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Thursday, January 4, 2018 • Vol. 53, No. 33 • Verona, WI • Hometown USA • ConnectVerona.com • $1
Stories to watch 2018
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Verona Press The
Spring election
Contested races in city, VASD Mayoral race highlights April ballot Photo by Scott Girard
The “Five Points” intersection at Hwys. M and PD is no more, as Raymond Road has been closed as part of the overall reconstruction project.
New mayor, new roads, new school, new housing 2018 will be a major transition year in Verona in more ways than one. For starters, we’ll have a new mayor, as Jon Hochkammer decided not Read more about the following to run for a seventh consecutive term. stories inside on pages 9 and 10: We’ll also be working as a com1. New mayor munity toward planning a new high 2. New VAHS planning school, after voters approved $180 million for it in April. But it won’t 3. County M construction open until 2020. 4. New pool Veronans will particularly feel 5. Big developments the effect of construction on County Hwy. M, which should make for 6. Northern expansion much improved commuting starting 7. Personalized learning in late 2019 but could be irritating for 8. Tourism money the next 22 months. We’ll also have to decide whether an outdoor community pool is worth the expense and if it will be won’t be ready until 2019. self-sustaining. But it wouldn’t open The city will also need to make until 2020 or later, and if city leaders some decisions on development, with instead invest in Fireman’s Park, that two major projects on the north side
Stories to watch
having been proposed, but coming with some significant controversy, and another on West Verona Avenue requiring millions of dollars from the city. Speaking of big money, the city is still working out what to do with the ever-growing cash reserves it’s getting from hotel room taxes, and that could mean some big promotions or new staff to manage the city’s tourism efforts appropriately. Finally, the school district will reach a major point in its push for personalized learning, as students get their individualized plans in place and Exploration Academy considers its future as either a standalone school or a program within the high school. – Jim Ferolie
Dane County
County looks to add 60 acres along Sugar River The land is just west of the 466acre Falk/Wells Sugar River Wildlife Area in Paoli, which the county has been building since 2013. SCOTT GIRARD Dane County Executive Joe Parisi announced Dec. 26 he would ask the Unified Newspaper Group County Board to purchase 60 acres The public could soon have access and pay for an easement on anothto another mile of shoreline along the er 100 acres near the river that will be available for fishing, hunting and Sugar River. The
Verona Press
hiking. The board is expected to consider the resolution for the purchase, at $636,000, in the coming weeks, according to the news release. “Dane County has some of the best parks and recreational opportunities in the country,” Parisi wrote in the release. “This area of the county
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Unified Newspaper Group
Voters around Verona will have plenty of decisions to make come April 3, with contested elections for seats in the city, school district and county. The most significant is for the mayor’s seat, which will have a new face for the first time since 2006. Incumbent Jon Hochkammer announced Nov. 30 he won’t be running for
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Verona Area School District
Dual-credit ‘conundrum’ State budget provision has VASD admins worried SCOTT GIRARD Unified Newspaper Group
While there are no changes planned for the 2018-19 school year, a provision in last year’s state budget has some in the Verona Area School District worried about the future of dual-credit courses. More than 250 students this year are enrolled in those courses, which allow them to earn high school and college credits for the UW System in a single class taken at Verona Area High School. Those students are currently paying their own way for that college credit, with families covering
the around $400 cost from the partnering universities. But next year, the school district will be responsible for about 75 percent of the costs — or “minimally $62,000,” superintendent Dean Gorrell said, if those numbers hold. “It’s a new expenditure,” Gorrell said. “It’s the equivalent of an FTE.” While the provision did set aside some money to cover the other 25 percent of the costs — leaving the families without any extra payment — district officials aren’t confident it’s enough, which would lead to pro-rating and an even higher cost locally. That lack of assurance is what concerned board member Renee Zook, who was part of a detailed discussion on the change at a committee meeting.
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JIM FEROLIE AND SCOTT GIRARD
re-election. Instead, a pair of candidates with political experience — one an alder and the other a former school board president — will vie for the role. That mayor will be working with a Common Council that could change d r a m a t i c a l l y, w i t h t wo contested races of its own. Incumbents are running in Districts 3 and 4 against challengers, and a newcomer is running unopposed in District 1, where at least two other potential candidates took out nomination papers but did not return them by Tuesday’s statutory