Thursday, November 2, 2017 • Vol. 53, No. 24 • Verona, WI • Hometown USA • ConnectVerona.com • $1
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Verona Press The
City of Verona
Budget plan would cut taxes, add staff JIM FEROLIE
Inside
Verona Press editor
Large amounts of growth can make for some magic when budget time comes. Over the past three weeks, city staff waved their wands and somehow managed to come up with enough money to cover every request the Finance committee had for them – added staff, lower taxes, 3 percent raises across the board and continued attention to paying down debt. All it took was pulling another $200,000 out of the fund balance, which continues to grow despite efforts to lower it over the years to a recommended amount. T h a t ’s b e c a u s e t h e r e are almost always lower expenses than planned because of staffing shortages or extra revenue from conservative estimates of investment income, permits or license applications.
See the budget legal publication Page 13 To be fair, though, city staff also acknowledged they got lucky because some unpredictable funding sources – general state transportation funding and projected building permit fees – went up nearly $400,000 combined over last year. It’s worth noting that while the tax rate would drop taxes by 4.3 percent — equivalent to $73 on a $282,000 home — it’s doing so with assessed values on homes in the city not changing this year. So while home values increased – by
Photo by Helu Wang
Landon Rafn, 2, counts treats in his pumpkin basket at the first Main Street Trick or Treat event.
Trick or Treat
Children walked around Verona neighborhoods wearing costumes of ghosts, goblins, superheroes and princesses on Halloween, including at the first Main Street Trick or Treat event. They carried bags, baskets and even suitcases to be filled with candy as they went door-to-door.
Inside More Halloween photos Page 2
Distance for a cause
Turn to Budget/Page 16
Verona families running NYC marathon for charity
Chief to retire at year’s end Search limited to internal applicants to succeed Myrland SCOTT GIRARD Unified Newspaper Group
Brian Myrland, who was hired as a part-time chief in 2004, announced last month he would retire effective Dec. 31. The new chief will likely be a familiar face, as the Fitch-Rona EMS Commission voted last Thursday night to pursue an internal candidate, one of the two deputy chiefs. Myrland, who also runs a Middleton-based sports equipment business, has had two full-time deputy
chiefs reporting to him in recent years. He recommended, and the commission approved, a plan to open the chief position to those two deputies and Myrland eliminate the deputy position of whoever is promoted. “If you said, ‘I’m just gonna build Fitch-Rona from the bottom up right now,’ … I would have a deputy chief and I would have a chief,” Myrland told the commission. “To me, that’s the optimal management structure in this
Turn to EMS/Page 12 The
Verona Press
HELU WANG Unified Newspaper Group
Two Verona families will run the 47th annual New York City marathon this weekend in support of different charities. Candice Nielsen and her German au pair Laura Helbig have been taking pledges to raise funds for children in need around the world. And Huck Hausmann will be running to support autism research. They will join more than 50,000 people from all over the world in the 26.2-mile race, which begins at 8:30 a.m. Sunday in Staten Island and ends in Central Park. Nielsen and Helbig have trained together for over nine months, and they look forward to sharing the memorable experience and challenge. “It’s beyond a race,” Nielsen told the Press. “It’s a part of us.” The challenge for Hausmann, 51, will be to stay within his limitations. After he hurt his knees three months a g o , t h e ex p e r i e n c e d I r o n m a n
On the Web See links to Huck Hausmann’s and Laura Helbig’s fundraising pages at:
ConnectVerona.com competitor told the Press he can only reach that distance with a combination of running, jogging and walking. “It will be a long day, but I’m looking forward to it,” Hausmann said.
Au pair care The 21-year-old au pair and her 42-year-old host mother have experienced “an interesting journey with ups and downs.” Having finished two Wisconsin Ironman triathlons, 10 half-Ironman triathlons and “too many Olympic and sprint triathlons to note,” Nielsen said she felt it would be a memorable experience to run a marathon with Helbig, whose longest previous race had been a half-marathon in Germany. Soon after Helbig joined the
family in February, they applied for a grant to cover the entry fees and get a guaranteed spot in the highly competitive race. Cultural Care Au Pair, an au pair organization in Cambridge, Mass., began the program this year, selecting five au pair families to run on behalf of the Cultural Care Kids First Foundation. The foundation provides educational, recreational and cultural programs for children around the world. As of Monday, they have raised about $1,000 out of their $5,000 goal. Helbig started her training from 5K, caught up over the summer and hit a peak when she and Nielsen finished a Madison half-marathon. Having to take care of four children limited their training to three or four short runs and a long one each week. They trained individually for the short 3-mile runs and ran together for the endurance runs ranging from 6 to 15 miles. The most challenging part of the training, they said, was mental
Turn to Marathon/Page 13
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