Government

When Middletonians fill out their Spring Election ballots on April 2 (or now through early voting) to determine the outcome of races for town board and school board, they will also have the opportunity to answer a countywide referendum question on voter registration.

State Rep. Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) issued a statement this week calling it “the most important question voting citizens will answer.” Hesselbein, who served on the Middleton-Cross Plains Area School Board  and Dane County Board before winning a seat in the state legislature, urged the community to vote yes on the question: “Should the state of Wisconsin continue to allow people to register to vote at the polls on Election Day.”

Absentee voting at the Town Hall starts today for the Spring Election.  You may vote by absentee during the town's regular office hours for the next two weeks:

Monday, March 18 –Thursday, March 21: 7:30 am-4:00 pm

Friday, March 22: 7:30 am-Noon

Monday, March 25 –Thursday, March 28: 7:30 am-4:00 pm

Friday, March 29: 7:30 am-5:00 pm

During this window of time, voter registration must be done in person at the Town Hall.  After 5 p.m. on Friday, March 29, neither voter registration nor voting will resume until Election Day (Tuesday, April 2).

A copy of the sample ballot has been posted to the Town’s website.  If you have any questions, call 608-833-5887.

The Middleton-Cross Plains Area School Board on Monday unanimously approved a resolution awarding the sale of $59.86 million general obligation school building bonds.

American Transmission Co. has energized the completed 32-mile, 345-kilovolt Rockdale-West Middleton Transmission Line.

The project was first introduced to the public in 2004, kicking off with a comprehensive outreach effort which included 22 public meetings attended by 3,300 people over three years. More than 2,600 written comments were submitted by stakeholders and included in the company’s application to the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin.

In 2009, after nearly two years of regulatory review, the PSC ordered a portion of the line to be built along the Beltline Highway.

A recent study suggests there is little need for a downtown parking ramp, news that was met with chagrin by many local business owners who have been calling on the city to build the structure with Tax Increment Financing.

Talk of constructing a new parking ramp is still circling, and parking limitations in the downtown area and beyond have been the source of much frustration for some time now, according the group that has been applying pressure on city leaders. In response, the City of Middleton recently hired Walker Parking Consultants to conduct the downtown parking ramp study.

On February 26, Philip Baron of Walker Parking Consultants presented the results of the draft study to Middleton residents. Baron offered a summary of the study’s findings, discussing the parking counts that were conducted, noting the total amount of public and private parking spaces, and pinpointing the peak weekday and weekend parking demands.

Photocopied signatures of support will prevent David Dahmen’s name from appearing on the April 2 ballot, according to an order issued by the Government Accountability Board (GAB) Monday.

Dahmen had hoped to challenge Area 1 school board incumbent Jim Greer for his seat, and could still do so with a write-in campaign. 

However, this week’s GAB ruling asserts that Dahmen’s failure to turn in original signatures before the filing deadline constitutes a clear failure to follow Wisconsin’s election laws.

Public hearings on proposed revisions to Wisconsin’s endangered and threatened species list scheduled for March 5 at various locations around Wisconsin have been cancelled and a hearing has been rescheduled due to the potential for a severe winter storm. The National Weather Service has issued Winter Storm Advisories and Warnings for much of Wisconsin from Monday night through Tuesday.

As a result the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has cancelled public hearings on the proposed revisions to the state endangered and threatened species list that were scheduled by video conference at Milwaukee, Green Bay and Eau Claire and a public hearing scheduled for Madison.

The public hearings on the proposed list revisions will now be held:

The man in this surveillance picture is a suspect in several vehicle theft and forgery cases in the City of Middleton, according to Sgt. Troy Hellenbrand.

Anyone with information about his is asked to contact the Middleton Police Department at 608-824-7300 or leave a message on the department tipster line at 608-824-7304. 
 

State Supreme Court Justice Pat Roggensack and Marquette University law professor Ed Fallone earned the number one and two spots in a three-way primary last week, setting them up to face off in the April 2 general election. 

Eliminated from the contest was consumer attorney Vince Megna, who finished a distant third.

The Middleton Common Council last week unanimously approved a Collective Bargaining Agreement with the Wisconsin Professional Police Association (WPPA) Local 427. The deal covers 2013 through 2015.


The agreement between the city and WPPA calls for increases in pay of 1 percent in 2013, 2 percent in 2014 and 3 percent in 2015. The new contract maintains continuous longevity pay increases, and in 2015 police officers will make between $55,247.98 and $66,273.48 annually in salary. (Officers will make anywhere from the mid-$60,000s to the low $90,000s in total annual compensation.)

While Act 10 stripped most public employee unions of many of their bargaining powers, the legislation did not do the same for police unions.