Category Archives: Community

That’s how much value my home lost from 2010 to 2011 due to the revaluation.

Revaluation notices have been arriving in the last few weeks, and I thought I’d share details of my own, which is worse than the average anticipated decline of our around 10 percent across the city. Here are the messy details …

• In 2010, my four bedroom, 1.5-bath home at 1713 Cedar St. was assessed at $192,000, just shy of the $192,500 we paid for the house in November of 2006.
• In 2011, that had fallen $32,000 to $160,000, or 16.7 percent.

Is this disappointing? Yes, especially because this puts our refinancing plans in some jeopardy. Is it surprising? No.

I think we all know property values have fallen in recent years, and even a 16.7 percent decline over four years is honestly not that bad compared to some other areas across the country (even the state). We never had a bubble in South Milwaukee, so it never burst. But we also weren’t immune to the realities of the recession.

So I don’t plan to fight the revaluation, but details on how to do so can be found in my previous post on this topic and in this Q&A document prepared by the city.

Among the other key points to keep in mind:

• The new values take effect with your 2011 tax bill, which will be issued this December.
• Unless your property lost more value than the average for the city, your taxes will not go down due to the revaluation. The tax rate per $1,000 of value will go up because less value exists to share the tax burden.

The heat won’t ruin any more of Heritage Week.

Thursday’s Evening on the Avenue and South Milwaukee Downtown Market will be held as scheduled, organizers announced today.

Of course, it will remain hot — just not as hot as Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service — so do your best to stay cool. Organizers of the two events are also trying to do their part.

• The Downtown Market has cancelled its music act scheduled for Thursday due to the heat.
• We have also told our vendors to bring extra cold drinks. (My suggestion: A China Chef fruit smoothie. Yum!)
• Evening on the Avenue is also working to provide bottled water and a misting station to attendees.

Stay safe, and enjoy a fun (and hot) night out on the town!

Groovy Movie Nights are coming to South Milwaukee, as we become the latest area community to host outdoor movies.

The family-friendly shows will be held following the South Milwaukee Downtown Market at 8:15 p.m. on August 4, 11 and 18.

Here’s the Grooy Movie Night schedule:

• August 4: Megamind
• August 11: Gnomeo & Juliet
• August 18: Kung Fu Panda

Kid’s games begin at 7:30 p.m., and the market is staying open late (until 7:45) each night. So stop by, grab dinner, do some shopping and then stick around for a movie. And bring the family!

Learn more in this press release.

(The screen will be located at the south end of the market seating area on 11th and Madison. Bring your lawn chairs.)

This is a great week to live in South Milwaukee.

Heritage Days, the annual celebration of all that is great about our city, begins today with Grant Park Family Fun Day and continues with events throughout the week, including:

• Tuesday: St. Luke’s ice cream social and Muni Band concert
• Wednesday: Firehouse spaghetti dinner
• Thursday: Evening on the Avenue and the South Milwaukee Downtown Market
• Saturday: Heritage Days Parade

South Milwaukee Lionsfest is also planned Friday through Sunday.

For a full list of events, check out the listing on SouthMilwaukee.org.

Welcome to South Milwaukee, Fat Babies.

The second installment of the South Milwaukee Performing Arts Center’s Summer Concert Series is planned for Thursday at the South Milwaukee Downtown Market, as Fat Babies, a Chicago-based jazz group, performs starting at 5:30 p.m.

Check out the full Downtown Market music schedule here.

Of course, live weekly music is just one reason to visit the market. We now boast more than 60 full-time produce, organics, arts and crafts vendors, and our collection of prepared food vendors is second to none. You can literally eat your way through the market every week, so why not stop by, grab dinner, do some shopping and enjoy a relaxed evening listening to some smooth jazz?

See you there!

The South Milwaukee Lions Club does a lot of wonderful things around town, giving back to the community in a variety of ways, big and small, seen and unseen. Of course, to do this, they need their fundraisers to be successful.

Enter, the Roaring Challenge, a unique twist on a 5K run and two-mile walk held Saturday morning, June 23, before the start of the annual Heritage Days parade.

The course includes obstacles like tires and a climbing wall … so you better bring your A-game!

Learn more here, and you can register online here. Pre-registration entry fees of $20 each are due by July 21.

South Milwaukee’s July 4 festivities begin at 10 a.m. at Grant Park’s Brown Pavilion, at picnic areas 4 and 5.

Activities include bike judging, games, food, music and, of course, fireworks.

Learn more here, and I hope to see you there!

Also, Oak Creek and Cudahy have their parades on Monday. The Journal Sentinel has a list of all area 4th of July events.

The much-publicized 9-11 memorial float — the one that sparked criticism for the Racine firefighters’ union after its refusal to support the concept allegedly because the float’s creator has distanced himself from the union — is drawing interest from Heritage Days parade organizers.

Check out the Journal Sentinel story here. From it:

Patty Penn, co-chairwoman of the Heritage Days Parade committee in South Milwaukee, would also like to showcase the float being sponsored by fire Lt. Matt Gorniak and his church’s youth group.

Penn said she has good memories of the 9-11 memorial when it passed along the South Milwaukee parade route in 2002.

“The reaction was spectacular,” Penn said via email. “The spectators were totally enthralled and appreciative. I don’t think there was one person sitting as the float passed them. There were plenty of tears and lots of requests for reprints of the pictures that I was snapping.”

I’d love to see this float come to South Milwaukee. The Heritage Days parade, set for July 23, is already a great community event — this will only add to it.

(Thankfully, uniformed firefighters will be able to march with the Racine float. Let’s hope union members see the light and actually do it. In my mind, their stance on this issue, mixing politics with a 9-11 memorial, is indefensible.)

South Milwaukee Mayor Tom Zepecki was one of the local leaders who signed on to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial supporting the “Aerotropolis” concept — an initiative that aims to use Mitchell International as a hub for economic development across the region.

Check it out here. From it:

The concept is simple: Mitchell sits at the core, while surrounding businesses, dependent upon aviation with connecting modes of transportation and related cyberstructure, become the surrounding clusters of economic growth and development. We have the potential to attract national and global businesses with high-paying jobs that place a high priority on prompt, reliable and convenient accessibility to aviation and other interconnected modes of transportation.

Through a continued focus on our transportation infrastructure development, we will attract high-caliber businesses to our communities. These businesses will add much-needed jobs and significant private investment in our communities.

As I’ve written, I strongly support this concept — and its regional approach to economic development. Yes, South Milwaukee has its virtues to sell to potential businesses, but our selling story is that much stronger when we go to market with the combined strength of our neighbors.

(Check out other versions of this story from WUWM, Fox 6 and The Business Journal.)

Update: Pools hours are being extended due to the weather.

Milwaukee County Parks pools are open for the summer, and that’s good news when temperatures are expected to soar into the 90s like they are on Friday.

Of course, South Milwaukee is home to Grobschmidt Pool at 2600 16th Ave. behind City Hall.

It’s open from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. daily and also 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Learn more here.

Shoot off fireworks? Get a ticket. It’s that simple, as the South Milwaukee Police Department steps up enforcement at Grant Park on July 4.

Learn more in this press release. From it:

The City of South Milwaukee Police Department will have extra officers in Grant Park during the July 4th, 2011 celebration.  The officers will adopt a zero tolerance policy for persons discharging any type or size of fireworks in the park.  There will be no warnings.  If you discharge fireworks in the park, you will be cited, and your fireworks may be confiscated.  The current fine/forfeiture for fireworks violations in the park is $290.00.

I hope to see you at the park on July 4. Activities begin at 10 a.m.

Learn more on the city website here.

South Milwaukee’s new telephone-based emergency alert system is here, and I think it’s a great way to improve our communications during the times when we need them most.

The system, which I wrote about in December, generates automated phone calls to city residents with a landline phone during emergencies, sharing information about what’s happening and what to do next.

Let’s hope we never need to use it. But think of how useful this would have been during the floods of 2008 and 2010, or the water main break last year, when residents were starved for information and it wasn’t always easy to share it.

So, what do you need to do to receive this service? Nothing, really. All landline phones are already in the database we will access for this service.

But there is a way to also get emergency calls and text messages to your mobile device. To get that service (which is also free) you need to add your mobile phone number to our provider’s database. Learn more on this page on the city website.

I encourage you to do it … and take full advantage of this valuable service.

(I also want to give a shout out to the Women’s Club of South Milwaukee, which has donated $1,500 to purchase our first block of 10,000 calls that we now have banked to use in an emergency. That essentially equals one call to every city landline. The city can purchase more if needed.)

I’m going to take the next several days off from blogging, but I’d like to leave this open thread behind … hopefully sparking a debate.

The question: What should be the top priority in revitalizing downtown South Milwaukee? 

Post your thoughts below, and please feel encouraged to reply to comments of others.

Thanks for your continued support of me and the blog, and talk to you next week!

(And while you’re surfing the web, why not join the South Milwaukee Downtown Market Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_116259115070852. In fact, I’d like to think the market is part of the solution downtown, but it’s only the start …)

The Catholic Herald has a great story about Circle of Friends, which brings together local residents to help support families in need with food, gifts and other items every month.

Check out the story here. From it:

With the goal of keeping the program anonymous and simple, Loper, the Circle of Friends coordinator, set up clusters of 10-14 individuals. Currently, more than 70 members comprise seven clusters. Each month, members donate between $10-$20, or whatever they can manage, as well as some non-perishable items. Of those funds, $150 is used to purchase gift cards for grocery stores and the remainder is in cash.

Although a spreadsheet is passed out to each member giving them a non-perishable item to purchase for the month, members are generous and often provide far more than asked. Some months, Loper finds bags of fresh fruit, vegetables and cheese at her door in addition to the requested items. Once the donations are collected at the cluster leader’s home, the items are either picked up or delivered to the family.

My wife, Sarah, and I are happy to be a part of one Circle of Friends. We joined a group more than a year ago at the suggestion of South Milwaukee Alderwoman Lisa Pieper, and we’re happy to do our part to help others in need through this effort.

I’d ask that you consider joining a Circle as well. Contact information is in the article.