Local

MIDDLETON–Lisa Pardon, town clerk in the Town of Middleton tendered her resignation with the town in late January, with Feb. 1 as her last day. In a letter sent to town leaders, Pardon cited her run for the town board against incumbent Richard Oberle as the reason she is leaving because of concerns about her election job duties being a conflict of interest. 

Pardon said she contacted the Wisconsin Election Commission to learn if she would be able to perform all the duties required and learned she could do everything but be in the polling place. She goes on to say that if elected she would have to quit the position.

She also said she has timed the resignation so that the town will have time before the April election to have everything in place.

“I wanted to give them time to advertise and hire a new clerk,” she said.

MADISON–Officers from the Middleton Police Department Richard O’Conner, and Tyler Loether, and Dane County Sheriff Deputies David Lambrecht and Matthew Earll, were recipients of the of the Wisconsin Legislature’s Hometown Hero Award on Feb. 12.

The four were involved in shooting and killing Anthony Tong when they, along with many other law enforcement officers, responded to an active shooter in the workplace at WTS Paradigm (now known as Paradigm) in September 2018.

An investigation found that the officers repeatedly told Tong to drop his weapon, before firing upon him when he refused. An investigation following the incident cleared the men of any wrongdoing. 

Wisconsin State Rep. Dianne Hesselbein (D-79) nominated the officers for the award, and said she felt the men were deserving of the honor because of the courage and valor they showed during the shooting, which left four people wounded.

MIDDLETON–The Middleton-Cross Plains Area School Board reviewed the latest design schematic for the new elementary school planned near the Pope Farm Conservancy. The new elementary school is part of a multi building expansion plan approved by voters in a 2018 referendum for $138.9 million.

Superintendent George Mavroulis said he was thrilled on the progress made.

“The work continues,” Mavroulis said. “I think every time we see a more refined version it is just so exciting.”

Architects for the project, Robin Savola and Mike Schwindenhammer of Eppstein Uhen Architects, presented the latest revisions for the elementary school at the board’s Feb. 4 meeting. They also detailed plans for remodeling the kitchen at Sauk Trail Elementary.

The Sauk Trail kitchen remodel is expected to start right after school is out and be done in late July or early August, Schwindenhammer said. 

MIDDLETON–On Feb. 13, at approximately 2:50 p.m. a nine-year-old boy was walking home from school in the 6600 block of Franklin Ave. when he was approached by an unidentified male wearing a black hooded sweatshirt. The subject asked the child if he wanted to come to his house. The child left the area with no further contact. 

The suspect was described as a male, 5’10” with black hair and a thin build wearing a black hooded sweatshirt that was covering his face.

The Middleton Police are asking anyone with information on this incident to contact us. We are also asking residents in the area with home surveillance to please check their devices as well to determine if there is any video of this suspect.

DANE COUNTY–The Dane County Sheriff’s Office is reminding motorist to move over for emergency vehicles and give county snow plows adequate room, after two incidents on the night of Feb. 12.

Just before 7 p.m. on Tuesday evening, a Dane County deputy was providing coverage for a vehicle that had slid into the ditch on US Highway 151 in the town of Verona, when he was rear ended by another vehicle. The deputy did not appear to be injured but was evaluated at a local hospital as a precaution. The driver of the at-fault vehicle was cited.

Just a few minutes later, a Dane County plow driver reported a hit and run after a blue jeep crashed into the wing of the snow plow on Hwy 151 at CTH F in the Village of Blue Mounds. The driver of the Jeep was traveling southbound on Hwy 151. There were no injuries reported.

MADISON–Middleton resident, adman and illustrator, Scott Kirkpatrick scheduled an exhibit for his drawings at the UW-Health Gallery last year. Now, six months after his death, the exhibit has come to fruition.

The gallery wall, coincidentally, is right outside the transplant center at the facility, an area Scott knew well because after a heart attack that cause a car crash in 2017, Scott was in need a of a new heart. A heart was found relatively quickly, and Scott was on the road to recovery when he drowned in a separate car accident in August of 2018 after he and wife Carrie Kirkpartick accidentally drove off the Merrimac Ferry landing. 

“Scott was driving, and it was dark, we were lost, and the GPS wasn’t working,” Carrie recalled. “I looked up and we had hit water.” 

A man wanted in connection with a homicide near Wisconsin Dells has been taken into custody.

Robert M. Pulvermacher, 68, of Middleton, is the primary suspect in the death of an 88-year-old Portage man. According to the Sauk County Sheriff’s Office, Pulvermacher was arrested on Jan. 23 by the Madison Police Department.

According to the Sheriff’s Office, a plow driver spotted Pulvermacher being dropped off near Pulvermacher Cartage on Manufacturer’s Drive in Madison. The driver immediately notified authorities.

Madison Police responded and found a set of fresh footprints in the snow leading to the business door. The trail proceeded to a row of bushes, where police found the suspect. Pulvermacher was arrested without incident, according to the report.

He was medically cleared through a Madison hospital and taken to jail to be transferred to Sauk County on the outstanding homicide arrest warrant.

DANE COUNTY–Dane County Sheriff David Mahoney would like to remind all citizens to keep their vehicles and home doors locked following a theft of three vehicles and a burglary during the afternoon and evening hours of Jan. 30, in the Town of Middleton.

In the afternoon, a citizen left his vehicle running in his driveway, and it was stolen in the little time it took him to walk into the house and look out the front window.

The second incident occurred in the evening when the suspect(s) entered an unlocked, non- running, vehicle parked in the driveway. Using the garage door opener in that vehicle, the suspect(s) accessed the garage and home through an unlocked interior door. Several personal items of value and their two vehicles were stolen. This also occurred while the residents were awake and inside their home.

MIDDLETON–SPARK, a parent run group for those whose children have an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) or a 504 Plan (for children with disabilities) in the Middleton Cross Plains Area School District, will be hosting a community conversation called Finding Workforce Solutions on Feb. 6.

The event is designed to offer an opportunity for businesses in the area to discuss, support and learn about hiring students and young adults with special needs.

Liza Hellenbrand, who founded of the group with Kristin Voss in 2016, said Employment First (EF) was one of two grants that SPARK recently received through the Wisconsin Board for People with Disabilities. It will fund the Finding Workforce Solutions event.

“They offer direct training and grant programs, and connect people in the community,” Hellenbrand said. 

EF ambassadors will be on hand to speak about what is it like for people with disabilities to work. 

MIDDLETON–An invoice that didn’t look like an invoice is the explanation given why the towns of Middleton, Springfield and Westport didn’t pay their 2017 capital assessment to the Middleton Fire District.

The town of Middleton will consider paying their $248,083 assessment at a town board meeting next month.

Each year the Fire District sends its member municipalities a bill for their share of the capital equipment the district has purchased that year. In 2017, that included the property at Century Ave. and CTH M for Fire Station #3, a vehicle and self-contained breathing apparatus.

Each municipality is assessed a portion of the cost based on the equalized value of the property within the municipality. The town of Middleton is responsible for 25 percent of the district’s expenses. 

In 2017, the three towns were assessed a combined $358,870.