The Middleton-Cross Plains AreaSchool District Board of Education onMonday night approved a new contractfor fulltime teachers. The deal, whichwas hammered out amidst the falloutfrom Act 10 and a cloud of lingeringuncertainty about the state of collectivebargaining for public employees, cov-ers the 2013-2014 year.

The Middleton Education Associa-tion (MEA) teachers’ union ratified the

contract on Valentine’s Day. Followingthe school board’s vote, MEA presidentChris Bauman said she was “proud”the two sides came to an agreement.

Under the new deal, salary increaseswill be determined at the schoolboard’s discretion, after the district re-ceives pertinent information about stateaid levels.

Teachers who take part in a HealthRisk Assessment will maintain theircurrent 12 percent contribution towardtheir annual health insurance premi-ums. Those not completing the assess-ment will contribute 15 percent.

Gone from the new deal is FairShare, so the district will no longer au-tomatically withdraw union dues fromall teachers’ paychecks. While emailsshow the union initially fought hard tomaintain Fair Share, the contract ap-proved by the school board makes itclear teachers may opt out of – and stopfunding – union activities.

According to the district, the con-tract includes calendar changes andless frequent, but full-day, professionaldevelopment days for staff.

Back to School Night – a majorsource of disagreement between thetwo sides a few years ago - will be of-fered at all buildings at the beginningof the school year rather than the pre-vious elementary “orientation ses-sions” that were always held on thefirst day of the school year.

Procedures regarding the entering ofgraded or missing assignments and as-sessments into Infinite Campus, thedistrict’s online information hub, were

VOL. 121, NO. 9 THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013 SINGLE COPY PRICE: $1.25

www.MiddletonTimes.com

GAB set to rule on Dahmen candidacy

ESSAy COnTEST

Inside this issue:Local: School: Sports:City to hire broker to helpsell land. Page 3

Kromrey Middle Schoolhonor roll. Page 11

Cardinals’ climb continues. Page 14

Dining Guide . . . . . . . . 6 - 7Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Photo courtesy of Mary BaveryAll smiles!Middleton boys basketball coach Kevin Bavery was all smiles after

his Cardinals won a WIAA Division 1 regional title last Saturday night.Middleton now faces Madison Memorial in the sectional semifinalsThursday. For full coverage, see sports on page 14.

Voters in the Middleton-Cross PlainsArea School District (MCPASD) areone step closer to finding out who theywill see on the April 2 ballot.

David Dahmen on Feb. 21 providedthe Government Accountability Board(GAB) with his response to schoolboard clerk Annette Ashley’s opinionthat he is ineligible due to improper fil-ing of his candidacy signatures. It isexpected to be the last in a string ofdocuments submitted to the GAB be-fore it decides whether Dahmen, who

hopes to challenge incumbent JimGreer for the school board’s Area 1seat, should be included on the ballot.

Reid Magney, public information of-ficer for the GAB, said the electionsoversight body expects to issue its de-cision early next week.

Dahmen, a middle school teacherand union bargaining team memberwho plans to retire in June, wrote thatgiving voters a choice outweighs whathe believes is a technicality regardinghis paperwork. Dahmen said he turnedin photocopied signatures of support,rather than originals, due to “poor com-munication” with the district’s filingclerk.

He said he followed the spirit of theelection guidelines and immediatelyturned in original signatures once hewas informed they were required. Dah-men said his actions were “without de-ception.”

Ashley one week earlier reiteratedher belief that Dahmen should not ap-pear on the ballot. Dahmen also repliedto an affidavit by Cheryl Janssen, thedistrict’s filing clerk, that was includedwith Ashley’s decision.

“It is far more important to ourdemocracy that voters have choicesthan it is to adhere to well-intended

by MATT GEiGER

Times-Tribune

by MATT GEiGER

Times-Tribune

Police union gets3-year contract

The Middleton Common Councillast week unanimously approved aCollective Bargaining Agreementwith the Wisconsin Professional Po-lice Association (WPPA) Local 427.The deal covers 2013 through 2015.

The agreement between the cityand WPPA calls for increases in payof 1 percent in 2013, 2 percent in2014 and 3 percent in 2015. Thenew contract maintains continuouslongevity pay increases, and in 2015police officers will make between$55,247.98 and $66,273.48 annuallyin salary. (Officers will make any-

where from the mid-$60,000s to thelow $90,000s in total annual com-pensation.)

While Act 10 stripped most pub-lic employee unions of many of theirbargaining powers, the legislationdid not do so unilaterally for policeunions.

According to the contract, the cityand the union recognize that the cur-rent interpretation of the law as ofthe end of 2012 is “in a state offlux,” and the union’s ability to bar-gain for additional compensation inpayment of health premiums “is nota settled issue.”

As was the case before, the police

by MATT GEiGER

Times-Tribune

Board of Educationapproves MEA dealMiddleton is celebrating 50

years as a city, and the MiddletonTimes-Tribune and MiddletonSenior Center are sponsoring anessay contest for the occasion:“Tell us your Middleton story in600 words or less.”

Winning entries will be pub-lished in a special section, in-cluded in the Times-Tribune, inearly April.  There will be onewinner selected from each of threeage groups:  youth (under 21);adult (21-55); and senior (56 andup).

Anything about the communityin the last 50 years will be consid-ered, but we are hoping peoplewill tell tales that enlighten all ofus about this unique city’s cultureand people.

Submissions should be sent tomgeiger@newspubinc.com or toLaura Langer at the Senior Center.The deadline is March 11.

See LOCAL 427, page 8See BALLOT, page 8

See TEACHERS, page 9

Tuesday, February 511:11 a.m. – Theft, 2100 block of

Bristol St.5:01 p.m. – Animal bite, 1300 block

of Stratford Ct.6:45 p.m. – Domestic disturbance,

6200 block of University Ave.8:32 p.m. – Property damage, 3100

block of Deming Way.

Wednesday, February 64:44 p.m. – Theft, 2200 block of

Deming Way.8:28 p.m. – Disturbance, 6700 block

of Century Ave.

Thursday, February 72:36 p.m. – Theft from auto, 2500

block of Allen Blvd.3:42 p.m. – Fraud, 8500 block of

Greenway Blvd.

Friday, February 86:20 p.m. – Information, 7700 block

of Elmwood Ave.

Saturday, February 91:59 a.m. – Theft, 1900 block of

Branch St.4:57 p.m. – Theft, 5100 block of

Churchill Ln.8:34 p.m. – Domestic disturbance,

6700 block of Elmwood Ave.

Sunday, February 108:37 p.m. – Battery, 2000 block of

Allen Blvd.

Monday, February 111:53 p.m. – Theft, 2100 block of

Bristol St.5:24 p.m. – Fire, 3700 block of

Pheasant Branch Rd.8:36 p.m. – Fire, 6300 block of

Pheasant Ln

Tuesday, February 1211:26 a.m. – Assist citizen/ motorist,

6200 block of Elmwood Ave.9:58 p.m. – Fire, 2000 block of

Allen Blvd.11:42 p.m. – Substance control,

5400 block of Century Ave.

Wednesday, February 132:17 a.m. – Assist citizen/ motorist,

6500 block of Century Ave.10:41 a.m. – Substance control,

2100 block of Bristol St.11:23 a.m. – Fraud, 7200 block of

Henry Ct.3:40 p.m. – Theft, 8300 block of

Murphy Dr.5:01 p.m. – Domestic disturbance,

3300 block of Glacier Ridge Rd.

Thursday, February 146:47 a.m. – Fire, 8500 block of Re-

search Way.8:27 a.m. – Trespass, 6300 block of

Pheasant Ln.

Friday, February 159:38 a.m. – Theft, 2100 block of

Bristol St.

11:27 a.m. – Fire structure, 7500block of Voss Pkwy.

1:44 p.m. – Theft, 6200 block ofElmwood Ave.

2:56 p.m. – Fraud, 2100 block ofDeming Way.

4:24 p.m. – Information, 2100 blockof Bristol St.

7:24 p.m. – Suspicious activity, 1500block of Windfield Way.

9:42 p.m. – Theft, 5300 block ofSouth Ridge Way.

Saturday, February 161:03 a.m. – Domestic disturbance,

7200 block of South Ave.7:02 p.m. – Disturbance, 3600 block

of Flagstone Cir.8:52 p.m. – Theft-retail, 2000 block

of Branch St.

Sunday, February 173:22 p.m. – Theft, 1600 block of

Deming Way.5:21 p.m. – Disturbance, 3600 block

of Flagstone Cir.8:15 p.m. – Fire, 3300 block of Gla-

cier Ridge Rd.

Monday, February 182:32 a.m. – Domestic disturbance,

3500 block of Salerno Ct.

Monday, February 1810:36 a.m. – Domestic disturbance,

6300 block of Maywood Ave.6:10 p.m. – Check welfare, 6200

block of Middleton Springs Dr.

Tuesday, February 199:19 a.m. – Burglary occurred, 1600

block of Meadowcrest Ln.10:57 p.m. – Theft of Motor vehicle,

7400 block of Century Ave.

Thursday, February 2112:19 p.m. – Theft from auto, 8800

block of N Greenview Dr.12:21 p.m. – Fraud, 6900 block of

North Ave.5:58 p.m. – Fraud, 2600 block of

Amherst Rd.6:23 p.m. – Theft, 6800 block of

University Ave.

Friday, February 221:59 p.m. – Weapon violation, 2100

block of Bristol St.4:54 p.m. – Property damage, 4100

block of Redtail Pass.5:57 p.m. – Theft from auto, 2500

block of Santa Maria Ct.

Saturday, February 236:25 a.m. – Property damage, 6800

block of Phil Lewis Way.6:45 a.m. – Property damage, 3300

block of Glacier Ridge Rd.5:29 p.m. – Accident w/ injuries,

7400 block of University Ave.6:19 p.m. – Disturbance, 1900 block

of Aurora St.

Sunday, February 2412:52 p.m. – Burglary occurred,

1600 block of Foxridge Ct.5:07 p.m. – Domestic disturbance,

3400 block of High Rd.

PAGE 2 MIDDLETON TIMES-TRIBUNE THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013

Police Beat

Times-Tribune photo by Matt Geiger

Town and city’s political differences on display again

State Supreme Court Justice Pat Roggensack and Marquette University law professor Ed Fallone earned thenumber one and two spots in a three-way primary last week, setting them up to face off in the April 2 generalelection. Eliminated from the contest was consumer attorney Vince Megna, who finished a distant third.

While statewide Roggensack earned more than twice as many votes as Fallone, local results once again illus-trated that the City of Middleton leans far more heavily to the left than the neighboring Town of Middleton. Inthe city, Fallone, who is viewed as the more liberal candidate, received 1,001 votes. Roggensack, who has thebacking of many Republicans, got 478. In the town, Roggensack defeated Fallone 259 to 230.

Pictured above, poll workers at the St. Luke’s Lutheran Church voting location in the City of Middleton.

City approves Middleton St. fundsA group of citizens visiting Middle-

ton City Hall to ask the common coun-cil to fix Middleton Street had becomesomething of an annual budget-time

tradition in the Good Neighbor City. But that tradition appears to be over,

as the council last week approved a$515,523.20 reconstruction project for

the road. The winning bid, which in-cluded line 57 items, came from H&KContractors and was approved unani-mously by the council.

Police continue offering free gun locksMiddleton Police are once again en-

couraging residents to obtain free gun-locks, as part of an effort to promotefirearm safety.

Recent tragedies, including theSandy Hook Elementary School shoot-ing, have spurred a nationwide discus-sion on gun safety. According to astatement issued Cheryl Wittke, direc-tor of the local public/private partner-ship Safe Communities, safety expertsagree that an immediate step all gunowners can take to prevent gun vio-lence is to secure their weapons. 

Safe Communities announced last

week that it has made 3,000 locksavailable for distribution through par-ticipating law enforcement agencies,thanks to a grant from Kenosha PublicHealth and the Charles E. Kubly Foun-dation.

A number of area departments offerfree gun locks through Project Child-Safe, including the Middleton PoliceDepartment. The station is located at7341 Donna Drive and is open 24hours.

According to the Law Center to Pre-vent Gun Violence the presence of un-locked guns in the home increases the

risk not only of accidental gun injuriesbut of intentional shootings as well. Arecent study found that more than 75percent of the guns used in youth sui-cide attempts and unintentional injurieswere stored in the residence of the vic-tim, a relative, or a friend. 

At least two studies found that therisk of suicide increases in homeswhere guns are kept loaded and/or un-locked, according to Safe Communi-ties.

For more information go to Safer-Community.net

The Dane County ImmunizationCoalition – which includes representa-tives from public and private healthcare providers, public health, health in-surance plans, service organizations,schools, vaccine companies and others– last week praised Wisconsin Gover-nor Scott Walker for declaring Febru-ary 17 through 23 Adult ImmunizationAwareness Week in the state of Wis-consin.

According to the Governor’s procla-mation, in just the past few weeks, “theCenters for Disease Control and Pre-vention indicated many adults in theU.S. are not getting the 11 differentvaccines recommended that can pre-vent 14 different diseases includingtetanus, diphtheria, pertussis, pneumo-coccal pneumonia, influenza, meningi-

tis, and others.”At the time of Walker’s proclama-

tion, Wisconsin had documented morethan 4,200 cases of influenza, doublingthose of last flu season. Nationwide,4,000 people died from “vaccine pre-ventable” pneumonia in 2011, a yearwhen fewer than 20 percent of high-risk adults were immunized against thedisease.

“While childhood immunization is

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013 MIDDLETON TIMES-TRIBUNE PAGE 3

Times-Tribune photos by Matt Geiger

Bockfest raises $3,400for endowment

Capital Brewery’s annual Bockfest attracted2,865 people Saturday, providing a sunny, outdoorrespite from a long winter. Jessica Schluter, market-ing and communications manager for the brewery,said the event raised an estimated $3,400 for theMiddleton Community Endowment.

City turns to brokerin continued attemptsto sell golf course land

Anyone who thought selling off achunk of “surplus” land on BlackhawkRoad would be a quick fix for golfcourse debt is likely having secondthoughts at this point.

The Middleton Common Councillast week voted to hire a realtor/brokerto sell the roughly three-acre parcel, atthe recommendation of finance direc-tor John Lehman and assessor PaulMusser. The vote came after the cityfailed to come to terms with interesteddevelopers on the true value of theland.

As he has from the start, District 7alderman Hans Hilbert opposed theplan. “I’m not going to support sellingoff land at the golf course,” he said. “Idon’t think it’s surplus.”

Mayor Kurt Sonnentag reiteratedthat the proposed sale is part of an ef-fort to llighten the municipally-ownedPleasant View Golf Course’s debt bur-den.

“Do we have to do it?” Sonnentagasked rhetorically. “I guess that’s whywe have a council.”

Multiple developers have shown in-terest in the land over the course of thepast year, but their offers have beensignificantly lower than the city’s esti-mation of the property’s value.

Developer Tom Goff made two of-fers on the land in 2012. This year, thecity was also in talks with Don Michel-son, a commercial real estate advisor,and Bob Harriman, of R.G. HarrimanGeneral Contractors. Michelson andHarriman hoped to buy the land andbuild seven three- and four-unit build-ings, for a total of 25 units, but thatdeal never reached the council for avote. The city rejected both offers fromGoff – one for $90,000 and one for$200,000.

The property is directly adjacent toMiddleton’s golf course and directlynorth of the Blackhawk subdivision inMadison.

The land would likely be developedon community septic because Middle-ton and the City of Madison – whoseleaders were in a spat last year overMiddleton’s use of Tax Increment Fi-nancing - could not come to terms onan agreement to extend Madison’surban services to the land.

The city hoped the sale would bringin upwards of $1 million. The moneywould help lighten the drain created byroughly $8 million in debt stemmingfrom Pleasant View Golf Course.

The city is on the verge of goingpublic with a proposed sale elsewhereon the golf course, as well, but the dealhas not yet been revealed in open ses-sion.

by MATT GEiGER

Times-Tribune

Coalition praises Gov.Walker on immunization

See VACCinES, page 8

The Middleton Common Council’sCommittee of the Whole (COW) re-cently received an update on the city’sefforts to build a new Public Worksheadquarters.

A memo authored by project man-ager Rich Weihert laid out details onthe certified survey map, the site plan,storm water issues, land acquisition,building design, a water main exten-sion and a host of other issues. How-ever, an earlier sense of urgency isabsent, as the delay of a developmentthat will cause the current PublicWorks Garage to be abandoned hasgiven the city an addition year.

The Middleton Common Council onSept. 18 of last year unanimously ap-proved the purchase of 6.693 acres ofland from the Wisconsin Departmentof Transportation (DOT) at a cost notto exceed $522,000. The site, just offthe Beltline Highway on ParmenterStreet on the northern tip of Middleton,will be the new home of the city’s Pub-lic Works Department headquarters, ifthe DOT formally accepts the offer.

Not much has changed in recentmonths, as the city is still waiting on afirm answer from the DOT.

The Public Words garage is beingforced to move from its current LauraLane location due to the city’s decisionto sell that parcel to Meriter HealthServices to make way for a MeriterAmbulatory Care Center that hospitalofficials now say will begin construc-tion in 2015.

“We continue to progress with the[certified survey map] and purchase,”Weihert reported. “Work continues ondetailed design of the buildings and thewater main extension.  Sadly there is

not much to report other than progresscontinues.”

According to Weihert, the site planwith storm water features has beensubmitted to DOT. Weihert also saidthe site plan has been submitted, re-viewed, and revised into an “approv-able” form for the Dane County LandConservation reviewer.

“We are waiting for the completionof the review by DOT,” he wrote in amemo to the COW. “We will then im-plement any requested changes beforesubmitting the plans back to DaneCounty Land Conversation for finalapproval.”

Detail design is progressing with alldisciplines approaching 85 percent ormore complete, said Weihert. Once thedesign is complete a final review andpreparation of the bid documents isscheduled to occur. “We will then[shelve] the plans until we are ready tomove forward with bidding and con-struction,” he wrote.

At a joint meeting in early 2011, theMiddleton Common Council and theMiddleton Plan Commission eachgranted conceptual approval to thescope of the project and Meriter HealthServices’ request for $9 million in pub-lic assistance. The development agree-ment depicts five phases ofdevelopment, each with a different cityobligation. The initial phase would in-clude $6.8 million from the city.

The city then embarked on its huntto relocate its existing Public Worksgarage away from the land – toyingwith the idea of building at PleasantView Golf Course and other sites – be-fore finally opting to build at the exist-ing DOT Park and Ride facility.

When the medical campus was firstannounced, Meriter representatives de-scribed the development as a“public/private partnership” between

the non-profit healthcare provider andthe city. The campus as proposedwould come to fruition over a 20-yearbuild-out period.

Proponents said it would create 50times more taxable value than cur-rently exists on the land in question.Skeptics questioned the impact of fed-eral healthcare reform, and a well-pub-licized Meriter feud with itscompetitors, on the project.

Meriter’s plan is to construct the de-velopment on 12.86 acres of land thatwas previously held by four separateowners.

The Meriter campus could eventu-ally include ambulatory services, out-patient surgery, an emergencydepartment and helipad, general med-ical facilities and other services – manyof which would be developed to meetnew demands created by federalhealthcare reform.

Proponents said the project wouldgenerate up to 200 new positions withaverage incomes of $50,000 to $55,000annually, plus benefits. They said thefacilities would act as an economic cat-alyst, that the land’s value would in-crease by an estimated $80 millionover the next 20 years, and that localresidents would benefit directly fromnearby medical services.

While Meriter Medical Group is anon-profit entity; Meriter Laboratoriesand Physicians Plus are for-profit or-ganizations that work in conjunctionwith Meriter Medical Group. Meriterprovides approximately $40 millionannually in free care in order to qualifyfor its non-profit status.

Plans for the campus began with in-formal discussions between Meriterand Middleton Mayor Kurt Sonnen-tag.  Meriter then held a series of plan-ning sessions with the Middleton AreaDevelopment Corporation (MADC).

The project was unveiled to the publicin 2011.

John Lehman, the City of Middle-ton’s finance director, said in the fall

that his understanding is the Meriterproject is on track despite the delay. “Itseems to me the question is one of‘when,’ not ‘if,’” Lehman said.

PAGE 4 MIDDLETON TIMES-TRIBUNE THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013

by MATT GEiGER

Times-Tribune

Photo contributed

City proclamation honors Hellenbrand

Darrell Hellenbrand has announced his retirement as City of Middle-ton Public Lands, Recreation & Forestry Parks crewman, after workingfor the streets department for 18 years, and parks department for sixyears. He was honored with a mayoral proclamation at last week’s Mid-dleton Common Council meeting.

“Darrell has served the residents of Middleton with the highest dis-tinction always going above and beyond the call of duty and earning him-self the Good Neighbor Award,” read Mayor Kurt Sonnentag. “Darrellhas guided the growth and expansion of the home talent baseball facilitieswith numerous field improvements at Bakken / Sorensen Field and a newconcession stand and restroom building, … [and] plowed countless milesof streets, mowed immeasurable acres of grass and spent incalculablehours grooming ball diamonds during his tenure.”

Sonnentag said Hellenbrand has enlightened both young and old as tothe benefits of baseball through many celebrations and home talentcoaching.

New Public Works building awaits deal with DOT

Image contributed

An early architectural rendering shows the Meriter project.

At a meeting where attendees re-ported seeing their property taxes sky-rocket over the last few years, findinga way to make sure residents are nottaxed out of their homes while still pro-viding quality public schools for stu-dents was the topic of discussion.

“We’re here because we need a bet-ter way to pay for schools, so that es-sential programs aren’t getting cut andteachers aren’t feeling the heat everyyear,” State Sen. Jon Erpenbach (D-Middleton) told a packed house at theMiddleton Town Hall on Saturdaymorning.

Citizens’ concerned with continuingincreases in their property taxes cameto discuss Erpenbach’s proposal toswitch the school funding burden fromthe property tax to the sales tax.

“The property tax used to be a pro-gressive way to pay for schools,” saidErpenbach, “and it used to work, but asthe cost of education rises every yearwe’re seeing property taxes becometoo expensive for many people, espe-cially for our senior citizens living ona fixed income.”

Citing an April 2006 Legislative Fis-cal Bureau memo, Erpenbach outlinedhis proposal, and suggested that bykeeping or even lowering existing salestaxes, while instituting additional taxeson certain good and services such asthose provided by lawyers and adver-tisers, Wisconsin could fully fund itsschools while having a small surplusleft over for leaner years. Erpenbachmade it clear that he would not recom-mend additional taxes on necessitiessuch as food, clothing, or shelter, andstressed that the surplus fund would ex-plicitly be for the schools.

“I don’t support the death penalty,”he joked, “but if someone in the legis-lature tried to borrow from that fund, Iwould recommend the death penalty.”

While the Fiscal Bureau memo sug-gests that by closing exemptions andkeeping sales tax rates at the currentfive percent rate that the state couldgenerate an additional $3.6 billion inrevenue, Erpenbach was quick to shoot

down any notion that tax reform wouldbe an easy road to go down.

“The current legislative climate isnot going to make passing somethinglike this possible,” the senator said,“and I’d be labeled the biggest tax-and-

spend senator in Wisconsin history if itdid,” he added, pointing to the numer-ous smaller taxes that would have to beinstituted to replace the singular prop-erty tax.

He added that there were other po-tential solutions that warranted explo-ration, specifically suggestingreforming Wisconsin’s uniformityclause to allow certain groups, such assenior citizens, to pay variable propertytaxes based upon their living situation.Erpenbach used Minnesota, a statewith variable property taxes but a

renowned public education system, toillustrate how this solution works inpractice, but was also clear that unifor-mity clause reform had already beendefeated in two separate Wisconsin ref-erendums.

Middleton Town Board membersMilo Breunig, Timothy Roehl, and BillKolar were all in attendance. GovernorScott Walker was invited, but unable toattend due to the National Governor’sAssociation winter meeting in Wash-ington, D.C.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013 MIDDLETON TIMES-TRIBUNE PAGE 5

CHURCH NOTES

Citizens line up to learn about Erpenbach’s tax plan

Times-Tribune photos by Joe Jensen

State Senator Jon Erpenbach, right, speaks with constituents at the Mid-dleton Town Hall.

by JOE JEnSEn

Times-Tribune

PAGE 6 MIDDLETON TIMES-TRIBUNE THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013

W H A T ’ S H A P P E n i n G ?

Photo contributed

Wopat cancels April PAC show

The Friends of the Middleton Performing Arts Center regret that theTom Wopat show on April 6 is canceled. Wopat, who starred in the Dukesof Hazard and last year’s Django Unchained, has taken the opportunityto perform in a new play opening this spring and the Friends issued astatement last week saying they wish him well in his return to Broadway. 

“We are not able to reschedule the show and will therefore be refundingall tickets sold,” said Kathy Holt, co-president of the Friends of the Mid-dleton Performing Arts Center. “We hope that this has not inconveniencedour patrons.”

The Friends are currently working on the 2013-14, 10th anniversaryseason and look forward to an exciting concert series.  More details willbe announced in late summer.

Tech Touch UpIn the Middleton Public Library’s

Archer Meeting Rooms on Thursday,March 14, 7-8 p.m.

Learn how to wrap headphones,make a keyboard ring, and make a ducttape cover for a cell phone. Turn in aphoto to the Help Desk by March 10and the library will copy it onto fabricthat can be used to make a protectivecover. They will even have a digitalscavenger hunt.

Please sign up at the Help Desk.Contact Rebecca at 608-827-7402 foradditional information.

Teen Tech TutoringPlease sign up by March 1. Train-

ing will take place during Teen TechWeek, March 3-9.

The library is looking for tech-savvyindividuals between the ages of 14-18to work one-on-one with other mem-bers of our community who need helpwith things like: email, web searching,downloading ebooks, and applying forjobs online. Training will be providedto all tutors.

Please sign up at the Help Desk ofthe Middleton Public Library. Pleasecontact Rebecca at 608-827-7402 foradditional information.

Make Pottery!Meet at the Help Desk of the Mid-

dleton Public Library and walk to anearby studio. Thursday, April 18, 6-7:30 p.m. will focus on pottery making.Thursday, April 25, 6-7 p.m. will fea-ture glazing.

Twin Valley Clay Studio will showpeople a few tips and tricks and givethem the tools to make a bowl, cup, orother items.

Please sign up at the Help Desk,limit 10, teens 12-19 only. This eventis free. Please contact Rebecca at 608-827-7402 for additional information.

Martial ArtsIn the Middleton Public Library’s

Archer Meeting Rooms on Saturday,April 6, 3-4 p.m.

Infinity Martial Arts will be giving afree demonstration of martial arts tech-niques for teens. Contact Rebecca at608-827-7402 for more information.

Books and Brownies In the Middleton Public Library’s

Archer Meeting Rooms on Wednesday,March 20, 4-5 p.m. and Wednesday,April 17, 4-5 p.m.

In March, they will be discussingThe Fault in Our Stars by John Green,about a girl with cancer and a boy who

has survived it who hunt down a fa-vorite author as a dying wish. In April,they will be discussing The Space Be-tween, about Lucifer’s youngestdaughter who hopes to save her brotheron Earth, a place she is afraid to travelto. Copies are available at the HelpDesk as supply allows.

Teen Advisory CommitteeIn the Middleton Public Library’s

Archer Meeting Rooms on Monday,March 11, 4-5 p.m. and Monday, April8, 4-5 p.m.

The Teen Advisory Committee rec-ommends purchases for the teen area,suggests and assists with teen pro-grams, adds links to the library’s web-page, and advises the library onchanges to the teen section.

Teen events at the library this spring

Taliesin author at library in MarchAuthor Ron McCrea will be visiting

the Middleton Public Library on Thurs-day, March 21 at 7 p.m. to discuss andread from his recently published book,Building Taliesin: Frank LloydWright’s Home of Love and Loss.

McCrea is a prize-winning journalistand former Alicia Patterson Fellowwho worked on the news desks of NewYork Newsday, the San Jose MercuryNews, the Washington Post, the Wash-

ington Star, the Boston Globe, and theCapital Times in Madison, Wisconsin,where he served for a decade as cityeditor.

Building Taliesin details the creationof Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin,which would be the architect’s princi-pal residence to the end of his life. Mc-Crea paints a vibrant picture of thebuilding and its central charactersthrough letters, memoirs, contempo-

rary documents, and a stunning assem-blage of photographs - many of whichhave never before been published.

Wisconsin Historical Society Presswill have copies of the book availablefor purchase after the event.

For more information or to registerfor this program, emailmid@scls.lib.wi.us or call 608-827-7403.

An informational program called“Getting to Know Medicare” will takeplace Friday, March 22 at 10 a.m. inthe Middleton Public Library’s ArcherRoom.

Whether they are new to Medicare

or have had it for years, most peoplehave questions. Presenter Jesse Grutzis a licensed insurance professional inthe state of Wisconsin with many yearsof experience navigating Medicare. 

This is an educational seminar and

there will be no products marketed orsold during this presentation. 

To register for this program, emailmid@scls.lib.wi.us or call 608-827-7403.

Have Medicare questions?

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013 MIDDLETON TIMES-TRIBUNE PAGE 7

Photo contributed

Lions ‘Cap N Cork’event is March 8

The 14th Annual Middleton Lions Cork N Cap will take place Fri-day, March 8, from 5-9 p.m. at the Marriott-Madison West in Middle-ton. Enjoy wine, beer and spirits from 20 vendors, appetizers and moreat this fundraiser. Tickets are $30 per person. Corporate tables areavailable for $500.

Wisconsin Singers come to the PACJoin the Wisconsin Singers in cele-

brating 45 years of jaw-dropping enter-tainment with their newest show,“Can’t Stop Us Now!” on Saturday,March 9 starting at 7 p.m. at the Mid-dleton High School (MHS) PerformingArts Center.

For one night, the audience canenjoy top hits from the past 40 years ofAmerican popular music, fromMichael Jackson to Katy Perry. Thestriking vocals, Broadway-caliber cho-reography and impressive instrumen-tals are performed by the University ofWisconsin-Madison’s most talentedmusicians.

The show will also feature a per-formance by Middleton’s very ownBroadway Express and bring MHSgraduates Laura Athas and AlexandraOpitz back to their alma mater.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun! Theshow has something for everyone -kids, teens, adults and even fans ofFrank Sinatra and Gene Kelly. I can’twait to entertain on my hometownstage,” Athas said.

Can’t Stop Us Now!, written byGlee and The Sing Off! arrangers, paystribute to timeless legends fromMichael Jackson and Frank Sinatra topop icons from Lady Gaga and Usher.Children of all ages will laugh aloudwith Oscar the Grouch and Miss Piggy.You can even celebrate your rebelliousteen years as the Wisconsin Singersband plays charts by the Rolling Stonesand Deep Purple. Singers’ 5th QuarterMedley is a Badger fan favorite whereyou can dance to Tequila! or sing Var-sity.

The Wisconsin Singers will be

working with students in BroadwayExpress earlier in the day in a clinicthat gives middle school students achance to learn some of the Broadwaychoreography that the Singers perform.

Meanwhile, elementary students cansign up to work with the Singers in aclinic that will focus on a song that thestudents have learned prior to that day.Wisconsin Singers will be teachingthem a fun dance at a clinic that startsat 3:30 p.m. The elementary students

will then perform the song with theSingers’ live band at the evening per-formance. Students must sign up toparticipate by March 2 with their ele-mentary music teacher. Cost is $5 fordinner, while the workshop and showare free for all clinic participants.

Tickets are $15 for adults and $10for students and seniors and are avail-able by calling (608) 886-6801 or byvisiting the website www.wiscon-sinsingers.com/middleton.

Photo contributed

The Wisconsin Singers will come to the PAC for a March 9 show.

rules created to maintain a level play-ing field, when that level playing fieldhas not been undermined in any way,”Dahmen wrote.

“My situation is not the result of adisregard for the rules, it is the result ofpoor communication about those rulesbetween myself and filing clerkJanssen, it is a result of my lack of ex-perience with those rules, and it is theresult of a reliance on a common senseunderstanding of authenticity,” saidDahmen. “All my signatures are au-thentic, my canvassers all without anyquestion of integrity, and the resultingset of nomination papers without anyquestion of legitimacy.”

Dahmen began his notarized re-sponse last week by asserting that his“inadvertent filing of nomination papercopies, rather than originals, whenthere is no question that those copiesare identical to the originals, is in com-plete agreement with the orderliness,integrity, and reliability of our electionprocess.”

While Ashley indicated the schoolboard clerk is bound to apply existingelection guidelines, Dahmen said theschool district should shoulder some ofthe blame for failing to immediatelynotify him that his signatures were notin order.

As Ashley did one week earlier,Dahmen reiterated many argumentsmade in prior filings with the GAB. “Ifiled the copies of my nomination pa-pers with the understanding that theywere acceptable and within hours ofbeing informed that the originalsshould have been filed, they were,” hecontended. “There was no negative im-pact on the legitimacy of my nomina-tion papers.”

Dahmen also accused Ashley ofmaking a “spurious” claim when shealleged the middle school teacher saidthere is “no need to follow GAB rules.”

“I followed the rules as they weredescribed to me,” said Dahmen. “HadI not been misinformed there wouldnot have been an error.”

While the two sides interpret therules disparately, there is little disputeover the basic timeline of events.

“As Ms. Janssen indicates, she re-ceived my election paperwork on Jan-uary 2, 2013 at 4:10 p.m.,” Dahmenwrote. “She s[t]ates … ‘Everythingwas there and complete so I stated thathe was all set.’”

“It is from this statement that I un-derstood my papers were adequate,”Dahmen continued.

“The conversation about my nomi-nation papers was very limited, and asI have stated before, I relied on Ms.Janssen’s experiences to tell me if I had

failed or been mistaken in some man-ner with regard to my papers,” hewrote.

But Dahmen said the conversationturned quickly to the legality of his seaton the board, should he win the elec-tion.

Barry Forbes, associate executive di-rector and staff counsel for the Wiscon-sin Association of School Boards, toldthe school district the criminal conflictof interest statute (WI Stat. 946.13), thecode of ethics for government officials(WI Stat. 19.59) and the common lawdoctrine of incompatibility of offices orpositions all contain prohibitions in-tended to keep elected officials fromoverseeing themselves as employees.

Forbes said Dahmen, who filed withthe district to retire this summer, mighthave to leave his teaching position be-fore then in order to take a seat on theschool board. 

“Ms. Janssen informed me that itwould be illegal for me, as an em-ployee, to be a board member,” Dah-men wrote. “I was surprised, and Iresponded to her by saying that I wasretiring, that I had already tendered myresignation. She said she knew this.”

“I asked her why she thought myserving would be illegal, and she refer-enced advice from the Wisconsin As-sociation of School Boards, andrepeated her position,” he continued. “Iresponded that I disagreed.”

Dahmen went on to give his accountof the events that transpired when hedelivered the original signatures to theMCPASD Administrative Center onJan. 3. Dahmen, who in his roles as aunion negotiator and grievance chair-man has been at odds with district lead-ership for years, described aconfrontation with superintendent DonJohnson.

“At that time, while the superintend-ent stood near both Ms. Janssen andmyself, Ms. Janssen indicated to methat my filing of photocopies could bethe basis of a challenge to my paper-

work,” Dahmen wrote. “As the super-intendent peered in for my reaction Iunderstood that there would indeed bea challenge, that his presence assuredthis. He then repeated filing clerkJanssen’s claim, apparently acting toverify it.”

Dahmen did not dispute Ashley andJanssen’s assertions that an abundanceof information about how to file paperswas available to prospective candi-dates. He did say he was unaware ofmuch of it.

“I depended upon the advice of fil-ing clerk Janssen when I filed my nom-ination papers,” Dahmen said. “Iconsidered her non-partisan, an officerof the process, and someone in whosejudgment I could rely. It is possible thatI presumed too much.”

Dahmen emphatically denied tellinganother school district employee hisnomination papers were “for someoneelse” when he first picked them up.

“I remember Ms. Krug [who wasfilling in for Janssen on the day Dah-men withdrew his nomination forms]asking me, and my response was: ‘thepapers are not necessarily for me,’” hewrote.

“I understood at the time that dis-trict office personnel would pass alonginformation to others, and did not wantdistrict personnel to know any morethan necessary about my potentialcampaign until I was certain myself,”Dahmen wrote.

PAGE 8 MIDDLETON TIMES-TRIBUNE THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013

union will be prohibited from going onstrike. The contract agrees that theWPPA “will not authorize, assist orsupport any strike, work stoppage,slowdown, interruption of work or in-terference with operations of the em-

ployer.” Middleton Police will maintain Fair

Share, the practice of automaticallywithdrawing union dues from all em-ployees’ pay. The WPPA will continueto represent all employees, both Asso-

ciation and non-Association, “fairlyand equally and all employees in thebargaining unit shall be required to payhis/her proportionate share of the costsof the collective bargaining processand contract administration… .”

The city will deduct the amount cer-tified by the union as dues, which areuniformly required of all membersfrom the pay of each employee in thebargaining unit. The aggregate amountto be deducted, along with a list of the

employees from whom such deduc-tions were made, will be forwarded tothe Wisconsin Professional Police As-sociation.

LOCAL 427 continued from page 1

VACCinES continued from page 3

BALLOT continued from page 1

Dane County executive Joe Parisi onMonday signed a county resolution au-thorizing the creation of a new taskforce to help coordinate and overseework currently underway to reducephosphorus pollution in the Yaharachain of lakes.

Dane County Board SupervisorSharon Corrigan, of Middleton, spon-sored the legislation creating the ClearLakes Task Force. The task force was

approved by the Dane County Board ofSupervisors late last week.

“We have a once in a lifetime op-portunity with the right resources com-ing together - public, private,agriculture, business - to do the workneeded to get our lakes back to the waythey were decades ago,” Parisi said.“This new task force will ensure ourwork is collaborative and the actionsteps we take are coordinated.”

Parisi noted the development of new“cow power” manure digesters nearWaunakee and now a second in theTown of Springfield, saying it is logi-cal for the county to take the lead at fa-cilitating the many positive lake cleanup efforts underway.

The Clear Lakes Task Force will in-clude representatives from county gov-ernment, organizations like CleanWisconsin, the Clean Lakes Alliance,

and the agricultural group known as“Yahara Pride,” which consists offarmers in the Lake Mendota Water-shed.  It will also have representativesfrom communities participating in theMadison Metropolitan Sewerage Dis-trict’s (MMSD) phosphorus reductionprogram known as adaptive manage-ment.

“By bringing together those workingto address phosphorus in the lakes, the

Clear Lakes Task Force will strengthenDane County’s efforts to cost-effec-tively remove phosphorus from the wa-tershed and meet federal clean waterstandards,” Corrigan said.

Once appointments to the new ClearLakes Task Force are made, the groupwill begin holding regular meetings inthe weeks ahead, according to Parisi.

extremely important in preventing dis-ease, we agree with the Governor andthe CDC that adult immunizations areequally important in protecting fami-lies and communities,” said DianeMcHugh, Immunization Coordinatorfor Public Health-Madison and DaneCounty and coordinator of the Dane

County Immunization Coalition. “Im-munizing one person also protects thepeople around them.”

Hispanic and African Americancommunities, along with the elderly,have lower vaccination rates than oth-ers, according to McHugh.

Health officials say vaccination is

also important to help protect diabeticsagainst Hepatitis B, those who smokeagainst contracting pneumonia, and toprevent cervical and other cancersfrom HPV (human papilloma virus).Those same officials admit that levelsof protection can vary.

For more information on vaccination

programs in Dane County, visitwww.publichealthmdc.com. 

In December, the Dane County Im-munization Coalition launched a newimmunization awareness campaign fo-cused on “Community Immunity,” pro-moting community health throughvaccination including adults, infants

and children. The campaign includesfamiliar community leaders who arefeatured on the sides of area buses andin posters. 

For more information visit the coali-tion website at www.immu-nizedanecounty.org.

County creates pollution task force, legislation sponsored by local supervisor

David DahmenPossible MCPASD

School Board Candidate

Had I not beenmisinformed,there would not have been an error.”

“

Knights tohost CountryBreakfastfundraiser

The Middleton Knights of Colum-bus Council 4549 will be serving abountiful Country Breakfast to raisefunds for the Cardinal Virtues YouthGroup. 

The event till take place at the St.Bernard Parish Center, Middleton, onSunday, March 24, from 7:30 a.m. to 1p.m. Breakfast will include pancakes,sausage, tater tots, scrambled eggs, ap-plesauce, coffee and orange juice.

The cost is $4 for children 3-9, and$7 per person 10 and up.

also altered.Changes to the special education

areas of the contract will shift how pay-ment is made for Individualized Edu-cation Programs (IEPs) and caseloadassignments.

The voluntary early retirement ben-efit was continued, but with fewer op-tions than the current 2012-13 contract.

The standard for payment of the an-nual salary for staff will be 20 payrolls(September - June). However, staff willbe able to voluntarily elect to receivetheir annual pay over 24 payrolls, as isthe district’s current practice.

Due to the implementation of Wis-consin’s Educator Effectivenesschanges, some adjustments were alsomade to the district’s evaluationprocess for staff members.

The contract’s exact impact onteachers' total compensation packageswill become available once the schoolboard votes later this year on whatraises, if any, to give.

Following the school board’s ratifi-cation of the deal, MEA presidentChris Bauman thanked the schoolboard in an email.

“On behalf of the MEA bargainingteam and every teacher in the District,I want to thank you for approving theMaster Contract last night,” Baumanwrote. “A special thank you [to] thosewho sat on the negotiating team. Iknow it meant time away from yourfamilies and other obligations, but I be-lieve all of our work was worth it.”

Bauman wrote that the MEA nego-tiating team is “thrilled that we wereable to reach an agreement given all ofthe uncertainties with the legal process

surrounding Act 10.”Superintendent Don Johnson said

“the overall tenor of the talks” was “re-spectful and productive.” He called thenew contract “a foundation that willallow the district to move forward in apositive environment to support stu-dents, staff, parents and the community

at-large.”“I extend my appreciation and

thanks to the MEA negotiating teamfor their role [in] dealing with somedifficult issues,” Johnson said. “It isalso important to recognize all facultyfor their role in making this an out-standing district for our kids.”

PAGE 9 MIDDLETON TIMES-TRIBUNE THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013

Home Products Show features long list of local companiesMore than 200 vendors representing

every aspect of home design and re-modeling will be sharing their expert-ise at the 33rd annual Home ProductsShow March 1-3 at the Alliant EnergyCenter in Madison. Organizers say thisis the perfect opportunity to get ques-tions answered in a few hours - andmaybe even line up a contractor.

The show is a intended for people totalk directly to vendors and see theirproducts and services - including Mid-dleton businesses Closets by Techline,Fish Concrete Raising, Foss Contrac-

tor, Middleton Insulation Systems,Nonn’s Design Showplace, ProBuild,Star Satellite Division of Sapro, Tai-lored Living and Weed Man LawnCare.

“The show is a must for anyone con-sidering a home improvement projectthis year,” said Brett Fish, of Fish Con-crete Raising.

“Many of the businesses will alsooffer show specials to those who stopat their booths,” added Sara Falci, ofClosets by Techline.

With the sluggish economy, peopleare still reluctant to make the big in-vestment of building a new home; in-stead they are focusing on ways toimprove their existing homes by re-

modeling kitchens and bathrooms,building additions and improving out-door space. More families are also re-modeling existing living space to takecare of aging parents, which is drivinggreater interest in elevator and stair-liftinstallation.

Attendees often have the uncommonopportunity to speak with the actualowners of the companies that interestthem. Most owners make it a point tobe at the booth and are eager to talkabout the business, answer questions,or fill in visitors on what they mightnot know about their products andservices.

“We love to answer questions re-garding concrete raising,” said Fish.

“So many people are surprised to learnthere is an affordable option to tearingout sunken concrete. We can solve con-crete problems in hours, not days, anddo it for less - that amazes people.”

“I enjoy the opportunity to person-ally connect with potential clients, an-swer their questions and let them knowhow I can help them improve theirspaces,” agreed Falci. “Home organi-zation is constantly gaining importancein our everyday lives and it’s very re-warding to help people create the spacethey need.”

Another big draw of the Home Prod-uct Show is the free seminars taughtthroughout the three-day event by localexperts. Popular seminars are color

trends, solar and geothermal energy,outdoor living space, radiant in-floorheating, and upgrading kitchens andbathrooms.

The Home Products Show in Madi-son is March 1-3 at Exhibition Hall inthe Alliant Energy Center. Times areFriday 2 - 7 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. - 6p.m., and Sunday 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Ad-mission is free.

For more information about ex-hibitors, seminar schedules and mapsand directions, visit www.maba.org.

Editor’s note: Mark Crawford is afreelance writer who does marketingwork for the Madison Area BuildersAssociation.

by MARk CRAWfORd

For the Times-Tribune

IINN BBUSINESSUSINESS

Imperial Garden’s Meyer honoredKaren Meyer, owner of Imperial

Garden West located in Middleton, wasrecently honored as the OutstandingRestaurateur of the Year (OROY) bythe Wisconsin Restaurant Association(WRA) Madison Chapter, made up ofDane and Jefferson counties.

The OROY award was presented toMeyer January 15 at a WRA chaptermeeting held at the Concourse Hotel inMadison. Meyer was presented withthe award and a Legislative Citation.

On Tuesday, March 12, Meyer willalso be honored with a commendationmedal at the 2013 WRA Awards Din-ner gala, taking place at the MarcusCenter for the Performing Arts indowntown Milwaukee. The OROYaward is given by fellow members ofthe Madison Chapter based on successin business, community service anddedication to the restaurant industry.

Meyer has worked in the restaurantindustry for 37 years, including work-

ing as a waitress and bartender whileattending the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Meyer worked for ImperialGarden West owner Henry Chen as amanager for many years and took overownership ten years ago in partnershipwith head chef, Ken Yan.

The Imperial Garden has been at itscurrent location for 32 years. The Im-perial Garden has been a WRA mem-ber since 1991.

Dogtopia coming to Good Neighbor CityDogtopia, a leading national dog

daycare and spa franchise, announcedlast week that it has signed a franchiseagreement with Betsy and Jeff Jaeckleto open Wisconsin’s first Dogtopia at3231 Laura Lane in Middleton.

This new development is part ofDogtopia’s aggressive growth strategyto expand its brand to more than 400locations across the U.S. and Canadaover the next seven years.  

“We are thrilled to be opening our

first Dogtopia and bringing Dogtopia’sdog daycare philosophy to our commu-nity,” said Betsy Anders Jaeckle, Dog-topia franchise owner. “My husbandand I believe in Dogtopia’s ‘live. love.play.’ philosophy, and we are excited toopen an upscale facility to serve theMadison area’s adored pets.”

The Jaeckles learned about Dogtopiaafter searching for a suitable dog day-care facility for their own two pups,Butter and Puddy.

“We are very excited to announceour expansion into Wisconsin and tostart the year with strong growth,” saidAmy Nichols, chief executive officerof Dogtopia. “As we continue to ex-pand our unique concept into new mar-kets, it is important to identifyfranchisees like Betsy and Jeff who notonly have a passion for dogs but arealso focused on owning and managinga rapidly growing business.”

File photo by Matt Geiger

MOM move date setAfter a few delays, Middleton Outreach Ministry (MOM) is nearing a

move-in date for its new, consolidated headquarters. MOM has an-nounced that its main office and Distribution Center, which houses theClothing Closet and Food Pantry, will be consolidating in March.  Thesenew spaces are located at 3502 Parmenter Street, and will give clientsbetter access to MOM’s services, while providing a number of opera-tional efficiencies for the staff.  

A schedule provided by MOM indicated the new MOM Office, FoodPantry and Clothing Center at 3502 Parmenter Street will open to thepublic March 11. While the old facilities will be closed on certain daysleading up to the move, emergency assistance will be available through-out.

TEACHERS continued from page 1

NOT FOR PROFIT NEWS

Dogs need theirown space, awayfrom conservancies

Letter to the editor,

Conservancy is about preserving theanimals, plants and natural communi-ties that represent the diversity of life.Migratory birds are a priceless part ofour heritage. It is a fact that Wisconsinis number three in the U.S. in migra-tory birds (following Minnesota atnumber one and Michigan at number2). These birds depend upon safe pas-sage through our area. Birds are indi-cators of the integrity of theenvironments that provide us withclean air and water, fertile soils andabundant wildlife.

Unfortunately, dogs prey on andchase birds for enjoyment. We appre-ciate birds, wildlife and we’ve alwayshave dogs as a part of our family. Wewould rather support a dog exercisepark, rather than having dogs withinany conservancy that would scareaway the birds that depend on safe pas-sage through our state.

Our home is in the Town of Middle-ton that is next to a subdivision. Manyneighbors are dog owners. When weride our horses on our property next toa fenced-in area, dogs chase our horseson the fence line. Again, this is a dog’snatural instinct to chase.

We believe Cesar Millan, the famousdog whisperer, when he says that it isnot the dogs that cause problems; it isthe owners that do not control theirdogs appropriately.

As our area continues to develop,more dogs will populate the area. Whatis needed is to have a place for theowners and dogs to exercise where

they can be free to run, but not disturbour natural conservancy areas that havea greater purpose to preserve and ap-preciate our natural heritage. Dogs dohave a place to run, play, meet (andsniff) new dogs and even can catchballs or Frisbees. The City of Middle-ton has off-leash dog exercise areas fordogs and their owners. Madison isranked fourth in the nation for numberof dog parks per resident, there are adog parks number to choose from.Dogs are required to have a permit, adog license. The closest dog park toconservancy is in the City of Middle-ton, less than a mile away from theGoth Conservancy.

Owners do have a place to exercisetheir dogs off leash in theMadison/Middleton Area. The annualfee for use of the Middleton dog parkis $27.

Let Conservancy Parks providepreservation of animals, plants and nat-ural communities. Let dogs have fun indog parks and be free from potentiallyharming the natural balance of conser-vancy communities.

Ruth & Jim Dumesic

Keep conservanciesfree from dogs

Letter to the Editor:    

Keep our Conservancies an ongoingheritage project free of dogs. A strongconnection to nature is imperative inour hectic lives.

Visiting a quiet space where bird-song in the breeze as the primary soundis a rare jewel not to be disturbed. Dogsneed a place of their own more suitedto running, playing and sniffing. Let’skeep going forward with preservation

at Goth and Pope Farm and find a newexercise area for our canine friends.

Carol Jean Schnier

Dogs would upsetGoth’s balance

Letter to the editor:

My wife and I lived in The Town ofMiddleton on Goth Park for 25 years.

Early on I became a part of theTown’s Parks Commission as a way of“giving back” to the community. I wasproud of being a part of the early de-velopment of Goth Conservancy, Set-tlers Prairie Park, and later as aSupervisor voting to purchase what isnow Pope Farm Conservancy.

Working with friend Jim Judd whowas Royce Goth’s executor, I helped todevelop early plans for Goth Park, lay-ing out the trails and paths with land-scaper Jim Watts, meeting withUniversity professors and students todevelop a master plan that met thewishes of Mr. Goth, and helping neigh-bors to install blue bird houses and starta process to rid the Park of invasivespecies.

Later as a member of the board ofSupervisors for the Town, and aftersome requests, we looked into dogsbeing allowed in our parks on leash.We agreed to a temporary trial, puttingup clear signs stating “dogs on leashonly” and provided bags forwaste.  But it was clear early on that itwould not work. We could see fromour home’s second floor windowslooking into the rear of the park thatmany dogs were not kept on leash andran throughout the park. One dog evenran into our yard at full speed after ourdog and frightened my wife. Many

other residents reported similar prob-lems so the board voted to not allowdogs into the Pope Farm and GothConservancies.

The intent of the generous parklanddonation by Mr. Goth was for a naturalpark according to his family andfriends, one where wildlife could liveand prosper.  Unfortunately, the intro-

duction of dogs would upset thatgoal.  I do hope that more people learnabout and use this wonderful park.Please vote to save Goth Conservancy– it is a special place to enjoy.  If youwalk through the park, you will under-stand.

Bob Irvine

PAGE 10 MIDDLETON TIMES-TRIBUNE THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013

Letters to the Editor

Making RoomHello Readers! Matt Geiger has gra-

ciously invited me to write a columnfor the Middleton Times-Tribune. I’vedecided that this first article should in-clude a bit of introduction.

In June of 2011, I retired from mycareer as an early childhood educator.In July, I sold my house and a largeportion of my belongings. In August, Itravelled to France to interview for ahouse and garden sitting position. I gotthe job!

So, in September I returned thereand for the next eight months lived ina beautiful house in Bormes Les Mi-mosas France, a small village on theMediterranean Sea, about halfway be-

tween Toulon and St. Tropez. Last se-mester, I house and cat sat in SunPrairie.

If asked to describe the last year anda half in a nutshell, I would say it hasbeen a time of travel, self discoveryand adventure. Recently though, I’verealized that since retiring and leavingcentral Wisconsin, I’ve done some-thing more. I’ve been making room.

While I was in France, the newowner of my home in Amherst wasgracious enough to let me store mypersonal belongings in her basement inexchange for using the furniture until Ireturned. It was a win-win situation.

When I came home, good friendsand I packed everything into my carand a U-Haul. We drove, caravan style,to a storage unit in Sun Prairie where

I’d keep my things until I figured outwhere to live when I finished housesit-ting.

Two thirds of the way through mytime in Sun Prairie, I received an emailfrom the folks who bought my house.They decided to make it into a bed andbreakfast and wondered if I wanted tosell any of my remaining furnishings tothem. Big question!

Could I part with the dining roomtable that for over thirty years gatheredthe family and friends who I lovedearly? An avalanche of memoriesconnected to it coursed through me.

And the Amish rocking chair! It fitmy body so well. But, it fit equally wellon the porch in Amherst. Would therebe room for it in the one bedroomapartment I had decided to rent in Mid-dleton?

And so it went, as I considered eachthing.

My thoughts, after a time, turnedfrom wistful to grateful. I looked overeverything with love in my heart, ap-preciating all that had been. Thesethings served me well, but now it was

time to move on and let them go. Someone once told me that in the

old Johnny Weissmuller Tarzanmovies, as he would swing from vineto vine, there was a period of free floatbetween the time that he let go of onevine and securely grasped the next.

I don’t know about you, but therehave been periods of my life where Ihave been very afraid of that “space inbetween the vines.” And, unwilling torisk that space, I lost momentum andjust dangled - clutching to familiar, butgoing nowhere fast.

When my belongings traveled backto central Wisconsin in early Decem-ber, I didn’t go out to buy more rightaway. Since I was still house-sitting, Ihad the luxury of holding the space inmy new place - getting comfortablewith it and seeing it for the invitationthat it was - to step into this new phaseof my life with grace and to createsomething new.

I drove over to my empty apartmentseveral times in early December, not to“do” something, but to just “be” in thespace. I sat quietly on the floor in med-

itation and reflection, ignoring thequestions of how? and what? that viedfor my attention.

There was a powerful synergy cre-ated between the quieted space in mymind and the quiet empty space of thatnew apartment. The peaceful openingacted like a magnet to understanding.More than letting go, I was makingroom and moving forward.

Whether it was the new understand-ing acting as another magnet, or justgreat luck, wonderful pieces of furni-ture flowed into my apartment fromCraig’s List and used furniture stores.Some of the pieces came with newfriends . . . kindred spirits discoveredduring the exchange between buyerand seller of bookshelf, chairs, stereocabinet and desk.

So much grace can flow into a spaceand a calendar or a mind and heartthat’s open.

And so I begin this new chapter ofmy life - looking forward to meetingmore of my new Middleton neighborsand wishing you all space and grace inthis new year.

Governor Walker lied about budgetI was lied to by Governor Walker.

When addressing me and my fellowDemocratic and Republican freshmanlegislators, I asked the Governorpoint-blank if he would have contro-

versial items in his upcoming budgetthat would again bring thousands ofmy friends to the Capitol in protest.He said ‘Absolutely not.’

Obviously, his idea of ‘controver-sial’ and mine are miles apart.

Walker gutted Wisconsin publicschools in his last budget, and with the

expansion of private school vouchers,it is only a matter of time beforeschool districts throughout our statewill be forced to close. Our publicschools are being stretched so thin andthe losers are our students, our chil-dren, the future of this state.

The so-called tools the Governor

claimed he was providing our commu-nities instead have become the tiesthat bind. Revenue caps are not beinglifted. State aid is being increased inunaccountable voucher K-8 schools ata rate of 9.4 percent and unaccount-able 9th-12th grade voucher schools

at 21.9 percent. What do publicschools get? A measly one percent ingeneral aid.

I don’t see the people of Wisconsinaccepting this move.

Looks like ‘controversial’ is still infull force.

by REP. diAnnE HESSELBEin

Guest Column

PAGE 11 MIDDLETON TIMES-TRIBUNE THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013

Glacier Creek students win statewide app challenge Nine members of the Glacier Creek

Student Council recently were namedthe state middle school winner for theVerizon Innovative App Challenge.

Co-captains Fiona Lynch and EmilySatterlund along with Kiley Spahn,Courtney Spahn, Hannah Zuengler,Rachel Steiner, Jessica Wang, PriyankaTomar and Paola Lara Santiago put to-gether a three-minute video for thecontest. The student council adviser isMichelle Schreier. The national win-ners will be announced on March 18.

The Verizon Innovative App Chal-

lenge is a competition that offers$10,000 grants for five winning middleschools and high schools and SamsungGalaxy Tabs for winning students. Inaddition, the 10 winning schools willreceive professional support and train-ing to help them bring their designs tolife by building their apps. They alsowill be invited to present their devel-oped at the 2013 National TechnologyStudent Association Conference in Or-lando, Fl., in June.

The Challenge was created to ignitestudents’ interest in science, technol-ogy, engineering and mathematics(STEM).

Satterlund came up with the idea ofa mobile application when she wanted

to find a bookbased on her inter-ests but couldn’teasily find one onher phone. Herteam thought it wasa great idea for asmart phone appli-cation, Schreier said.

“We have never competed in a con-test that used our math, science, andwriting skills as much as this one did,’’Schreier said. “We enjoyed the experi-ence and would love to do it again.’’

Lynch, who is the WASC Region VJam president, and Satturland tookabout 5 hours on a Sunday to shoot thevideo. They took another 5 hours after

school the next dayredoing some videoand completing theclaymation process,which is a type ofstop motion anima-tion using clay.

“Fiona is one ofthe most enthusiastic student councilmembers and presidents I have had inmy 18 years as adviser,’’ Schreier said.“She is a go-getter and never letsup.  She works hard and gets thingsdone. I am lucky to have her leadingthis group.’’ 

The students named the app the“Nifty Noveller: The Book Generator.”

Schreier said the students drew about300 pictures and took about 1,600 pho-tos along with using multiple softwaredevices. 

“They were really excited and itshowed them that hard work and dedi-cation pays off,’’ Schreier said. “Theprocess of it was an exciting challenge.They enjoyed digging deep into theirminds and making the best creativeideas they could as well as solvingproblems as they arose. It was also away to bond with fellow student coun-cil members. They got a lot closerthrough this experience.’’

The video can be viewed onYouTube.

Kromrey releases second quarter honor rollKromrey Middle School Honor RollFirst Semester, Second Quarter

Honor Roll—6th Grade(3.600-4.000)Bold denotes 4.0Adams, Hazel Aguilar, Sammy Akbar, Salaar Andrews, Megan Armani, Lauren Ashe, Alexis Babler, Jazmyn Balderas Hidrogo, Luz Ballweg, Kyle Batley, Kai Becker, Elora Berge, Amaya Bergenthal, Robert Bertalot, Sean Bindl, Ashley Braaten, Hadley Brenton, Aaron Briggs, Jack Brunel-Hamel, Maia Burns, Abigail Buxton, Isaac Callahan, Danielle Carey, Bryce Carey, Margaret Carranza, Jennifer Cheng, Jordan Chi, Meixi Culp, Joseph Dagitz, Isabel Dahler, Lauren Davey, Megan Dillon, Grace Dohse, Tyler Drane, Owens Druzba, Madison Duborgel, Tanguy Dunk, Brandon Eggert, John Eichelberger, Melanie Farquhar, Tianna Fischer, Erin Flock, Stacia Foth, Brianna Garlough-Shah, Isabel Germann, Megan Gilbertson, Gage Griffith, Dylan Gundlach, Kyia Hathaway, Kelly Hellenbrand, Casey Hendricks, Lauren Hoffman, Joseph Hogendorn, Tristan Huang, Stephanie Huggett, Leah Jensen, Katie Joseph, Benjamin Jurgella, Luke Kaplan, Allison Kim, Jessica

Kim, Mia Kim, Sae Mee Kirch-Whitmore, Rachel Knaak, Maddalen Kohlhoff, Kylee Krenke, Grace Krider, Courtney Kryshak, Joseph Kryshak, Nicholas Kushner, Rachel LaJeunesse, Margeaux Larson, Olivia Laurent, Maria Lewandowski, Aidan Libert, Elizabeth Long, Cassidy Lorman, Claire Madigan, Grace Mahal, Madeline Mangas, Abigail Martin, Danielle Martinez, Soren Meyer, Chloe Miller, Samuel Monroe, Terra Mueller, Chase Newcomb, Gretchen Newcomer, Max Noughani, Hanna Nutting, Michael Oelerich, Lars Ohlrogge, Yohana Parkin, Archer Prestigiacomo, MaxwellPrichard, Logan Pritts, Taina Rahman, Melina Raisleger, Emily Ramirez, Alexa Ramirez, Josie Regan, Cameron Reiss, Colman Reitano, Marguerite Ronnie, Nicholas Saleh, Amena Scher, Benjamin Schremp, Carmen Schroeder, Ella Schuster, Bryce 00Shulla, Michael Smith, Connor Smith, Devin Spellman, Samuel Speth, Adriana Struck, Alexander Sullivan, Andrew Taylor, Emily Teodorescu, Alexander Thomas, Chandon Thomas, Zachary Trinrud, Raina Wagner, Jenna Wagner, Madelinn Warriner, Amalia Weber, Gabrielle Whitford, Josiah Wiegand, Kayla

Williams, Noah Wodzro, Stuart Yan, Alton Zambrano, Angel Zheng, Susanna Zillner, Blake Zimmerman, Megan Zocher, McKenzie Zopf, Isabella Zweber, Jakob

Honorable Mention(3.400-3.599)Aguilar, Daniel Antoine, Alexander Burck, Anders Hanson, Luke Harris, Quinn Jarman, Emily Monreal, Hayle O’Mara-Jones, Gage Ozkan, Orhan Pauly, Gregory Peters-Michaud, Eagan Porras, Nina Shoemaker-Allen, Aliza Simani, Nora Thayer, Brynn Wirkus, Wyatt

Honor Roll—7th Grade Acker, Brooke Asmus, Natalie Balaji, Rohit Banke, Lauren Bauer, Bryson Bekasova, Katherine Bick, Shane Bills, Haley Bnyat, Shareef Borden, Nathan Bresnahan, Karen Brophy, Ashley Brunker, Brogan Bucheit, Benjamin Buenfil, Claire Callahan, Madeleine Chen, Grace Chmielewska, Lillian Cole, Chloe Cory, Emily Cownie, Clara Crisp, Anders Cryns, Henry Cushman, Brett Cushman, Payton Dai, Haiwen Dean, Alexandra DeLeo, Tara Demitrios, Drake Diaz Tinoco, Samantha Dower, Payton Eid, Emily Epstein, Natalie Feldt, Jacob Fortney, Ryan Fosdick, Katiya

Fumusa, Ian Gallay, Blake Goeden, Emery Gonzalez, Anguie Grande, Sophia Guse, Calvin Hall, Zack Harris, Ashley Hellenbrand, Nora Henry, Allison Herder, Lauren Hoskins, Jacob Jackels, Anna Jackels, Lily Jaeger, Samuel Jeje, Moubarak Kasdorf, Jonah Katovich, Gavin Knight-Seldal, Harper Konishi, Shuka Lee, Youn Joo Liegel, Colin Ljumani, Izabella Mackey, Eleanor Manna, Piyasa Matejka, Rachel Mayers, Marie McKean, Casey McKersie, Sydney Melum, Logan Mettel, Kaden Mintz, Madeline Moser, Macey Ohlrogge, Iris Olszewski, Athena Opitz, Peter Orr, Alexus Ostlie, Andrew Pagel, Jackson Pasch, Bryce Pence, Morgan Peterman, Jacob Peterson, Grace Pierobon Mays, Chiara Pollard, Noah Powers, Robertson Puchalski, Lindsay Quan, Qiuwen Rader, Erika Rader, Jack Regan, Quinlan Regele, Zola Richards, Allison Riddle, Alec Roberts, Stanley Parker Robertson, Jillian Roden, Alan Roden, Isabel Rodriguez, Dale Adrian Rongstad, Mallory Roquet, Davis Rose, Griffin Ross, Carley Ruhly, Shea Salgado, Josie Schafer, Sophia Schmitt, Brady

Schramm, Hayden Shaw, Lydia Shi, Hui Shoemaker, Olivia Smith, Hailie Smith, Samantha Somasundaram, Nitin Spevacek, Nicholas Squires, Anne Steele, Brendan Sue, Charlotte Taylor, Eleanor Taylor, Henry Thao, Keng Thompson, Abigail J Ticknor, Joel Tillett, Zoe Tung, Anton Valentine, Seth Veeramani, Balaji Vitale, Daniel Waleffe, Derek Warholic, Alexander Williamson, Jaimie Wiltzius, Nathaniel Witkovsky, Merete Worth, Jessica Yu, Kirstin Zucker, Andrew

Honorable Mention(3.400-3.599)Bachmeier, Heidi Ballentine-Lazcano, Jay Bauer, Morgan Birschbach, Kane 67Casey, Liam Fox, Mary Gold, Samuel Koistinen, Koby Lynch, Nicholas Martin, Hunter Meneses, Diana Sackey, Christable San Juan, Jazmine Schoepp, Shayle Sinha, Dhruv Soderholm, Alannah Spellman, Cami Tankersley, Jack Thompson, Lauren Thompson, Ruth Waddell, Eliot

Honor Roll—8th GradeAdams, Cardell Aranda Sanchez, Andrea Aranda Sanchez, Brenda Armstrong, Meghann Benedict, Tyler Berryman, Elizabeth Beyer, Emily Blank, Lew Bobadilla Sandoval, Raimundo

by PERRy HiBnER

Middleton-Cross Plains Area School Dist.

SatterlundLynch

See HOnORS, page 12

Boettinger, Elizabeth Boorstein, Sophie Bourne, Finnian Bowers, Riley Bresnick, Ellen

Briggs, Katy Buck, Jane Callahan, Lindsay Chang, Allen Chiaro, Lillian

Clay, Spencer Collin, Christian Coyne, Leah Crump, Johanna Cushman, Matthew

Dagitz, Madison Dillard, Walter Dunk, Ryan Fink, Katherine Fischer, Kelsey

Fisher, Hanna Florin, Courtney Galang, Isaac Geanon, Christopher Gebert, Ryan Gibson, Maya Gonzalez, Paula Gowda, Madhu Griffin, Sara Grindle, Molly Habib, Arshad Hanson, Isaac Harris, Benjamin Heck, Kirby Hendrix, Chloe Hendrix, Simone Hershberger, DanielHoffman, Emma Hogendorn, Colin Hujanen, Alexandra Joseph, Talia Jurgella, Kathleen Kaplan, Julia Kim, Cha Mee Kloida, Felicity Kostecki, Lucas 750Krigbaum, Olivia Land, Ryan Larson, Morgan Ledin, Daniel Leffel, Nicholas Leiferman, Matthew Lewis, Benjamin Lonetree-Miller, Helena Lorfeld, Rebecca Mackey, Kim Martin, Brendon Matejka, Sarah McCann, Anthony McCarthy, Mary McCarthy, William McDonald, Taylor Mead, Kelly Meyer, Abigail Miles, Morgan Millan, Danielle Mortenson, Sarah Mueller, Willem Mukherjee, Rohin Narowetz, Morgan Nate, Lexi O’Connor, Cailey Pflasterer-Jennerjohn, Madeline Phillips, Madison Pincombe, Morgan Pope, Madeline Porras, Eva Quintin, Anitha Raisleger, Maxwell

PAGE 12 MIDDLETON TIMES-TRIBUNE THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013

HOnORS continued from page 11

See HOnORS, page 13

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013 MIDDLETON TIMES-TRIBUNE PAGE 13

Local students celebrate Chinese New YearReikersdorfer, Kristen Reiss, George Roberts, Zachary Rozum, Jacob Salyapongse, Aria Seerha, Simrnjit Shaw, Keaton Shea, Maya Sigmon, Parker Smith, Jackson Solie, Kathryn Sorenson, Margaux Soukup, Ashley Spitler, Cole Stajkovic, Edwin Stephan, Karl Swenson, Kyle Thomas, Alexis Vander Sanden, Bryce Venkatesh, Renu Vergenz, Laura Viegut, Amelia Warda, Elise Wettstein, Sara Wiegand, Shanna Williams, Clara Marie Williams, Mya Wirkus, Camille Xie, Michael Zawadzki, Karolina Zopf, Samuel Zoroufy, Luke

Honorable MentionCraker, Seth Culp, Ryan Fox, Sean Grapentine, Alexandra Heidel, Zachary Kiselev, Aleksei Kodali, Rohan Newcomb, Gus Ohlrogge, Maria Scher, Jacob Shaten, Michael

On February 9, area schools thatoffer Chinese language classescame together for a New Year’scelebration of the year of thesnake. The event was held at Me-morial High School.

Middleton, Memorial, Waunakeeand Sun Prairie high school, aswell as the Verona Area Interna-tional School, students and teach-ers worked together to offer thisevent to the public.  The audiencewas awed by a traditional LionDance performed by Zhong YiKung Fu Association, followedwith games and activities. 

High school students workedseveral weeks prior to the event,creating the activities and decora-tions that made for a fun-filled af-ternoon.   The event includedperformances by students inkindergarten through the highschool level, of Chinese dance andsongs. 

Middleton-Cross PlainsArea School District superintend-ent Don Johnson was in attendanceat this inaugural event. 

Pictured from left to right:(front row) Don Johnson, AliKhan, Piyanut Sripanawongsa(Lin laoshi); (standing row) ErinHoffman, Tammy Zhong, AbigailNichols-Jensen, Samantha John-son, Katherinf Hibner, AmandaTonnesen and Jordan Kobbervig.

HOnORS continued from page 12

PAGE 14 MIDDLETON TIMES-TRIBUNE THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013

Climb of the Cards continuesMiddleton stunsSun Prairie

SUN PRAIRIE — For monthsnow, people have been talking aboutthe potential greatness of next year’sMiddleton boys basketball team.

The Cardinals appreciated the com-pliment, except for one thing.

“That’s all great,” junior forwardMax Oelerich said. “But we know thatnothing’s guaranteed. So we’re talkingabout now.”

And playing for today, as well.Last Saturday, Middleton showed

that its present might be as promisingas its future. Fourth-seeded Middletonwent into top-seeded Sun Prairie andplayed arguably its best game of theyear in a WIAA Division 1 regionalfinal.

Middleton’s gritty-gutty pointguard Luke Schafer had 21 points,junior guard Derek Rongstad added15, and the visitors held off a late SunPrairie surge to notch a thrilling 75-64win.

“You never know what will happenbetween now and next year,”Rongstad said. “Nothing is ever guar-anteed.

“We have a great senior class thatdoes all of the little things to help uswin. I’ve been playing with themsince I was moved up to JV as a fresh-man. We want to send them out on ahigh note this year by hopefully con-tinuing this run in the playoffs with atrip to state.”

Middleton is now just two stepsfrom state.

by ROB REiSCHEL

Times-Tribune

Schafer’s magicsparks win overMadison Westby ROB REiSCHEL

Times-TribuneDerek Rongstad fully expected the

pass.Madison West thought it was

going Rongstad’s way, as well.But Luke Schafer was a master of

deception last Friday night.In a WIAA Division 1 regional

semifinal against the visitingRegents, Schafer pulled a Houdiniact at the most opportune of times.

With Middleton clinging to a 40-37 lead, Schafer faked a handoff toRongstad. Two Regents followedRongstad, leaving Schafer a clearlane to the basket.

Middleton’s junior point guarddrove from the left wing, attacked therim and hit a high-arching left-hand-ed lay-up. Schafer was also clobberedby West’s Travis Kell, and when heconverted the three-point play with1:24 left, Middleton was on its way toa hard fought 46-42 win.

The Cardinals improved to 13-10,while West ended its year 8-15.

“They were anticipating thatbounce back pass,” Schafer said. “SoI knew they were going to try and getthat steal.

“So I went there, kind of hesitatedand went left. … And when I lookedup, the ball was going in.”

Schafer’s big play came at themost ideal time possible.

West had just notched back-to-

See WEST, page 24See UPSET, page 20

Photos courtesy of Mary Bavery

Middleton’s boys basketball team surprised many last Saturday night when they defeated Sun Prairie in aWIAA Division 1 regional final.

• On top, the Cardinals are all smiles while displaying their new hardware.• Above, Middleton’s Derek Rongstad reacts in front of a stunned Sun Prairie student section.

Follow RobReischel onTwitter at@robreischel

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013 MIDDLETON TIMES-TRIBUNE PAGE 15

It was Saturday morning, and JakeCain’s dream of becoming a statechampion had ended.

Middleton’s standout wrestler haddropped a heartbreaker to Bay Port’sAlex Blaney in the WIAA Division 1state semifinals just 15 hours earlier.

But the 138-pound Cain did whathe always does. He put on his hardhat, went back to work and wrestledhis tail off.

Cain returned to the UW KohlCenter Saturday, won a pair ofmatches, and notched third place.That was the highest finish at stateby a Middleton wrestler since BenBrummel won a state title in 2009.

“I mean, sure, I was reallybummed about not being able toachieve my goal,” Cain said of miss-ing out on a state title. “But whenSaturday rolled around, I tried not tothink about it as much. I knew Icould still get third and I wanted tofinish the season on a high note.”

Cain entered the tournament witha 48-1 record and was one of thefavorites at 138. He showed whyduring Thursday night’s openingmatches, too.

Cain pinned Mukwonago’sTommy Kolasinski in his first roundmatch in 1:19. Then in the quarterfi-nals, Cain edged West Bend West’sJon Goetz, 4-3.

“Day One I was feeling prettygood,” Cain said. “I still had some ofthose big tournament jitters going

on. It really felt great to get thosefirst two out of the way and finallymake it to the semis.”

In the semis, Blaney got an earlytakedown and Cain was fightinguphill the entire match. Cain battledback, but eventually dropped a 5-3decision.

at“My coaches and I had watchedsome tape on (Blaney) to get a feelfor his tendencies and where hisstrengths and weakness lied,” Cainsaid. “It was a really close matchthroughout it’s entirety. In my opin-ion the deciding factor was him get-ting that first takedown.”

Cain came back in the consolationbracket Saturday and edgedBurlington’s Brody Fitzpatrick, 5-4.Then in the third place match, Cainedged Marshfield’s Mitch Hertel, 3-1.

“Jake wrestled so much better onSaturday than he did Thursday orFriday,” Middleton coach KentWeiler said. “If we would have sawSaturday’s Jake Cain on Fridaynight, he would have been in thefinals.

“He still wrestled well (Friday).But he didn’t wrestle the Jake Cainway that we know.”

Still, Cain’s terrific finishSaturday capped a sensational seasonin which he set a new school recordfor wins (52) and went farther atstate than ever before. Cain, who wasdogged by injuries earlier in hiscareer, also stayed healthy from startto finish.

“It’s nice to finally have a healthyseason,” said Cain, who will attendUW-Madison next year and strictlyfocus on his studies. “Sure I didn’twin a state title, but I’m proud ofwhat I did accomplish.

“It’s crazy to think that after 13

years it’s all over. But I’ve had theopportunity to meet some great peo-ple through wrestling that I’ll stillkeep in touch with.”

Weiler was awfully proud of Cain,as well.

“We knew there were five kids inthe bracket that had the potential towin it,” Weiler said. “Jake didn’t get

that … but to come back Saturdayshows how tough he is and shows alot about his character. He was a spe-cial kid and showed a lot.”

Middleton sophomore Shay Haasealso reached the state tournament at160 pounds. But Haase lost his firstmatch, 9-6, to Tristian Luther ofMount Horeb/Barneveld.

Haase ended the year 32-11.“He was very competitive,”

Weiler said. “We were happy withhis performance, getting there as asophomore and getting used to it.

“We knew he could get there andbe competitive. Shay wrestledincredibly well and got that goodexperience for next year.”

Cain exitsin style

MHS standoutfinishes third atstate tournamentby ROB REiSCHEL

Times-Tribune

Times-Tribune photo by Mary Langenfeld

Middleton’s Jake Cain finished third at 138 pounds at last weekend’s WIAA Division 1 state wrestling meet.

PAGE 16 MIDDLETON TIMES-TRIBUNE THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013

Times-Tribune photos by Mary Langenfeld

Middleton’s Aryn Skibba (top) and Bianca Bakkar (above) powered theCardinals to the Waunakee Sectional title last Saturday.

WAUNAKEE — Bianca Bakkarwoke at the crack of dawn lastSaturday.

Middleton’s standout senior gym-nast tried going back to sleep. ButBakkar couldn’t stop thinking aboutthe looming Waunakee Sectional, andhow it could be the final meet of herstellar career.

“I tried to sleep, but I just could-n’t,” Bakkar said. “I was really nerv-ous.”

All the uneasiness was for naught.Bakkar had her best performance in

more than three years, junior ArynSkibba continued her brilliant seasonand Middleton rolled to the sectionaltitle.

The Cardinals posted a team scoreof 140.475 to easily outdistanceVerona/Madison Edgewood (138.525)for the sectional championship.

Skibba finished third in the all-around competition (37.150) and qual-ified for individual state in all fourevents. Bakkar finished fourth in theall-around (36.625) and posted herbest score in that event since she wasa freshman. Bakkar will now competeat individual state in three events, aswell as the all-around.

Lucy Bergenthal also qualified forstate on the vault, where she finishedfourth (9.125).

The individual state meet is Fridayat Wisconsin Rapids Fieldhousebeginning at 5:40 p.m. The team statetournament is Saturday beginning at11 a.m.

Middleton earned a trip to the teamstate tournament for the 16th time in19 years.

“We talk about maintainingCardinal pride … and I thought thegirls were terrific,” Middleton coachKari Steck said. “But I know they canbe even better.

“Sectionals are do or die, so there’sa lot more pressure and the judging ispretty tough. I think we’ll be morerelaxed at state. They just want to havefun.”

Franklin’s combined team andBurlington’s Co-op have been thestate’s two dominant programs allyear. But Middleton was ranked thirdin the latest state poll, and believesthat type of finish is certainly possiblethis weekend.

“We could be top three,” Skibbasaid. “I think if we do what we did (atsectionals), we can pull a third place.”

Middleton’s dynamic duo ofSkibba and Bakkar led the way againat sectionals.

Skibba won the floor exercise witha 9.50 and tied for second on theuneven bars (9.350). Skibba was alsothird on the vault (9.250) and fifth onthe balance beam (9.050) despite afall.

Skibba was fourth at state a yearago, and believes she’s ready for aneven better performance this time.Skibba has added several new skillsand is hoping for a big showing.

“I know I can improve and that’swhat’s exciting,” Skibba said. “Lastyear was such a fun experience and Ilearned a lot. There’s not that muchpressure.

“I’m way better and a lot more con-fident. I’ve got a lot more skills —some new skills on the bar and beam— where I can score a lot higher.”

Bakkar is making her third trip tostate, and will aim to end her career instyle. Bakkar was 13th as a freshmanand 18th last season.

Bakkar will certainly be heading tostate with a world of momentum.

Bakkar was second on the unevenbars (9.350) and second on the bal-

ance beam (9.250) at sectionals.Bakkar was also fourth on the floorexercise (9.250) and eighth on thevault (8.775).

“Bianca was awesome,” Steck said.“She’s a senior and knew this could beher last meet. But she wasn’t going tolet that happen.”

Middleton had several other solidperformances at sectionals.

Bergenthal was eighth in the all-around after finishing fourth on thevault, seventh on the uneven bars(8.525), 11th on the floor exercise(8.375) and 20th on the balance beam(8.025).

Gabby Aranda was 10th on theuneven bars (8.50), Dana Flickingerwas 16th on the beam (8.10), LaurenAce was 17th on the vault (8.175) andKatherine Marshall was 25th on thefloor (7.875).

“There’s always a lot of pressure atsectionals, but I thought the team didgreat,” Bakkar said. “It was a lot offun.”

Feb. 23WIAA Waunakee Sectional

Team scores: 1. Middleton 140.475; 2.Verona/Madison Edgewood 138.525; 3. MadisonMemorial 134.15; 4. Madison West 132.125; 5.Sun Prairie 130.875; 6. Waunakee/DeForest126.275; 7. La Crosse Logan/Central 125.725; 8.Madison East/La Follette 108.775.

Middleton scores:Balance beam: 2, Bianca Bakkar 9.250; 5,

Aryn Skibba 9.050; 16, Dana Flickinger 8.10; 20,Lucy Bergenthal, 8.025.

Floor: 1, Aryn Skibba, 9.50; 4, BiancaBakkar, 9.250; 11, Lucy Bergenthal, 8.375; 25,Katherine Marshall, 7.875.

Uneven bars: 2, Aryn Skibba, 9.350; 2,Bianca Bakkar, 9.350; 7, Lucy Bergenthal, 8.525;10, Gabby Aranda, 8.50.

Vault: 3, Aryn Skibba, 9.250; 4, LucyBergenthal, 9.125; 8, Bianca Bakkar, 8.775; 17,Lauren Ace, 8.175.

All-around: 3, Aryn Skibba, 37.150; 4,Bianca Bakkar, 36.625; 8, Lucy Bergenthal,34.050.

Middleton gymnastsheaded back to stateCardinals qualifyfor 16th time inpast 19 yearsby ROB REiSCHEL

Times-Tribune

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013 MIDDLETON TIMES-TRIBUNE PAGE 17

By now, Jeff Kind didn’t expect tobe talking about consistency.

Middleton’s girls basketball coachdidn’t think he’d be discussingsteadiness and stability.

But the way Kind sees things, it iswhat it is.

“It’s been a consistency thing forus all year long,” Kind said. “Thereare times we play well, and thenthere are times you just wonder.”

Perhaps it’s too much to ask aftersuch an uneven season. But Kind ishoping his team can get hot andstring together a handful of solidgames this postseason.

Middleton begins the playoffsFriday when it travels to MadisonWest for a WIAA Division 1 regionalsemifinal at 7 p.m. The winner ofthat game faces either Madison LaFollette or Madison MemorialSaturday at 7 p.m. in a regional final.

“This is a real good bunch of kidsand they keep working hard,” Kindsaid. “We just haven’t developed areal toughness to us yet. That’swhere the consistency comes from.

“We need the players to say,

‘We’re not going to let that happen’when things start going bad.”

West (7-15), the No. 6 seed in theregional, certainly figures to be achallenge for the third-seededCardinals (14-8).

Middleton rolled past theRegents, 72-44, on Feb. 2 at West.But the Regents took the Cardinals tothe wire before falling in Middleton,59-56, on Feb. 18.

West’s Ebony Nettles-Bey wentwild in the second meeting anderupted for 30 points. She’ll be theCardinals’ No. 1 focus Friday.

“They played us tough the secondtime,” Kind said. “I didn’t think wehad the defensive intensity we need-ed.

“They don’t want to slow downand that’s all right with us. We’llsee.”

If Middleton wins, it’s likely toface second-seeded Madison LaFollette Saturday. And that’s notgreat news for the Cardinals.

Middleton and the Lancers (17-5)met twice during the regular seasonwith La Follette winning both times.The latest came last Thursday whenthe Lancers rolled to a 57-42 win.

Middleton junior forward LizMcMahon was sensational in defeatand scored a game-high 27 points.But no other Cardinal had more thanfive points.

La Follette, on the other hand, putthree players in double figures.Junior forward Ali Smith had 17points, while junior center NicoleNewman added 16.

“Size-wise, they have somematchup problems for us,” Kindsaid.

La Follette took care of this oneearly.

The Lancers led, 16-14, after thefirst quarter. But La Folletteoutscored Middleton, 25-7, in thesecond quarter and surged to a 41-21lead by halftime.

“We had a stretch where we hadsome lapses defensively,” Kind said.“They came down and hit three orfour 3’s in a row.”

Middleton pulled within 47-34through three quarters and closed tonine in the fourth quarter. But that’sclose as the Cardinals could get.

“We caused some problems withour press against them,” Kind said.“But we gave them some open looksand they shot the ball really well.”

Wanted: consistencyMiddleton girlsbegin postseasonFriday at Westby ROB REiSCHEL

Times-Tribune

Times-Tribune photo by Mary Langenfeld

Darcy Dean (12) and Middleton’s girls basketball team begin the postseason Friday.

REGIONALSFriday’s’s semifinals

3) Middleton at 6) MadisonWest, 7 p.m.

7) Madison Memorial at 2)Madison La Follette, 7 p.m.

Saturday’s finalFriday’s winners meet at 7 p.m.

Location TBD.

PAGE 18 MIDDLETON TIMES-TRIBUNE THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013

SUN PRAIRIE — The parallelsare downright eerie.

Middleton’s boys basketball losttwice to Sun Prairie this regular sea-son, including once when a buzzer-beater broke the Cardinals’ collectivehearts. But with the stakes highestlast Saturday night, Middletondrubbed Sun Prairie, 75-64, in aWIAA Division 1 regional final.

Middleton also lost twice this reg-ular season to Madison Memorial,the final time coming on a dramaticbuzzer-beater. But like it did againstSun Prairie, Middleton has a chanceto prove the third time is the charm.

Middleton and Madison Memorialwill meet in a sectional semifinalThursday in Watertown at 7 p.m. Thewinner advances to the sectionalfinal Saturday at 1 p.m. in SunPrairie.

“As I said after we lost to them onthe heartbreaking buzzer beater, Iknow we will beat them,” Middletonjunior guard Derek Rongstad said.“We are clicking at the right time andhave complete confidence that wecan play with and beat anybody inthe state right now.”

Middleton enters with a 14-10record, but has won eight of its last11 games. Memorial is 20-4 overalland won a share of its 10th straightBig Eight Conference title with a 16-2 record.

Middleton, which was unveilingalmost an entirely new team inNovember, dropped its season-open-er to Memorial, 57-47.

But the Cardinals were a much-improved bunch when they went toMemorial on Jan. 10 and fell, 62-60.

Middleton led that night, 60-59,when the clock expired. But the ref-erees ruled that Spartans head coachSteve Collins called timeout with 2seconds left.

Memorial’s Jester Weah theninbounded from three-quarters courtand hit Shareef Smith racing downthe right sideline. Smith took onedribble, pulled up from 22-feet and

drained a three-pointer as the hornsounded to give the Spartans animprobable 62-60 win.

“We know Memorial well andhave a history with them,”Middleton junior point guard LukeSchafer said. “They play hard andthey play hungry.

“But they’re beatable, just likeevery team in the state. We’ll seewhat happens.”

Memorial, a team traditionallypacked with Division 1 talent, mightnot have its typical number of super-stars. But the Spartans have special-ized in winning close games.

Memorial is 6-0 in games decidedby three points, or fewer. TheSpartans also went 11-1 in gamesdecided by single digits.

Jester Weah, who will play colle-giate football at Pitt, leads theSpartans’ balanced attack with 12.2points per game. But three otherstarters average at least 9.6 ppg.

“Memorial simply knows how towin,” Rongstad said. “I believe theydon’t have the same level of amazingbasketball players like they have inthe past, but they always seem to beable to finish games.”

Middleton will be trying to slayMemorial for the first time sinceFeb. 3, 2005. Since then, theCardinals have dropped 19 straightgames to the Spartans.

Middleton seventh-year coachKevin Bavery is 0-16 againstMemorial and his teams have beeneliminated in the postseason by theSpartans in 2007 and 2010.

But Bavery insists no one is think-ing about “The Streak.” Instead, theCardinals are just focused on reach-ing the sectional finals.

“Never think twice about it,”Bavery said of the losing streak toMemorial. “For the majority of thosegames we have been competitiveagainst Memorial teams, which

sometimes had Division 1 athletes,and we’ve had three or four heart-breaking losses. So you tip your hatto them and move on.  

“I know that because they are ourproximity rivals — and the fact thatwe’ve had some heartbreakers withthem — that it takes on a life of its

own. But really, all we do is focus onour next practice and then on ournext game, whether it’s Memorial oranyone else. We simply focus onMiddleton.”

Lately, that’s been a winning for-mula. The Cardinals hope it contin-ues Thursday night.

Next up: MemorialSUN PRAIRIE SECTIONAL

Thursday’s semifinalsMiddleton (14-10) vs. Madison

Memorial (20-4) at Watertown, 7p.m.

Mukwonago (20-4) vs.Janesville Craig (14-10) atBurlington, 7 p.m.

Saturday’s finalThursday’s winners meet in Sun

Prairie, 1 p.m.

by ROB REiSCHEL

Times-Tribune

Times-Tribune photo by Mary Langenfeld

Tyler Markel and Middleton’s boys basketball team face MadisonMemorial in a sectional semifinal Thursday.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013 MIDDLETON TIMES-TRIBUNE PAGE 19

Editor's Note: This story original-ly ran in the Middleton Times-Tribuneon Feb. 10, 2005. It chroniclesMiddleton's last win over MadisonMemorial in boys basketball. TheCardinals and Spartans meet in a sec-tional semifinal Thursday at 7 p.m. inWatertown.

For weeks, people have looked atthe Big Eight Conference race and theroad to the state tournament as fore-gone conclusions.

To many, Madison Memorial was avirtual lock. And everyone else wasplaying for second.

Not so fast folks.Last Thursday night, Middleton

showed the Spartans are most certain-ly vulnerable. And in the process, theCardinals showed they’re a legitimatecontender to make a run at state them-selves.

Middleton went to Memorial andplayed its finest game in years. TheCardinals shot the lights out, defendedwith authority and stunned the hostSpartans, 74-61.

The loss was the Spartans’ firstleague setback since Feb. 22, 2003and snapped Memorial’s 28-game BigEight winning streak.

“We’ve been telling the kids allyear that this team has the potential tobe something special,” Middletoncoach John Boyle said afterwards.“But I’m not sure they really believedthat.

“Maybe it was a hangover from lastyear (when the Cardinals went 5-17).But we’ve shown it in spurts that we

can be awfully good. I hope this helpsturn on a switch where we believe.”

Middleton has far more believersnow than it did all year.

The Cardinals, who won their thirdstraight game, improved to 11-4 over-all and 7-4 in the league. Middletongot fantastic balance and tremendous

execution and finished the nightshooting a whopping 58.8% from thefield (30-of-51).

Junior guard Tone Boyle was spec-tacular, scoring 21 points and addingeight assists, five steals and fiverebounds. Middleton also got 17points from senior center Jack Simon,14 points from senior forward ChadSheline and 11 points from juniorguard John Strnad.

Memorial got a game-high 27points from senior guard andMarquette University recruit WesleyMatthews and 24 from senior forwardKori Vernon. But the Spartans (13-2,11-1) shot just 32.1% from the floor(18-of-56).

“The kids played really great,”John Boyle said. “They playedextremely hard and they were reallyconsistent the whole game.”

Consistently outstanding, that is.Middleton, which took Memorial

to the wire before losing at home onDec. 10, showed that game was nofluke. The Cardinals jumped onMemorial from the outset and stormedto a 22-13 after the first quarter.

“That gave us some confidence,”Boyle said of his team’s fast start.“And I think Memorial started talkingto themselves a little bit.

“In my mind, we had kind ofproved we can play with them the lasttime we met. And this just reinforcedthat.”

It sure did. And the rest of the nightonly strengthened that.

Middleton led, 34-26, at halftime,then opened the third quarter on a 13-2 run to grab a 47-28 advantage. TheCardinals’ lead was still 55-38 at theend of the period.

“We were celebrating like we wonthe NCAA Championship,” Boylesaid. “I was worried that we were uptoo many. Because they’re really goodand they weren’t going to go away.”

The Spartans certainly didn’t.Memorial began pressing full courtand clawed back within six with 3:30left.

But Tone Boyle was having hisway with the Spartans’ pressuredefense and setting up teammates foreasy layups. In the fourth quarter,Middleton made 8-of-11 shots fromthe floor (73%) and didn’t have a shotoutside of five feet.

That capped a night in which sever-al Cardinals had one of their finestshooting games of the year.

Simon made 8-of-11 from the floor,while Boyle was 7-of-11. Will Hudsonwas 3-of-4, while Sheline hit 6-of-10and Strnad made 4-of-7.

Matthews, on the other hand, went8-of-22 largely because of the intensedefense played by Zach Koerber.

“That’s as well as we’ve played,”Boyle said. “Hopefully, we can geteven better. But this is the best we’veplayed yet.”

Because the Cardinals were sogood against such a formidable foe,they appear in great shape for a bigpostseason seed.

In Middleton’s half of the section-al, Memorial still figures to get theNo. 1 seed. But after that, theCardinals have as strong of a claim tothe No. 2 seed as anyone.

That would set up a potentialMiddleton-Madison Memorial sec-tional semifinal on March 11 atMadison West High School. Boylewould love to see such a scenariounfold, but he admitted he wanted tosavor this win for a few days beforethinking about the postseason.

“Usually after a game is over, I canput it under my pillow and get a goodnight’s sleep,” Boyle said. “But notthis one. I tossed and turned all night.

“This is the biggest win we’ve hadin a while, probably back to the con-ference championship (in 2000-01).It’s been a while since we’ve had onethis big. It’s pretty nice.”

Feb. 3, 2005Middleton 74, Madison Memorial 61Middleton ………….….… 22 12 21 19 — 74Madison Memorial ......… 13 13 12 23 — 61

MIDDLETON — Boyle 21, Strnad 11, Statz4, Koerber 1, Sheline 14, Simon 17, Hudson 6.Totals 30 10-15 74.

MADISON MEMORIAL — Dahmen 6,Matthews 27, Ajami 2, Vernon 24, Boyd 2. Totals18 23-27 61.

Three-point goals — Strnad 2, Boyle,Sheline; Dahmen, Matthews. Total fouls — Mi21, MM 16.

JV — Middleton won.

Flashback: Middleton 74, Memorial 61by ROB REiSCHEL

Times-Tribune

File photo

Tone Boyle (11) helped power Middleton to its last win over Madison Memorial. That came on Feb. 3, 2005.

PAGE 20 MIDDLETON TIMES-TRIBUNE THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013

The Cardinals (14-10) will meetMadison Memorial (20-4) in a sec-tional semifinal Thursday at 7 p.m. inWatertown. The Spartans enter thatgame with a 19-game winning streakover the Cardinals.

The winner of that game advancesto a sectional final Saturday at 1 p.m.in Sun Prairie against eitherMukwonago (20-4) or JanesvilleCraig (14-10)

“There’s no fear in this team at all,”Middleton coach Kevin Bavery said.“For us, it’s about being Middleton.”

Right now, that’s pretty good.Middleton lost at Sun Prairie, 72-

70, in overtime just 11 days earlier.Sun Prairie’s Nick Fuller forced theextra session that night with a 27-footthree-pointer at the buzzer in regula-tion.

But this was a much different story.Middleton led virtually the entire

way. Middleton made an impressive31-of-43 free throws (72.1%), includ-ing 21-of-30 in the fourth quarter(70.0%) when Sun Prairie began foul-ing early to try extending the game.

And Middleton survived theattempted heroics of Fuller, whoscored a game-high 34 points —including 15 in a frenzied fourth quar-ter.

“We knew we could beat them,”Schafer said. “We came within a half-inch last time. We know we’ve beengetting better and better and I thinkthat showed.”

It sure did.Middleton used precise offensive

execution and stellar defense to builda 64-52 lead with 90 seconds left. ButSun Prairie (20-4), the co-championsof the Big Eight Conference, did whatall great teams do and refused to fold.

Fuller put on a one-man show andscored a remarkable 10 points in just49 seconds. Fuller had two old-fash-ioned three-point plays and he wentthe length of the court for a rim-rat-tling dunk that trimmed Middleton’slead to 69-64 with 35.5 seconds left.

“Fuller was unbelievable,” Schafersaid. “But we just had to stay calm.”

They did.With Middleton clinging to five-

point lead, Derek Rogeberg missed apair of free throws with 35.5 seconds

left. Fuller grabbed the rebound andlooked to take off downcourt.

But Rongstad snuck in from behindand stripped the ball from Fuller. SunPrairie immediately fouled Rongstad,and his two free throws with 31.1 sec-onds left made it 71-64 and allowedMiddleton to re-establish control.

“I knew that I only had three foulsat that point, and with how Fuller wasattacking, it was almost impossible tostop him,” Rongstad said. “I figuredmy best chance of not letting himscore was stealing it from him beforehe got his head of steam going.

“It’s common for players to turntheir heads when they get a reboundbefore they turn their bodies, so I wasable to take advantage of that andquickly swipe it away from him.”

Sun Prairie came up empty on itsnext three possessions. And Middletongot two game-clinching free throwsfrom both Kade Schultz and Schafer.

In a game of countless memorableplays, though, Rongstad’s wasarguably the biggest.

“That was Doc saying, ‘This kid isDivision 1,’ ” Oelerich said of Fuller,who will play next year at Nebraska.“And that was Doc saying, ‘I’m betterthan him.’ ”

While that point is certainly subjec-tive, there’s no doubt Middleton wasbetter than Sun Prairie throughout.

Sun Prairie made its first five shotsand jumped to an 11-5 lead. ButMiddleton had three three-pointers inthe first quarter and surged to an 18-15lead.

Oelerich, Kenji Passini and TylerMarkel all made three-pointers in thefirst quarter, while Schafer went 4-of-4 from the line.

Sun Prairie used an 8-0 run late inthe second quarter and surged to a 30-26 lead. But Middleton finished thehalf on a 7-0 burst and reclaimed a 33-30 halftime edge.

Schafer started the run with a 15-footer, then Rongstad knocked down athree-pointer. Schafer then had a layupoff a nifty inbounds play to make it33-30.

“I just thought we stayed the courseall night,” Bavery said. “We never gottoo high or low, even when thingswere going against us.”

Oelerich knocked down a three-pointer to open the third quarter andMiddleton’s lead grew to 36-30. SunPrairie battled back within 38-37 mid-way through the third, but Middletonanswered with a 10-1 burst to take a

48-38 lead.Rogeberg started the run with a

lay-up, then Rongstad threw a half-court lob to Passini for a lay-up.Rogeberg later had another layup andRongstad drained a three-pointer togive Middleton its biggest lead of thenight.

Middleton’s lead was 58-52 with1:54 left when Schafer was fouledwith 1:54 left. Schafer made the first,and before he shot the second, SunPrairie reserve center Craig Evans washit with a technical foul.

Schafer went on to hit two of histhree free throws. And when SunPrairie fouled Schafer on the ensuinginbounds play, he made both freethrows.

That remarkable five-point playgave Middleton a 63-52 lead.

“That was huge,” said Schafer, whowent 15-of-17 from the line during thegame. “Any time there’s a technicalthere’s a huge momentum swing.”

Sun Prairie — and Fuller — hadone final spirited run. But Middletonrefused to blink and showed that thefuture is now.

“It’s a special group,” Bavery said.“And they’re not ready for this thingto end.”

• Notebook: Immediately after thegame ended, Middleton’s playerscalled JV coach Tim Simon to informhim of their victory. Simon was out oftown on a previously scheduled com-mitment. … Junior guard DemondHill, who’s playing with a brokenhand, gave Middleton quality minutesoff the bench. … Bavery had this tosay about Rongstad: “I thought thiswas his best game of the year. He didso many things besides just score.”

Feb. 22WIAA Division 1 regional finalMiddleton 75, Sun Prairie 64Middleton ……………….. 18 15 17 25 — 75Sun Prairie ……..…..…… 15 15 13 21 — 64

MIDDLETON — (fg-fga ft-fta pts) —Luke Schafer 3-6 15-17 21, Tyler Markel 1-2 2-66, Max Oelerich 5-7 0-0 12, Derek Rongstad 3-87-9 15, Kade Schultz 0-4 4-4 4, Derek Rogeberg4-6 0-3 8, Kenji Passini 2-4 2-2 5, Demond Hill1-1 1-2 3, Chris Little 0-1 0-0 0, Max Waelti 0-00-0 0, Ian Hokanson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 19-40 31-43 75.

SUN PRAIRIE — Donnel Thompson 2-4 1-2 5, Nick Fuller 13-18 8-8 34, Nick Noskowiak4-14 5-5 14, Shane Waldon 1-2 0-0 2, J.T. Ruffin1-1 1-2 3, Michael Marchese 0-3 0-0 0, CraigEvans 2-6 2-2 6, Malik Robinson 0-1 0-0 0.Totals 23-49 17-19 64.

Three-point goals: Middleton 6 (Rongstad 2,Oelerich 2, Markel, Passini); Sun Prairie 1(Noskowiak). Totals fouls: SP 28, Mid 16.

UPSETcontinued from page 14

n

Photo courtesy of Mary Bavery

Middleton students stormed the floor after the Cardinals defeated Sun Prairie in a regional final last Saturday night.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013 MIDDLETON TIMES-TRIBUNE PAGE 21

Cross Plains OptimistsBasketball Contest

It is time for the annual CrossPlains Optimists' Tri-Star BasketballContest. All boys and girls betweenthe ages of 6-13 years old are invitedto compete in this year's contest.

This year's contest will be held atSt. Francis Xavier School on March11, from 6-9 p.m. All participantsshould report by age for their compe-tition time. Note: a permission slipsigned by the parent is necessary, soplease accompany your child to thecompetition.

Competition times are:6-7 and 8-9 year olds: 6:30 p.m.10-11 and 12-13 year olds: 7 p.m.The contest consists of three basic

basketball fundamentals includingpassing, shooting and dribbling. Newthis year is the 6 and 7 year old agegroup. Each participant is evaluatedindividually within his/her own age

bracket and gender group.The top two placewinners in each

age and gender group will be recog-nized following the completion of thecontest.

Students are encouraged to bringtheir own ball with which to prac-tice/warm up prior to the competition.There is no cost to enter. Entry formswill be available at the gym the day ofthe contest.

First-place contestant winners willalso be given the opportunity to partic-ipate in the Southern Wisconsin(SWIS) District Contest on April 13 atMukwonago High School. Moredetails will be distributed to thoseadvancing.

Volunteers are needed to help withthis event. Please contact DennisSemrau (dsemrau@madison.com) orMike Roessler (mroessler@c21affili-ated.com) to volunteer.

S P O R T S B R i E f SMiddleton LadiesFeb. 12

Patti Larson 629, Janie Lange 600, PaulaBrunner 586, Verelene Morris 543, TheresaMeisel 512, Frayne Born 508, Rosemary Lange495, Christa Neuser 492, Nancy Hellenbrand491, Debbie Swain 482, Cathy Matts 481, LindaPertzborn 474, Donna Cushman 453, Bonnie Coy451, Kristin Kuehmichel 450.

Middleton LadiesFeb. 19

Rosemary Lange 570, Patti Larson 566,Cheryl Hitchins 555, Linda Van Heuklom 510,Luann McNallly 501, Bonnie Coy 482, NancyHellenbrand 476, Mary Moody 474, MaryLindquist 472, Lyn Passini 469, Kristie Stapleton468, Debbie Swain 467, Verelene Morris 464,Paula Brunner 459.

Sunday NeighborsFeb. 24

Jim Salzman 685 (225-215-245), PaulHughes 661 (234-256), Greg Fritz 651 (213-246), Eugene Pasch 631 (247-218), MartyMeinholz 598 (221), Gus Schlieckau 581 (209),Maryann Sveum 550 (262), Tony Ziegler 545,Jim Campbell 541 (221), Jeff Ballweg 526,Mavis Severson 513 (206), Elaine Ziegler 513(206), Elaine Ziegler 472.

B O W L i n G

PAGE 22 MIDDLETON TIMES-TRIBUNE THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013 MIDDLETON TIMES-TRIBUNE PAGE 23

RENTALS

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PAGE 24 MIDDLETON TIMES-TRIBUNE THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013

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