June 2019

MIDDLETON–EJ and Amy Fitzgerald, co-owners of Cool Hand Customs, have been doing custom car and motorcycle builds at the corner of Clark and Lee Streets for the last 10 years. The couple are looking to expand their operation but worried about how they will fit in with a changing landscape.

EJ and Amy saidthey took a risk when they decided to walk away from their construction business and open their own custom motorcycle and car shop. EJ says it was something he always wanted to do, and construction wasn’t offering a lot. 

“I’m going to be an old man with busted up knees and nothing else,” he said. 

Amy’s mom encouraged them to start a business with EJ’s passion for doing custom paint and body work on motorcycles and cars. EJ had reservations. 

“This is going from stuff that somebody might need to get done on their house to a complete extravagance,” he recalled.

Location.

Teammates.

Academics.

And a belief in what is the coaching staff is building.

Middleton girls’ basketball standout Sitori Tanin viewed all of the above as extreme positives when she chose Loyola University in Chicago as her future home. The 6-foot-2 Tanin, a senior-to-be at MHS, announced her decision last week.

“The girls on the team, the coaching staff, the campus, the athletic facilities and the location,” Tanin said when asked what drew her to Loyola. “And since I was looking for a higher academic school, Loyola was a great fit.”

Tanin helped the Cardinals reach the WIAA Division 1 state championship game in March, where they fell to Bay Port, 50-49.

Tanin also received first-team all-Big Eight Conference honors after leading the Cardinals in scoring (13.2), rebounding (11.0), steals (2.2) and blocks (1.1), and finishing second in assists (2.0).

Middleton’s baseball team had four players earn all-Big Eight Conference honors.

Senior pitcher Matt Ballweg and junior outfielder Ben Collier were named second-team all-conference. Senior outfielder Cooper Holewinski and junior infielder Adam Casali received honorable-mention all-conference honors.

In 42 innings pitched, Ballweg struck out 40 batters, walked 17 and had a 2.33 ERA. Ballweg allowed just 30 hits in conference games and had a WHIP (walks + hits/innings pitched) of 1.119.

“He was a tremendous pitcher for us who kept us in nearly every game he pitched,” Middleton manager Brent Jorgensen said of Ballweg. “Matt had a great pickoff move to complement his ability to locate all three of his pitches for strikes. His demeanor, pitching abilities, and work ethic were the three things that really set him apart this year.”

MIDDLETON – Ground was broken last week for this first new elementary school in the Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District (MCPASD) in 23 years.

Located adjacent to the 102-acre Pope Farm Conservancy on Old Sauk Rd., the new Pope Farm Elementary is scheduled to open to grades K-4 in September 2020.

The school building will be located near the crest of a glacial moraine putting students in the middle of the natural laboratory while preserving views from the conservancy of the State Capitol and Lake Mendota to the east.

The town of Middleton purchased the Pope family farm in 1999, reserving the right to later sell 40 acres to the school district to help defray the cost of the purchase. Placing a school next to the conservancy enhances both parties, said Mel Pope, family spokesman

“The family was very much behind this because…we’d rather see kids use the conservancy instead of having a housing development here,” Pope said.