Stoughton
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Thursday, January 24, 2019 • Vol. 137, No. 27 • Stoughton, WI • ConnectStoughton.com • $1.25 Hours: 7:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. Mon.-Fri., Closed Sat. 1324 Hwy.51/138, Stoughton, WI
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Courier Hub The
Stoughton Area School District
Positive signs for enrollment Student decline slowing, UW study shows SCOTT DE LARUELLE Unified Newspaper Group
Photo by Alexander Cramer
The vehicle-storage area houses the Public Works department’s 104 vehicles. The new facility opened Jan. 14.
‘Fantastic’ new facility $8.3M public works building opened Jan. 14 ALEXANDER CRAMER Unified Newspaper Group
The differences between the new Stoughton public works facility and the old one are both big and small. But mostly big. The new facility, 2439 Cty. Hwy. A, officially opened for business Monday, Jan. 14, and the most obvious difference is that the former building on Fourth Street could easily fit inside the Hebert new one. There’s room for all 104 vehicles in the public works fleet, as well as a mechanics’ area to service all of the Photo by Alexander Cramer city’s vehicles, from squad cars to zero-turn mowers. There’s a towering The Stoughton Public Works department officially moved operations to its new facility at 2439 Cty. Hwy. A on Jan. 14. It’s large enough to easily fit the previous Turn to Works/Page 8 Fourth Street location inside.
A life of storytelling: Former Hub editor Ehle dies at 69 Unified Newspaper Group
Known well around the area as a talented journalist who loved a good story – particularly when it came to his adopted Cooksville – former Hub editor
Stephen Ehle died Jan. 15, a day before he would have turned 70. A native of Evansville, he enjoyed sitting on his great-grandfather’s lap as a little boy, listening to stories of “countless books, thereby learning the
Courier Hub
structure of language and laying the groundwork for his many years as a journalist,” according to his obituary. A 1972 graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a
New home for memory cafe Hospital location has easier access, more parking
Inside
AMBER LEVENHAGEN
Read Steve Ehle’s obituary
It has been less than a year since the Stoughton Dementia Friendly
Page 13
Turn to Cafe/Page 5
Turn to Ehle/Page 16
Turn to Enrollment/Page 14
Unified Newspaper Group
If You Go What: Memory cafe gathering Where: Stoughton Hospital Bryant Health Education Center, 900 Ridge St. When: 9:30-11 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 5 Info: 873-8585
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SCOTT DE LARUELLE
Sarah Kemp was so happy to be the bearer of some good news, she couldn’t help but smile and laugh. The researcher with the U n ive r s i t y o f Wi s c o n sin-Madison Applied Population Laboratory has been a familiar face in the district boardroom over the past decade or so. Unfortunately, it’s usually with the task of telling Stoughton Area School District officials their student populations – and thus, their budgets – were declining. For more than a decade, the district has worked with the laboratory to get longterm projections on student enrollment, area population, housing and a variety of demographic information. Every few years, the lab updates the study and Kemp presents the findings.
Things were a bit different Monday night. While the story of decreased enrollment remained the same, her first presentation in nearly two years was also mixed with encouraging news and recent trends – suggesting that the district’s chronic enrollment decline could finally be turning around. Increases in the number of young, school-aged children and construction o f s i n g l e - fa m i l y h o u s ing have altered the latest 10-year projections to the point where the study suggests the SHS class of 2029 might only be a dozen or so students smaller than the one graduating this June. “This (projection) is a very important component to determine enrollment as we look forward, (and) your kindergarten is showing an increase,” Kemp said “I’m so glad to come in and say I have some good news.” Another factor is the increase in construction of single-family homes in the