Thursday, November 15, 2018 ⢠Vol. 134, No. 20 ⢠Oregon, WI ⢠ConnectOregonWI.com ⢠$1.25
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Oregon Observer The
Oregon School District
Land buys up next District hopes to finalize decisions later this month SCOTT DE LARUELLE Unified Newspaper Group
Photo by Emilie Heidemann
American Legion Post 160 members point their guns and shoot to honor the fallen. The tradition is followed by a âTapsâ performance on trumpet in the distance.
Village celebrates veterans EMILIE HEIDEMANN Unified Newspaper Group
Inside
Spectators gathered around the World War I Memorial More photos from Veterans Day for a Veterans Day ceremony to commemorate the American Legion Post 160 memberâs who served and lost their Page 12 lives during the war Nov. 11. Following the remembrance, guests gathered at the vilBoudreau, a former marine security guard and veterlage Senior Center for lunch and a presentation by Vilan, spoke about his military background and how it was lage of Oregon Trustee, Jeff Boudreau. âphysically and psychologically demanding.â
Village of Oregon
Board adopts 2019 budget Average home will see $88 tax increase ALEXANDER CRAMER Unified Newspaper Group
The Oregon Village Board unanimously adopted the 2019 budget at Mondayâs meeting, which provides for an $87.91 increase in taxes on an average home, revised down from a preliminary budget that included an increase in taxes of nearly $111. The budget will pay for staffing additions, road projects and paying down village debt. The $23 drop in that amount is due to work from village administrator Mike Gracz and finance director Lisa Novinska, who went âline by lineâ through the budget multiple times to find places to cut or unexpected revenues. This includes small things like $52 less for the assessor and $100 in savings in animal control costs, but also large items like changing the schedule of when certain impact fees are spent that freed up $20,000 in taxes that was going to be spent on
2019 Road improvement projects $49,000 North Perry Parkway: Nygaard Street to wastewater treatment plant $52,000 Kennedy Drive: Nygaard Street to North Perry Parkway $60,000 Nygaard Street: North Oak Street to North Perry Parkway $44,000 East Richards Road: Merri Hill Drive to North Main Street $80,000 Robinson Road: South Perry Parkway to Thomson Lane $15,000 Clover Lane: Cledell Street to Robinson Road debt. Trustee Jerry Bollig thanked village staff for their work, saying he was âproud to support this budgetâ and that it would accomplish a âlot of good projects. âThis would be an example of how hard the staff works at this. Because they keep going back and updating the numbers with more accurate numbers â it drops and drops and drops,â Bollig said. âItâs going to do a lot of good things in the village.â T h e bu d g e t a c c o u n t s f o r a n increase in taxes only on the village portion of tax bills, which will be mailed in mid-December. The
adopted budget includes a mill-rate of $5.39, meaning an average home that was valued at $275,000 in 2018 and jumped to $289,000 in 2019 would see an increase in tax from $1,472 to $1,560. The 2019 budget adds a new fulltime village planner position, funds the full-time police officer position for the entire year going forward and adds a 2.5 percent cost-of-living-adjustment to village staff wages. Bollig spoke to the importance of the wage increase at the meeting, reflecting on past years when the
Turn to Budget/Page 9
After voters overwhelmingly supported $46 million in Oregon School District referendums last Tuesday, district officials are looking to finalize two land deals later this month. The construction referendum to purchase land and build a new elementary school, was brought to voters to prevent impending overcrowding at the elementary and intermediate levels, and it passed 7,675 to 4,208. A second question, to exceed revenue caps to operate the school, passed by a slightly slimmer margin, 7,416 to 4,456. In it, the district identified fast-growing Fitchburg in the northern part of the district as a prime location for a new elementary school to handle part of an expected increase of at least 2,000 more students by 2030.
A middle school, which would be brought to voters in a second referendum in a few years, is the other part. The district has been in negotiations in recent months to purchase land for the Fitchburg K-6 school around the U.S. Hwy. 14 Lacy Road interchange, district superintendent Brian Busler told the Observe r, a s w e l l as land for a Busler new middle school around the Hwy. 14/ County Hwy. MM interchange. He said the goal is to have both land purchases finalized by the end of November or early December for a public special electors meeting next month in which residents can vote to approve or deny the purchase. He said if the majority of those present vote against the land sale, the district would have to come up with another property to try to
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Well would serve west side development KEVIN MURPHY Observer Correspondent
The Village of Oregon is seeking state approval for a $1.5 million well project that would serve new development on the west side. The well would be drilled northwest of the intersection of West Netherwood Road and Alpine Parkway to initially serve the Highlands of Netherwood subdivision. The 76-acre, approximately 126-lot residential subdivision was annexed in to the village earlier this year. T h e s u b d iv i s i o n âs
developer, Forward Development Group, is dedicating land within the subdivision for the well and pumping station, according to an application filed Friday with the Public Service Commission. Phase 1 of the Highlands, now in site preparation, will be served by the villageâs water system, said Public Works director Jeff Rau, but more system capacity will be needed as more lots are sold and developed. â T h i s ( We l l N o . 6 ) project keeps us up with growthâŚand will be tied
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