South Milwaukee Council Recap: Walmart Site Stormwater, Appleton Noise, Junk Trucks, Upcoming Meetings, Police And Fire Commission

It was a rather full agenda at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, our first since December. Here is a brief recap … 

• The council voted 6-2 to spend more than $99,000 to construct a new stormwater relay at the North Chicago Avenue site soon to be a Walmart. The new pipe and other infrastructure will replace rusty, metal pipe more than 50 years old and improve stormwater flow through the area. This is work the city has contemplated for some time, but we wanted to wait to do it until we had formal plans from a developer for the vacant site to move ahead. The system will connect to Walmart’s proposed underground detention pond and also serve the approximately 10 acres north of Carroll Avenue to College – site of Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, etc. Bids ranged from the one we selected to more than $170,000. We chose Bradford Contractors out of Burlington to do the project starting as soon as possible.
• The council voted 8-0 to spend up to $8,000 to hire a consultant, Sigma Environmental Services, to study noise and vibration reported by neighbors of Appleton Electric in 5^th and Milwaukee Avenues. Neighbors have complained for some time about excessive vibrations coming from the foundry. The city looked into the matter in 2011, but with continuing complaints, we felt it best to bring in an expert to look into the issue further. Sigma will do two weeks of testing in and around homes in the neighborhood. I am glad we’re doing our part to get to the bottom of this. I’ll keep you posted.
• The council also agreed to amend our ordinance around junk dealer licenses. It passed 8-0, but the debate was more on the size of the annual fee we’re now asking junk dealers to pay. As part of the approval of our annual fee schedule last fall, we increased the junk truck fee from $150 to $1,000. I was uncomfortable with the increase then but voted yes because it was one of hundreds of line items in the schedule – and the only one I had serious issues with. We now plan to have a deeper discussion on the junk truck fee at a future Legislation & Permits Committee meeting, where I hope the fee – which would kick in July 1 – will be lowered to a more reasonable increase. I’ll keep you posted.  
• Aldermen also made a couple changes to upcoming meeting times. We moved our meeting scheduled for Feb. 21 to Feb. 22 to accommodate the primary election for Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge. We also decided to cancel our first April meeting (April 3) and only hold our April 17 meeting that month. This is because of expected high turnout (and added work for the clerk’s office) for the election on April 3, which you will recall is also the Wisconsin presidential primary. The council also meets May 1.
• We also named former Alderman Mark Milinovich to the Police and Fire Commission, replacing Richard Cole, who is moving from the city.

Of course, if you have comments on any of the topics above, post them below!