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Thursday, August 23, 2018 • Vol. 54, No. 14 • Verona, WI • Hometown USA • ConnectVerona.com • $1.25
NEW LOCATION! LOCATION! NEW
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Verona Area School District
No boundary adjustment criteria yet Committee makeup, building capacity among issues SCOTT GIRARD Unified Newspaper Group
Photo by Scott Girard
Verona Area High School 2018 graduates Grant Kelliher, Adam O’Donnell, Eli Hano and Jaden King decided to have some fun in the flooding Monday night, playing football in the “pond” next to Badger Ridge Middle School for about half an hour after afternoon rains.
Flooding drenches Verona Damaged homes, closed streets, water rescues all over Unified Newspaper Group
It was just after 9 a.m. when Gladys Ray stood outside her front door on Lincoln Street, watching as her daughter, several neighbors, a police officer and a reporter milled about. The group was looking on as the Badger Mill Creek roared next to her home, which sits up on a small hill about 50 feet from the city’s iconic bridge over the creek. “Forty-six years I’ve lived here, and my basement has never flooded,” she said. Until Verona got 11 inches of rain Monday, that is. Fortunately for Ray, her cleanup would be mostly superficial. For other
people in Verona, the flooding that was still keeping areas of the city and town submerged into Tuesday evening and likely beyond, the damage was much worse. A couple of blocks up the street, residents were pulling furniture from their flooded finished basements, talking to insurance adjusters or simply marveling at the knee-deep waters covering Neff Park next door. Three miles south in Paoli, most roads were closed, including parts of Hwy. 69 and County Hwy. PB. And a car sat stalled in a short dip on Prairie Way, a couple of blocks from where Cross Country Road was closed Photo by Jim Ferolie for much of the morning. Parts of Range Trail were closed after But the worst flooding by far was on record rainfall Monday and Tuesday the town’s northwest side, where first Aug. 20-21. responders performed at least three water rescues from people stranded in Turn to Flood/Page 16
Epic’s UGM will bring 8,000 to Verona Annual conference Aug. 26-30
holding its annual Users Group Meeting from Aug. 26-30, bringing 8,000 people from around the world KIMBERLY WETHAL whose companies use Epic Systems software to a conUnified Newspaper Group ference with forums, adviExpect to see a few more sory councils and an “Allpeople in Verona next week Camp Jamboree” dinner. International visistarting Sunday. Epic Systems will be tors from countries like The
Verona Press
Australia, Belgium, Finland and Saudi Arabia, along with nine others, are expected to be in attendance at the conference, Epic spokesperson Meghan Roh said in an email to the Press. More traffic in Verona can be expected as well – shuttles from regional
hotels throughout Dane County will be looping back to hotels every halfhour in the late afternoon hours during the conference, and from noon to 2 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 30. The Greater Madison
Turn to Boundary/Page 8
New VAHS
District, city continue talks with third parties for access road Paoli Street option appears to be back on table JIM FEROLIE Verona Press editor
The renegotiation of the agreement between the school district and city over a second access point to the new high school continued Thursday, Aug. 16, with a closed session of the Common Council. The council emerged with “no decision,” Mayor Luke Diaz announced, and
the discussion beforehand was far more vague than it has been in the past several months. City attorney Bryan Kleinmaier explained to the council the private discussions were necessary because of the third parties involved. One of those third parties is the Coating Place, which was previously thought to be not part of the deal, as that would be for an outlet to Paoli Street. The district and city put months into planning an alternate route off Nine Mound Road when
Turn to Road/Page 14
Inside Get ready for Wildcats football season with our football guide
Turn to UGM/Page 5
Verona Area Performing Arts Series Atlantic City Boys: Saturday, November 10, 2018 | 7:30pm Four dynamic lead singers who are Singing ‘60s rockn-roll hits of The Drifters, The Beach Boys, and Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.
2018-2019 Season
The Young Irelanders: Saturday, February 23, 2019 | 7:30pm Each year the Irish Cultural Academy brings its finest exponents of Irish traditional music, song, and dance.
Purchase your season tickets at a discount prior to September 2nd, 2018.
The Canadian Brass: Friday, Yes Friday! April 5, 2019 | 7:30pm They have truly earned the distinction of the world’s most famous brass group. Their music ranges from Baroque to Dixieland, including patriotic music.
VAPAS, PO Box 930316, Verona WI 53593 (608) 848-2787
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JIM FEROLIE AND AMBER LEVENHAGEN
There’s still plenty of decisions the Verona Area school board has to make to guide the redrawing of attendance area boundaries. All of them got a little attention Monday night, but only one got enough to actually be settled as members decided to cut
the conversation short with flooding outside and a pair of closed session discussions still to come later in the evening. Board members were not ready to make any final decisions about the makeup of a committee that will bring options back to them, the criteria that committee should use, or building capacities. “I feel like we’re still wrestling with it a little bit,” board member Meredith Stier Christensen said of the