Courier Hub The
Stoughton
We are the hand on your shoulder to help you graciously through these tough times.
F AMILY O WNED & O PERATED S INCE 1869 Stoughton • Madison • McFarland Deerfield • Sun Prairie • Waunakee
Thursday, March 7, 2019 • Vol. 137, No. 33 • Stoughton, WI • ConnectStoughton.com • $1.25
www.cressfuneralservice.com
adno=63286
Inside Stoughton High School wrestling wins state championship
Photo by Kimberly Wethal
Members of the Stoughton Area High School concert choir practice singing “I Shall Not Live in Vain” in preparation for their trip to Carnegie Hall trip later this semester.
New York, New York, again so much in the past decade or so, they probably could qualify as honorary residents. The group, led by long-time director Ryan Casey, is returning to the Big Apple to perform April 1 at perSCOTT DE LARUELLE haps the country’s most famous and revered concert venue – Carnegie Unified Newspaper Group Hall. It marks the fourth time the The Stoughton High School con- choir was selected to perform by cert choir has been to New York City sending in audition recordings, with
SHS concert choir to perform in Carnegie Hall for fourth time since 2008
past trips in 2008, 2013 and 2016. The 72-member choir will collaborate with nationally recognized guest conductor Alan Zabriskie for a combined performance with three other choirs from across the country. Casey said in an email to the Hub “a distinctive variety of six shorter works are being prepared for this
Turn to Choir/Page 16
City of Stoughton
DNR orders more bank site testing City approves spending $4,280, more possible ALEXANDER CRAMER Unified Newspaper Group
An order from the state to do further testing could complicate the city’s plans to use a newly acquired downtown building. The state Department of Natural Resources has notified the city it must check into possible petroleum contamination before it will issue a “no further action required” order that would close its file on the site. The former McFarland State Bank building, which is now owned by the city, once was home to a gas station that stored its fuel under the current
parking lot. The DNR wants to be sure contaminants that leached from the gas tanks are at acceptable levels. The site’s unsettled environmental status was an issue last fall, when the Common Council was debating whether to accept the building. At the time, city attorney Matt Dregne said the “most likely response from DNR” would be a “no further action required” letter for the site. A “less likely response” would be requiring some additional groundwater monitoring, which he estimated would cost $12,000. That’s what the DNR has asked for, though with less sampling than Dregne anticipated. He put it at a “very low risk” that the DNR would require further remediation, noting the fact that it’s a parking lot essentially acts as a cap on the
Courier Hub
site. Tuesday, Feb. 26, the Common Council approved paying up to $4,280 to Resource Engineering Associates for “groundwater well monitoring installation, initial sampling and ongoing monitoring/sampling.” If the project goes as REA engineer Ryan Nehls expects, the cost will be closer to $3,000. Nehls said he thinks one round of sampling might be sufficient to satisfy the DNR’s requirements. Three extra quarterly reviews would increase the total cost by $1,200. REA engineers will access groundwater in the southwest corner of the parking lot at 216 S. Main St. by
Turn to Bank/Page 3
Photo by Mark Nesbitt
Stoughton wrestlers, from left, Dante Steinmetz, Luke Geister-Jones, Drew Pasold and senior Hunter Lewis celebrate repeating as WIAA Division 1 state champions after a 42-24 win over Mukwonago Saturday, March 2 at the UW Field House in Madison.
Page 9
Stoughton Area School District
District policy overhaul begins Board spends two hours going through district bylaws
likely be a months-long effort to review and revise all district policies, going line by line through 65 of them, that deal with the operation of the board and meeting functions. Board SCOTT DE LARUELLE president Frank Sullivan said there will be similar Unified Newspaper Group sessions in the future as I f S t o u g h t o n s c h o o l part of an “overhaul of our board members weren’t entire policy structure.” “(Board member) Tim experts in (Bubon) and the staff on district polthe policy committee and i cy b e f o r e other members have been t h i s y e a r, grinding through the polthey probaicies and we determined bly will be we would bring them to soon. the board in batches,” he Monday said. “There’s a tremenn i g h t , t h e Sullivan dous amount of staff time board started what will
Turn to SASD/Page 14
To Make Sure The Family Stays Smiling . . . Schedule a Service Appointment BEFORE the Spring Break Road Trip!
1324 Hwy. 51/138, Stoughton, WI Hours: 7:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. Mon.-Fri., Closed Sat.
adno=63254