Thursday, October 17, 2019 • Vol. 135, No. 16 • Oregon, WI • ConnectOregonWI.com • $1.25
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OREGON OBSERVER The
Village of Oregon
Close calls ‘on our radar’ EMILIE HEIDEMANN Unified Newspaper Group
Two incidents at two separate crosswalks where pedestrians were almost struck by vehicles on increasingly busy South Perry Parkway are gaining the attention of local law enforcement and government officials. Public works director Jeff Rau addressed concerns brought up by resident Cindy Matulle at the Monday, Oct. 14 Oregon Village Board meeting, which was dedicated to the village budget. The board was not able to discuss it, as it was not on the agenda, but officials said it would be a topic of the Monday, Oct. 21 meeting. “It’s definitely on our radar and we are looking at it,” Rau told Matulle. Matulle told trustees she “had a front row seat” to one of the incidents, involving a student,
on Thursday, Oct. 10, at Janesville Street. She said she had been picking up another student from school for a friend when she saw it happen. “The person who was driving – she did not stop,” Matulle told the board. “She slid more than halfway through the intersection and stopped just before hitting them.” An Oregon Police Department Facebook post last week addressed that incident and one other, involving a crossing guard, on the morning of Friday, Oct. 11, at South Burr Oak Avenue. It warned drivers to slow down and pay attention to pedestrians on the crosswalk and crossing guards. The post inspired a discussion in the comments section. “The (South Perry Parkway) and Janesville Street intersection is an absolute nightmare in the morning and after school and work,” one commenter, identified as Jamie Rogers, wrote. “We have lived on South Perry Parkway for over 10 years and have seen too many ‘near misses.’” Another commenter,
Turn to Parkway/Page 12
Photo by Justin Loewen
Della Phillips, 4, of the Town of Dunn, adds black marks to her pumpkin painting during the Dunn fall event in the Town Hall shed on Saturday, Oct. 12.
Arbor Day meets Halloween
Oregon School District
Shaping the future
New RCI leader Jarstad-Krueger excited to work with tweens
Nature theme common as board cuts list to 7
SCOTT DE LARUELLE
SCOTT DE LARUELLE Unified Newspaper Group
Monday night, it was all about following the dots. Red, green, yellow, and orange, marking Oregon School Board members’ choices to make the next round of “cuts” as they trimmed possible names for the new K-6 elementary school under construction
Turn to Name/Page 3
Final 7 Forest Edge Forest Meadows Harmony Woods Lacy Woods Majestic Meadows Nine Springs Waubesa Springs
See more photos of the Town
Children carved pumpkins and fashioned spooky crafts at the second year of the Town of Dunn’s Arbor Day/Halloween of Dunn’s fall event on Saturday, Oct. 12, which preceded the town’s belated Arbor Day potluck, visit: potluck. Canceled last April due to a forecast of heavy snow, the rescheduled community ConnectOregonWi.com meal featured a monarch butterfly presentation from UW Extension master gardener Gae Bergmann.
Oregon School District
School names narrowed
On the Web
Unified Newspaper Group
They’re not little kids anymore, but they’re also not yet in the category of “precocious teens.” As any parent can tell you, the lives of fifth- and sixth-graders might not be as simple as kindergartners, or as drama-filled as middle or high schoolers, but for Rome Corners Intermediate School principal Darci Jarstad-Krueger, the fit is just right. A veteran of teaching 17 years in her native Janesville before coming to the Oregon School District in 2016 – elementary and middle school – Jarstad-Krueger was named principal at RCI this summer. She was previously an administrative intern at Brooklyn
Photo by Emilie Heidemann
Darci Jarstad-Krueger is the new Rome Corners Intermediate School principal. Elementary School and associate principal at Oregon Middle School, and was a co-principal for this year’s summer school session. At RCI, the district’s school for all fifth and sixth graders, she succeeded Jason Zurawik, who switched back
to his former role as OMS associate principal this fall to allow him to spend more time with his own children as they advance through the district. In a district news release from this
Turn to RCI/Page 12
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Board set to discuss mounting difficulties at Perry Parkway