Update: South Milwaukee Common Council Votes to Close Grobschmidt Senior Center, Study Future of the South Milwaukee Library

The Grobschmidt Senior Center will close at the end of 2024, and the city will partner with the Wisconsin Policy Forum to study the future of the South Milwaukee Public Library following two South Milwaukee Common Council votes — and more than 90 minutes of comments from the public — on Tuesday.

The council voted 8-0 to close the senior center. The vote was 7-1 on the library study.

The votes came after more than 30 people offered public comments on the topics, with many making personal and passionate pleas to the city to continue to fund those services.

TMJ4 captured some of the emotion in the room in this story. A few of my takeaways …

• As I shared, I support both decisions.
• As to the library, I am hopeful the study contemplates more than just the options presented in the proposal, and I’m confident that will be the case. At the meeting, I suggested closure be removed as an option, as there could be a significant cost to do so — financial to the city and its taxpayers and personal to the thousands of users of the facility. And while that option remains, I am hopeful this study gives the council the information it needs to not only maintain the investment in our library, but enhance it. Will that be in the exact facility you see today? Unsure. But maybe now is the time to reimagine how we deliver this core service — and reinvent it for a new generation. Let’s begin that conversation now, grounded with the perspective the Policy Forum will provide.
• As to the senior center, it is clear from the people who spoke Tuesday just how personal this decision is. Closing it will have a real imapct. I do not doubt the senior center is incredibly valuable to its users, but there are simply not enough of them (225, a declining figure, with more half coming from outside city). I very much wish it was different and that the center could remain open. But the budget realities are what they are. And there are other good options operated by Milwaukee County in Cudahy and on the South Side of Milwauke and, as of this January, the Salvation Army in Oak Creek. I’d also link Tuesday’s two debates in this way: The South Milwaukee Library already offers a number of services and programming to adults of all ages. Maybe enhancing those for seniors at the next generation library can be explored as part of the study.
• The council’s rationale for these decisions is sound. Most aldermen pointed directly at state government for putting us in this position, and they are right. Decades of disinvestment in shared revenue and the reduction of options for local governments to raise revenue have come to roost. Act 12 helped, but not nearly enough. And until state lawmakers and Gov. Evers decide to make this a priority, it will not get noticeably better. “Nice to have” services will continue to be cut. My hope is the newly redrawn legislative maps and a more balanced legislature will make this issue a priority.
• And this: I give a lot of credit to City Administrator Patrick Brever, City Clerk Sandi Wesolowski, staff, and the council for hearing the people on these important issues. It’s really hard for elected officials to just shut up and listen sometimes. That included me. But it’s the right thing to do, and I thank the city for giving everyone in attendance the opportunity to speak on Tuesday.

So, what’s next? Keep speaking up! There is a still a lot to be decided, especially around the future of the library. This is just the beginning of that debate. Share your stories and your points of view.

While it may not always deliver the outcome you want, your voice makes a difference.