Local

The City of Middleton’s Finance & Personnel Committee recently discussed a proposal for the City of Middleton to donate the 77,325 sq. ft., $11.4 million Capitol Ice Arena to the ownership of the arena to facilitate improvements.

CROSS PLAINS – A two-mile extension of the Cross Plains Driftless Downs Mountain Bike Trail System is in the works.

As temperatures soared into the nineties in Cross Plains, about fifty volunteers braved the heat to attend the town’s second annual Sleep in Heavenly Peace (SHP) bed build. The event was held in collaboration with the Madison West Chapter of SHP, a national non-profit committed to building beds for needy children across the country. 

CROSS PLAINS – The Village Board last week increased the architectural fee for the village hall/police station project by $85,196 to reflect increased size of the building.

At its June 23 meeting the Middleton Cross Plains Area School District gave preliminary approval to the budget for 2025-2026, approved the compensation plan for all employees except certified staff, and agreed to a request to allow the Good Neighbor Festival to use a portion of the school property. 

A Middleton woman is at the center of a chilling true crime saga stretching across multiple states and nearly a decade. The case involves fraud, a botched ricin poisoning, and the murder of a missing roommate—now the subject of an iHeartMedia podcast, What Happened to Talina Zarr.

The Middleton Law Enforcement Foundation (MiLEF) accomplished a major goal of providing the Middleton Police Department with a new Utility Task Vehicle (UTV) and two drones. At the Middleton Police Station on Thursday, MiLEF members and police officers gathered to celebrate the new equipment’s capabilities, and to formally recognize longtime supporter of the Middleton Police Department (MPD), Peggy Zimmerman.

Annual surveys of students, families and staff were reviewed and discussed at the June 9 meeting of the Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District board of education. Other topics at the meeting were the food and nutrition update, compensation review for 2025-2026, and enrollment update including additional 4K open enrollment seats.

Public, council reaction mixed

With a combined 57 years of experience, City Planner Mark Opitz and Middleton EMS Chief Steven Wunsch said goodbye to the City of Middleton during the June 3 Middleton Common Council meeting by accepting proclamations in their honor.