Category Archives: Business

by | April 23, 2026 · 11:31 am

Earth week: MARM Farm

I hope you all are participating and enjoying Earth Week Bingo! I can’t wait to see pictures submitted throughout the week and to see the most unique trash you find for the possibility of incorporating it into our trophy!

For this week, we wanted to highlight buisnesses and projects that are going on here in South Milwaukee that promote community wellness through environmental sustainability. I reached out to Ellen from MARM Farm to give us an update on what has been going on. For those of you who may not be familiar, The MARM Farm is a small-scale urban farm dedicated to regenerative practices and organic growing right here in south milwaukee. They focus on education and conservation, providing fresh produce for pay-as-you-can farmstand while teaching the community about the benefits of urban farming and sustainable living.

Celebrating Earth Week, we are excited to share that The MARM Farm Education and Conservation Center is officially open and thriving! We’ve just begun our in-ground planting season, and our greenhouse will soon be bustling with microgreens, offering fresh greens for our community. Our pay-as-you-can farmstand will be returning this year, making fresh, healthy produce accessible to everyone. Follow us on social media for the latest updates and upcoming events!

In addition to our traditional farm activities, we’re proud to introduce the debut of the SCUGU (Self-Contained Urban Growing Unit). This innovative 40-foot shipping container is now located at the north end of the municipal building parking lot. Over the next few months, we’ll be converting the interior for hydroponic and mushroom growing. Half of everything cultivated in the SCUGU will be donated to Human Concerns, supporting local food security, while the other half will be available for sale within our community. This project was made possible through last year’s Bucyrus grant funding.

Additionally, MARM Farm has partnered with a few of our schools this week in celebration of Earth Day and Arbor Day. For Earth Day, MARM Farm partnered with Blakewood Elementary to beautify the school grounds, learn about native plants, held a recycling drive, and talked about garden preparation. In celebration of Arbor Day, we will be partnering with the City Street Department to engage all 4th graders in the school district. Students will gather at the Mary C. Nelson Arboretum for an agroforestry scavenger hunt and learn about the importance of native trees and urban canopy. Each student will take home a tree seedling to plant at home, and the street department will plant a new tree at the arboretum, helping to grow a greener, healthier South Milwaukee.

You can learn more about the MARM Farm through their website https://www.forfarmersmovement.com/team/the-marm-farm-(milwaukee-area-renewal-movement) or on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/MarmFarmMilwaukee. They also send out a newsletter regularly that you can sign up for.

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Filed under Beautification, Business, Events

by | November 22, 2021 · 12:01 am

Thank You, South Milwaukee

My time as South Milwaukee’s mayor has officially ended, and I want to thank everyone who has reached out since my announcement with well wishes and kind words. 

While I have not been able to respond to everyone, please know your messages have been cherished, humbling and much appreciated. 

I’m not naive — I know there are some who are clearly happy I’m leaving this job, and that’s how this works. I was proudly their mayor, too, while recognizing the haters often aren’t the most prolific voices in the room. They are just the loudest. 

As I walk away, my love for this city and positive feelings about where we are headed have not subsided. Our future has never been more promising. 

I leave the city in great hands. 

To our first-class city department heads and front-line workers, thank you for delivering every day, especially during the incredibly challenging times of the past 18 months. 

To Alderman David Bartoshevich, I wish you nothing but the best as you assume the role of acting mayor until April. With your experience, good heart and love of this city, you will serve South Milwaukee well.

To the rest of the council, I offer the same good feelings. We may not have agreed on everything during my tenure (and that’s a good thing), I thank you for your leadership and wish you wisdom as you wrestle with some big decisions you will be asked to make in coming months and years. 

I also offer thanks to our volunteer board and commission members for your continued service. Be proud of the difference you are making.

Here is the good news: South Milwaukee is just starting its ascendency. 

The opportunity in front of us is historic.

I firmly believe 2022 and the years ahead will be critical for this city, as public and private investment pours into South Milwaukee and leaders make difficult and defining decisions around how to best use those funds to solve longstanding problems and build for the future. 

  • The $10 million Bucyrus Foundation investment in our city and schools begins next year — funds that will touch so many people and institutions across our community.  
  • Downtown redevelopment is just beginning, with new businesses coming online, existing ones choosing to grow locally, and hundreds of new apartments planned. 
  • New life continues to come to the former Bucyrus campus — almost vacant a year ago, it is now almost fully leased, sold or planned to be, with key decisions yet to be made.
  • The $2 million Bucyrus Commons public event space should be reality by next fall, in time for Crusherfest.
  • The Oak Creek Watershed restoration plan is finally complete — giving communities across the watershed the roadmap they need to make investment decisions around this critical resource (and air cover to seek that money). 
  • Federal infrastructure and stimulus dollars coming will have an impact, too, hopefully delivering big solutions to big problems like (too many) homes with lead water lines. 

And that is just the start. My hope and ask going forward is that elected leaders of this city build on the foundation we’ve laid, thinking and acting boldly, and with urgency, to seize on the opportunities in front of us. I’ll be rooting hard for their success, as I refocus my energies on my family, my small businesses and the St. Anthony High School girls’ basketball team. 

As for what’s next for this platform and my mayoral Facebook page, both will go dormant for a time, as I determine plans for both. Until I have that final decision, I will keep the blog published, but not be updating it. I will (at least temporarily) unpublish my mayoral Facebook page.

That said, I’m not going anywhere. I’ll find other ways to give back to my community, and already am. I got into politics to help people, and I will do just that — outside of City Hall. 

Have a blessed holiday season, South Milwaukee. Forward!

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Filed under Arts, Business, City, News, South Milwaukee