Verona Press The
Thursday, October 18, 2018 • Vol. 54, No. 22 • Verona, WI • Hometown USA • ConnectVerona.com • $1.25
adno=27881
14 YEARS
Thank you, Verona, for your patronage! 608-848-6628
416 E. Verona Ave
Matts House
Verona Area School District
Still going strong
Finding a ‘strong school community’
Saved from demolition, Matts House opens to new life SCOTT DE LARUELLE AND JIM FEROLIE Unified Newspaper Group
New principal aims to make Stoner Prairie ‘Fitchburg’s pride and joy’ SCOTT GIRARD Unified Newspaper Group
As the 361 Stoner Prairie Elementary School students filed into the step room on a recent Tuesday, Tammy Thompson Kapp stood at the front, singing and clapping along to Bruno Mars’ “Count on Me”: “You can count on me like one two three I’ll be there And I know when I need it I can count on you like four three two You’ll be there ‘Cause that’s what friends are supposed to do, oh yeah” The school’s new principal was at her second “community gathering” event of the year, and the song to her symbolizes what she’s trying to build at Verona Area School District’s lowest-enrollment attendance area elementary school. Most recently a principal
in the Madison Metropolitan School District, Thompson Kapp took over here July 1, succeeding Mike Pisani, who l e f t f o r a Thompson Kapp job in Lodi after five years in Verona. Pisani’s tenure ended with him facing criticism from some staff and parents, including some of the lowest marks on the perception survey taken in the spring among the district’s schools. That left Thompson Kapp coming into a challenging situation when she took over. But she said the community has been supportive so far. “This is a strong school c o m m u n i t y a l r e a d y,” Thompson Kapp said. “I’m just trying to bring it together in a more unified way that really highlights the importance of taking care of ourselves first, so that we can be our best version of ourself for others.” Thompson Kapp taught fifth and sixth grade in the West Allis-West Milwaukee
Turn to Kapp/Page 8
Inside
Photo by Jim Ferolie
Troy Rost saws off a piece of a new column going on the front door of the Matts house, one of the final remaining pieces of restoration work two years after buying the estimated 170-year-old building from the City of Verona. descendants are “thrilled” by the restoration work done on a place that’s taken on a new meaning in recent years. “That house on the corner is a
Turn to Matts/Page 7 The
Verona Press
Next week After more than a decade in Verona, Purple Goose gets a new home
Homecoming parade photos Page 14
Verona Area Performing Arts Series Atlantic City Boys
presents
Four dynamic lead singers who are Singing ‘60s rock-n-roll hits of The Drifters, The Beach Boys, and Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.
Sat., Nov 10, 2018 • 7:30pm VAHS Performing Arts Center 300 Richard St., Verona
Tickets available at www.vapas.org, State Bank of Cross Plains-Verona, Capitol Bank-Verona or call (608) 848-2787
adno=28484 adno=540299-01
A few years ago, the Matts House was on the verge of becoming just another memory. The home was once a shining example of mid-19th-century progress in a new community in a new state, but by the beginning of the 21st century, decades of disrepair had reduced it to seemingly little more than a place to build something better. And when the City of Verona purchased it in 2015 after years of trying, that was exactly the idea. But that’s when people and a place converged, and the aging-yet-historic building was restored and saved – at least for another generation – to begin a new chapter in a new Verona. After years of sitting in disrepair, the building at 101 N. Main St. was officially rechristened Saturday, Oct. 13, with a grand opening and ribbon cutting at the Purple Goose clothing, accessories and gift shop. The second floor will eventually feature yoga, meditation and other health-related practices, the same sort of business incubator Purple Goose owner Halley Jones had for years at the business’ former location three blocks to the west. It took a city to save a building – property owners who agreed to sell, city officials who provided time for a plan to emerge, preservation-minded citizens who came up with ideas and a restoration expert who turned vision into reality. Once the city decided to restore it, it took a year to hand over the keys to Troy Rost, and it took Rost two years of mostly his own labor to get the building back to where it started – an opulent curiosity in the heart of Verona’s downtown. Rost faced many challenges, like rebuilding the main floor, which was several inches higher in back than in the front. But in other places, all the hard work came together with a seeming natural ease, such as with the second floor, where he removed an old attic to create 16 foot-high, wood-paneled ceilings for what will be the yoga and meditation area. “I think that would be a really pleasant space,” he said. Verona Area Historical Society president Jesse Charles, who helped lead efforts to save the building, said society members and Matts family