Best of Patch: September

As 2011 comes to a close, Sussex Patch looks back at the top stories of the year, month by month. Here’s a recap of the news that made headlines in Sussex.

• Read the entire Sussex Year in Review series

This was undoubtedly Sussex Patch's number one story of 2011. Brittany Barcus performed sexual acts with a 13-year-old boy at least three times when her boyfriend wasn’t home. Barcus had befriended the boy, who is now 14, prior to the assaults and would invite him to her home on a daily basis. On one occasion, Barcus had sex with the boy in her laundry room while her children were sleeping.

Recounting the story of Louis Weinhandl was one of the most interesting and inspiring stories I had the pleasure of writing. When the Town of Lisbon decided to build a 9/11 memorial on the tenth anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks, Weinhandl donated his masonry skills to help the project. As a child, Weinhandl was held in a concentration camp, so he wanted to make sure people never forget the horrors of war.

Remember when Sussex smelled like a wonderful bon-fire during a hot summer night? Well, so do local officials who started their morning warding off calls from concerned residents thinking the whole village was on fire. Turns out, 60,000 acres of Minnesota's Boundary Waters were on fire. It wasn't Sussex, but it was still devastating. 

The Bugline Trail will be widened and paved under a proposal in the 2012-16 Waukesha County capital projects plan. According to the proposal, the trail improvements will allow increased accessibility to runners, wheelchairs, bicycles and in-line skaters and help the county’s overall sustainability plan. This came to mixed reviews from residents, some saying it was a good plan while others admitted it sounds like a waste of money.

Now basically complete and ready for condos, the Glen at Seven Stones condo development was approved and under construction in September. When construction is complete there will be 56 new homes in the Seven Stones subdivision.

Sussex said "Goodbye" to Hardees and "Hello" to its newest sports bar, Rumors. Owned by a family from Alaska, Rumors received a warm welcome from residents and continues to thrive as a tasty and fun place for families.