11/218/19 Verona Press

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Verona Press The

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Thursday, November 28, 2019 • Vol. 55, No. 28 • Verona, WI • Hometown USA • ConnectVerona.com • $1.25

Kathy Bartels

City of Verona

The fix is in Newly signed bill allows refund of taxes from assessor’s TIF error JIM FEROLIE Verona Press editor

It’s like getting an early Christmas present you paid for yourself. On Thanksgiving week, just in time for holiday shopping, the City of Verona is mailing checks to property owners who paid taxes on the 2018 levy, and for homeowners, they’ll be an average of $119. The nearly yearlong wait to Photo by Neal Patten

Owner Kevin Krahn.

Bringing it home

Veronans opens third North and South location in Liberty Park NEAL PATTEN

Inside

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T

he namesake – and menu – of North and South Seafood and Smokehouse make a lot more sense once you learn the backstory of its founders, Keith and Erin Stoesz. Keith is from Minnesota, what one could assume is the “north,” and Erin is from Texas, or the obvious “south.” The couple met by chance in an even farther “north” – Anchorage, Alaska – and now lives in Verona. For 10 years, they operated a Madison franchise of Joey’s Seafood and Grill restaurant chain on Mineral Point Road; however, the couple wanted to add brisket and barbecue items to the menu. It was then, in 2015, they decided it

El Charro opens in former 4 Sisters location Page 7 was time to rebrand and their new seafood and smokehouse concept was born. Just as their marriage brought together two ends of the country, so does their menu. The restaurant’s signature foods include brisket and burnt ends – two of its most popular items – as well as pulled pork, wings, crab, shrimp, cod, haddock and other seafood. The Verona restaurant is the

franchise’s third location, joining DeForest and Madison, and it opened Tuesday, Oct. 15, at 958 Liberty Drive, owned by another Verona resident, Kevin Krahn. The restaurant took over the space that formerly housed Verona Woods restaurant, which closed in April after two years in business. It’s a few doors down from El Charro, which opened in October in the location where 4 Sisters had closed in February. “It’s a little scary going into a location where the last business failed, but we want Verona to know we offer great values for families,” Krahn said. Krahn, who has worked in the restaurant industry for decades, was recommended to the Stoeszs by the owner of

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correct the previous assessor’s $54 million clerical error is a result of working through the state Legislature because a change in law was necessary for a correction. It was actually just over a year, if you factor in how long ago city staff and elected officials were aware the error was there. The mistake stuck though, despite repeated efforts to persuade the state Department of Administration, who was unable to correct the mistake prior to the budget’s publication. The error was the result of former assessor Paul Musser, first duplicating some $5 million in taxable value between

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Annual Hometown Holidays event to be held Dec. 6-7 NEAL PATTEN Unified Newspaper Group

If You Go

Starting next Friday, it’ll What: Hometown Holiofficially be the holiday seadays son in Verona. When: Friday, Dec. 6 The Verona Area Chamber through Saturday, Dec. 7 of Commerce will host two Where: Central Park, days of traditional holiday senior center, State Bank activities on Friday, Dec. 6 of Cross Plains – Verona, and Saturday, Dec. 7. Junction Park The annual holiday event will open with a ceremonial Info: veronawi.com tree-lighting at 5 p.m. Dec. 6 in Central Park, located at the corner of South Main and the ceremony. Christmas carPaoli streets. The event will ols will be sung by members be broadcast live on News 3 of Resurrection Lutheran Now with its chief meteorolTurn to Holidays/Page 5 ogist Gary Cannalte leading

‘Mystery’ and ‘Castaway’ buildings coming to Epic Campus 5 Initial plans up for review by Plan Commission on Monday RENEE HICKMAN Unified Newspaper Group

Epic is getting ready to build again – this time adding offices that evoke taking a trip on the high seas or solving a mystery for employees as they work.

Planning documents for Phase 2 of the Storybook campus – also known as Campus 5 – indicate the buildings will be called “Mystery” and “Castaway.” Other buildings in the campus also have individual external visual themes, such as Alice, Oz, Chocolate Factory and Grimm, recalling well-known works or authors of fantasy fiction. The campus’s fifth building, Jules Verne, is still under The

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construction. According to the project description, the two buildings each will consist of approximately 90,000 square feet and 350 additional offices at the company’s 900-acre location on Verona’s west side. As of spring 2019, the medical records giant e m p l oy e d 9 , 8 0 0 e m p l oy e e s , according to reporting by the Rendering courtesy Cuningham Group A view from the west of Castaway shows elements of an 18th century Wisconsin State Journal. Turn to Epic/Page 9 ship.

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