Thursday, September 14, 2017 • Vol. 53, No. 17 • Verona, WI • Hometown USA • ConnectVerona.com • $1
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APPOINTMENTS WITHIN 24 HOURS!
City of Verona
Northwest plan brings opposition Legends Edge precursor goes back to commission
What’s next City staff and contract planners will adjust the plan and bring it back to the Plan Commission for a recommendation.
JIM FEROLIE Verona Press editor
Photo by Helu Wang
The Fujisawa family, who come from Madison and North Carolina, cheers for Sharon Clements as she passes by Cross Country Road at the Loop Festival in downtown Verona.
Ironman pit stop
Inside
More than 2,800 bikers cycled through the Loop Fest in Verona to compete in the 2017 Ironman Wisconsin triathlon. The course includes a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike and 26.2-mile run, which offers 40 slots to the 2018 Ironman World Championship. The twoloop bike course winds through Verona, offering challenging hills and tough climbs.
More photos from Ironman Page 8
Verona Area School District
A city plan that would enable discussions and eventual action on the 65-acre Legends Edge proposal to the northwest of the city is facing some stiff opposition. The development proposal came to the city in late 2016 with striking images of 100-foot-tall glass and metal apartment buildings, an upscale hotel on the water, a hockey rink and underground parking, among other things. At the new intersection of County Hwy. PD and Northern Lights, it would take advantage of being a high-traffic corridor for people on the way to and from Epic. At the time, it prompted a reaction from city
leaders that it might be too much, particularly so far from the city’s core. But the city began master planning the area to determine whether it could fit in with the surrounding land, including the Ice Age Trail and rural subdivisions, and be served by city utilities. That 732-acre Northwest Neighborhood plan – which does not by itself allow any development – went to a public hearing at the Tuesday, Sept. 5, Plan Commission meeting and had a chance to be approved Monday by the Common Council. But
Turn to Northwest/Page 14
2018-19 calendar coming sooner Festival Foods Board: Last year’s schedule decided too late
Inside
District working on priorities for referendum construction
SCOTT GIRARD Unified Newspaper Group
The 2017-18 Verona Area School District calendar was finalized in February. And school board members want to make sure parents have more time to plan ahead for next year. “One of the largest concerns that we had last year … was that it was late,” board president Noah Roberts explained Monday while the board discussed planning the next year’s calendar. That timing was mostly related to the district considering changes to late-start Mondays, including a parent survey issued in December, which delayed the calendar committee’s recommendation and the board’s final approval.
Page 13 This year, board members said, that committee will not be established. Instead, staff members will create the “shell” for the calendar, and the board will offer final approval. “If we’re just gonna pick 180 days out of the year to schedule school, I think we can find a small committee of staff that’s capable of doing that,” said board member Amy Almond, who has served on the calendar committee in recent years. Board member Renee Zook said
The
Verona Press
she was already hearing “water cooler conversation at work” about the calendar. Superintendent Dean Gorrell emphasized to them he would still like the district to have a conversation about late-start Mondays and how they would affect teachers’ hours. By shifting those to days off during the school year, he said, they could offer opportunities for professional development or teacher-parent contact days before the school year begins. “That’s a golden time right there,” Gorrell said. “It fits hand in glove with personalized learning plans.” Some board members were interested in exploring that further, but they did not determine a mechanism for that Monday. And board member Meredith Stier Christensen said they shouldn’t try to rush it with a committee yet.
Turn to Calendar/Page 13
gets go-ahead JIM FEROLIE
What’s next
Verona Press editor
Festival Foods can plan on putting Verona’s second full-service grocery store in front of Badger Prairie County Park. A r ev i s e d p r o p o s a l , no longer requesting an exemption for landscaping and with improved traffic flow, got enough support to pass a Common Council that had been adamant about those concerns earlier in the summer. The 68,000-square-foot
Festival will return to the commission and council for the final approval, the precise implementation plan, likely later this fall. store next to Farm and Fleet on the city’s east side still has to make one more visit each to the Plan
Turn to Festival/Page 3
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