March 2023

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America’s Best Restaurants Films at Vessel Cafe In Cross Plains

CROSS PLAINS–A popular Cross Plains eatery hosted a film crew on March 22 when America’s Best Restaurants (ABR) stopped by to feature The Vessel Café. 

Owners Shaun and Krystal Williams applied to be on the show, which is streamed on the ABR website, and said they expect the segment to be released in about 6-8 weeks. 

The restaurant features breakfast and lunch items as well as baked goods and opened in 2021. 

“When we meet with them for our first interview, we were very nervous to see if we would be chosen and when we told them our history and where we got our recipes from, I think we sealed the deal!” said the Williams’.

The show filmed from 8 a.m.-12 p.m. and residents from the community came out to show their support for the restaurant, filling the space to enjoy a pastry or breakfast at the family run business.

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Village Looks at Transportation Utility Fee

CROSS PLAINS–Looking for a method to raise more revenue without it affecting the levy limit, the Cross Plains Village Board wants to further study establishing a transportation utility fee (TUF).

Some board members appeared to favor a TUF over a wheel tax for its potential to raise more money and involve every property owner not just residents who own vehicles.

Finance Director Bobbi Zauner said at Monday’s board meeting that the idea of a TUF comes from the perspective that streets should be funded by users like a water or sewer utility.

Regardless of the method chosen, residents would pay but Village President Jay Lengfeld said that a TUF would be fairer because it captures revenue from schools, churches and other tax-exempt property owners.

“Those not paying property taxes would pay for roads to some extent,” he said.

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Understanding Statewide Referendums in the April 4 Election

WISCONSIN–With so much attention being focused on the race for Supreme Court Justice, you may be surprised, when you step into the voting booth on April 4, to find three referendum questions on your ballot.  

The first two questions propose an amendment to the Wisconsin State Constitution regarding the setting of bail. A referendum to amend the constitution must first receive a majority vote in two consecutive years in both houses of the legislature before being placed on the ballot. This type of referendum is called a binding referendum because the legislature is bound by the will of the voters. 

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Unopposed Elections and Dane County Referendum Questions on Ballots

Unopposed Elections and Dane County Referendum Questions on Ballots

By Michelle Phillips

Several of the towns and villages in the Times-Tribune readership area will have candidates running unopposed in the upcoming Spring Election, April 4. 

In addition, two Dance County referendum questions will be included on the ballot. 

The questions read as follows:

Dane County Redistricting Referendum

Question #1: Should the Wisconsin Constitution be amended to require a nonpartisan system for redistricting legislative and congressional districts in the state?

Dane County Right to Privacy Referendum

Question #2: Should the Wisconsin Legislature adopt an amendment to the Wisconsin Constitution creating a new right to privacy that would protect rights such as abortion, same-sex marriage, and interracial marriage?

Two judicial seats are up for grabs, and both candidates are running unopposed. 

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Mayor Delivers State of the City at Council Meeting

MIDDLETON–Mayor Gurdip Brar gave his final state of the city address, as he will not seek reelection, to the City of Middleton Common Council at its March 21 meeting. The address highlighted the progress the city has made over Brar’s tenure and the work that the next mayor will have to take up. 

Brar said the single most important service the city provides is public safety.

In 2022, the police department responded to 18,489 calls for service. There was a three percent decrease in violent crimes in 2022 compared to 2021 and Brar noted the department maintains the State of Wisconsin WILEAG accreditation.

In 2022, the city adopted a new strategic plan that outlines the direction of the city for the next 10 to 20 years and passed an operational referendum with 62 percent voter support. 

Brar said the city continues to be strong financially.

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Complaint filed in Attack on Elderly Woman–GoFundMe Set Up

MIDDLETON–Martha Jackson, 77, of Middleton was sitting in her apartment on March 14 when and intruder entered through a partial open patio door after climbing up Jackson’s balcony.

A suspect in the case, Clarissa R. Herrera, of Madison, was arrested on the scene after Jackson used a medical alert button to contact 911 according to a criminal complaint filed in Dane County Circuit Court on March 20. 

In the complaint, Middleton Police officer Todd Dart said he responded to the call of a disturbance at the 6200 block of Maywood Ave. at 11;11 p.m. Herrera, the report alleges, was standing in the balcony door “waving her arms and yelling.” She was yelling that she had been kidnapped and sexually assaulted, then jumped four feet off the balcony after Dart told her not to. It was then he heard Jackson’s voice coming from inside the apartment. She was in a recliner asking repeatedly for help. 

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Community Celebrates the Return of WWII Soldier Sonny Simon

MIDDLETON–A hometown boy has finally found his way home after nearly 80 years.

Pfc. William l. “Sonny” Simon returned to Middleton on March 24 after his remains were identified by the US Army. Sonny, who was drafted in 1943, left for Europe following his high school graduation the same year. His siblings Eileen Tesch, 96, and Jim ‘Jumbo” Simon, 94, said they remember the day he left with sadness, and Eileen recalled crying much of the day that he left his home on Hubbard Avenue. At the time Eileen was 15 and Jumbo was 13.

The sadness of him leaving was nothing compared to the despair the family felt when they learned in 1944 first that he was missing in action and six months later when the military came to inform their parents, George and Margaret Simon, that he had been declared killed in action. Sonny was just 20 years old at the time he was declared missing.

“Mother always had hopes that he would walk through the door,” recalled Eileen.

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Top candidate turns down MHS football job

Middleton High School is back to square one in its search for a new head football coach.

Brian Hellenbrand, the defensive coordinator at McFarland High School and a 2005 MHS graduate, was offered the position on March 24. After taking the weekend to think about the offer, Hellenbrand declined the position on March 28.

“It's disappointing,” Middleton athletic director Jamie Sims said Thursday. “We thought it was a done deal.”

Hellenbrand and Greg Spahn — the head coach at Grand Rapids (Minn.) High School — emerged as the top two candidates from a pool of 18 applicants.

The two finalists met with Sims, assistant A.D. Brad Crandall and principal Peg Shoemaker on March 22 and Hellenbrand was offered the job two days later.

Hellenbrand has never been a head coach, but has been an assistant coach in the Madison-area since 2012. Before that, he spent a year as a student coach at UW-La Crosse.

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MHS should name basketball court after Jeff Kind

Everywhere I went this winter, I noticed it.

Bob Suter Court at Janesville Craig.

Craig Haase Court over at Hartland Arrowhead.

Even Ab Nicholas Court at the UW Kohl Center.

In many gyms across the state, the court is named after a great coach — or someone integral in getting that facility built.

Middleton High School’s court isn’t named after anybody. But it should be.

No individual meant more to the growth of basketball in Middleton — especially the girls’ games — as Jeff Kind did.

Kind, Middleton’s girls coach from 1993-2022, was inducted into the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2018. He compiled a remarkable 578-256 career record and is the sixth-winningest girls coach in state history.

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