Category Archives: Weather

November 20, 2015 · 5:00 pm

Snow Removal Reminders

With a storm approaching, it’s time for the annual update to blog readers on what our ordinances say around snow removal responsibilities …

  • Remember, snow and ice must be removed from your sidewalk (if you have one) “within 24 hours of daylight” after the end of a storm, according to Section 12.20 of the municipal code. That means if the snow stops overnight you have 24 hours from the next sunrise to clear public sidewalks.
  • If you don’t comply, according to our code, “the Street Superintendent shall without notice have the ice and snow removed therefrom” … and have the service charged to the homeowner “as a special tax against said lot or parcel of land, and the same shall be collected in all respects like other taxes upon real estate.” (Section 12.26). Please report those who don’t comply with the ordinance to the South Milwaukee Police Department at 768-8060.
  • And, while you’re at it, be careful where you push or blow that snow. Section 12.23 of the code prohibits blowing or throwing snow or ice onto public streets.
  • Also don’t forget to keep your fire hydrants clear of snow.

Stay safe!

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February 2, 2015 · 12:12 am

Snow Update: School In Session, No Garbage Pickup On Monday

A few updates on the storm …

  • The winter storm warning continues for a few more hours.
  • City crews were out all day Sunday working on snow removal. To aid in clean up on Monday, garbage collection will be suspended. Monday’s route will be rescheduled to Friday.
  • The South Milwaukee School District says on its Twitter account @SoMilwSchools that classes will be held as scheduled on Monday. The tweet from Sunday evening: “School is open tomorrow. Snow is projected to end tonight and it is predicted to be bright and sunny tomorrow.”

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January 31, 2015 · 10:45 pm

As The Snow Falls, A Few Reminders

With the first major snow of the season upon us, this is a good opportunity to update blog readers on some key South Milwaukee snow facts.

  • Remember, snow and ice must be removed from your sidewalk (if you have one) “within 24 hours of daylight” after the end of a storm, according to Section 12.20 of the municipal code. That means if the snow stops overnight you have 24 hours from the next sunrise to clear public sidewalks.
  • If you don’t comply, according to our code, “the Street Superintendent shall without notice have the ice and snow removed therefrom” … and have the service charged to the homeowner “as a special tax against said lot or parcel of land, and the same shall be collected in all respects like other taxes upon real estate.” (Section 12.26).
  • And, while you’re at it, be careful where you push or blow that snow. Section 12.23 of the code prohibits blowing or throwing snow or ice onto public streets.
  • As for snow emergencies, they are rare in South Milwaukee, and I’d doubt we declare one this time.
  • Also don’t forget to keep your fire hydrants clear of snow.

Check back to the blog for more information on the storm, and stay safe!

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July 27, 2014 · 8:04 pm

Beach Warning: Grant Park

I don’t remember seeing these types of warnings issued before from the National Weather Service, but here is the second one in less than two weeks: a “lakeshore hazard message” for beaches along Lake Michigan, with particular concern paid to currents at Grant Park, among others.

Check out the full message here.

The statement is in effect through Monday evening. Stay safe!

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July 14, 2014 · 5:32 pm

Saturday Night’s Rain

Update: We also had a sewage overflow.

In case you were wondering, we had more than three inches of rain in South Milwaukee on Saturday evening alone.

To be exact, our Wastewater Treatment Plant reported 3.02 inches during 7 and 10 p.m., approximately.

It was among the highest amounts in the area, according to the National Weather Service.

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June 30, 2014 · 7:28 pm

Storm Damage?

6-30 storm 1 small 6-30 storm 2 smallUpdate: These images were taken near 15th and Drexel this evening.

I’m seeing several reports of downed trees, or at least big tree limbs, on Facebook.

What are you seeing in your neighborhood? Post your comments below!

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April 30, 2014 · 9:14 pm

The Cost Of Our Harsh Winter

Winter is over. Right? I hope so, because it led to some real costs for the city — and communities across the state.

A couple examples that we discussed at the April 22 South Milwaukee City Council meeting …

  • Water Utility. We had 45 water main breaks between December and March, compared with 22 during the same period last winter. And we had another 15 reports of frozen water lines, compared to none the year before. All in, it’s estimated the winter cost the utility $230,000, compared to $105,000 in 2012-13.
  • Street Department. Costs for snow and ice removal have also been significant. We are already running ahead of our snow and ice removal overtime budget for the year, even though we still have November and December to go in 2014. So let’s hope for a mild start to next winter.

Of course, we are not alone here.

And we may be getting some outside help.

South Milwaukee recently joined other communities in making application with the state to obtain federal disaster status. Gov. Scott Walker recently submitted that paperwork to the federal government, so we’ll see if that leads to any funds coming back to South Milwaukee.

Thankfully, there are still eight months left in 2014. We’ll see where this nets out come Dec. 31.

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February 3, 2014 · 10:18 pm

Adding Minutes And Days: South Milwaukee’s Plan To Make Up For Snow Days

The South Milwaukee School District has detailed its plan to make up for classroom time lost due to four cold-weather cancellations in January.

Here is the memo. The plan includes …

  • The addition of a full day of school on May 23, the Friday before Memorial Day, for all students;
  • The addition of full days on June 12 for elementary and middle schoolers and June 13 for middle schoolers (elementary students will have a half day on June 13);
  • The addition of longer school days for elementary and middle school students — one minute longer for grade school students and 15 minutes for middle school students. The middle school day will now run from 7:45 a.m. to 3 p.m., as district officials have discovered “passing time at the lunch hour was inadvertently counted as instructional time.”

Also, the district is looking at starting future bad weather days two hours late vs. cancelling an entire day. And it’s telling parents to keep June 16 and 17 open on calendars in case of additional full-day cancellations.

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January 27, 2014 · 6:23 pm

Roundup: Dealing With The Cold In South Milwaukee

A quick roundup of some of the impacts the cold is having locally …

  • Of course, school is closed Monday and Tuesday.
  • The Grobschmidt Senior Center is also closed both days.
  • City meetings planned for Monday (Human Resources Committee and Plan Commission) were still on. However, the lakeshore park public information meeting set for Tuesday has been cancelled and will be rescheduled.
  • The South Milwaukee Library is still open, but children’s storytime set for Tuesday has been cancelled.
  • And here are some cold weather trips from the state.

Am I missing anything? Let me know.

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January 26, 2014 · 9:56 pm

School On In South Milwaukee

South Milwaukee students will have school on Monday, according to the district website.

The message from the district: “All South Milwaukee Schools will be OPEN on Monday January 27th, 2014.  Please check back in the morning for any new developments but at this point we plan on holding classes on Monday.”

I’ll keep you posted, and we’ll see about Tuesday. With a predicted low of minus-18 and a wind chill of minus-50 possible overnight Monday, leading to a wind chill warning, it’s hard for me to see schools being in session Tuesday morning.

Monday has obviously been a tougher call. Some large districts like Milwaukee and Racine are closed. Others are open, including, from the looks of it, all of the Milwaukee County suburban districts. Many local private schools are closed, including local high schools like St. Thomas More, but not all (including Divine Mercy and Zion Lutheran).

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January 6, 2014 · 1:45 pm

No School On Tuesday, Either

Add another day to Christmas vacation for South Milwaukee students.

The South Milwaukee School District has cancelled classes again due to the extreme cold.

Check out their website for more.

Other cold notes:

Do you know of any other are businesses closed today or Tuesday? Pass them along.

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January 3, 2014 · 4:39 pm

Dangerous Cold: South Milwaukee Public Schools Closed On Monday

Update: Divine Mercy School is closed, too. So is Zion Lutheran. And the city is still picking up garbage on Monday, Jan. 6. Recycling, however, is not being picked up. Check out the city’s Facebook page for more.

South Milwaukee public schools will be closed on Monday, as the bitter cold sets in.

Here is the announcement from the South Milwaukee School District. I haven’t heard officially about local private schools.

The announcement came after Milwaukee Public Schools announced they would close — and news that Gov. Scott Walker was considering ordering a statewide school closure, similar to what’s happening in Minnesota.

The state has some tips in dealing with the cold weather here.

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November 19, 2013 · 9:01 pm

More On Sunday’s Sirens

Update from Chief Knitter: I am happy to report that WE Energies replaced one of the transformers feeding power to the siren and American Signal then reset an internal switch on the siren and it is now OPERATIONAL.  Electronic polling (sending a signal to it remotely) and actual “growl” testing (making it spin and sound momentarily) were both successful. Both agencies believe the transformer may have been hit by lightning that caused both the transformer and the internal switch on the siren to fail.

 Following up on Sunday’s storms, here is some more information on the tornado sirens in town …

South Milwaukee has two tornado siren locations: near the former middle school near Memorial Drive and at the South Milwaukee Fire Department. The siren at the fire department did not sound during Sunday’s storm.

Why? According to South Milwaukee Fire Chief Joe Knitter …

The problem with the siren has been identified to be inadequate power coming from the WE Energies transformer that supplies the required voltage to the siren.  Apparently, the field technician identified an issue with one phase of the three-phase power that comes into the siren.  When I heard the description of the problem, I recalled that we had a similar issue earlier this year.  A search of the repair records by American Signal showed that we did have a similar issue back in May of this year and WE Energies had to come out to fix it.  WE Energies has been notified by Milw. County Emergency Management.

Previously, Chief Knitter had sent me this update.

Milwaukee County Emergency Management is responsible for the operation of the forty-eight outdoor warning sirens located throughout Milwaukee County. These sirens are electronically tested daily at approximately 2 AM to determine their serviceability. In addition, an audible test of the sirens is done on the second Wednesday of each month, weather permitting. The results of these tests are reviewed and forwarded on to the contracted servicing agency to affect any repairs that may be necessary. Records indicate that the involved siren had no issues during the testing cycles. …

We have a very proactive emergency management system in our community. The City identified a problem with one of the sirens very shortly after the warning was issued and made the requisite phone calls to Milwaukee County Emergency Management to attempt to troubleshoot the problem. Jackie Ove, our Public Health Administrator and Emergency Management Director and myself, as Deputy Director of Emergency management, were in contact from the onset of the storm until the warnings had expired and the system had moved on.

Chief Knitter also has some good suggestions on staying informed during severe storms.

The Outdoor Warning Siren System is designed to be heard OUTSIDE only.  It is not intended to be heard inside the confines of a building and should not be relied upon as the only alerting “system” for the public.

The absolute best weather alerting system available is a NOAA Weather Radio. These radios broadcast continuous weather information, including warnings, watches, forecasts and other hazard information, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, directly from the nearest National Weather Service office. In addition, radios are available that are powered by batteries, thus providing reliable advanced warning, even in the event of a power outage. The next best source of information is our 24/7/365 news media.  All of our local news and radio stations do an excellent job of informing the public, especially considering they are able to broadcast live radar and provide up-to-the minute updates.

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November 17, 2013 · 10:04 pm

Storm Update: More From South Milwaukee

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A few more news and notes from Sunday’s crazy November storm …

  • Mitchell International Airport reported 2.17 inches of rain fell on Sunday.
  • Fox 6 has a story about the storm’s impacts on South Milwaukee, including more on the street flooding and power outages. At one point, more than 3,500 We Energies were without power, but it was restored by 1 p.m.
  • WDJT also has a story about some local storm impacts — oddly enough, shot on my block with interviews with three of our neighbors. (That blue minivan in the background is ours.)
  • There were also reports on Facebook that tornado sirens did not go off in some places in South Milwaukee. I’m looking into this and will post more when I learn more. (I can’t verify this with my own ears because I was in my church basement during the storm.)

In the end, not too bad. With as many tornadoes that tore through Illinois, it could have been so much worse.

What did you experience? Post your comments below!

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November 17, 2013 · 1:27 pm

My Storm Story

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The pictures are from an event this morning I’ll probably never forget. Here is my story …

At about 11:30 a.m., after we held our worship service in the Trinity Lutheran Church basement Sunday morning, I left for home to see if we had any water in our basement.

I turned north on to 5th Avenue and found the curve onto Milwaukee Avenue nearly impassable … but I got by on the side of the flooded road. A few blocks later, water blocked another intersection at Milwaukee, so I decided to cut through Oak Creek Parkway to get back home. All looked good — not much water on the road — until I started heading west on Oak Creek Parkway.

After passing the Mill Pond, I couldn’t believe what I saw — a large tree limb falling across the road and onto a minivan about 75 yards in front of me. It smashed the van’s windshield, severely dented the hood and dislodged the spare tire from underneath the van. I stopped to see if everything was OK and saw a man and a young child get out of the van, unharmed.

Thank God.

I called 911 and police arrived shortly afterwards, as I helped another bystander get the limb to the side of the road.

I made it home around 11:50 a.m. with no problems, only to find our power out (but still a dry basement). Power was restored about an hour later.

That’s my story from today’s crazy weather. What’s yours?

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