Thursday, September 5, 2019 • Vol. 55, No. 16 • Verona, WI • Hometown USA • ConnectVerona.com • $1.25
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Grandfathering vote expected Saturday Board to decide on fifth graders’ move to new maps
KIMBERLY WETHAL Unified Newspaper Group
SCOTT GIRARD Unified Newspaper Group
The Verona Area School District spent more nearly a year determining attendance areas for its more than 5,000 students – but 58 of them are still waiting to find out what school they’ll attend in 2020-21. Those students will be in fifth grade next year, and their neighborhoods are switching to a different attendance area school beginning with the 202021 school year. The school board is planning to decide this weekend whether the students will remain at their Photo by Mark Nesbitt
At left, Verona senior wide receiver Aubrey Dawkins (2) wears Shay Watson’s former football jersey on Friday against Middleton. Dawkins vows to wear Watson’s former jersey the rest of the season after Watson was shot and killed Sunday, Aug. 25, in Fitchburg.
A tribute to No. 2 Receiver switches jersey in honor of former teammate MARK NESBITT Assistant sports editor
Aubrey Dawkins had been friends with Shay Watson since second grade. So after Watson was found shot to death in his home Aug. 25, Dawkins felt he needed to honor his former teammate and fellow wide receiver. Before the second football game of the season Friday, Aug. 30, the Verona senior switched from his normal No. 1 jersey to Watson’s No. 2. “I want to do it for the rest of the season to pay tribute to my brother,” Dawkins said. It was an emotional week for the whole team, with the death of two former players a few days apart. In addition to Watson, who had planned to attend Madison West this fall but played football for Verona the past two years and was on the boys track team last spring, 2014 graduate Grant Langer, 23, died Aug. 17, in The
Verona Press
Memphis, Tennessee. The visitation for Langer, a two year veteran firefighter who died off duty, was Thursday night, and the funeral was Friday. The visitation for Watson was Friday, and the funeral was Saturday. “It was a long week and a sad week,” Verona football coach Dave Richardson said. “I was afraid that all of our emotions were really tied into what was important and that’s those guys who lost their lives. You try to make football important, but when those things happen, football is not that important.” The team still put together a dominating performance over rival Middleton, winning 61-35. Dawkins had three receptions for 74 yards and two touchdowns. “I know he was up there watching and helping me along,” Dawkins said of Watson. “I couldn’t have done it without him.” Richardson said he’s glad the players found a way through it, and each day it got better as they talked about it. “Each day we pointed to tonight and how you want to remember some great kids who played for us,” he said. “Let’s remember this night. I think we will.”
If You Go What: Verona Area school board When: 8 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 7 Where: Country View Elementary School, 710 Lone Pine Way Info: boarddocs.com/wi/ vasd/Board.nsf/Public# current school, will be forced to move to the new attendance area school or will have a choice. The meeting, is set for 8 a.m. S a t u r d a y, S e p t . 7 , a t Country View Elementary School, 710 Lone Pine Way. It will not be at the central office, as it is the
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‘Beyond our expectations’ Fireman’s Park attendance up 50% after upgrades KIMBERLY WETHAL Unified Newspaper Group
F i r e m a n ’s Pa r k wa s Dave Walker’s favorite park as a child. So for the City of Verona’s parks and urban forestry director it’s been a great summer. After a $3 million renovation, the park was constantly busy this summer, with a more than 50% increase in attendance over the previous year. Walker has found that personally fulfilling. “It was actually beyond our expectations with the amount of use the park got this summer,” he said. “Obviously, it’s a destination, and a nice thing for Verona to have an amenity like that.”
Fireman’s Park brought in more visitors, both local from Verona and from outside communities, this summer after the park was upgraded to include a splash pad, a playground, a new shelter and a revamped beach area with a sunbathing deck, recreation director Casey Dudley told the Press. Dudley said the majority of the responses he got from the community from in person interactions and through the park’s Facebook page were overwhelmingly positive. “People loved the improvements,” he said. “(The) improvements were well worth it and great for the community.” According to beach fee numbers calculated Tuesday, 9,200 people visited the beach this summer despite it opening one week later than usual and
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Verona resident to participate in his first Ironman Sunday
For years, James Hall has watched Ironman participants bike past his home on Cross Country Road. This year, his view will be different, as he swims, bikes and runs with almost 2,500 other competitors Hall during the Ironman Wisconsin on Sunday, Sept. 8. This is the 48 year old’s first time competing in the Ironman, a feat he didn’t think he could do a little more than three and a half years ago. “In the whole time living here (in Verona), we watched the Ironman and we watched people, (thinking), ‘Holy cow, how are they doing that?’” he said. “Never in our minds would we ever have thought that would be something that we would be thinking about.” That thinking started to change when a friend posed a simple question: “2018 or 2019?” James’s friend was asking about what year he wanted to participate in the Ironman – he agreed to 2019, because he knew he needed to train more before being ready. And once you say yes to something like the Ironman, his wife Teresa added, there’s no backing out. “It’s like once he and his friends said it out loud, then it was just like, you had to do it,” she said. “You had to do it for each other.” A few years earlier, he and Teresa “started hanging out with the wrong
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