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Verona Press The
Thursday, September 20, 2018 • Vol. 54, No. 18 • Verona, WI • Hometown USA • ConnectVerona.com • $1.25
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City of Verona
Verona Area School District
Budget comes back to earth Modest growth, debt concerns pose challenges
Key issues
JIM FEROLIE Verona Press editor
For the past three years, the City of Verona has had the luxury of addressing its highest priorities without compromise. I t ’s b r o u g h t t h e fi r e department to 24/7 service, it’s added Sunday hours at the library and it’s beefed up rolling funds to ensure sustainability even during down times. It’s also adjusted personnel, creating economic development, human resources, assistant planner and construction inspector positions and adding support staff for the library, city administration and police departments. Next year won’t exactly be the height of recession, but with the city’s growth back to barely above average among its Dane County peers, 2019 budget decisions being made over the next several weeks will be
• Slower but still above-average growth • Increased debt load • Mandatory increases for EMS, library • Future capital projects more difficult than in recent years. “In a year when net new construction isn’t going up as much as normal, we’re going to have to take a close look at department requests,” city administrator Jeff Mikorski told the Finance committee earlier this month. That modest increase of 4 percent and a few looming expenses were all anticipated when last year’s budget was prepared, so none of the three alders who were here a year ago will be surprised. But with a
Turn to Budget/Page 13
‘Something I had never seen before’ VPD officer recalls water rescues SCOTT GIRARD Unified Newspaper Group
Matt Kile knew his midnight shift Monday, Aug. 20, into Tuesday, Aug. 21, would be a tough one when his drive to work took nearly an hour and a half longer than usual. The Verona police officer couldn’t have predicted he’d be part of three separate rescues of people stranded in cars from the floodwater that hit Dane County that night. Verona got up to 11 inches, according to some residents’ water
meters, and some areas further west got as much as 14, according to various reports. “I really didn’t know what to expect,” Kile told the Press last week. “I knew it was going to be Kile bad.” By the end of his shift, Kile said it was comparable to the night in June 2014 when a tornado came through, destroying parts of Country View Elementary School and damaged nearly 20 nearby
Turn to Rescues/Page 8
Photo by Kimberly Wethal
Jennifer Martinez Flores dishes up carrots onto her tray during lunchtime on Tuesday, Sept. 18, at Sugar Creek Elementary School. The school was recently named to a list of America’s Healthiest Schools.
SC among ‘healthiest’ School receives silver designation from national organization SCOTT GIRARD Unified Newspaper Group
“Taste the Rainbow” brings the thought of a colorful, sugary treat. But for students at Sugar Creek Elementary School, the Skittles slogan was applied in a different way last year: Rainbow Week featured a variety of fruits and vegetables of all different colors that were celebrated and tried at lunch. That initiative was one of the features of the school’s application to the “America’s Healthiest Schools” program, which named Sugar Creek as a Silver-level award winner Monday. It’s the first Verona Area School
District school to be recognized on the Alliance for a Healthier Generation’s list and one of 13 in Wisconsin. There are 461 schools on it nationwide. “It really feels affirming that a lot of the things that we put in place as a school are not only making a difference with kids but are nationally recognized as doing the right thing,” principal Todd Brunner told the Press. The program measures schools’ healthy performance in a variety of categories, including health education, physical education, nutrition
Turn to Healthy/Page 14
Award criteria The areas used by the Alliance for a Healthier Generation to assess America’s Healthiest Schools: • Health, safety policies and environment • Health education • Physical education and other physical activity programs • Nutrition services • Health promotion for staff • Family and community involvement
Verona resident wins national rosemaling distinction One of 139 who has earned Vesterheim Gold Medal
rosemaling, it was deeply rooted in her genealogy. Her NorweKIMBERLY WETHAL gian greatgreat-great Unified Newspaper Group grandfaLong before Verona res- ther was a Norsetter ident Jan Norsetter began craftsman and metalsmith in Vinje,
and was one of the original Telemark rosemalers who helped create the distinctive flowing scroll and flower patterns that define the folk art, she told the Press. “I figured it was kind of in the genes,” she said. Norsetter is carrying on her lineage as a rosemaler through achieving
a Vesterheim Gold Medal after this year’s National Norwegian-American Folk Art exhibition, where she earned a third-place award for a rosemaled cheese bucket. She joins 139 other rosemalers and woodworking artists to be awarded the
Turn to Rosemaling/Page 7
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