Just a reminder to join us at the South Milwaukee Spring Market on Saturday at Caterpillar’s Global Mining Heritage Museum.
Hours are 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
More than 45 vendors are expected, and we’ll have live music. The Caterpillar museum will also be open during the market, and, if you haven’t yet seen this South Milwaukee attraction, that’s reason enough to stop by.
Learn more in my previous post, and we’ll see you there!
Filed under Community
Ready for summer?
Season four of the South Milwaukee Downtown Market begins with an indoor Spring Market on Saturday, April 21, at Caterpillar’s Heritage Building and Global Mining Heritage Museum.
Hours are 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The event will feature more than 40 regular market vendors – and some new faces – selling arts, crafts, organics, baked goods, prepared foods and other specialty items. Live music from South Milwaukee’s Ron Plevak and local students is also planned.
The recently remodeled and expanded museum, located inside the Heritage Building, 1970 10th Ave., will also be open during the market, giving customers a chance to experience this one-of-a-kind South Milwaukee attraction.
Check out the press release here, and tell your family and friends!
(By the way, the summer market season starts May 24, and we’re still looking for vendors. Learn more on our website.)
On Wisconsin!
The University of Wisconsin marching band is coming to the South Milwaukee Performing Arts Center on Saturday, April 14.
Learn more about the show presented by the South Milwaukee Music Parents here.
Also, check out items on “A Beautiful Mess” coming to the SMPAC.
And don’t forget to subscribe to Jim Shelenske’s monthly events newsletter for the latest on local happenings. Learn more at SouthMilwaukee.org.
As you’ve probably read, heard or even seen on your doorstep, the group opposed to the Walmart project is gathering signatures as part of a direct legislation effort that would require all city capital projects costing $1 million or more go to referendum.
I first heard about this last week, and I have no idea where they stand on gathering the upwards of 1,200 signatures they need.
I won’t be signing.
Why? Because these types of decisions are why City Council members are elected … and the referendum on the job we’re doing is held is every two years. It’s Election Day.
Of course, my job as an alderman only begins on that day, and job No. 1 is to be responsive to my constituents, gathering all the facts and listening to the people who put me in office before deciding what I believe to be the right course of action for the city.
This is true on any and every issue, and I take that responsibility seriously.
You then pay me to act on that responsibility. To vote. Not to wait until the results of the latest referendum roll in.
We live with a representative government, and it’s that way by design, because the other option is simply unwieldy and untenable.
In this case, it’s also imprudent.
For starters, these referenda cost real money. Elections are expensive – you need not look further than at the added costs to local governments coming from the recalls — and, if one is required for every major capital spending project, taxpayers will feel that.
Taxpayers also lose if the city can’t continually invest in its aging infrastructure. And requiring referenda on all city capital spending over $1 million could hamstring the city as we continue to make necessary, and costly, upgrades in this area. Roads, sewers, utilities … all of these projects and others will require major investments in the years ahead, perhaps exceeding that threshold. And none are cheap.
Needing a majority of voters in a referendum to approve the spending could stall these efforts, or kill them altogether. Who does that benefit?
I also object to potentially applying the direct legislation to the Walmart project (and I’m not sure if it even can be). The council has already voted a number of times to back this development, and we have a responsibility as a city to live up to our word with the retailer.
Yes, according to the Journal Sentinel, the Friends of South Milwaukee group claims the “campaign is the result of concerns about the city’s capital spending” and “the Walmart spending plan is just part of those concerns.”
I don’t buy it.
This is absolutely all about Walmart, and this is an attempt by the opposition group to stop construction – even though I continue to believe that the majority of South Milwaukee residents (certainly those in my district) support building the store.
Moreover, the impacts of the referendum requirement would extend well beyond that development and well beyond 2012. Yes, the unintended consequences are real.
That’s why I’ll do my speaking at the ballot box. It’s the ultimate referendum.
Filed under City Council, Community, South Milwaukee Walmart
Milwaukee County Supervisor Pat Jursik has published her new Enews newsletter, and it includes an update on repairs to the Seven — now actually five — Bridges.
And it doesn’t seem to signal they’ll be fixed quickly.
Check out the newsletter here. From it:
Seven Bridges trail at Grant Park continues to have two footbridges out of commission, the lakeside bridge and a small bridge, due to flooding several summers ago …
Milwaukee County currently has a consultant, Graef USA, designing the two replacement bridges. These bridge replacements pose a challenge in accessing the sites with the proper equipment and materials.
The consultant hopes to meet with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources in early April to get a better understanding of limitations for access and permit requirements. The meeting should clarify the types of equipment and materials that can be used for the project and will help to determine a timeline.
I’ll keep you posted.
Filed under Community, Milwaukee County
A person very familiar to South Milwaukee is being honored at the annual 128th Air Refueling Wing Civic Dinner Dance on May 17.
Chris Bolender, wife of late Oak Creek Mayor Dick Bolender, is a longtime former teacher in the South Milwaukee School District.
Learn more in this Oak Creek Patch story.
Those interested in purchasing tickets can contact the South Milwaukee Chamber of Commerce at 762-2222, x141 or via email at laurac@smaconline.com.
Filed under Community
If your house is like mine, you’ve got plenty of old (and formerly important) papers laying around that are begging to be shredded.
You have your chance to do it on Saturday, March 31.
That’s when the South Milwaukee Public Library is holding a community shredding event from 9 a.m. to noon. Learn more here.
Filed under Community
The Oak Creek City Council has decided against expanding the number of hours alcohol can be sold at grocery, liquor and other “off-premise” stores.
Check out the story here.
You’ll recall that the South Milwaukee City Council in December approved allowing liquor sales as early as 6 a.m.
And check out these other local headlines of note:
Also, South Milwaukee NOW has published a new police blotter. Among the incidents: a snowblower theft and broken garage window in the 200 block of north Chicago Avenue and a burglary in the 200 block of Montana Avenue.
When the floods struck South Milwaukee in 2008 and 2010, and during our city’s water emergency a couple years ago, it would have been nice to have a way to communicate some key messages with every city resident quickly and efficiently.
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.
Filed under Community
Downtown South Milwaukee is losing another business.
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, but it hurts to lose even one on that list.
What do you think? Post your comments below!
Filed under Community, Local Business
Tommy Thompson has put his money behind South Milwaukee.
Among the municipal bonds he has invested in are some from our fair city, according to this story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. And here is a more detailed story on the results of the former governor and current Senate candidate’s financial disclosure this week.
From it:
In the interview, Thompson said his actual net worth is roughly $13 million. He provided a letter from his accountant saying he paid an effective federal tax rate of 31.1% in 2010 (36.1% when state taxes are factored in), noting the controversy over GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who paid less than 15% on multimillion-dollar earnings. Thompson said he would release his tax returns if he becomes a U.S. senator but did not promise to do so during the campaign.
A review of Thompson’s stock holdings, contained in the 63-page report, shows Thompson holds health care-related stocks, energy stocks, stocks in Wisconsin companies, municipal bonds, including several in Wisconsin, and even some holdings that any investor would consider blue-chip stocks.
If you need a refresher on municipal bonds, this information from the Securities and Exchange Commission is sound.
Filed under 2012 Elections, Community
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a profile today of Jackie Kashian, the South Milwaukee High School graduate and rising comedy star.
Check out the story here. From it:
This weekend, Kashian returns to her old stamping grounds – including a gig only eight blocks from the house where she grew up. She headlines shows at Daddy’s Rockin’ Steakhouse in South Milwaukee on Friday and Rounding Third on Saturday.
Kashian, who describes her comedy as “social commentary with family stories,” expects her family – otherwise known as the people in her jokes – to be in attendance, including her father, the man she describes in terms not appropriate for a family newspaper. But she does it tenderly.
She tells one story about meeting her dad at a McDonald’s during a visit home, when her dad arrived in too-short jean shorts that he made himself. She gave her father’s wardrobe a “creep factor of 90.”
“He’s a handsome guy,” Kashian said. “If anyone could wear such an outfit or if he were looking for gentlemen callers . . .”
She doesn’t finish the thought, although she likely will this weekend.
Did you know Jackie? Did you envision her becoming a comedian? If so, or not, post your comments below!
Filed under Community
Oak Creek Patch has published a well-done series of articles on Oak Creek Township’s impact on the Civil War. And it was significant.
The township — which included what is now South Milwaukee, once upon a time — sent dozens of people to the war, including some from prominent families, and they fought in some major battles.
Check out the series here. It’s worth the read. From it:
Oak Creek Township consisted of modern-day Oak Creek and South Milwaukee. White pioneers had arrived in the late 1830s and 1840s, at a time when Native Americans hunted and fished in the area. Wisconsin became a state in 1848, South Milwaukee incorporated as a village in 1892 and a city a few years later, and Oak Creek did not become a city until 1955.
A total of 38 men from the township served in Company K of the 24th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, according to “Wisconsin Volunteers, War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865,” an invaluable research book that has been put online by the Wisconsin Historical Society. One of them joined in 1864, so the number from Oak Creek when the company went into the war in 1862 was 37.
The dead included two cousins – Frederick Fowle of Company K, in 1863 of wounds received in the Tennessee battle, and Royal Fowle, an artilleryman in another unit who died of disease in 1864 in Louisville, Ky. Disease was an equal-opportunity killer of Union soldiers and Confederates in the war; many units lost more men to illness than in battles.
Frederick was the son of Frederick Fowle Sr. and Electra Rawson, while Royal was the son of John Fowle Jr. and Lavina Fowle, according to Judy Balestrieri, a descendant of the Fowle clan and a mainstay of the South Milwaukee Historical Society.
They were grandsons of John Fowle Sr., who was one of the first pioneers of the area and built two sawmills on the waterway that was named Oak Creek. The soldiers’ uncle, Horace Fowle (son of John Sr. and Sarah Dibley Fowle), built a Queen Anne Victorian home in 1892 that everyone today knows as the clubhouse in Grant Park.
I wanted to put a quick plug in for SouthMilwaukee.org, the community events website founded and maintained by City Clerk Jim Shelenske.
While I try to focus my site more on news and viewpoints on current issues, Jim does a great job rounding up many of the happenings around town — from performances at the South Milwaukee Performing Arts Center to local church activities.
Jim also publishes his monthly eVents newsletter. Check it out here — and be sure to get on the email list, if you aren’t already.
Filed under Community
You’ve seen some significant improvements to the look of City Hall in the past six months.
This summer, City Clerk Jim Shelenske led a volunteer effort to upgrade the landscaping in front of the city administration building – and the results have been easy to see.
The most recent upgrade is also eye-catching to anyone who has stopped by City Hall in the past few weeks: a new sign and message board.
Jim and South Milwaukee Public Health Administrator Jacqueline Ove, working with local signage company Everbrite, helped make this improvement happen – and it is a big improvement. The lighting on the old sign had failed. And the new message board gives the city a chance to share key messages with residents about anything from upcoming meetings to emergency notifications.
As part of the deal, Everbrite is also donating a new Grobschmidt Senior Center sign, which will also get fresh paint around its frame, and the Police Department sign and frame will also be replaced.
Which brings me to another key point: No city property tax dollars are being put toward the new signage, which is coming at a cost of about $20,000. (Some city funds are being spent on wiring upgrades.)
The purchase was made possible through Public Health Emergency Preparedness funds that were unexpended in the five-year grant cycle.
Thanks to Jim and Jackie for their work on this — and to Everbrite for the partnership.
One other note about the grant funds: As of August, we have started a new five-year cooperative agreement with the state and federal government for these funds.
Filed under Community
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