Thursday, November 16, 2017 • Vol. 53, No. 26 • Verona, WI • Hometown USA • ConnectVerona.com • $1
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Verona Press The
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APPOINTMENTS WITHIN 24 HOURS!
New VAHS
City of Verona
Road on committee agenda
Budget hearing Monday
VASD seeking Nine Mound access to school site
JIM FEROLIE
Verona Press editor
SCOTT GIRARD Unified Newspaper Group
Verona Area School District officials are hoping the upcoming City of Verona Public Works committee meeting goes better than the last time they were there. The committee will review a 447-page traffic impact analysis Monday, Nov. 20, for a road connecting South Nine Mound Road and the new high school site to the west, which would provide an “important” access point in addition to West End Circle. The district’s preliminary plan calls for new turn lanes, a traffic signal and an all-way stop at nearby intersections to help with the anticipated increased traffic load. The district had initially hoped to provide a second access point from Paoli Street to the south of the site, but that proposed road’s proximity to Hwy. 18-151 would have required a waiver from the state Department of Transportation. Committee members and city staff had enough concerns about both the likelihood of getting the waiver and the feasibility of the location at a July meeting that the district moved on from that plan. A draft of the TIA, which had not been reviewed technically by the city’s engineers or staff when provided to the Press, states in its conclusions that the second access point for the site is “important for high school operations.” “A second access point (not along Verona Road) will distribute the traffic load(s) that enter and exit the high school campus,”
Saluting their service Veterans and local residents participated in Veterans Day flag ceremonies Nov. 10 at Hometown Junction. The event was followed by various events at the senior center featuring speakers Verona Mayor Jon Hochkammer and Dan Connery, the Dane County Veterans Service Officer, as well as a “Quilts of Valor” presentation, with Verona veterans receiving hand-made quilts from the group.
Inside See more Veterans Day photos Page 7
Turn to Budget/Page 13
If You Go What: Public hearing for 2018 City of Verona budget When: 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 20 Where: Verona City Center, 111 Lincoln St. Info: Budget documents at ci.verona.wi.us/131/Finance-Department
Girls swimming
Bennin, Henshue bring home 3 state titles The Verona Area/Mount Horeb girls swim team finished fourth at the state meet this weekend, with three individual state titles. Read more about the Junior Grace Bennin won two girls swimming of those, defending her title from last year in the 100 breaststroke state meet and winning the 50-yeard freestyle race in the sixth-fastest time in Page 9 state history at 23.27 seconds. Bennin said it felt amazing to be back on top of the medal podium The Wildcats’ 200 medley relay Photo by Jeremy Jones after her victories last year. took fourth and the 200 free relay Junior Grace Bennin celebrates her 50-yard freestyle victory with Sun PraiSenior Sophie Henshue won the finished fifth. rie freshman Sophie Fiske. 500-yard freestyle race.
Inside
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Turn to Road/Page 13
Photo by Alexander Cramer
Arthur E. Clough sings the national anthem at the Veterans Day commemoration at Hometown Junction Park on Friday, Nov. 10.
In an effort to provide some choices for their upcoming vote on the 2018 budget, alders probed Monday for items that had been cut. But for the second year in a row, they couldn’t really find any. In another budget cycle flush with cash from exceptional growth the year before, the City of Verona will go into the Nov. 20 public hearing with every major department request having been met, with only one exception – an ambulance for FitchRona EMS that district co-owner Fitchburg has neither room in its budget nor a place in its station for yet. So as city administrator Jeff Mikorski put it Monday night, this is “two unique years in a row.” That’s two years in a row where there’s been almost no public debate at any level over what to fund as they