These three men have stepped up to fill the void left with the retirement of Chief Jay Behling more than a year ago, working together to run the department as the search for a new chief began and was later put on hold as consolidation talks with Cudahy and St. Francis heated up.

Now one of them — Capt. Knitter — has been appointed acting chief. The decision was announced Friday.

As I’ve written about, Capt. Knitter is very qualified for the position, and I know he will serve ably until the long-term future of the chief position is determined. When that will be is an open question, as we continue to get more clarity around the consolidation efforts. That work, the subject of an upcoming study by the Public Policy Forum, will help shape the future of our department.

Best wishes to Capt. Knitter.

We now have that ability. Last year, we instituted the South Milwaukee Emergency Alert System, which allows the city to make thousands of phone calls quickly when the situation calls for it.

Landline phones are already in our database, so there is no need to add those phones to our list. However, you can also receive emergency text updates on your mobile phones. To get this service, you must sign up.

Learn more here.

I have subscribed to the text service since we brought the alert system to South Milwaukee, and it’s worth taking the few minutes to do it. I have set it up to receive breaking weather news, too, so I now find out on my phone whenever a storm watch or warning is issued — or even a special weather statement, such as a couple about today’s late-breaking snowfall.

It’s pretty neat — and it will be invaluable whenever the next disaster strikes.

Check out the Oak Creek Patch story here.

And check out these headlines from around the South Shore:

• Library/City Hall Decision: Post-Mortem (Oak Creek Patch)
• Man Faces $10,000 Fine For Stealing $11 Item From ShopKo (Oak Creek Patch)
• Oak Creek Woman Allegedly Tries To Steal $2K In Goods From Boston Store (Oak Creek Patch)

Also, state Sen. Chris Larson has published a new Larson Report. The headline: Republicans Focused on Saving Their Jobs, Not Yours.

The City Council voted 6-2 Tuesday night to extend the purchase agreement with the retailer to March 15, giving Walmart additional time to seek necessary approvals for construction of its proposed 115,000 square-foot store on North Chicago Avenue.

Just one approval remains: from Union Pacific railroad. UP owns land around a railroad spur on the south end of the 3.6-acre city-owned parcel and must release its right of way for the project to move ahead.

Walmart has been seeking the approval since last fall, when the council granted the first extension on this project.

Hopefully, with this second extension, UP releases its right of way in short order, and the deal closes. But, if it doesn’t, the amendment to the purchase agreement backed by the council Tuesday includes an alternative that will allow Walmart to close by late March no matter what.

Essentially, the city has agreed to remove the railroad right of way from the land it will convey to Walmart — if UP does not grant its necessary approval prior to closing. Under that scenario, the city would keep the UP land, and then convey the right of way to Walmart once UP gives its approval.

The city has been told this OK is coming, and we’ll see. Either way, it looks like this project is finally set to move forward. It’s about time.

The delays (and subsequent extensions) have absolutely been frustrating. I expected to see dirt being moved on the site at this point … and, in hindsight, wish Walmart had secured these necessary approvals before seeking a final vote on the project last October.

Of course, I’d like your thoughts on this, so post your comments below. About 100 Walmart opponents (my estimate) also attended Tuesday’s meeting, and I thank them for avoiding the ugliness of the October meeting that saw the project initially approved.

Among the other actions taken by the council Tuesday:

• We voted unanimously to approve secondhand dealer ordinance and funding for a fire, emergency services and dispatch consolidation study with St. Francis and Cudahy.
• We also approved a $500 licensing fee for junk dealers, still a significant increase from its current $150, but much more sensible than the $1,000 we approved as part of the fee schedule in the fall. I blogged on this issue last week.
• The council also voted 7-1 to make changes to the city’s sex offender ordinance. I was the one “no” vote. My concern with the mostly minor changes we agreed to: the removal of licensed day care facilities from the list of restricted properties. Currently, sex offenders can’t live within 1,000 feet of a licensed day care, and I want to keep it that way. Now, I understand the arguments for removing day cares from that list — most notably that the city can’t control where day cares open because we do not license or track them. There are also concerns about the constitutionality of an unchanged ordinance. I, however, am OK with what we have. Our ordinance is strong and reasonable and, despite all the restrictions, still allows sex offenders to live in approximately 20% of the city. That’s enough, in my mind.

I think it’s much too early to say. We need facts.

And that’s what the three cities are seeking in a study to be done by the Public Policy Forum.

For its part, the South Milwaukee City Council vote unanimously to authorize spending $5,000 toward our portion of the study at its meeting Tuesday night.

Check out the resolution here. From it:

… The City of South Milwaukee hereby pledges its support and authorizes $5,000 in financial assistance to participate in the Public Policy Forum’s fact-based effort to review the potential for coordinating, sharing, or consolidating fire services, EMS services, police dispatch, and/or fire dispatch services as a means of improving the cost-effectiveness and maintaining the quality of such services to the extent possible. 

St. Francis and Cudahy were expected to approve the same resolution Tuesday night.

I look forward to the results of the study and the information it will give us toward helping make this decision — one that we have to consider as we confront a $160,000 loss of paramedic revenue from the county this year (and another significant cut likely in 2013).

I continue to believe strongly that consolidation should be explored with some of our city services, especially in these economics times. At the same time, I will be hesitant to support a consolidated service that is any worse than the existing service.

In other words, if we can do it the same or better for less money, great. If not, I would have a hard time backing the change.

I’ll keep you posted.

Check it out here. From it:

Like most coaches, Bill Spaltholz never completely got the game out of his system.

Years after the hall of fame football coach from South Milwaukee retired, he was still a regular at games.

“He always did enjoy football and he was always concerned with how the Rockets were doing,” said South Milwaukee football coach John Galewski, a former player and assistant coach of Spaltholz’s. …

Galewski, a 1975 South Milwaukee graduate, played running back and was a member of the Suburban Conference championship team in 1973.

Spaltholz would later hire Galewski as a junior varsity assistant coach, and Galewski spent four seasons working on Spaltholz’s staff before he retired.

“He was a great mentor,” Galewski said. “He was always willing to take time and teach things. It was just a great experience for me.”

Spaltholz’s visitation is from 4 to 8 p.m. tonight at Molthen Bell & Sons in South Milwaukee. An additional visitation begins at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday at Grace Lutheran Church in Oak Creek, followed by the funeral.

Please continue to keep the Spaltholz family and all who knew the popular coach in your prayers.

This is the second extension Walmart has sought. You’ll recall that last November the council voted to give Walmart 90 extra days to obtain necessary approvals from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and Union Pacific railroad.

It has the DNR approval it needs, but the UP approval, regarding an easement for UP-owned property on the south end of the proposed development, is still outstanding.

I’ll keep you posted on the outcome of the vote … and of what happens around several other issues before the council on Tuesday, including:

• The secondhand dealer ordinance;
• Junk dealer license fees;
• Changes to our sex offender ordinance; and
• Consideration of a $5,000 expenditure to the Public Policy Forum to fund a joint study looking into the potential consolidation of South Milwaukee fire, emergency medical and dispatch services with Cudahy and St. Francis.

Here is the full agenda.

Check it out here.

And check out these other headlines from around the South Shore:

• Accused St. Matthew Embezzler Pleads Guilty (Oak Creek Patch)
• Caledonia, Franklin Protest Proposed Oak Creek Water Rate Increase (Oak Creek Patch)
• City Hall/Library Decision Could Come Tuesday (Oak Creek Patch)
• Super Bowl Filled With Pain, Joy For Oak Creek Grad (Oak Creek Patch)

Also, state Sen. Chris Larson has published a new Larson Report. Its headline: “Consequences of a Rushed Budget.”

FNF Skate Shop, an up-and-coming skateboard shop at 1203 Milwaukee Ave., has closed and will reopen later this month at 7332 W. Becher St. That’s according to a sign on the store’s door and its website.

While you may have never shopped there, this is a blow to downtown.

These are exactly the kind of destination, specialty retailers I’d love to see more of in our city center. In a big box world, it’s businesses like these that will make South Milwaukee competitive — and potentially lead the way in a downtown rebirth.

Now, we do have other businesses like this downtown, from Green Flag Racing (an outstanding NASCAR store) to Wild Flour Bakery to Donn Powers Jeweler, but it hurts to lose even one on that list.

What do you think? Post your comments below!

The Legislation & Permits Committee will debate the ordinance at its meeting Monday.

If passed, the ordinance will require local retailers who purchase certain goods for resale – including precious metals, jewelry, coins, electronics, expensive sports memorabilia and other goods – to more strictly record each transaction (including with photos) and enter those purchases online through the police department’s NEWPRS computer system. NEWPRS allows police to more easily track stolen goods that thieves may try to resell for some quick cash.

The ordinance also requires secondhand dealers to hold all impacted items for seven days before reselling them – further protecting theft victims.

Now, is the reselling of stolen goods a widspread problem in South Milwaukee? There is no evidence it is. But that doesn’t mean the council shouldn’t be proactive in making sure that victims of burglary and theft in South Milwaukee are protected. This ordinance does so, while not putting unreasonable burdens on secondhand sellers.

The ordinance also exempts those reselling goods for charity, rummage sales and other instances outside the traditional secondhand retail environment.

It also is a big improvement from a first draft of the ordinance – a version some other communities like Greenfield have adopted – which would have put the restrictions on many more types of items, imposed a per-transaction fee on retailers dealing in the impacted goods and required retailers to enter all transactions into NEWPRS within 24 hours (vs. the adopted 48).

Those types of restrictions are unreasonable and could be chilling to current and potential businesses in South Milwaukee. This version goes just far enough.

I’ll keep you posted.