Author Archives: Erik Brooks

Businesses are investing in South Milwaukee and its future. Monday night’s Plan Commission meeting showed it.

Among the unanimous action taken by the commission …

First, we recommended approval to the city council a 120-day planning option with Vetter Denk for the $6.6 million microbrewery, retail, apartment, and public space development they have planned for 11^th and Madison Avenues.

If the planning option is approved by the full council, then detail work will start on the development, from design to financials, with a shovel in the ground planned for next spring.

This project will be a real game-changer for downtown South Milwaukee — and approval of this planning option gives the developers the certainty they need to do the necessary due diligence to make the project a reality.

We also paved the way for several other successful existing business owners to invest in their properties …

• The Plan Commission recommended approval of a 1,488 square-foot office addition to the front of A&J Environmental Pallet at 1210 Rawson Ave.
• And we recommended approval of a 1,350 square-foot addition and construction a new 9,600 square-foot building at EK Construction at 1040 Columbia Ave. Eric is looking for additional storage.
• Also, we granted an exception to our code to allow for installation of a replacement awning at Parkway Floral, 1001 Milwaukee Ave., as Leah and her team continue to make investments in their building and business.

Finally, the commission approved extension of a sale option for Greywolf Partners Inc. on the city-owned portion of the property at 11^th and College Avenues. More to come on this potential retail development.

That’s just one meeting. We’re just getting started …

From the South Milwaukee Police Department …

On today’s date (Sept. 27, 2016) at 3:47 am the South Milwaukee Police Department received a hold-up alarm at Speedway located at 3102 S Chicago Ave. Two black males took 3 garbage bags full of Newport cigarettes by threat of physical force. No weapon was displayed or mentioned. The clerk was not harmed and complied with their commands. The South Milwaukee Police Department is asking for the public’s help in identifying the two below subjects who are described as being in their early to mid-20s. Please contact the SMPD at 768- 8060 with any information. 

From the South Milwaukee Police Department …

There have been numerous reports of thefts and burglaries throughout the city within the past few weeks. Thieves have been targeting unlocked garages and vehicles, and recently an unlocked residence. These incidents have been occurring west of 15th Avenue to Pennsylvania/Nicholson from College Avenue to Forest Hill Avenue, but primarily concentrated in the NW section of the city. The SMPD strongly urges residents to lock up their property to protect against theft.

It was quite a Homecoming for South Milwaukee and its quarterback.

South Milwaukee beat Cudahy, 36-0, and senior Jake Simuncak had a record-setting night along the way. He rushed 38 times for 418 yards and four long touchdowns — the most rushing yards for a quarterback in state history, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Last week, Jake had 308 yards and three touchdowns … a week after racking up 134 yards rushing (and another 227 through the air, and an 80-yard kickoff return for a touchdown).

Go Rockets, and go Jake!

Here are a few photos from the game. Thanks to Jodi O’Neill for the terrific shots.

Check out these South Shore headlines …

• The Shop Opens a New Chapter Fixing Old Motorcycles in South Milwaukee (OnMilwaukee.com)
• First Impression: Taco Stop MKE (Milwaukee Record)
• Cudahy Church Honors Rescue Workers on 9-11 (NOW)
• Oak Creek Mayor Will not Run for a Third Term (BizTimes)
• Cudahy Mother Travels to White House to Share Story of Sons’ Addiction and Recovery (Fox 6)
• Humane Society: Injured Cudahy Fox Continues to Heal (Fox 6)
• Oak Creek Light Industrial Building Proposed (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
• Caterpillar Machine Sales Continue Decline, Led by Latin America (Bloomberg)

NOW has also published new police blotters here and here.

I love the new restaurants coming to South Milwaukee …

The latest is Grillworks, which is now open in the former Grebe’s and Nona’s building at 2206 10th Ave. They softly opened today, with plans to open at 6 a.m. Saturday for breakfast. They’ll also be serving lunch and dinner.

I stopped by this evening, and owner Mike Oren is excited to get going. The place looks terrific, with the extensive renovations including the addition of a second bathroom.

Stop by and check it out, and please have patience with their opening as they work out any bugs. Join me in welcoming them to downtown South Milwaukee!

And more good news down the block, literally: After popping in at Grillworks, I stopped by what will soon be Scrappy’s BBQ and checked in with Mike Hintz. He said they remain on track to open on Oct. 15 in the former Lloyd’s Lunch at 925 Madison Ave., and they will serve barbecue beef brisket, burnt ends, ribs, pulled pork, Italian beef, pressured-fried chicken and more, to-go or catered.

You’ll see some painting going on this weekend, with new equipment to come soon.

The small business momentum continues across South Milwaukee …

The South Milwaukee Community & Business Association has done a terrific job in organizing ribbon cuttings for all of the cool local businesses opening in town.

Saturday, it was Mara’s Sewing House and The Shop.

And more are on the calendar …

• Wednesday, Sept. 21: Taco Stop MKE, 513 N. Chicago. 7:30 p.m.
• Wednesday, Sept. 28: DB Tax & Financial Services, 1125 Milwaukee Ave. 4 p.m.
• Saturday, Oct. 8: Avenue Coffeehouse, 911 Milwaukee Ave., noon.

Please join me at these special events!

Be sure to like the SMCBA’s Facebook Events page for the latest on the grand openings and other important local business information. I’ll also include links to these on the Shop Local South Milwaukee Facebook page I run.

From the South Milwaukee city clerk’s office …

We are anticipating a large voter turnout for the November 8th Fall General Election. We are encouraging residents who are not currently registered to register early. A qualified elector must be at least 18 years of age, a U.S. citizen, and a resident of South Milwaukee for at least 10 days prior to registering to vote. You will be asked to present a Wisconsin Driver’s License or Wisconsin ID card. If the address on your ID is not correct, an additional document must be presented. (i.e. WE Energies, Bank Statement, Residential Lease). You may register to vote:

Please join me for this important event, as I join Oak Creek Mayor Steve Scaffidi and Pardeep Kaleka, whose father was killed in the 2012 Sikh Temple shootings in Oak Creek, on a panel discussion following the showing of the movie.

The response to the shootings was heroic, and the dialog they sparked continues. I’m proud to join it.

Updated with correct dates.

Welcome back to Rocketober, the best month (month and a half, really) to be a South Milwaukeean!

Year three is the biggest yet. There is literally something for everyone, starting this weekend and continuing through trick-or-treating on Halloween.

Events like these — and the countless people and organizations behind them — are more reasons to love South Milwaukee. See you around town!

Be sure to like the Rocketober Facebook page for more information on upcoming events, photos and more. And encourage your friends to like it, too. Thanks to Donna at MJ Media for the flyer design.

From the South Milwaukee Police Department …

The South Milwaukee PD would like to inform the citizens of South Milwaukee that we have taken 3 burglary reports in the past couple weeks. In all 3 burglaries the perpetrator(s) cut a window screen out on a window that was left open. Entry was made into two houses and one garage through the windows where the screen was cut out. In one of the burglaries the perpetrators were scared off by the residents that were home (in bed) at the time. With the cooler weather coming we realize that many of you like to leave windows open, with screens on, to cool your houses. The SMPD wants you to be aware of what is going on and what you can do to prevent things like this from happening to you. If you are going to leave windows open on your residence, utilize the safety locks which only allow the window to open about 4 inches. They are rectangular pieces that are located on each side of the window frame, they pop out to prevent the window from going up all the way. If you do not have windows with these safety features, I would heavily consider not leaving windows open to the screen at night or when you are not home. It appears that the perpetrator(s) are looking specifically at residences that leave windows open on the main level of the residences. It is good practice to lock your windows, door, and vehicles at night time or when you are not around. There are no leads on the perpetrators at this time.

Police tell me the three incidents in question happened in the 500 block of Willow, 2900 block of 15th Avenue, and 2700 block of Fifth Avenue.

Thanks to Guardian Credit Union for sponsoring this third outdoor movie … showtime is around 7 p.m. (dusk) at the South Milwaukee Downtown Market site.  Free popcorn.

See you there … and bring your lawn chairs and blankets.

From the South Milwaukee School District …

CROSS COUNTRY

The Boys Cross Country team is on a roll as the Rockets took 1st with 81 pts (14 ahead of 2nd place Kenosha Bradford) last Saturday at the 36th Annual Rocket Invite. They took a dominating first on 9/3 at Minooka Park as well with 33 pts (2nd place team had 107 pts)! The first week of the season was a race by grade level. At each of the 3 meets, Jordan Janusiak has taken 1st place. Chris Sobczak (12) took 3rd place in the Rocket Invite (only 4 seconds behind Jordan) and Chris also took 5th at Minooka Park.  Aidan Sodemann (10) took 21st at the Rocket Invite and 7th at Minooka Park. At Minooka Park, Andrew Strasser (11) and Max Moran (11) took 9th and 11th respectively which meant the Rocket Boys placed 5 runners in the top 11 in the race!

Maddie Wood (12) paced the girls with a 12th place finish at Minooka Park and 9th place at the Rocket Invite. Maddie Smith (12) took 28th at Minooka Park and 34th at the Rocket Invite while Miranda Ekleberry (10) took 26th at Minooka Park and 40th at the Rocket Invite.

Here is a link to the Journal Sentinel Boys CC Preview highlighting the Rockets and Jordan.

http://www.jsonline.com/story/sports/high-schools/2016/08/24/boys-cross-country-preview/89228946/

ROCKET FUEL: We won’t make any grand predictions here, but South Milwaukee could be a team to watch the next couple of seasons. The Rockets finished 13th at state in Division 1 last season with a team that had just one senior, four sophomores and one junior. How good might this group become?

RUNNERS TO WATCH: Jordan Janusiak, jr., South Milwaukee: Janusiak took third at the Woodland meet, making him the league’s top returner. He ran a season-best 16:01.02 at Cudahy’s Purgold Invite and took 16th at the Division 1 state meet in 16:30.57.

GIRLS VOLLEYBALL

Last night, the Rockets won the championship of the Riverside Varsity Girls Volleyball Invitational for the 3rd year in a row! Congratulations!!!

The Rockets are at home tonight in the Sullivan Gymnasium against Brown Deer with the JV & Freshmen starting at 5:00pmand the Varsity starting at 6:30pm. The Rockets have lost each of the last 2 matches in tough fashion where they fell behind 2 games to 0 but showed grit and determination fighting back each time to force a 5th game. 

MARCHING BAND

The South Milwaukee High School Rocket Marching Band took 2nd Place on Sunday, September 11, 2016, at the Grayslake Marching Tournament in Grayslake, Illinois. This was their first competition of the season premiering their full field show titled, “From the Earth to the Moon”, a journey through the history of flight from Kitty Hawk to the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon. In addition, Drum Major Annie Bustos (11), won the best overall Drum Major Award for all band categories. Outstanding!

GIRLS SWIM & DIVE

The Rockets had an impressive showing last Saturday at the 10th Annual Rocket Relays as the girls tied for 4th out of 12 teams. 

• The 4×100 Individual medley team of Alexis Holliday (12), Eryka Uehling (12), Julia Mahsem (9) & Zoe Bellis (12) won the event with a time of 4:37.66
• The 850 yard free relay team of Conner Morgan (11), Eryka Uehling (12), Mackenzie Thayer (11) & Alexis Holliday (12) took 2nd with a 9:23.34.
• The 200 yard Medley Relay team of Mackenzie Thayer (11), Zoe Bellis (12), Julia Mahsem (9) & Alexis Holliday (12) took 2nd by less than half a second with a time of 2:04.56.

Last week the Rockets won both the JV & Varsity in a dual meet with Cudahy as well.

ROCKET FOOTBALL

While the Rockets have struggled to pick up their first win of the season, they’ve made it exciting with do-everything QB Jake Simuncak (12) leading the way. The Rockets had a great comeback from being down in the 4th quarter 34-20 last Friday at Shorewood/Messmer when Jake scored on a 1 yard TD and a 4 yard TD and then threw a pass to Tristan Schaefer (11) for a 2 pt conversion to effectively send the game to OT where the Rockets fell 41-34. Jake had 134 yards rushing and 227 yards passing on the game and Mua Vang (11) also had 108 yards rushing and 89 yards receiving while Lawerance Turner (12) had 8 catches for 122 yards as well for the Rockets.

The Rockets travel to Brown Deer on Friday at 7:00pm for their next game and host Cudahy on 9/23 for Homecoming.

GENEROUS CROWD

During the last Rocket Football home game against Greenfield, the crowd in attendance raised $802.67 during a Miracle Minute for the non-profit organization Seniors Rock (www.seniorsrockss.com) which was SMHS student and cheerleader Daisy Sweda’s favorite charity (a sophomore to-be who tragically passed away this summer). Special thanks to SM Cheer and SM Poms for helping do the Miracle Minute.

GIRLS TENNIS

The Rockets defeated Greenfield 5-2 and lost to Whitnall 3-4 to start the Woodland Conference season and have had bad luck in getting tournament action in due to the rain. The Rockets are back in action tonight at home as they host Shorewood at4:00pm.

BOYS VOLLEYBALL

The Rockets have played some very tight matches thus far and their next home match is on Wednesday against Shorewood. JV plays at 5:00pm and Varsity at 6:30pm.

BOYS SOCCER

The Rockets tied a very solid Whitnall team last night 0-0 and have their next home match on Monday, 9/19 against Wauwatosa West (JV at 4:30pm and Varsity at 6:30pm).

Thanks to Jodi O’Neill for the photos!