Construction Full of Early Surprises

The Cove Assisted Living Memory Care 12 private rooms in a state of the art unit providing dementia specific care. It’s your paper! adno=491039-01 BETTER CARE. BETTER LIVING. Friday, October 14, 2016 • Vol. 3, No. 8 • Fitchburg, WI • ConnectFitchburg.com • $1 It’s not just our motto...it’s our way of life! Please call for further information and tours at 608-845-6465 303 S. Jefferson Street, Verona, WI • www.fourwindsmanor.com Inside Verona Road House explosion updates Construction Page 3 Dog park, bike/ped full of early planning underway Page 21 surprises Schools Businesses adjust to new Oregon school challenges as Verona Road board approves K-9 work enters Fitchburg drug searches SCOTT GIRARD Page 11 Unified Newspaper Group Abbey Weiss was sitting in the Sports Bella Domicile showroom on the nal day of September, as the walls and chairs began to vibrate every couple of minutes. “I’m waiting for something to fall Photo by Samantha Christian out of the ceiling,” Weiss joked. Yee Ythal and her mother, Der Vang, harvest Brussels sprouts in Fitchburg on Sept. 29. Other Hmong families The vibrations had been on and also rent from Tom and Pat O’Brien’s land to grow vegetables at the corner of Lacy Road and Seminole Highway. off for the past week, a new feature of the Nesbitt Road construction that’s part of the larger Verona Road project, which recently moved into Fitchburg. Bella Domicile, an interior design A T company, is one of dozens of businesses that have been affected by City cultivating new opportunities for agricultural land the construction since September. West tennis makes And for the Verona Road Busi- team state SAMANTHA CHRISTIAN really expanding the pro le of ness Coalition, that means a new Unified Newspaper Group Inside agriculture in the city and creat- set of clients to focus its assistance Page 14 ing opportunity for landowners,” and lobbying efforts on. Since Vero- t’s fall in Fitchburg, and the Fitchburg’s agricultural Thompson said. “It’s not saying, na Road construction began in the southwest corner of Lacy Road past, present and future ‘You can’t do this.’ It’s saying, Madison area two years ago, the Community Iand Seminole Highway is ‘What do you want to do?’ and VRBC has been helping businesses abuzz. Page 20 ‘How can the city potentially help where work was and still is being Fitchburg teen Peel back the layers of sound, you gure it out?’” done with communication, signage from humming traf c to rustling Rather than re-envisioning agri- and a “collective voice” of busi- hopes to help peers cornstalks, and the shrill shimmy being “looked down upon” for culture, he said it’s looking at it nesses facing the same challenge. plan for future of grasshoppers can be heard in doing that kind of work. through “somewhat of a different That means helping to guide cus- a leafy eld abutting the Badger “But you still need to eat and lens.” tomers who have to take new routes Page 18 State Trail. Quieter are the con- need to be healthy,” Ythal said. Cows used to dominate the to businesses, of course. But, as so versations had by Hmong farmers Fitchburg boasts 11,000 acres of elds over 100 years ago, and now often happens with large construc- shrouded in green as they pick agricultural land, which is home cash crops do. But there is poten- tion projects, it also means dealing peppers, pumpkins and other to crops, orchards, community tial for smaller-scale agriculture to with “a lot of unexpected surprises Business produce from the parcels of land gardens, livestock and historic thrive in Fitchburg, too. and glitches,” said Cindy Jaggi, the where cattle used to graze. farms. With a growing urban Without local farmers like VRBC project manager. Among the small-scale growers market to its north demanding Ythal, many food items would Those have included, at times, the is Yee Ythal, who is crouched next locally-sourced products, the city need to be imported. And it would loss of water, electrical and phone to rows of Brussels sprouts on a is looking to unearth its economic be much more dif cult to nd services. late September morning, plucking potential while preserving its agri- heirloom plants, like her sugar “You name it, in the first three what looks like baby cabbages cultural resources. cane (which the youngsters call weeks we had it,” Jaggi said in Sep- attached to miniaturized palm That’s why the Agriculture and “woody bubblegum”) and Asian tember. trees. Rural Affairs Committee is work- cucumbers (which can be made The DOT and construction work- When she’s not working two ing on a draft Agricultural Plan: to into sweet and sour ice pops). ers have been “extremely respon- 12-hour shifts per week as a CNA “help maintain and enhance agri- The Madison resident grows sive” to her and business’ concerns, at St. Mary’s Hospital, Ythal is culture in the city into the foresee- over 130 varieties of vegetables she said, explaining that’s a key part here getting her hands dirty on the able future.” in neighboring Fitchburg. She of the partnership they’re hoping to three acres of land she rents from Even though the plan is in its shares the produce with her family build as the construction continues brothers Tom and Pat O’Brien, or early stages, city staff members, and sells the rest at the Hilldale for an unknown length of time. DC Interiors and at the other two-and-a-half acres like resource/project planner Wade Farmers Market or wholesale to That uncertain end date – mostly she rents from the Linda and Gene Thompson, have already been high-end restaurants, as well as a result of recently revealed pro- Renovations marks Farley Center for Peace, Justice encouraging partnerships between to Promega. What doesn’t sell, posals for the 2017-19 biennial 15 years and Sustainability in rural Verona. large-scale agricultural landown- she donates to the Badger Prairie state budget that threaten to delay Farming is in her roots, which is ers, like the O’Briens, and small- Needs Network and St. Vincent de the project for a second time – is a Page 23 why she is carrying on the family scale local food producers, like Paul food pantries. headache all of its own, Jaggi said. tradition despite the long hours, Ythal, for the past few years. “I believe in food sustainabili- low income and stigma of “That’s kind of the idea, is ty,” Ythal said. Turn to Road/Page 19 PRSRT STANDARD ECRWSS US POSTAGE PAID Elevated Uptown Living UNIFIED NEWSPAPER GROUP avanteproperties.com 608.441.9999 adno=490104-01 ConnectFitchburg.com 2 October 14, 2016 Fitchburg Star City of Fitchburg Council approves first Northeast development Unanimous support comes On the Web after years of political battles Read the full story, including more about the history of the development: SCOTT GIRARD Unified Newspaper Group ConnectFitchburg.com The city has cleared the way for the rst construction in an area that has been a con- project, writing after the Plan Commission tentious issue for years. vote that he “betrayed” his supporters and The Common Council last month that the development remained a “threat” to approved a rezoning application for part the Lake Waubesa area. of the Northeast Neighborhood owned by But Arnold said the nal product would Fitchburg Lands LLC, with construction actually benet the area the group was most expected to begin next spring. concerned about. The development, which was a major He explained that an agreement among Photos by Samantha Christian dividing point during the 2015 city elec- the developer, the state Department of Avoidance Acres gives horse carriage rides around the Oak Bank parking lot. tions, is between U.S. Hwy. 14 and the Natural Resources and the Town of Dunn Waubesa Wetlands, in the northeast part – which followed the ling of a lawsuit – of the city. It is expected to bring a mix created specic water-monitoring plans and of commercial and residential buildings changes to what areas would be developed. Looking a lot like fall around environmental zones within the 248 “I’m satised that this will be an asset to acres owned by Fitchburg Lands. The entire both Fitchburg and the Waubesa Wetlands,” Oak Bank held its Northeast Neighborhood, as identified by he said. 16th annual Great the city in a 2014 application for a sewer Occupancy could be as early as 2018, Pumpkin Giveaway service connection, is about 986 acres, of Arnold said at the August commission on Saturday, Oct. 8. which 511 were eventually approved for meeting. He said that helped calm another Families picked that connection. of his major concerns with the develop- out pumpkins and The West Waubesa Preservation Coali- ment: emergency services. He’s been a pro- enjoyed crafts, tion has provided much opposition to the ponent of advancing the construction of an games, bounce hous- project, and the group endorsed Mayor eastside re station for several years. es, a mascot visit, Steve Arnold in the 2015 election partly With that station now being planned and horse-drawn carriage based on his opposition to the development. expected to open as soon as that same year, rides and food. Members of the group spoke out against the “that will dramatically improve emergency Proceeds were development during the public hearing last services in the east side of the city.” donated to the Wis- month at a Plan Commission meeting, but The development falls under the Smart- consin Academy for no one spoke in opposition to the project at Code style of planning the city approved Graduate Service the Sept.

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