Thursday, November 9, 2017 • Vol. 53, No. 25 • Verona, WI • Hometown USA • ConnectVerona.com • $1
21-year-old VAHS grad dies in crash Kellerman remembered by former basketball teammates, coach
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Town of Verona
Inside Read Will Kellerman’s obituary
ANTHONY IOZZO AND SCOTT GIRARD
Page 16
Unified Newspaper Group
According to his obituary, he had been playing in a basketball game for Milwaukee Area Technical College two hours earlier. Kellerman was a standout basketball player at VAHS, playing all three years on varsity and averaged 12.4 points per game (868 total points in 70 games), earning first-team All-Big Eight honors as a senior and honorable mention all-conference honors as a junior. He had also played college basketball at Loras College. A funeral service will be held at St. James
Turn to Kellerman/Page 18
Diaz will run for mayor JIM FEROLIE Verona Press editor
For the second time since 2006, someone other than Jon Hochkammer is running for mayor. Luke Diaz, one of two District 3 a l d e r s , Diaz announced Saturday, Nov. 4, that he plans to be on the April 2018 ballot. Hochkammer, the longest serving mayor in Verona’s history by more than three years, has not announced whether he will run for a seventh term. “I’m running for Mayor of Verona on a platform of keeping our hometown feel even as we grow,”
On the Web For links to a campaign video, see our online story at:
ConnectVerona.com Diaz wrote in his emailed campaign announcement. “As a city council member I’ve worked for responsible development that fits in with our community.” Diaz, a document control specialist for Gammex in Middleton, joined the council in 2013 in an unprecedented sweep of four incumbents by political newcomers. Three of those challengers – Diaz, Heather Reekie (D-4) and Elizabeth Doyle (D-1) – remain on the council.
Turn to Mayor/Page 17 The
Verona Press
Photo by Scott Girard
Jane Barnett plants some prairie seeds in front of the Verona Town Hall on a foggy, rainy Saturday.
Prairie planted About 30 volunteers came to the Town Hall in Verona Saturday to help plant a prairie on more than half of the six-acre property surrounding the building. The new Town Hall opened in February of this year at 7669 County Hwy. PD after a years-long search for land resulted in the purchase of
property there in December 2015. The town later sold 37 of the 43 acres it purchased to neighboring Epic for $2.4 million, which funded most of the new building. The cold and rainy weather Saturday provided a good environment for planting a prairie, David Lonsdorf told the Press. Lonsdorf is a town
resident and member of the Natural and Recreational Areas Committee who coordinated the planting of the prairie, which included more than 70 different flowering plants. The prairie, which includes about $5,000 worth of seeds that were mostly donated or collected by town residents, is expected to grow in about three years.
New VAHS
Board decides priority areas in case of cuts Will guide design team decisions if initial costs too high SCOTT GIRARD Unified Newspaper Group
If construction on the new high school turns out to be more expensive than projected, the school board is ready with a set of priorities. Among the items at the top of the list are flexibility and adaptability, meaning that rooms and common
spaces can be used in multiple ways and adapt to growth or new teaching methods. The lowest priority is athletics and recreational space. Cost estimates are beginning to come in on initial designs for the new Verona Area High School, and officials know they won’t be allowed to exceed funds approved in the $182 million April referendum. So Monday night, board members laid out their priorities among nine focus areas for the Core Team to use to guide any potential cuts.
Inside Board approves 2018-19 calendar Page 17 “It’s very difficult to do … because these are all important,” consultant Jill Huskisson told the board Monday night. “There have to be some guidelines given to (the Core Team) so they are working on your behalf.”
The nine areas the board considered, which they chose at the Oct. 27 meeting, were: Flexibility and adaptability; functionality and operations; academics and learning spaces; safety and health; accessibility; community access; respect for taxpayer investment; aesthetics; and athletics and recreational space. After voting by secret ballot on their top priorities as individual board members, they settled on the first three as “tier one” priority
Turn to Priorities/Page 17
Verona Area Performing Arts Series presents
Dailey and Vincent Show
Dubbed by CMT as the Rockstars of Bluebrass
Sat., Nov. 11, 2017 • 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
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A 21-year-old Verona man died in a rollover crash Saturday night on the U.S. Hwy. 18-151 bypass around Verona. Will Kellerman, a 2015 Verona Area High School graduate, had been traveling southbound on the highway when i t l e f t t h e Kellerman roadway and rolled multiple times near the 80.2 mile marker around 7:18 p.m., according to a news release from the Dane County Sheriff’s Office.