Happy Holidays Dr. Tami Hunt Dr. Emmylou Wilson Optometrists 320 S. Main Street, Verona, WI (608) 848-5168 www.VeronaVisionCare.com
Thursday, December 14, 2017 • Vol. 53, No. 30 • Verona, WI • Hometown USA • ConnectVerona.com • $1
VAHS goes into lockdown for ‘elevated tempers’
New VAHS
Public gets new look at design
JIM FEROLIE Verona Press editor
Plans could change based on road funding deal with city SCOTT GIRARD Unified Newspaper Group
About 50 people looked over the latest plans for the new Verona Area High School last week. But as architect Chris Michaud of Epstein Uhen Architects stressed, they’re far from final. During a 45-minute presentation that preceded a Q and A at the Verona Area High School’s Performing Arts Center on Tuesday, Dec. 5, Michaud explained that a recent disagreement between the city and school district over how much each would pay for a road into the site could affect some of the school’s amenities. He noted that the board had added $8.7 million of amenities to the project in August and said the district and its consultants were looking to prioritize what would be cut if a land swap with the city leaves the district short on what it needs to pay for a second road into the school. “We need to be responsible and understand that if the district is forced to pay for this expense they had not anticipated to pay for … we need to have a plan as to how to pay for that,” he said. Those amenities include a $5.7 million second pool for the aquatic center, a production kitchen for the district, a large-group instructional space, turf on the football and soccer fields and a sports training space. Michaud also shared the timeline ahead for the project as renderings of the proposed building filled the screen on the stage behind him. The next major step will be getting into the
Photo by Helu Wang
5-month-old Kiran Talukdar poses with parents, Tawseef and Meghan, and a reindeer, which is the very first one he has met.
Reindeer visit Verona
Three reindeer visited Verona on Dec. 9, outside of the library. Coordinated by the library, over 100 people crowded and lined up to get a photo taken with the reindeer after a snowy day. This is the third time that reindeer visited town.
Ve r o n a A r e a H i g h School went into “precautionary” lockdown for about 10 minutes Thursday, Dec. 7, during what police and the school district described as a disturbance between current students and a former student during the lunch hour. At 12:35 p.m., after what a Verona Police Department news release called “students havi n g e l eva t e d t e m p e r s and posturing to fight,” the school announced a “Level 2 classroom hold” on the PA system. A couple of minutes later, principal Pam Hammen upgraded that to a Level 3 lockdown on the PA. District spokesperson Kelly Kloepping told the
Turn to Lockdown/Page 7
Fitch-Rona EMS
Myrland retires from ‘the best job in Dane County’ SCOTT GIRARD Unified Newspaper Group
Brian Myrland did not plan on becoming chief of anything when he started as a volunteer paramedic with Fitch-Rona EMS in the 1990s. By the time the position opened in 2004, he was far from the most medically experienced staff member while working as the volunteer coordinator. But that didn’t stop him from applying. “I thought, ‘They Myrland d o n ’t n e e d m o r e medical expertise here, they need somebody with some business experience,’” Myrland recalled. “Somebody that can run a budget, somebody that can play the political side of it so we can get this thing on better footing.” Thirteen years later, the parttime chief will retire from the department, leaving it in the hands
of one of the deputy chiefs he hired on in his time, throughout which Myrland has tried to improve the organization’s structure. “I really felt that one of the two (deputies) would make a great next chief,” Myrland said. “Over the last two years I’ve been kind of grooming that to happen.” Under Myrland’s watch, the department has moved its operations from Fitchburg to Verona’s new station, balanced competing priorities of the three municipalities Fitch-Rona serves and been part of a new era of cooperation between neighboring municipalities that he said has improved medical care. Much of the success he’s overseen, he stressed, is because of the rest of the people in the department. “I have the best job in Dane County, because Fitch-Rona is a great department,” he said. “I’ve just been lucky enough to be at the helm of this thing as it’s happened.”
Myrland, who will continue to run his Middleton sporting equipment business, said he’s looking forward to spending more time with his grandchildren and fishing, hunting and skiing at his cabin up north. But he’s glad for the last 13 years here. “I’ve never been able to follow the path that most people would tell me to, but it’s been a great path,” Myrland said. “It added an interesting variety in my life.”
Becoming a paramedic
friend was right, and spending time as an EMT was something he loved. But he wanted to be a bit closer to home in Verona. Though he “twisted an arm” to get a role here because of how many they had at the time, he quickly picked up on the operations of Fitch-Rona. Soon after, he was offered the position of volunteer coordinator, which allowed him to be ready when the chief position opened. “I knew the EMS system, I had studied the EMS system” he said. “I knew Fitch-Rona and I knew I could bring a strong business sense to the organization. It turned out that’s what they were looking for, so be careful what you wish for.”
Myrland has a friend to thank for all of his time with an EMS department. That friend was working as an EMT and recommended Myrland try it out, thinking he would like it. He began volunteering in Cross Changing medicine Plains, and can still remember the What he didn’t know then is how first call he had, an attempted sui- far paramedicine would come in cide. his years as chief. “I can relive every one of those “If you go way back, what EMS I’ve been on,” he said. “You’re was, really, was get there as fast as always affected.” Turn to Myrland/Page 17 Despite that, he found out his
The
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