County

All three incumbents on the Middleton Town Board will face challengers on the April ballot.

Greg DiMiceli, a former plan commission member, will oppose incumbent Milo Breunig for town chair. Cynthia Richson, a current plan commission member, will oppose incumbent Tim Roehl for Seat 1. Troy Alton will oppose incumbent Bill Kolar for Seat 2.

Richson is an attorney who was worked for the Wisconsin Investment Board, in the insurance industry, and has served on the Plan Commission for more than two years. She said she was inspired to run after the town board renewed a conditional-use permit for the Madison Central Montessori School in 2011.

“It was a very controversial decision - more than 200 people signed petitions opposing it,” said Richson.

The Middleton Town Board is considering creating a tax increment financing (TIF) district to attract redevelopment to a 28-acre portion of the town along Seybold Road.

In a 4-1 vote Monday, with board supervisor Bill Kolar dissenting, the board asked Vierbicher Associates to prepare estimates of the increase in tax base that could result from redevelopment of Seybold Road.

The town can create a Tax Increment District (TID) under state statute or, under its intergovernmental agreement with the City of Madison.

TIDs are often used to attract redevelopment of blighted areas. The several blocks  of Seybold Road between the Beltline Highway and Gammon Road would be considered blighted and qualify for TID financing, according to backers of the plan before the town.

Plans to build a multifaceted new medical campus east of the Beltline at Century Avenue and Laura Lane have been delayed at least a year, according to sources close to the project.

At a joint meeting in early 2011, the Middleton Common Council and the Middleton Plan Commission each granted conceptual approval to the scope of the project and Meriter Health Services’ request for $9 million in public assistance. The development agreement depicts five phases of development, each with a different city obligation. The initial phase would include $6.8 million from the city.

The city then embarked on a sometimes-harrowing quest to relocate its existing public works garage away from the land, finally opting build at a Department Of Transportation Park and Ride facility to the north.

But the council recently learned that Meriter representatives have requested a longer timeline.

The City of Middleton has permitted its residents to raise backyard chickens for years. Following that success in small-scale urban agriculture, the common council on Tuesday night unanimously approved an ordinance to allow backyard beekeeping as well.

The ordinance, which was crafted over many months by the Middleton Sustainability Committee and reviewed by the license and ordinance committee, went through the city’s plan commission without a hitch last week, receiving endorsements from a handful of speakers and earning a unanimous recommendation of approval.

The ordinance approved by the common council this week includes a list of stipulations that supporters say were designed to help prevent conflicts between beekeepers and their neighbors. The city will not charge a fee or require a permit, however.

Moody’s Investors Service reaffirmed the City of Middleton’s credit rating of Aa1 in a report issued last week, according to statement issued by the city’s finance department. The higher the rating, the less money the City of Middleton is likely to pay in interest costs for bonds.

The rating was made as part of the city refunding approximately $5.1 million in general obligation bonds for projects in Tax Increment Financing District (TID) 5.

In addition, the rating relates to the upcoming sale of approximately $4.5 million in general obligation promissory notes to be used to finance various construction projects in the city, according to city finance director John Lehman.

The TID 5 projects include making financial contributions to aid in the redevelopment of housing on Amherst Road and the new Heritage senior housing campus at the corner of Allen Boulevard and Maywood Avenue.

A single citizen – representing .00564 percent of the City of Middleton’s total denizens – spoke during last week’s annual budget hearing.

The Middleton Common Council hosted the public hearing prior to its approval of a 2013 budget that contains $41,683,904 in total expenditures.

Two proposed amendments failed and the council voted 8-0 in favor of a resolution to levy property taxes and adopt the 2013 budget documents in the general fund and in the special revenue, debt service, capital and enterprise groups.

Emmy Lou Immell, the lone resident to address the council at the Nov. 28 meeting, voiced appreciation for the work done by those running the municipality but urged them to keep taxes as low as possible.

A Town of Middleton resident’s persistence about open records resulted in the disclosure that American Transmission Co. pays its top executive $510,000 annually.

Cynthia Richson, an attorney and a member of the town’s plan commission, became curious about what ATC pays its top executives after not finding it in annual reports the privately-held public utility files with the Wisconsin Public Service Commission (PSC).

The information took on greater importance as ATC continued its route selection process for the Badger-Coulee transmission that would stretch from the La Crosse area to a substation in the town along USH 14, she said.

“It’s important that the public have all the information their entitled so there’s transparency in the process … as these agencies are involved in decisions that have a great impact,” Richson said.