January 2023

MADISON–A Dane County judge Friday refused to grant the Town of Middleton an injunction against a resident who caused town hall to close for two days after he harassed staff about snow plowing.

Town hall closed on Jan. 18 and 19, after Samuel A. Roessler, 42, yelled profanities at Town Treasurer Megan Hughes and Town Clerk Barbara Roesslein about damage made to his lawn by a snowplow driver.

“He repeatedly told (Hughes) that he was tired of the f-ing snowplow plowing snow into his year and f-ing destroying his yard,” Town Attorney Eileen Brownlee wrote in a petition for an injunction.

Hughes testified Friday that Roessler was “swearing every other word,” during their encounter. She also said that Roessler refused her requests to “calm down,” and continued to “pace and swear…I was intimidated by this.”

When Roessler also refused Hughes request to leave, she went downstairs to the Dane County Sheriff’s West Precinct office to summon help.

CROSS PLAINS–The Cross Plains Police Department continues to set new records for service calls, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, Police Chief Tony Ruesga Jr. told the village board Monday.

For instance, checking on property while the owner is on vacation, jumped from 328 in 2019 to 585 last year; checking on business properties also increased from 59 to 109 in the same time period, according to department statistics.

“A lot of it has to do with our proactive law enforcement,” and more effective community policing, said Ruesga, who became the village’s police chief in 2020.

Other increases are due to a change in enforcement emphasis. In 2019, only two cases of open or unlocked doors were recorded and that has since increased to 77.

“That’s just a matter of not checking,” he said.

Requests for information also leaped from 14 in 2019 to 185 last year, another sign that the department is providing more service in general.

MIDDLETON–Complaints that Middleton Hills residents had in September about the United States Postal Service (USPS) ending package delivery to their homes have been resolved to their satisfaction, residents report.

Middleton Hills neighbors always had to pick up letters at a rented mailroom adjacent to the Prairie Café but, they enjoyed home delivery of packages.

That changed last year amid staffing shortages and the volume of packages growing due to the popularity of online shopping.

In September, residents of the 430-home subdivision met and said they had enough. Boxes overwhelmed the shortage capacity of the mailroom shelving resulting in packages piled on the floor in an unsorted fashion.

They noted that UPS and FedEx still made home delivery of packages.

Don Knorr, of the MHNA (Middleton Hills Neighborhood Association), proposed meeting with postal officials to expand the rented mailroom’s package capacity 

MIDDLETON–The Middleton Common Council approved an agreement with Elevate Energy for an energy efficiency navigator program and deferred a resolution petitioning the Wisconsin Department of Transportation for funding airport improvements.

The agreement with Elevate Energy authorizes the nonprofit organization to manage the city’s first residential energy efficiency navigator program. The program aims to assist landlords in making efficiency upgrades to existing properties to lower energy costs for tenants in areas of the city where the average income is 50 percent or less than the area median income.