Local

They don’t call Middleton the Good Neighbor City for nothing.

Shortly before 10 p.m. Tuesday, a resident on the second floor of an apartment building in the Forest Harbor complex at 2070 Allen Boulevard noticed thick black smoke spewing from a neighbor’s living quarters. Hector Guerra dashed toward the apartment, grabbed a fire extinguisher, and took aim at flames that caused an estimated $55,000 to $60,000 in damage and left several families temporarily homeless.

The 16-unit building is located near Allen Boulevard’s intersection with University Avenue. One person was transported to an area hospital for smoke inhalation.

Brad Subera, a battalion chief with the Middleton Fire Department, said the blaze began atop an electric stove. “The resident turned on the knobs, then decided not to cook and went to take a nap,” he said. “There were some household goods on the stove and they caught fire.”

Middleton Players Theatre is proud to announce the area’s premiere community theater production of “Les Miserables,” directed by Matt Starika-Jolivet and Thomas Kasdorf, with performance dates from July 5-13 at the Middleton Performing Arts Center. This full-scale version will offer roles for up to 50 local performers ages 8-adult, as well as backstage crew and pit orchestra opportunities. All roles are available for casting. Children’s roles (young Cosette, young Eponine and Gavroche) will be double cast.

A cancer support organization in Middleton has abandoned plans to change its name. In a statement issued Wednesday, Gilda’s Club Madison, which announced late last year it would change its name to Cancer Support Community Southwest Wisconsin in January, said it is retaining the Gilda’s Club name.

“Many of you have noticed that our website, Facebook page and signs did not change in January,” said a Gilda’s Club message sent via email to supporters and members of the media. “Since mid-December, the Gilda’s Club Madison board of directors has been working with our national Cancer Support Community board regarding the name change.”

Pleasant View Golf Course’s clubhouse is now open every Sunday as a warming house for skiers and snowshoers.

According to the Middleton Tourism Department, the public can cruise into the clubhouse every Sunday from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m., stash their equipment on conveniently located storage racks, refuel with pizza and snacks, warm up with hot chocolate and coffee or relax with a cold beer.  In addition to food, the clubhouse offers panoramic views of Lake Mendota, Middleton and Madison. Opening weekend alone, more than 100 people stopped off to rest, defrost and fill up.

Pleasant View Golf Course, owned and operated by the City of Middleton, includes cross-country ski trail loops ranging from 0.5 to 2.3 miles long. 

Residents from the Stonefield neighborhood flooded the Middleton Courthouse Saturday, where two officers, a detective, a captain and the chief of the Middleton Police Department provided details on the investigation into a recent spike in burglaries. Authorities called for a proactive, collaborative approach to help stymy the thieves who have recently zeroed in on the wealthy neighborhood.

Kathy Hansen is stepping down from her position as Middleton Outreach Ministry’s executive director. She was hired in May of 2012, and was MOM’s first female director and its fourth director in five years.

Middleton resident and New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Chiaverini departs from her Elm Creek Quilts series to debut her first stand-alone novel, “Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker” (Dutton; January 15, 2013). 

Images that appeared in the Middleton Times-Tribune last year ranged from joyous celebrations to solemn remembrances.

Clockwise from top left: performers at the Middleton Chamber of Commerce’s annual celebration; Ann Romney, wife of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, with supporters in front of the Middleton Public Library; educators cut the ribbon at the opening of a new Montessori school in the Town of Middleton; local firefighters help track down a thief in Mexico; a candlelight vigil at the Sikh temple on Century Avenue; police officer Nick Stroik is given a medal of valor for shooting an armed intruder; a photographer gets photographed during the Middleton High School Homecoming Parade; Dianne Hesselbein celebrates her victory in the race for the 79th State Assembly seat (center photo).

Pick up a copy of this week's print edition, or purchase the e-edition, for a full rundown of the year's top stories.

A massive white tempest set up shop in Middleton on Wednesday of last week and didn’t leave town until Friday morning. Multiple media outlets reported that Middleton experienced markedly heavier snowfall than many of its neighbors during the storm, with estimates hovering at around 19 inches when it was all said and done.

It’s Friday afternoon and there’s a distinctive sound emanating from the kitchen beneath St. Peter Catholic School in Ashton. It’s periodic laughter and the percussive clunk of chopping as a handful of volunteers mix massive vats of coleslaw, trim hundreds of slabs of cod, and line up tray after tray of homemade cupcakes.

In a few hours, the sound will be replaced by a din rivaling that of any busy restaurant. Baskets of battered cod will be lowered into cracking oil, and more than 1,000 people will line up to take part in a Wisconsin tradition.

It’s a tradition that has been going on here, at St. Peter Catholic Parish, for four decades now.

Friday night fish fries take place in many different venues. Their origin, however, is linked to the devoutly religious European communities that settled in this region of the Midwest.