Category Archives: Uncategorized

In case you missed it, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s lead story on Wednesday was all about looming major water rate increases in Milwaukee and other communities.

South Milwaukee is not included in the article, but one is coming for us, too, as I wrote about in this post.

From the article:

Proposed water rate increases would threaten jobs, make the area less competitive, unfairly penalize suburbs and hurt consumers during a recession, according to corporate officials and customers objecting to proposals shared with Milwaukee aldermen Wednesday. Most customers – residential and business – face price increases of around 30%, but some suburbs are looking at more than 50%, in the rate schedule proposed by the Wisconsin Public Service Commission. …

Jacking up the cost of doing business is a terrible strategy at a time of economic struggle, said Steve Baas, government affairs director for the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce.

“Our low water rates are one of the competitive advantages this region has, and a dramatic increase like this reduces our edge and sends a bad signal as we try to attract new companies,” he said Wednesday. “If you raise rates, you run the risk of further depressing economic activity, or giving incentive to more conservation, which further shrinks the pie and creates a need for even further rate increases. The only real solution is growth, expand the consumption base, have more people paying into the system.”

I can’t disagree. And you can see why this is such a complex issue, one with no easy solutions.

I’ll keep you posted on South Milwaukee’s upcoming rate increase.

Put Wednesday, May 26, on your calendar. That’s the date of the public information meeting on the planned expansion of Nicholson/Pennsylvania Avenue between College and Rawson Avenues.

It runs from 5 to 7 p.m. at City Hall, 2424 15th Avenue.

Learn more in the official notice here. From the notice:

The proposed project includes capacity expansion by reconstructing the existing 2-lane roadway to a 4-lane facility, with construction planned for 2012.  Federal and State funding provides approximately 80% of the estimated $4.5 million design and construction costs, with Oak Creek and South Milwaukee each funding 10%.

The informational meeting will be “open house” format, and is being held to provide preliminary design information, to discuss proposed improvements and alternatives, and to gather your comments and concerns on the proposed project.  The open house format meeting is flexible, so feel free to come and go as you desire.

I will have more information to post on this project — including more on the alternatives that you will see at the public information meeting — in the coming days. Stay tuned.

I look forward to seeing you at the meeting, but I’d also appreciate your feedback here. Post a comment below!

A tragic story out of Cudahy …

A man was struck and killed by a train, apparently by accident, on Ramsey Avenue just west of Packard.

Learn more in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story here.

Well, you can’t call South Milwaukee’s 3rd District politically inactive.

Six candidates — including former Alderman Richard Raduenz, former school board member Tom Arend and former Cudahy City Clerk Joseph Bukowski — want to replace Jim Shelenske as the district’s next alderman.

The number of interested candidates is a bit surprising to me given that this is the same district that fielded no competition for Jim or Lisa Pieper in the 2009 general election.

In fact, three of the city’s four districts had no competition for the incumbents last year. I was part of the only contested race.

You can see the full Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story here.

The City Council will interview the six candidates, all men, at a special meeting starting at 5:30 p.m. Monday. The chosen candidate will then serve out the remainder of Jim’s term, meaning he will be up for re-election next April.

South Milwaukee Police Chief Ann Wellens recognized a number of her officers and local residents for acts of heroism and selflessness at our most recent City Council meeting.

Click here and take a few minutes to read all of their stories.

My favorite? The three officers who rescued a woman from the icy waters of Lake Michigan one February night. Here is an excerpt from the PDF linked above: “Officers Marin and Rotter leaned over the edge of the bank while Officer Dews held them by the feet while Officers Marin and Rotter pulled the woman to safety.”

Amazing stuff … and just another example of the heroic work and dedication of our police and fire departments. Thanks for all you do and how you do it.

Joshua Wollinger, the South Milwaukee man charged with homicide in the stabbing death of Richard E. Ostrowski in April, was bound over for trial at his preliminary Milwaukee County Circuit Court hearing last Monday.

“Probable cause” was found in the case after testimony from several South Milwaukee Police Department officers and others.

You can see a description of the proceedings on the state’s CCAP system here.

Wollinger’s arraignment is set for May 19, where he’ll likely enter a plea. I’ll keep you posted.

For all my 3rd District readers out there, you have until Wednesday to apply to replace Jim Shelenske as 3rd District alderman in South Milwaukee.

You’ll recall that Shelenske had to give up his seat after he was elected City Clerk in April. The City Council will conduct interviews of all candidates at a special meeting on Monday, May 17.

Learn more in my previous post on this topic.

As I wrote about yesterday, the South Milwaukee Common Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a resolution authorizing the issuance and sale of $968,000 in taxable general obligation promissory notes for water system improvements and expenses.

In plainer language, the city is borrowing the money from Tri-City National Bank to help the South Milwaukee Water Utility fund operations, upcoming bond payments and minor infrastructure needs. The utility will then pay the city back through revenues from utility users — you and me — allowing the city to repay the loan by 2013 … hopefully even sooner.

So, why the need for the cash infusion? A number of factors are at play here, but the two biggest drivers are an overall and continuing decline in water usage — including a major reduction by Bucyrus International, the city’s largest single water user — and costs associated with its recent plant upgrades.

And what does this mean for you?  Unfortunately, you can expect a large rate increase in coming months to help pay for the loan repayments and to make up for the utility’s declining revenues. I’ll keep you posted on that, once the increase goes to the Wisconsin Public Service Commission for review.

While I wish the city, and the utility, weren’t in this position, we are. And we’re dealing with it as best we can … ensuring that our our water utility remains vibrant and a real South Milwaukee strength.

It was a busy Common Council meeting on Tuesday night, and here’s a quick rundown of what went down.

• The meeting started with an uplifting South Milwaukee Police Department awards ceremony, where Chief Ann Wellens honored officers and citizens for their work in combating crime and saving lives in our city. I’ll have more to post on these stories in coming days.
• The Council unanimously approved a resolution authorizing the issuance and sale of $968,000 in taxable general obligation promissory notes for water system improvements and expenses. I plan on posting more on this on Thursday, so stay tuned.
• The Council also approved, 4-3, increases to several of its fees, including those for bartenders and amusement devices. I voted no on this because the resolution also included a requirement that bars and restaurants obtain a separate $100 annual permit for outdoor seating and beer gardens. I support the fee as it relates to beer gardens, which will essentially act as smoking areas for bars once the statewide smoking ban takes effect in July. This fee will cover the cost of inspecting these beer gardens and the added costs of patrolling them by our police department. Again, I am fine with this part of it. I voted “no” on the ordinance, however, because I disagree with putting the same fee on restaurant owners. Simply, I don’t want to make it more difficult for places like Azteca, Nona’s and the Madison Avenue Market to have cool outdoor dining this summer. And a $100 fee for essentially putting a few tables outside of their front doors is unnecessary — and not business-friendly.
• We approved a South Milwaukee Yacht Club project to add a new travel lift well. Learn more in my previous post on this topic.

We’re also discussing tightening our ordinances when it comes to check cashing businesses and portable storage containers. Stay tuned on that one.

And I’ll close with some good news. We also learned at the council meeting that Moody’s recently “recalibrated” all of its municipal ratings, resulting in new (and better) bond ratings for many communities. South Milwaukee is a major beneficiary of this. Without changing anything on our end, the city now has a Aa2 rating, two steps up from our already strong A1 rating and just two steps below a “best of the best” AAA rating.

The end result of this? We can borrow money at lower interest rates — about a half a percent lower in most cases, simply because of the recalibration.

Being in this position at all is a major testimony to the work of our city administrator, staff and department heads — working in conjunction with elected officials — to keep South Milwaukee fiscally strong and well positioned for the future. Thanks to everyone.

The South Milwaukee Yacht Club is getting a major lift — literally and figuratively — for its 60th anniversary.

The Common Council on Tuesday gave the g0-ahead to the organization to construct a travel lift well for the launch and haul-out of vessels, pursuant to the terms of the lease agreement with the city.

The more than $120,000 project will be a major boost for the club, which currently contracts out to a crane operator to put in and take out boats each season. According to a note from Commodore Tom Schulz: “Having the ability to perform this task in-house would greatly enhance the marketability of our organization and help maintain a sustainable operation for another 60 years.”

The lift well will truly set the club apart from from others in the area and make South Milwaukee a “harbor of refuge” between the South Shore and Racine, Tom said. It will also provide another revenue source for the club — $12,500 per year, in addition to eliminating the $9,500 cost paid to outside contractors to perform the lifting service — and lengthen the boating season for members.

“This brings us to a whole other level,” Tom told the Public Works and Public Property Committee.

The reason the Yacht Club needs city approval is that it leases the property from the city, with a series of five-year termination clauses. The next comes around in 2013. Learn more about the SMYC, and access its newsletter, at its website.

This Journal Sentinel story, quoting state Rep. Mark Honadel of South Milwaukee, is the first time I’ve actually seen someone say the Wisconsin Department of Transportation is indeed moving ahead with Drexel interchange at Interstate 94.

From the online article:

Honadel said a Wisconsin Department of Transportation official told him Wednesday that the department will soon begin the process of acquiring land that will be needed for the interchange, which would be built in 2012.

“I am just stoked up to no end because it’s going to be good for the region,” he said. “The potential is awesome.”

I couldn’t agree more.

Here are a few headlines you may be interested in …

• Another Retail Center OK’d Along Howell Avenue
• St. Francis Agenda Gets to the Point: ‘Ugly Fences’
• Oak Creek Library Might Buy Gear That Blocks Cell Phones
• Mitchell Sets a Single-Month Record for Passenger Traffic

The story and video on WISN.com contain interviews with state Sen. Jeff Plale and state Rep. Mark Honadel — and potentially impacted Oak Creek homeowners — about the project.

Check it out here.

While it’s a nice in-depth story on the project, I guess I’d like to see official confirmation from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, however, before I fully accept that the interchange is a reality.

The South Milwaukee Water Utility and the engineering firm responsible for the utility’s recent filtration system improvements have received a prestigious award for the project.

From the Sheboygan Press story:

A Best of State Award was presented to Donohue and the South Milwaukee Water Utility for an upgrade to the utility’s water treatment plant. The Utility has one of the oldest water treatment plants along the Lake Michigan shoreline. Donohue designed a conversion of its existing sand filtration process to a modern ultra-filtration pressurized membrane system, the first of its kind in the state.

A creative design layout made extensive use of existing buildings, as all new systems were placed within the confines of the existing footprint. The construction cost for a typical membrane water filtration plant is $2 to $3 per gallon of water treated, but through Donohue’s creative reuse of existing facilities, the South Milwaukee project cost approximately $1.40 per gallon. The system has the capacity to treat 6 million gallons per day.

From the press release on the Donohue website:

Also of note is the complex construction sequencing that allowed the plant to continuously treat water while the facilities underwent a complete transformation during construction.

Douglas Fischer, South Milwaukee Water Utility Superintendent, summed up his thoughts on this project by stating, “Our new facilities are working great and the water quality is amazing. Donohue’s creative solutions to the design and construction challenges posed by the project constraints made this possible.”

Congratulations to the Water Utility And Donohue for a job very well done!

The Franklin Common Council — with the deciding vote cast by the mayor — on Saturday paved the way for construction of a Drexel Avenue interchange at Interstate 94 by approving $500,000 in spending linked to the project.

From the Journal Sentinel story …

The council agreed to spend the money on lighting on Franklin’s stretch of S. 27th St. The state said if Franklin picked up more of the cost of lighting, it would count toward the city’s contribution to fund the interchange.

With Oak Creek already deciding to kick in $4.4 million and Northwestern Mutual another $1.6 by the May 1 deadline from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, it looks like the Drexel project is a go.

That’s great news for South Milwaukee, which gets another access point for those who already live and do business here and, more importantly, those who might be considering coming to our city.

A strong transportation system is just the price of entry when it comes to competing for economic development, and we’re making strides in this area. Now, if we could only get those KRM commuter trains rolling and Lake Parkway extended …