Just when I was beginning to question the whole “energy you can depend on” tagline, the power came back on at my South Milwaukee home around 4:30 p.m., or three hours after we lost it this afternoon.
The outage affected 3,688 customers in all, the man on the We Energies telephone recording told me. And the cause is still under investigation.
Check out the cool We Energies online outage map here, which shows the outage was confined to the South Shore.
Oak Creek Patch also has coverage.
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Just a quick reminder to join us on Saturday for the South Milwaukee clean-up event being held around town from 9 a.m. to noon.
Learn more in my previous post.
Clean-up stations where you can pick up trash bags will be at the following locations:
I’ll be focused on cleaning up Oak Creek. I hope to see you there!
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We had a meeting of the South Milwaukee Downtown Market Committee tonight, and I thought now is as good a time as any to update my blog readers as to what’s happening with the event.
And it’s a lot.
We return for our third season on June 2 and continue for 20 weeks through October 13. Hours are 3 to 7 p.m. every Thursday, and we’re located on 11th Avenue south of Milwaukee Avenue (south of Bucyrus International).
Learn more in this press release and on our website.
Among the upgrades you’ll see for 2011: a jazz-inspired five-concert series presented by the South Milwaukee Performing Arts Center and construction of a new stage by a local Eagle Scout.
Of course, we’ll also return a strong stable of vendors and be adding some exciting new ones. More than 20 have already signed up for the whole season, and we’re expecting more than 40 every week, selling produce, organics, arts, crafts and prepared food. We’ll also have weekly live music.
I hope you are as excited as I am for the market, and I’ll keep you posted as it gets closer. In the meantime, be sure to join us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. And if you know someone who might be interested in joining us as a vendor, they can access everything they need to know at http://www.smdowntownmarket.org. The deadline to get our full-season discount is May 1.
See you June 2!
Consider the conversation started. I hope it continues.
I joined more than 30 others who attended the downtown South Milwaukee charrette today, and I came away impressed with all of the work the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee graduate students have already put into studying our struggling city center.
And I was even more impressed at how engaged those who stopped by the South Milwaukee Public Library were on this issue.
There was a lot of great, thought-provoking discussion on both what is ailing our downtown and potential solutions Saturday. From streetscaping to business improvement districts to facade improvements to other issues, the UWM students heard all about the areas that will be at the center of this hopefully ongoing debate.
Did you go? If so, I’d like to know what you thought. And, even if you didn’t attend, I’d like to know your thoughts on the task ahead here — for these UWM students and others who will hopefully pick up the torch when the work of this class is done.
Post your comments below!
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Don’t forget to stop by and weigh in on downtown redevelopment from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. on Saturday at the South Milwaukee Public Library.
Check out my previous post on this here.
We need your perspective! The more voices, the better.
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Update: Check out the TMJ4 video here.
As you may recall, a few months ago I wrote about South Milwaukee’s Chris and Nick Fare and the inspiring story of their clothing line benefitting people with disabilities.
TMJ4 has just published a story about the brothers here.
It’s nice to see the Fares doing well, and I wish them nothing but the best. Their work in truly inspiring. You can learn more at their website: www.josephryanclothing.com.
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The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has an interesting story on a South Milwaukeean’s personal tie to the Civil War — and the renewed interest in the war 150 years after it began.
Check out the story here. From it:
The shadow box containing an old tintype photo and medal hung on the wall of Bill Doan’s family home for as long as he can remember.
The soldier who posed for the photo and what he did to earn the medal were unknown to Doan, of South Milwaukee, until a few years ago. That’s when Doan learned the medal wasn’t just any decoration for valor, it was a Medal of Honor that had been conferred on his ancestor by Abraham Lincoln a few days before the president was assassinated.
That set Doan on a quest to learn more and ultimately join a Wisconsin chapter of Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War.
“It kind of went from something hanging on the wall to maybe I should be doing something with this,” said Doan, 58. “My belief is this is American history, and I think it should be shared.”
Do you have a family or other tie to the Civil War? I’d like to hear about it. Post your comments below!
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What’s your vision for downtown South Milwaukee?
Share it on Saturday, April 16, as a group of University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee graduate students studying our downtown hold a planning charrette from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. at the South Milwaukee Public Library.
Learn more in this flier.
What is a charrette? It’s an intensive planning session where citizens collaborate on a vision for development. It provides a forum for ideas and offers the unique advantage of giving immediate feedback as the design is formulated. More importantly, everyone who participates is a mutual author of the plan.
At the upcoming event, stations will be set up to receive community input on topics such as:
The students will later compile the results and develop recommendations to help South Milwaukee achieve the vision identified during the charrette session.
Feel free to stop by anytime during the session and be a part of the plan. I hope to see you there!
South Milwaukee is celebrating Earth Day a couple weeks late … but with the same commitment to cleaning up the community.
The South Milwaukee Earth Day event is planned for Saturday, April 30, from 9 a.m. to noon. Clean-up stations where you can pick up trash bags will be at the following locations:
Lunch will be served at the South Milwaukee Senior Center adjoining City Hall after the clean-up.
Bring your family, friends, groups or organizations to this great event, organized by fellow 4th District Alderman David Bartoshevich. I’ll be at the 16th and Rawson meeting point, looking to clean up Oak Creek with other area residents. Join me!
I’m a huge fan of the South Milwaukee Public Library because my kids are huge fans of the South Milwaukee Public Library.
To see the sparkle in their eyes and anticipation of “library day” — when they get to check out a few items every couple of weeks or so — is priceless and reminds me of when I was a kid.
The numbers show they are not alone. The library has released its 2010 annual report, and it shows that 11,948 South Milwaukee residents have library cards. Among the other 2010 statistics from the report:
At the end of 2010, the library collection consisted 147,280 items, including 113,022 books, 10,951 videos, 7,232 magazines, 5,807 electronic downloadable audio items and 5,579 compact discs.
Learn more on the library webpage here … and keep on supporting this terrific South Milwaukee jewel!
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I launched this blog in 2009 as a way to keep residents better informed on local news, information and key issues. That said, I usually don’t do much writing on local events.
Why? Jim Shelenske has those covered.
The city clerk’s (and former alderman’s) monthly eVents newsletter is an invaluable source of information on local happenings, from church dinners to shows at the South Milwaukee Performing Arts Center.
You can sign up for Jim’s newsletter at his strong local website: www.southmilwaukee.org. And I strongly encourage you to do so, as Jim looks to increase his email list to more than 1,000.
He published his latest, and newly redesigned, issue this week, with details on Saturday’s South Shore Noon Lions Spaghetti Dinner, the April 9 Divine Mercy Card Social and various South Milwaukee Library activities, among numerous other events.
On a related note: Another good source of local news is County Supervisor Pat Jursik’s monthly Enews. Check out the April edition here.
In an era where we are barely covered by the mainstream local media, these outlets become even more valuable. I hope you agree.
The City Council is prepared to make a big investment in South Milwaukee’s infrastructure.
The council’s Finance and Public Works and Public Property committees jointly approved a more than $9.1 million capital improvements plan for 2011-12 on Wednesday night.
The plan includes dozens of items, from big expenditures like flood prevention upgrades and road projects to much smaller items like an emergency generator for the library and minor remodeling for the fire department … and everything in between.
Projects will be funded through a 10-year borrowing to be executed in coming months — money that will come “cheaper” to us than other communities because of our stellar Aa2 bond rating. That, combined with historically low interest rates, make now as good a time as any to move ahead with this. And there is another good reason to do this now: We didn’t do a general borrowing in 2010, leaving us with essentially two years worth of major capital items and projects to fund with this initiative.
Of the $9.1 million, about half will be general fund debt, with the remainder being paid back through our water, wastewater and stormwater utilities (perhaps through rate increases for the last two).
The capital plan includes nearly $2 million for projects in the 4th District. Among them:
Among the other spending approved for the next two years:
Keep in mind, however, that these are all cost estimates, and some of these projects, especially those involving the wastewater utility, will require much more study and could change in size and scope — or ultimately not be done at all. In that case, the money can be “re-programmed” to other capital projects as needed.
The capital improvements plan will now likely be taken up by the full council at its meeting on Wednesday, April 6, with the vote on the borrowing anticipated for our April 19 meeting.
I’ll keep you posted as this plan moves along, and as some of the projects come to life. Of course, as always, post your comments below.
I close with this: I believe strongly that cities must regularly invest in projects like this, even in times of economic struggle. Yes, times are tough. But there is a cost to not doing these types of projects, and it can be far greater than the size of the investment we make today.
In other words, invest in infrastrucure now. We will be stronger for it in the future.
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I love living in South Milwaukee.
Clean, safe streets. Affordable housing. Great schools. Beautiful parks. Growing industry. Strong sense of community. Convenience.
We have a lot going for us … even if Milwaukee Magazine disagrees.
The current issue ranks South Milwaukee 45th out of 50 Milwaukee-area communities in its list of “Best Suburbs.”
The Town of Mukwonago topped the list, followed by the Town of Delafield, Sussex, Elm Grove, Mequon, River Hills, Merton, the City of Pewaukee, Whitefish Bay and Cedarburg.
Rankings were compiled based on the following:
Not surprisingly, the ratings seemed tilted against inner-ring, industrialized suburbs like us.
For example, here is the bottom 10: Waukesha, Caledonia, Greendale, Glendale, South Milwaukee, Brown Deer, Greenfield, Cudahy, West Allis and West Milwaukee. Sense a trend?
And that’s my concern with rankings like this. Of course, communities like Delafield, Mequon and River Hills will fare better using these measures. But I can’t afford to live there, and I’m betting you can’t either. Nor do I want to give up the benefits a suburb like South Milwaukee provides, be it the level of first-class services we offer or the comparatively short commute to downtown Milwaukee.
So, is raises the question, is this a fair fight? Is South Milwaukee really peers with rural Waukesha County communities half our size? Should we really be compared with communities like River Hills?
As the article put it, “from urbanlike Shorewood to a rural hamlet like the Town of Delafield, from Cudahy’s homes with views of Lake Michigan to Oconomowoc’s homes offering access to Waukesha County’s Lake Country, there is tremendous variety in Milwaukee’s suburbs. … Some folks want rural character, others want a downtown hub; some want parks, others want a lake or river view. We decided to leave those intangibles to the eye of the beholder.”
In doing so, the perception of South Milwaukee, and communities like ours, suffers. And that’s too bad, not because it at all changes why it is great to live here. It’s unfortunate becuase others may not come to see why.
What do you think of this? Post your comments below.
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Just a reminder that the South Shore Economic Development Forum is tonight at the South Milwaukee Performing Arts Center.
The event runs from 6:30 to 8 p.m.
Check out the press release here.
I hope to see you there!
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