Update: Oak Creek water to Waukesha? On second thought …
Check out these South Shore headlines …
Just a reminder about Thursday night’s South Shore Option 2.0 economic development forum at the Oak Creek Police Department …
The event, organized by South Shore Supervisor Pat Jursik, starts at 6 p.m.
Learn more in my previous post and in this press release. From the release:
This forum will highlight the dynamic plans formulated by the CDAs with the leadership of their City Councils and Mayors. Jursik will provide updates on the Hoan Bridge, Lake Parkway (794) extension planning, the Aerotropolis initiative and the outlook for public transit. The new MKE Regional Business Park will also be introduced. Additionally, each agency will staff booths displaying aerial maps, mock-ups, elevations and planning materials of current or upcoming projects for public viewing and inquiries in an open-house setting. Information about the concept of Tax Incremental Financing will also be available.
See you there!
Filed under Cudahy, Milwaukee County, Oak Creek
More than 1,800.
That’s how many signatures were on petitions a group of citizens submitted to the City Council and Milwaukee County Supervisor Pat Jursik last week asking for the Mill Pond to be dredged – returning the waterway to its past glory.
Former Alderwoman Mary Nelson made the presentation to the council, and she offered a few words in support of the effort to restore the Mill Pond. Her message: The pond is an important part of South Milwaukee’s heritage and needs to be dredged so it can be brought back to its former beauty and use as a recreational attraction (including ice skating).
Mayor Tom Zepecki also spoke briefly, saying the city can play a role in doing so, but the Mill Pond is county property, and the county must lead on any improvements – including what could be a $1 million dredging project that may not last a decade.
Jursik’s message to the council: Addressing the Mill Pond is a complex issue – a “community decision” and a “shared responsibility” involving the county, city and others.
She stressed her role in trying to bring units together in the past couple years to deal with the short- and long-term future of the Mill Pond and Oak Creek watercourse – a future that may or may not involve saving the pond, or dredging it. Jursik noted that the Wisconsin Department Natural Resources has an order to remove the dam, but it’s not being acted on it, and the most recent attempt to dredge in the late 1990s was poorly done and did not last long.
A broader watershed plan is necessary, Jursik said, and that’s where the focus should be, as well as with Oak Creek bank restoration. (Jursik has helped secure $267,000 toward this purpose in the county’s current capital budget.)
So, where do I stand? I strongly support restoring the vitality of Oak Creek and the Mill Pond and making it a community attraction once again. It’s not now. The Mill Pond should be a source of South Milwaukee pride. Now, it’s an eyesore, in desperate need of improvement.
I credit the Friends of the Mill Pond and Oak Creek Watercourse for what they’ve done to try and stem the decline and begin restoration efforts. And I thank folks like Mary Nelson and Pat Jursik for driving the dialog here. It’s one we need to have.
But what we need now are facts … a detailed look at options for the Mill Pond and Oak Creek that will help drive decisions around what the solution looks like and who pays for what.
The key question that needs to be answered: What is the collective vision for the Mill Pond and Oak Creek, and how do we get there?
It’s a debate I – and apparently more than 1,800 others — look forward to because something needs to be done. That’s something we can all agree on.
Of course, I’d like to know what you think about this. What role should the city play in making improvements at the Mill Pond? Post your comments below.
Filed under Community, Milwaukee County, Oak Creek
The Public Policy Forum is out with its report on the potential consolidation of the South Milwaukee, Cudahy and St. Francis emergency dispatch centers. And it shows some potentially significant cost savings.
Here is the report, which I’m still digesting.
Among the highlights from the report’s executive summary …
Of course, this is much more than a dollars-and-cents issue. The conclusion of the report states as much:
The report concludes that each city must consider whether to pursue an independent consolidated dispatch center – or to jointly contract for this service with a different jurisdiction – within the context of its own short-term and long-term financial circumstances and public safety needs.
Indeed, this is a complicated issue that demands more debate.
And, as we do that, this point from the report seems especially salient to me: “City leaders also should consider whether the possible pursuit of other public safety consolidation may further dictate the logic of consolidating dispatch services.” With the separate fire consolidation summary still underway and not expected to be completed until early 2013, it might be best to wait and see how all of the pieces fit together before acting (or not acting) only on dispatch consolidation.
Also, keep in mind that the study’s scope was to examine the potential for creation of a new stand-alone dispatch center merging the three existing operations. Public Policy Forum did not look at other potential combinations, including one community potentially contracting its service to the other two. That would be information I’d also like to see.
Still, this study is a great start and provides a good basis for a consolidation decision that I am sure is coming soon. I look forward reading and learning more — and the discussion.
I enter that debate in the same place I’ve always been: I’m open to consolidating city services where possible, but only if the quality of the consolidated service won’t suffer and if we can actually save money in doing it. Those are some big “ifs.”
Of course, I’d like to know what you think of the report and the potential for consolidation. Post your comments below!
Filed under City Council, City Services, Community, Cudahy, Fire, Oak Creek, Police
I got the following update today on the Oak Creek fish kill from Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources senior fisheries biologist Will Wawrzyn … and, while disappointing, it’s not surprising.
The upshot: Test results from the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District are back, and we’ll likely never know what led the death of hundreds of fish in Oak Creek near 16th and Rawson Avenues in South Milwaukee on August 15.
From the update …
The MMSD maintains an extensive monitoring network in local streams and near-shore Lake Michigan and produce high quality data. I appreciate the assistance they provided during this investigation.
Unfortunately, those results do not suggest any killing agent or decreasing trends in water quality between sample sites. While the list of analytes is extensive, there is an almost infinite number and type of potential killing agents that could have caused the kill. All of the results were within the range of water quality criteria or standards protective of fish and other aquatic life. Unless we hear of an after the fact report by others that may suggest what caused the fish kill, we may never know. I am confident that the fish kill was not caused by natural factors. Extended dry conditions and lack of runoff preceding the incident suggests it was not caused by non-point sources of pollution but most likely a discharge or spill of a toxic substances.
My recommendation if for fisheries staff to conduct brief synoptic electrofishing surveys at multiple sites in the near future to assess short-term impacts of the fish kill and gage the recruitment or repopulation of fish from un-impacted reaches, and make qualitative observations of other aquatic life along the impacted stream reach.
I’ll keep you posted on this, if there are any updates to provide. I hope there are — that we can figure out what happened here and make sure it doesn’t happen again. Here is my previous post on this.
Update: Here is confirmation from South Milwaukee Police Chief Ann Wellens: “On Sunday, August 5th officers from SMPD assisted the FBI at 1422 Marquette Avenue interviewing Wade Page’s ex-girlfriend: Misty Cook. SMPD officers arrested (booked & released) Misty Cook for the offense of Felon in Possession of a Firearm (not related to the federal investigation). She will be referred to the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office for charges.”
We now know that the Oak Creek Sikh Temple shooting suspect called South Milwaukee home for some time before his recent move to Cudahy — and Sunday’s massacre.
Wade Michael Page apparently lived with his South Milwaukee girlfriend locally, until they recently broke up. Tuesday, she was arrested for being a felon allegedly in possession of a firearm.
Check out the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story on the arrest — and Misty Cook’s disturbing connections to a white power group — here. The story also contains more details on Page’s presence in South Milwaukee. From it:
The first record of Page living in the area was at an apartment he shared with Cook in the 700 block of Minnesota Ave. in South Milwaukee in November 2011.
Cook worked at a restaurant about a block away from the Sikh Temple in Oak Creek where Page shot 10 people, killing six, on Sunday. He was fatally shot by police.
Page and Cook broke up in June and she had no role in the rampage, authorities said.
After the breakup, Cook continued to live in an apartment she and Page had rented together in February in the 1400 block of Marquette Ave. in South Milwaukee. He moved to Cudahy. Authorities searched both of those places, as well as the couple’s previous apartment on Minnesota Ave.
At the Marquette Ave. location, they found a gun. Cook was arrested late Tuesday on suspicion of being a felon in possession of a firearm, South Milwaukee police said. The Milwaukee County district attorney’s office will review the case.
Cook cannot legally possess a gun because she has a previous felony conviction.
Also, check out coverage of Cook’s arrest from WISN, Fox 6 and the Los Angeles Times.
Filed under Oak Creek
What better way to honor the victims of the Sikh Temple shooting than to unite an entire community and region?
Learn more here.
Oak Creek’s National Night Out starts at 6, with the more somber part of the event starting at 8. The event is held at City Hall, 8580 S. Howell Ave.
Filed under Oak Creek
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a few more details about the time Wade Michael Page apparently spent living in South Milwaukee in the months leading up to Sunday’s Sikh Temple shootings in Oak Creek.
Here is the story. From it:
Page, 40, moved in with a woman and her son in late 2011 in a building of a half-dozen apartments in South Milwaukee. The woman had lived in the apartment with her son for a couple of years before Page moved in.
The woman and Page and the boy lived in a second-floor apartment, just off the street. Those who lived around them said they were mostly invisible, except for occasional loud music.
Robert Hauglie Sr., who has three boys and lives in a lower unit, said the woman’s son was never outside. Thinking back, Hauglie said it was odd how little he saw the couple. He didn’t even see them bringing in groceries.
They moved out earlier this year without a sign, he said.
“The way we knew they were gone is someone else moved in,” Hauglie said.
The couple moved a mile or so away to another apartment in South Milwaukee in February or March.
Page worked nights at a local factory and again would disappear with the woman on the weekend, according to neighbors.
“Nobody knew him. He kept to himself,” said Terry Page, who lived downstairs and is not related to Wade Page. He said he had only one conversation when he told Page he could use the gas grill in the backyard. Page grunted.
Another neighbor said the woman’s son would knock out the second-floor screen and throw his toys out the window. Page or the woman would come down and gather them up.
Page stayed for a while, moving out in June and finding a place to live in Cudahy.
The woman left her South Milwaukee apartment Monday morning with her father, neighbors said.
Of note, WhitePages.com still lists a Wade Page as living in the 700 block of Minnesota Ave. in South Milwaukee.
Filed under Oak Creek
Update: Fox 6 also spoke with South Milwaukee neighbors, and WhitePages.com lists a Wade Page as living in the 700 block of Minnesota Avenue.
Wade Michael Page, the man suspected in Sunday’s shooting rampage at the Oak Creek Sikh Temple, lived for a time in South Milwaukee — before he moved to Cudahy.
Here is the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story. From it:
Before moving to the Cudahy address, Page lived for a time earlier this year in a South Milwaukee.
David Brown, 62, a neighbor who lived in the same South Milwaukee apartment building earlier this year, said Page was a recluse. He was “not a friendly guy,” he said. “You’d have more fun with a camel.”
“He was very quiet. You’d say hi and he’d kind of ‘uh.’ It was like he didn’t care if you were talking or not.”
Brown saw Page driving a plain white delivery truck several times. Page lived in apartment No. 5 with his girlfriend, Misty, who was going to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and who has an autistic son, and whose father helped out with child care and car maintenance.
Page liked to play music at odd hours of the night and work out in the basement with free weights.
Brown saw him there when he went to do laundry. “I never saw him carry a gun,” said Brown, a former navy officer who is retired from working in aviation electronics.
Page and his girlfriend moved out about four or five months ago.
“He didn’t seem mean. It was kind of like he was angry at the world. But I’m not a psychiatrist,” Brown said.
Did you know Page? Post your comments below.
The South Milwaukee Fire Department was one of the first medical units on the scene in the aftermath of Sunday’s Sikh Temple shooting in Oak Creek.
Here is the email from Acting Chief Joe Knitter …
As part of our pre-determined mutual aid system, Oak Creek’s Battalion Chief requested mutual aid as soon as he realized the possibility of multiple victims. At the first level of mutual aid, SMFD responds with Med-10 and a Chief. When Med-10 arrived on scene, they were immediately sent into the scene and were responsible for evaluating one of the victims that was shot in the parking lot. The wounded police officer had already been transported to Foedtert Hospital by OCFD. Unfortunately, Med-10’s patient suffered trauma that was incompatible with life and was pronounced dead.
Upon my arrival, I was assigned as the Operations Section Chief and acted as a liaison between OCFD, OCPD, the Milw. County Sheriffs Office, ATF and FBI, coordinating activities for fire and EMS services. I served in that role until about 3 PM when the Fire/EMS response was scaled back and law enforcement began the investigation phase.
Please add all of the first responders to your list of prayers tonight.
Filed under Oak Creek
With the international media descending on the South Shore following Sunday’s domestic terrorism attack at the Sikh Temple in Oak Creek — and authorities searching what could be the suspect’s home in Cudahy — there isn’t much I can offer here in terms of news updates.
I’ll leave that to everyone from local outlets like the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Oak Creek Patch and WISN and international outlets like CNN and the New York Times.
I only offer this: My heartfelt thoughts and prayers for everyone impacted by this senseless tragedy, from the families of the victims to those who live among and interact with the Sikh community everyday. And that’s probably most of us in South Milwaukee.
I also offers prayers, and hope, that we can somehow end the gun violence epidemic facing our country. From the dozens of murders throughout the Milwaukee area each year to the too-frequent massacres like we saw Sunday, something has to be done.
I pray we find a solution to this.
The South Milwaukee Fire Department responded to two calls of distressed boaters on Sunday. Both situations had happy endings. Here is the email from Acting Chief Joe Knitter:
Yesterday, the SMFD Rescue boat was called upon twice to respond to reports of distressed boaters. The first call came in from the boater himself who reported that he was without power, approx., 300 yards off Grant Park Beach, East of the pavilion. On the arrival of our rescue boat, the distressed boat was found anchored with two adult passengers on-board, unable to return to Bender Park where they had launched from. While heading North, the boater heard a loud noise coming from his motor before it died and stranded him without power. The occupants remained on-board during the tow into the SM Yacht Club.
While entering the harbor during this tow operation, the US Coast Guard requested assistance in the area of Bender Park for another disabled boat. The Coast Guard stated they were busy in Milwaukee and asked for our assistance with a 17′ Glastron boat that had lost power with two adults and three children on-board. While en route, SMFD contacted the disabled boater via cell phone with a number that the Coast Guard had provided and learned that they were under tow from another boat and were just entering Bender Park. The SMFD confirmed that they were safely attended to and returned to the SMYC.
Edit: Here is Patch coverage of the Oak Creek fire. The photo is pretty alarming.
Two people were hurt during the Cudahy July 4 parade, various media outlets are reporting.
See coverage (including video) of the unfortunate incident from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and WISN.
And the Oak Creek fireworks show sparked a small grass fire, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. WISN has video.
It’s been a busy month for the South Milwaukee Fire Department.
Several business and house fires and now this on Saturday: a call for assistance in rescuing stranded boasters off the Oak Creek Water Treatment Plant. As usual, the SMFD was up to the task.
Here are details from Acting Chief Joe Knitter:
At approx. 1:30 this afternoon, the SMFD received a phone call from the US Coast Guard in Milwaukee requesting assistance in locating and assisting a stranded boater that had lost power and was adrift somewhere off of the OC Water Treatment Plant. In addition, one of the five passengers was suffering from chest pain and was in need of medical assistance. SMFD responded to the SM Yacht Club and deployed the rescue boat, locating the distressed boat approximately 200 yds. from the mouth of the harbor. The ailing boater was removed from the boat, transported to the dock and transferred over to the care of waiting paramedics who treated and transported him to St. Luke’s South Shore. The Coast Guard arrived on scene with their 45 foot rescue boat but, due to its size, they were unable to get close enough to shore to provide any assistance to the stranded boat with the exception of towing it out further into the lake so it would not run aground. SMFD’s boat responded back to the location, secured the stranded boat and successfully towed it into the safety of the SMYC.
Update: Oak Creek Patch has more details in this story.
Oak Creek will finally get a “downtown” with the redevelopment of the former Delphi property — plans that were formally revealed on Friday.
Learn more about the Drexel Town Square project at BizTimes.com, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Oak Creek Patch and The Business Journal.
From BizTimes.com:
The eastern third of the site will feature junior box retail stores (about 20,000 to 40,000 square feet each) and some outlot retail development, said Wispark president Jerry Franke.
The middle third of the site will have a “Main Street,” lined with multi-story buildings with retail on the ground floor and apartments on the upper floors.
A Town Square on the Main Street could be a community gathering place and it used for ice skating in the winter and farmers’ markets in warmer months, Franke said. The Main Street area will also be the site of the city’s new library and city hall.
The western third of the site will have “Third Ward” style apartment buildings, Franke said.
“We’re hoping to attract young professionals working on the south side by offering them something different,” he said.
The residential component of the development could also include an assisted living building, Franke said.
Not to be forgotten is that the groundbreaking of the new Interstate 94 interchange at Drexel Avenue was also held Friday. That’s a significant project for South Milwaukee, too, as it provides another easy entry point into our city.
Filed under Construction, Local Business, Oak Creek
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