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F AMILY O WNED & O PERATED S INCE 1869 Stoughton • Madison • McFarland Deerfield • Sun Prairie • Waunakee
Thursday, June 28, 2018 • Vol. 136, No. 49 • Stoughton, WI • ConnectStoughton.com • $1.25
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Saving the blacksmith shop? Keeping last Highway Trailer building could hinge on private investment BILL LIVICK Unified Newspaper Group
Photo by Kimberly Wethal
Left, Dane County executive Joe Parisi talks with Sunnyside Street resident Lisa Kast, whose backyard has been under several inches of water thanks to recent rainfall.
‘Above 100-year level’ SCOTT DE LARUELLE AND KIMBERLY WETHAL Unified Newspaper Group
The water in Lisa Kast’s backyard last week was “almost up to your knees.” Kast and her family, who live on the 3100 block of Sunnyside Street across
from Lake Kegonsa, experienced flooding in 2008 – a record year across the state – but even that wasn’t as bad as this year’s. “This is going to be a lot worse,” she told the Hub Thursday, June 21. Thankfully, when Kast woke up June 19 and saw the rising waters – which reached a new record a couple days later – she knew what to do. Dane County workers had dropped off thousands of pounds of sand and sandbags for area residents, and
before long, she and her neighbors were busy filling and stacking them protectively around their houses. With summer just beginning, rainfall in the Madison area is on pace with last year’s. May was just under 10 inches, near the 2008 record, and June was well above average before Tuesday’s on-and-off storms. But rain was only part of the story. Its effects have been exacerbated by
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Catfish River brings 15 acts to Rotary Park Performances are free and benefit the Opera House
If you go
BILL LIVICK Unified Newspaper Group
Stoughton Opera House director Bill Brehm is getting the hang of booking shows for the Catfish River Music Festival, which returns for the fifth time Friday, July 6, to Rotary Park. In the past, he scheduled 15 acts and the festivals “went great.” So he’s done it again. All shows are free and
What: Catfish River Music Festival When: 4-9 p.m. Friday, July 6; Noon to 9 p.m. Saturday, July 7; Noon to 9 p.m. Sunday, July 8 Where: Rotary Park, 381 E. Main St., Stoughton. Info: catfishrivermusicfest.com.
performed in the park on Main Street, next to City Hall and the fire station. The festival features three acts Friday and six on both Saturday and Sunday. It’s being put on by the Stoughton Opera House Friends Association and is a fundraiser for the Opera House.
This year’s lineup features some familiar names and also some new faces, including Scott Mulvahill, whom Brehm described as “the surprise in the bunch.” “ H e t o u r e d i n R i c ky Skaggs’ band for about five years and is one of the most amazing bass players that
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I’ve ever seen,” Brehm said. “And he has a great voice.” Mulvahill is set to play Sunday at 5:45 p.m. as half of a duo. He opened for a main show in the Opera House last season. “I was so excited by his opening set during this last season that I got him to come to the festival and I booked him for the upcoming season, too,” Brehm said. Other acts that Opera House patrons will likely recognize include Moonhouse, The Cactus Blossoms, Robbie Fulks, Charlie Parr, the Way Down
March: A look at the conflict This month: Stoughton’s history with historic buildings May: The history of the blacksmith shop and Highway Trailer complex June: Future possibilities for the blacksmith shop the Stoughton Redevelopment Authority and other city officials are trying to determine. Council president Tom Majewski and RDA chair Roger Springman are among the strongest advocates for preserving the 14,000-square-foot structure, which faces Seventh Street and has architectural features that set it apart from the rest of the complex. Ald. Greg Jenson (Dist. 3) persuaded the council last year to focus on saving the blacksmith shop instead of the entire Highway Trailer complex at 501 E. South St., but he later backed off any particular devotion to the
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Inside 8 Stoughton Courier Hub - Stoughton Focus - June 28, 2018
2018
Read about the past year in Stoughton business and development in our Stoughton Focus section Pages 8-14
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County, city work to handle flooding on Lake Kegonsa
City leaders have shown interest in saving one historic structure in the riverfront redevelopment area. That 108-year-old building, originally part of the Moline Plow Company’s Mandt Wagon Branch, is known as the blacksmith shop. But how it might be saved and what it would become have yet to be determined. Earlier this month, the Common Council removed a demolition moratorium it had put in place last year for structures in historic districts throughout the city. But it made an exception for the blacksmith shop, which remains protected. How long it will survive the demolition that’s taking place with the rest of the Highway Trailer complex, and already occurred with MillFab and other buildings in the 15-acre redevelopment area, is a question that members of
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