The Best of Patch: January

At year's end it's nice to take a look back at where you came, which offers a good look at where you're going. At Patch, January marked our first full month serving the community. Although we were still newbies, there were some great stories to kick off 2011.

• Read every installment of the Fox Point-Bayside Year in Review series

After months of discussion and controversey over a quickly tightening budget, the Nicolet High School Board voted 4-1 to put a referendum on the April 2011 ballot calling for an increase in taxes by more than $10 million over the following five years.

Although just a few days before Christmas we have no snow in Fox Point and Bayside, January of 2011 kept residents busy snowblowing driveways and digging out mailboxes. Take a look at these pictures of one of the first big snow storms in 2011.

Would you like a vanilla latte with your bath? This isn't something you hear too often, but at the Community Bark: Dog Wash & Coffee Bar, that's a daily request. Patch took a look at this unique business and asked owner Andrew Appel how the idea for an Alterra coffee element and soap suds establishment was born.

The Nicolet Dance Team was chosen to perform with more than 800 other girls at the Orange Bowl along side major performers like the Goo Goo Dolls and with choreographers like Bonnie Story. The girls performed so well, they were invited to perform at a 2012 Bowl and just need to decide which one they would like to participate in.

After having been arrested for unauthorized showers a few times previously, a 23-year-old Milwaukee woman told officers "she forgot" that she wasn't supposed to take showers at Vita Fitness without payment or permission. Officers arrested her for trespassing and patted her down. They found three towels, shower gel and a can of Lysol which Vita employees confirmed were missing from the Women's locker room.

Coyotes have been an on-going problem in the North Shore and in an effort to help save local kitties, one Bayside police officer hopes that wolf urine will solve the problem.