Wisconsin State Journal from Madison, Wisconsin • 23

DANE: 'Radar wagon' warns Monona speeders3C lotteries Records IjWeather 2C 2C 8C Coming Monday College students explore the civil rights movement Sunday, April.9, 2000 WiscOiNSL State Journal City Editor Joyce Dehli. (608) 252-6117 'It's the selling of the plan that makes the plan' By Phil McDade Wisconsin State Journal Two Dane County school districts DeForest and Waunakee went before voters last week to get approval for more than $70 million worth of school building projects. In the past, DeForest had struggled to pass school building referendums. Yet its $28.6 million package was approved largely intact, and by a surprisingly easy margin. Waunakee had a history of supporting referendums pass and others faiL For starters, it appears that you can't talk a referendum to death.

Witness what happened in DeForest After the district's third attempt to pass a high school referendum garnered only 36 percent of the vote in the fall of 1998, district officials revamped their strategy. They convened a districtwide forum composed of school, business and civic leaders aimed not so much about pass- OFF 0n BEAT dog days of the campaign trail Dogs apparently are an Indispensable campaign tool for Dane County Board candidates, and puppies aj-e even better. Two years ago, the election strategy Sup. Echnaton Vedder, 8th District, Madison, included standing with his not far from a campus polling place. When students came up to pet tfie dog, he asked them to vote for him.

11 But Vedder's dog died last year and fie faced a tough election challenge tpom Michelle Staude, who issued a Jefochure with a dog on it Vedder's campaign apparently was (escued by a puppy named Enrique. tVfcdder brought the puppy along when JBe campaigned at pet-starved campus dormitories. Although the fur flew in the 8th District race, Vedder won re-election i Tuesday. "He didn't need it," said Sup. Scott McDonell, 4th District, Madison.

"He's 4 puppy himself." Tiggyhobbin' is new to Cornwall kids school referendums. Yet its $42 million package failed, by a surprisingly large margia What happened? The lessons learned by the two neighboring suburban districts may prove instructive for other county districts such as Middleton-Cross Plains, Monona Grove, and Deerfield considering building referendums in coming Those lessons also shed some light on why some ing a referendum, but at building a consensus about schools and education. Many in the district credit those initial discussions, initiated by Superintendent Jon Bales, as laying the groundwork for passing last week's referendum. The. district also took its Jime in developing a referendum, testing proposals before the public to see if they would garner support The district held several public forums, and Bales became a regular at civic luncheons to answer questions about Please see SCHOOLS, Page 7C Verona has big plans for lumberyard By Valeria Davis-Humphrey Suburban reporter VERONA It's time to get down to business in Verona.

Last week the city finalized the purchase of the former Brunsell lumber and truss yard on South Main Street for $422,500. The two-acre property, which straddles the Military Ridge State Bicycle Trail on the south edge of the city's blooming downtown, ends a long transition from the era of rail-corridor commercial and industrial businesses there, said Verona administrator Larry Saeger. Brunsell has moved to Mount Horeb. While the city didn't want to lose a major, longtime employer, Saeger said, the lumber and building supply business was no longer compatible with the pedestrian retail use now developing under the city's downtown revitalization plan. "We want to do something to make our downtown a destination," Saeger said.

"It needs to be something to make people literally park their cars and get out" In 1996, the city designated the area as a tax incremental finance (TIF) district to help fund improvements and promote private reinvestment Verona's look is evolving slowly, but steadily, as unsightly utility wires are buried and sidewalks, curbs and gutters get replaced at the "crossroads" where Highway and Business 18151 intersect in the center of town. Downtown businesses are behind the vision that's evolyjng into an inviting, walkable retail area working together through the local Chamber of Commerce. Cozy building fronts, flower boxes, decorative iron fences and easy access parking are all part of the plan. Verona has two emerging markets to serve, Saeger said. With a population nearing 6,500, there is a growing need for basic services like gas stations, dry cleaners, grocery stores and restaurants.

The second market is people who come to Verona for a specific product or service. These "destination" shoppers feel the trip to Verona is worth a great specialty food, a particular type of furniture or a unique gift not available anywhere else. Please see VERONA, Page 7C i i -r si f'''i STEVE APPSWSJ photos of dousing pasties with chili sauce, ketchup or gravy isn't how they're eaten in Cornwall. "Except if you get them at school, then you need something" to help the dry school pies, says Jenna Knight of Cornwall. The five Cornish Please see TEENS, Page 6C TOP: The teens from Cornwall toured the miners' cottages built into the hillside at the Pendarvis historic site In Mineral Point.

ABOVE: Bethany Pearce of Redruth, Cornwall, England, checks out Wisconsin cheese being made at Hook's cheese factory in Mineral Point. BELOW: Donna Spencer of Cornwall takes photos of mining scenes at Pendarvis. On Friday she got to see what she really wanted to experience on her trip to Wisconsin: snow. British visitors spend some time in their "twin" city, Mineral Point. SUSAN i LAMPERT I SMITH ON WISCONSIN 1 i i mtm 3 in ii i i i 1 1 iii.im.ii mm -i Wedding day on Wienermobile jrf 7 When Jon Christian of East Bristol proposed to his girlfriend of more than pl8 years, he had one stipulation.

11 I "I told her, 'We have to get married Ion April Fool's said Christian, who admits to a little chicanery in his So his bride, Kristen Christian, Wasn't surprised when Jon pulled a few pranks at their April 1 wedding in East he said. IK When Jon answered his wedding jfyw with an "I do, and that's my final 3swer," a loud snicker rippled -jHjrough the church. 1 After the ceremony, the bride, groom Sjd guests took turns taking a whirl Jaiound downtown Columbus in the JwScaf Mayer Wienermobile. Jon had wpn privileges to the Wienermobile at 'Second Harvest Foodbank fund- i i Republications vs: DemocYatlcms Observant voters in Columbia Jcfcunty discovered a new political party Sp the ballot Tuesday: the ftepublication Party, jt The party's central platform: The rieht to freelv reproduce (minted ij Biaterlals), perhaps, Actually said Columbia County lerk Cathleen Lathrop, the misprint tily occurred in one spot on the ballot, tnd slipped through despite -i: proofreading by many pairs of eyes. "They were proofed beyond I proofing," Lathrop said, jj The error was made by the ballot printer, a firm in predominantly doubts any intention to poke fun at the Republicans.

"Democrat was misspelled in three places, but we caught that," Lathrop 'said. Nittany Lion by a paw I We're number two! Buckingham U. Badger made it to the Championship round of ESPN's annual Battle of the Mascots, and came in an extremely close second to the Nittany Lion of Penn State. The Nittany Lion beat Bucky by the hair on its tail with 50 percent to 49.9 percent Total online votes cast: 56,763. A former Battle of the Mascots champion, Bucky's ESPN scouting report for this year's tournament was encouraging.

"Great in the low post, can root opponents out in the box." I Bucky sailed through the early rounds and into the Final Four this year beating Georgia Southern's Gus, I Syracuse's Otto the Orange, and the i Kentucky Wildcat (not to be confused with Northwestern's Willie the Wildcat eliminated in Round 1, before falling to ioie'Nitt). School's Brew UW-Platteville is putting the "pub" i back in public university. The university is planning to install a brew pub as part of the food court in its new student center, -f v. due to open in 2002. 1 rl.w Initially, the only brews on tap will be root beer and sasanarilla said Creee i hz-s Heinselman, director of the Ullsvik Center, the current student center at UW-Platteville.

But the pub can be set up to brew the real stuff for special occasions, he said. Got a Up? Call 252-6066, e-mail at uJJbeatdi tnadison.com or write: The Wisconsin State Journal, Attn: OJJbeat, Box 8058, Madison, Wis. 53708. MINERAL POINT So how does America's "Cornish miner's colony" look to teen-agers from real Cornwall? Well, the old mine shafts and stone cottages look familiar, since Mineral 1 Point was founded by Cornish miners who left the tin mines of Cornwall, England, for the lead mines of southwest Wisconsin in the 1830s. But buildings that look old to American eyes don't impress the Cornish the same way.

school is 150 years old," says one teen-ager, "it's And they've never heard of some of the "authentic" Cornish foods served hereabouts, especially a "figgyhobbin." Former Brunsell ksS property 1 tafl Verona cv pt pd-: 1 I Verona MJ (251 TTJT (69; I jlJtJJI I pb1 WSJ graphic "We thought it was a made-up tourist thing," says Richard Chown, a student from Redruth School in Cornwall. But pasties? Well, they know pasties. The traditional meat and potato pies that the Cornish miners could take down into the shafts in their pockets are still popular in pasty shops across Cornwall. They're still made with the traditional ingredients potato, steak, and turnips that you'll find in a Mineral Point pasty. Now, though, some pasty shops in Cornwall have been filling the pies with curry, cheese and onions, and even chocolate.

They're best eaten right from the paper sack to catch the drippings. But, say the students, the American style Standing atop word mountain Looking up for inspiration, Katrina Shankland correctly spells "bonification" to win the 52nd Annual Badger Spelling Bee at Verona High School on Saturday. The 12 year-old seventh-grader from Wittenberg Middle School near Wausau now heads to Washington, D.C., for the National Spelling Bee. Behind Katrina stands Samantha Toigo, 12, of Green Bay, who finished second. JOHN MANIACtWSJ photo Saturday's competition.

Katrina outspelled 50 other students who had won regional bees. More than a quarter million fourth-through eighth-graders had competed earlier in school bees across the state. Katrina now heads to Washington, D.C., for the National Spelling Bee on May 31 and June 1. Katrina won an all-expenses-paid trip for herself and her father, Ron Shankland, to the nation's capital, a $500 savings bond, computer software and other gifts. Sponsored by the Wisconsin State Journal, the 52nd annual state bee attracted more than 300 people to Verona High School.

The competition lasted 3V2 hours until only Katrina and Samantha Toigo, 12, of St Bernard School in Green Bay, remained on the high school's large auditorium stage. "This is nerve-racking," said Katrina's mother, Theresa Shankland. "I'm beet red, and my blood pressure is probably 300 over 300." Please see SPELLER, Page 7C 12-year-old girl from Wittenberg, near Wausau, bests all comers in Badger Spelling Bee. By Scott Milfred Wisconsin State Journal VERONA People gasped in disbelief when I Katrina Shankland correctly spelled "suretyship" at the Badger Spelling Bee on Saturday. And that was just the beginning.

The 12-year-old from Wittenberg, a small town 30 miles east of Wausau, also nailed such words as "antiphonal," "zigzaggedness," "hartebeest," "jeremiad" and "sillographer" en route to the state title. "I knew most of them," Katrina said afterward, surrounded by glowing family members. "But at the end I just had to guess educated guess." The slender seventh-grader with long brown hair and a giant smile had studied three to four hours a night in recent weeks to prepare for 1 liA.