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Thursday, January 31, 2019 • Vol. 137, No. 28 • Stoughton, WI • ConnectStoughton.com • $1.25
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Citizen of the Year 2018
City of Stoughton
Decades of dedication
Committee aims for downtown growth
Lowe’s years of service have long-term impact on community AMBER LEVENHAGEN Unified Newspaper Group
Group forming in February, plans to solicit input ALEXANDER CRAMER Unified Newspaper Group
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Barbara Lowe, the Hub’s Citizen of the Year, has worked as an educational assistant at Stoughton High School since 1999. From left, SHS Jack Sundby, Razzario Patrinos, Drew Anderson, Mikendra DeBruin, Hailey Brown and Arianna Patterson stand at the library’s central desk with Lowe. assistant in the library, where she helps students with homework and working with library materials, like books, magazines and Chromebooks. Years of service “I’m on hand in case they need Lowe’s work doesn’t stop at the help with homework, though quite a bit of what they’re learning is end of the school day. At school, she’s an educational way past me,” she said. “I try to
have Barbara Lowe to make a positive impact on the quality of life of the high school students and the community as a whole,” she added.
help them succeed.” While not at work, Lowe can be found ushering guests to their seats at the Stoughton Opera House, where she said she’s volunteered for nearly 20 years. She started when a friend mentioned how the Opera House was
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Senior center receives national accreditation Analyzes best practices, how to better serve seniors AMBER LEVENHAGEN Unified Newspaper Group
As Stoughton’s population changes, the senior center is adapting with it. The Stoughton Area Senior Center’s national accreditation has been renewed for the fourth time. The accreditation was earned in December 2018, and the senior center will roll out its action plans
in the next few weeks and months to help keep in line with the best practices of serving older adults. Senior center director Cindy McGlynn said the National Institute of Senior Centers puts together the guidelines of best practices that help each organization measure their performance against other centers in terms of connecting with the community, financial processes and other benchmarks. The process is done every five years, though it’s not mandated. McGlynn said the senior center participates because
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it’s a goal to make sure the center is changing as the population changes to make sure that the center is adjusting to new needs and new resources available in the community. “We try to take off the ‘this is how we always do it’ hat and really look at how do we need to change, what do we need to try again or differently, looking at different education pieces, wellness pieces and a lot of times looking at more collaboration,” she said. The accreditation process takes
several months, as a peer reviewer from the NISC visits with the committee and completes a survey and helps address areas of improvement. They meet with the different committees and help create an action plan that is implemented over the next five years, and then the process starts over again. The accreditation committee is comprised of people from the senior center and around the community. This year, the group
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By this time next year, some city leaders are hoping Stoughton will be putting in place policies and plans to help guide investment into its downtown. Armed with up to $40,000 and led by longterm resident Sharon Mason-Boersma and outgoing Ald. Denise Duranczyk (Dist. 1), the Downtown Revitalization subcommittee will m e e t w i t h Duranczyk downtown stakeholders to determine the area’s strengths and weaknesses and how the city can help. “My hope is to have a business association we can jumpstart to figure out these public and private partnerships,” Duranczyk told the Common Council before it unanimously voted to create the committee Tuesday, Jan. 22. “Not just listening to people complaining about these things, put(ting) in place strategies (to address them).” The group will report to the Redevelopment Authority, which had stirred up some controversy in recent weeks over whether it has the authority to write a plan for the downtown. It will focus on the area from Page Street to Coffee Street along Main Street and two to three blocks off of Main Street to the north and south, according to the application. The group will pay specific attention to
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If you’ve walked the halls of Stoughton Area High School within the last 20 years, chances are you’ve met this year’s Citizen of the Year. Barbara Lowe, who has worked as an educational assistant at the high school since 1999, was nominated and selected as the Hub’s Citizen of the Year for her length of service in the community. In addition to working at the high school, Lowe has volunteered at the Stoughton Opera House for more than 15 years, with the FFA Alumni since her son, Nicholas, joined the organization in 1995, and with numerous school district extracurricular activities for just as long. She has also helped with the annual Madrigal Dinners since 1989, starting when her twin daughters, Melissa and Rebecca, were in eighth grade, and she sings in the choir at Stoughton United Methodist Church. “It’s amazing how much students change from when they walk in as freshman and how they have blossomed and succeed when they are ready to graduate and go on to other things,” she said. “I’m a small part, it takes a village to raise kids.” Lowe was nominated by Mary and Greg Onsager this year and last, as well as Jerry Wendt and Darlene Arneson in previous years. “We met Barbara Lowe at Kegonsa Elementary School when our only child entered kindergarten in 1988,” Mary Onsager wrote. “Barb was the nurse’s aid and was out in the hallway welcoming and helping anyone new to the school. “Yes, Stoughton is fortunate to
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