Verona Press Thursday, August 9, 2018 • Vol. 54, No. 12 • Verona, WI • Hometown USA • ConnectVerona.com • $1.25
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The
11am – 7pm
Verona Vision Care’s Close Look Eyewear Event & Sale is Thurs Aug 9th! 320 S Main Street • Verona, WI 53593 (608) 848-5168 • www.VeronaVisionCare.com
Here ‘to help them grow’
National Night Out
City’s first economic development director focuses on business retention JIM FEROLIE Verona Press editor
Photo by Kimberly Wethal
Right, Emerson Manning, 4, laughs and screams as Verona police officer Travis Wetter looks at her through the clear window in the dunk tank Tuesday, Aug. 7.
Couldn’t be Wetter The Verona Police Department held its annual National Night Out event Tuesday, Aug. 7, at Hometown Festival Park. The event allowed law enforcement officers from Verona and surrounding communities to meet
residents and show off equipment like squad cars, motorcycles and a helicopter. Officer Matt Kile and K9 Drea also did a demonstration for a crowd of people.
On the web See more photos from the Verona Police Department’s National Night Out Aug. 7:
– Kimberly Wethal
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Verona man recalls 11 years hiking Appalachian Trail Unified Newspaper Group
Bill Florac’s “trail name” could have been broken ankle. Instead, it became “one boot” after a bear gnawed on his hiking boot while he and others could only stand by and watch. The Verona resident managed to recover his slightly damaged boot. And a couple of years later, on July 10, he completed his last segment of the Appalachian Trail. Florac, 59, began hiking the 2,168mile trail 11 years ago and knocked off sections each year since then, mostly in two-week treks. He told the Press he often hiked with people he met along the trail,
and his daughter Lexi, a student at UW-Madison, joined him for seven of the 11 years he hiked, beginning when she was 13. “I always hiked in late June and into July, except for the one time that I broke my ankle,” recalled Florac, engineer at Electronic Theater Controls in Middleton who’s lived here for 23 years. He did that last year during his second hike of the season. It’s not much of a story – he simply slipped on a flat rock during a mild rain, put his foot back to break the fall and broke his ankle instead. His encounter with the boot-chomping bear makes a better story. He was sitting on a stump outside The
Verona Press
a shelter in the Smokey Mountains, he explained, when the bear suddenly appeared. Florac was with a family of hikers at the time, and they all retreated to the shelter and attempted to scare the animal away. But apparently this bear had no fear of humans. In his rush to get inside the shelter, Florac left his boots sitting outside. “It grabbed a boot, took off with it and sat down about 20 yards away and chewed on it,” he recalled. “He didn’t damage the boot too badly. It kind of laid down on the ground and was rolling back and forth gnawing on the strings.” After five or 10 minutes, the bear
Turn to Sarver/Page 13
Hwy. PB set to reopen Aug. 17 KIMBERLY WETHAL Unified Newspaper Group
Long hike for ‘one boot’ BILL LIVICK
It’s easy to pass the time chatting with Verona’s economic development manager, Dayna Sarver. Almost too easy. The 38-year-old former stay-at-home mom has a bu s y l i f e and a lot of ground yet to cover after two months in the newly created posi- Sarver tion, but that ability to relate to people is an important part of getting
to know as many local business owners as possible. A n d w h i l e t h e I ow a native knows Verona well – she’s lived here for the past 15 years – she “had no reason” to make those connections before. Now, it’s her main assignment as part of the four-person economic development team within Verona City Center, along with the administrator and the planning department. It’s a crucial part of retaining existing businesses, she told the Press in a nearly two-hour interview last month, an easily overlooked aspect of economic development. The job involves chatting with a lot of people about a lot of different things – not just the businesses she wants to make sure are happy here but the “community
Inside
Travelers of Hwy. PB will Hwy. M closed soon be able to use the road again this near the Military Ridge State Trail, as the replaceweekend ment of two bridges nears completion. Page 14 The road, which closed in early May, is expected to be open by Aug. 17, Pub- end of April. Construction lic Works director Theran closed the bridge May 7. Jacobson said, keeping with Turn to PB/Page 14 the timeline presented at the
Inside Wildcats begin fall practice Page 9
Turn to Trail/Page 11
Shop St.Vinny’s Verona
for summer memories at bargain prices. 513 W.Verona Ave. shopsaintvinnys.com
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