
Dunn Town Chair Ed Minihan discusses the benefits of letting cows graze on a property just down the street from Town Hall that the town preserved through a conservation easement late last year. The town continued its decades-long preservation efforts in March with the acquisition of development rights to a combined 80 acres on the north side of Highway B between Mahoney and Keenan Roads.
Easements are ‘forever’ Dunn adds 80 acres to its ongoing focus on conservation
Oregon School District
OHS racial incident draws scrutiny OSD educator contracts approved EMILIE HEIDEMANN
Ben Kollenbroich, Town of Dunn development. On March 29, it added a small part planning and land conservation of that plan, ensuring a combined director, said two 40-acre parcels, The Town of Dunn is “knocking 80-acres of farmland won’t be devel- located on the north side of Highway on the door” of permanently pro- oped with help from conservation tecting 4,000 acres of land from nonprofit Groundswell Conservancy. Turn to Conservation /Page 8 Unified Newspaper Group
Oregon School District
SCOTT DE LARUELLE Unified Newspaper Group
Oregon School District officials are remaining mostly silent about an alleged incident at Oregon High School last month that prompted social media
complaints about student racism. The incident involved an OHS health class baby mannequin used to teach students about child care, though there is disagreement over what exactly happened. Superintendent Brian Busler said Tuesday district officials are “limited on what we can share because its a discipline matter,”
Turn to Incident/Page 13
Zach re-elected board president; Pankratz new VP SCOTT DE LARUELLE Unified Newspaper Group
With the 2018-19 school year winding down, the Oregon school board looked to the future Monday night, electing officers and approving contracts for teachers and
administrators for the 2019-20 school year. The contracts included a 2.44 percent raise, which represents the state’s Consumer Price Index, district Zach superintendent Brian Busler wrote in an email to the Observer.
The board, which was minus Tim LeBrun, Barb Feeney and Courtney Odorico, unanimously approved contracts for teachers, nonrepresented staff and administrators. Troy Pankratz initially intended to recuse himself from the vote, as his wife, Kelly is an educator in the district, but to have a quorum for a vote, her contract was removed, to be voted on at the board’s next meeting.
Also Monday, board member Steve Zach was reelected as president after Pankratz nominated him. It’s a position he’s held since 2016, when he defeated then-member Charles Uphoff in a 4-3 vote. Zach was re-elected to another three-year term last year, and he said then did not intend to serve as president for that entire
Turn to Contracts/Page 3
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District administrators investigated allegations