Verona Press The
Thursday, September 28, 2017 • Vol. 53, No. 19 • Verona, WI • Hometown USA • ConnectVerona.com • $1
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City of Verona
Downtown project returns Public hearing on two buildings with apartments, retail
Inside Council approves TID 9
JIM FEROLIE Verona Press editor
Photo by Helu Wang
The historic Matts house got its first coat of exterior paint over the weekend, and painters will return this weekend to finish the job.
Matts house makes big progress JIM FEROLIE Verona Press editor
Until this week, it might not have looked like much has been done to the historic Matts house in the year since Troy Rost bought the building from the city, but the hard part is over. Rost, a local historic rebuilding specialist, told the Press last week he is excited about the 160-plus-yearold building now that he has gotten past the scary parts – the unknowns about how difficult the restoration might be. It’s gone well enough that he expects the building to be finished
by the spring. The building, believed to be the oldest still standing in Verona, was built by one of the city’s pioneers, Josiah H.B. Matts, around 1848 and has been home to various businesses and private owners over the years. When the city bought it in 2015, it almost voted to destroy it, as the cost estimate to restore it was as much as $1 million. But an effort to save the building by a group of local history enthusiasts – now all members of the Verona Area Historical Society – succeeded in pausing the demolition long enough to draw the attention of Rost, who promised to restore it and make
it a viable commercial property. Last week, he said the brick had all been restored inside and outside and the foundation had been repaired. “It’s not something that people see all the way, but all the skeleton issues are fixed now,” he said. “The thing that’s really cool is there was never any major structural issues.” The structural issues were a big question mark, especially with one corner of the building constantly shedding bricks. But he said that turned out to be because of a 100-year-old coal chute that would shrink and expand with the seasons.
Turn to Matts/Page 13
Verona Area School District
New special ed group plans support, advocacy ‘Joint effort’ with officials, parents could guide policy SCOTT GIRARD Unified Newspaper Group
Having a child with a disability can be a lonely experience. Lexy Austin, whose eighth-grade son in the Verona Area School D i s t r i c t h a s D ow n s y n d r o m e , and Don Smith, whose elementary-aged child has autism, hope a
for a parental advisory committee on special education when Smith and Austin presented it to him. The group is expected to provide both a Anyone interested in being part place for parents to network and disof the parental advisory committee cuss their personal challenges as well as help guide district administrators’ can contact Durtschi at durtsche@ work with students with disabilities. verona.k12.wi.us or 845-4314. “This is really a joint effort to work through all of the things that soon-to-be-created group can help will improve outcomes for kids with disabilities together,” Durtschi said. others avoid that. New director of student services Turn to Special ed/Page 13 Emmett Durtschi jumped at the idea
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Ace Hardware is no longer part of it, but a plan to redevelop most of the southwest corner of the city’s main intersection is back for a public hearing next week, eight months after it was first proposed. It would tear down two single-story buildings that have been near the corner for decades – most recently housing Ace and
Page 3 Senior apartment plan returns Page 14 the World of Variety – and replace them with a three-story building and a four-story building, both of
Turn to Downtown/Page 14
New VAHS
Second road could connect at Nine Mound SCOTT GIRARD
from what had previously been considered. Verona Area School DisA second road to the new trict superintendent Dean Verona Area High School Gorrell told board members site is still under considerTurn to Road/Page 13 ation, though it’s different
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Special section Read how far Verona has come over the past year
Elevated Uptown Living
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