Thursday, February 21, 2019 • Vol. 134, No. 34 • Oregon, WI • ConnectOregonWI.com • $1.25
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Solving a ‘complex’ problem
A world of imagination Students at Rome Corners Intermediate School on the Blue Team participated in a science fair on Wednesday, Feb. 13. Projects included testing magnetism, the strength of bubble gum and candle-making.
Coalition pushes workforce housing options in Village
Inside
EMILIE HEIDEMANN
More Rome Corners Intermediate Science Fair photos
Unified Newspaper Group
The cost of housing in the Village of Oregon is a burden, according to a regional study. And it’s getting worse. The Dane County Housing Needs Assessment 2018 update states more Oregon households have become “extremely cost burdened,” meaning individuals and families pay more than 50 percent of their income on rent, mortgages and utilities. From 2015-2018, that number jumped from
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Olivia Olson, right, explains to an observing parent what her science project hypothesis concluded during the Blue Team’s science fair at Rome Corners Intermediate School on Wednesday, Feb. 13.
Oregon School District
Bond savings more than $4 million Unified Newspaper Group
After a “very competitive” bidding process for the $44.9 million in bonds to fund last year’s Oregon School District referendums, the district saved around $4.3 million in interest to allow it to “set the tax lower in future years,” superintendent Brian Busler said. The Jan. 23 public sale received 50 bids, with several firms submitting multiple bids. According to OSD financial consultant PMA Financial Network, which handled the sale,
Turn to Housing/Page 14
the auction was extended 13 times in the final minutes, as new bidders kept topping each other with a lower rate. When the time expired, the $44.9 million in general obligation school and building bonds went to Raymond James with an offer of 3.33 percent interest, edging out Citigroup after the two went back and forth at the end. That rate was better than what district officials had estimated before the Nov. 6 referendums, with interest costs reduced from around $25 million to around $20.5. The savings of $4,358,474 will reduce the amount of money the district will tax in future years, Busler said. “It is difficult to say that it was more competitive than we
anticipated, although 50 bids is a high number,” Busler wrote in an email to the Observer. One of the reasons for the healthy competition between the two banks — and subsequent lower interest rate — was likely the bonds’ environmentally focused “green” designation, said OSD business manager Andy Weiland, who watched the bidding in real time with a mixture of excitement and analytics. “Two banks would take turns reducing their interest rate in order to win our bonds (and) each time they did, it saved tens to sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest cost for our taxpayers,” he
Turn to Bonds/Page 16
Springer, Smith advance to April general election ALEXANDER CRAMER Unified Newspaper Group
Brit Springer and Kyle Smith will be the two candidates in April to be the next president of the Village of Brooklyn. Springer’s 41 votes in Tuesday’s primary election are more than half the total and doubled up Smith’s 20. Jim Bakken collected 17 votes and was eliminated from the race. However, the last elected president successfully waged a write-in campaign in 2017. The pair will be competing for a two-year term as president in the general election Tuesday, April 2. The village has 860 registered voters, clerk Linda Kuhlman told the Observer, and roughly 9 percent
voted in the primary. Springer has been a village trustee since 2017 and serves on the Recreation and Economic Development committees. She has a bachelor’s degree in computer imaging and works as a multimedia designer. Smith was first elected as a village trustee in 2015 and again in 2018 after not running for re-election in 2017. He serves on the village’s Personnel committee. The Village Board named Todd Klahn interim president Feb. 11 after the last elected president, Clayton Schulz, resigned Jan. 31. Schulz successfully waged a write-in campaign to unseat Pat Hawkey in 2017 when he was 22 years old, winning with 138 votes.
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55 to 135 households. A group of village residents hopes to play a role in creating options for Victorson those workers and anyone who wants to move to Oregon. The Oregon Housing Coalition, which includes representatives from local government and nonprofit organizations, is hoping to draw attention to the issue and enact initiatives to make housing more affordable. “The basic goal of the coalition is to bring a variety of different perspectives together to solve a
Village of Brooklyn primary Photo by Justin Loewen
District: Future tax levies to be lower than planned
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Oregon Observer The