Best of Patch: August

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

During mid-August, Dennis Marth was convicted of something pretty serious, and the court appearances dragged on and on. On July 15, a woman noticed Marth walking up to boys in the park and asking them where the railroad tracks were. The woman had been watching four children at the park and one of them told her it was odd that Marth asked him where the tracks were because he already had shown him where the tracks were. The youth also said he heard Marth  ask another boy to show him where the tracks were.

On the heels of the Marth controversy, Sussex began discussing a sex offender ordinance, something they later passed. Sussex was one of the last Lake Country communities not to have a sexual predator ordinance.

A 20-year-old Sussex man named Kyle S. Benvenuto faced charges after he allegedly stole 700 DVDs from his cousin and sold them in Milwaukee. He admitted to taking 300 of the movies in order to sell them and use the money to buy cigarettes, gas and to take a trip up north. Benvenuto then told his cousin he would repay him for the missing DVDs, but a couple days later all but 20 of his more than 700 movies were missing. The missing movies are valued at about $14,000.

Students who graduated from  in 2011 continued to have strong ACT scores, keeping pace with graduates from previous years. According to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, 2011 graduates from Hamilton had a composite score of 23.6, which is down slightly from 24.1 in 2010, but still well above the state average of 22.6. It was also the fourth year seniors scored above a 23 on the test.

Professional contractors from Minnesota-Wisconsin Playground Installers guided the volunteers through all phases of the equipment install. It was all a part of the community's "Community Build" initiative. Three parks in Sussex were rebuilt in 2011 because of the community build program.