South Milwaukee Blog

It’s the question I was asked most on the campaign trail, and beyond: What’s up with the downtown mixed-use development?

My response was always the same: Vetter Denk is as committed to the project as ever. On Tuesday, Vetter Denk’s owners reinforced that commitment. Now the real work begins.

The South Milwaukee City Council unanimously approved a six-month extension of the planning option for the proposed mixed-use project at 11^th and Madison Avenues downtown.

At the meeting, co-owner John Vetter said he is more excited about the project now than he was even six months ago, when it was first proposed. During that time, the firm has been doing its due diligence, refining plans for the residential, commercial and public use components of the development. They’ve met with prospective retail tenants, too, including potential microbrewers, although they do not have a signed lease for that part of the project, and may not even as dirt is moved on the apartments.

So, good news. But there is a lot more work to do. In fact, it’s just getting started in many ways.

Details matter, and there are a lot of details to be worked out in coming weeks and months, from further honing the development plans to finalizing potential incentives, including tax incremental financing. There is a long road ahead, with a number of governmental approvals necessary and public comment opportunities to come. Vetter Denk knows this … and is focused on moving the development forward.

We look forward working with them.

Wrote Vetter Denk in the extension request: “We will present the City with a final development that not only meets our pragmatic requirements, but will also be the catalytic project that you have envisioned for the City of South Milwaukee.”

I’ll keep you posted as plans advance.

The 128th Air Refueling Wing Civic Dinner Dance is a truly special event, one that I look forward to every year. It’s a moving tribute to our military, and a great way to honor a different South Shore community icon each year.

This year, it means even more for South Milwaukee, as the honored citizen hails from our city: Gary Wetzel, the Medal of Honor recipient for his heroism as an Army soldier in the Vietnam War.

Please join me at this event to honor our military, and Gary.

Tickets are $40 each, and you can order them through George Becker, a member of the 128th Dinner Dance Committee, by phone 414-764-3299 or email at corvettegeorge2014@gmail.com. Order by April 28.

Let’s get a great South Milwaukee turnout this year!

The Beautification Committee continues to make a difference.

The latest example: The launch of a new and improved Neighborhood Beautification Program, which returns for a second year to help unite neighbors “to improve the ‘curb appeal’ of your neighborhood block.”

Here is a PDF of the flyer … take advantage of the resources, and spread the word!

We continue to see a lot of positive momentum on key initiatives these days.

One I’m really excited about is our community rebranding effort.

With dozens of interviews of local residents and their own discovery and research, Savage Solutions is making strong progress on this project, but they need your help.

Be part of the process at this May 3 Community Focus Group — a chance to offer your opinions on topics that will guide development of the new community identity and logo.  

Remember the Aaron Rodgers Ford TV spots filmed locally more than four years ago?

Well, two new commercials have strong South Milwaukee ties.

• First, much of this new Ariens spot — the parts shown before they show an actual Ariens factory in orange — was filmed at The SHOP, the new classic motorcycle repair shop at 1905 13th Ave.
• Then there is this West Bend Mutual spot. It features Neal Letteney, pastor of New Day Church, which recently moved to Wil-o-Way Grant. Pastor Neal, an actor, is the bearded fellow in the blue flannel shirt (and the wood shavings in his beard).

I love showing off the people and places that make our city great!

While Drexel Town Square and development around the Drexel freeway interchange have gotten most of the attention recently, I’ve long thought Oak Creek’s plans for Carrollville will have the biggest impact on their neighbor to the north and east.

Us.

Those plans are starting to come together and include a wide mix of uses, from single-family housing to light industrial to a convention center. A new lakefront park is already open, located along a newly extended Fifth Avenue connecting to Highway 100.

From a recent Business Journal story …

The overall vision breaks the land surrounding Lake Vista Park into different districts, each with a different redevelopment strategy.

There’s 91 acres northeast of American and Fifth avenues where the city is encouraging offices or light industrial buildings for water technology businesses or other research and development. There also could be medium-density housing with apartments and single-family homes.

An affiliate of Wispark LLC, Milwaukee, owns 46 acres in that area that it eventually plans to sell to another developer, said president Jerry Franke. Wispark shareholders invested in that land as part of the same agreement that led to its participation in the Drexel Town Square and OakView Business Park developments, he said.

“Obviously, that’s the most difficult one and the one we’re working with the city on for a strategy to have someone else buy it and redevelop it,” Franke said of the lakefront land.

Happy fifth anniversary, Pink Bunny Games!

There was a great turnout for their celebration and ribbon cutting on Saturday.

‘Thanks to the South Milwaukee Community & Business Association and state Rep. Jonathan Brostoff for being a part of this special day, as we celebrate yet another small, independent business choosing to locate and grow in South Milwaukee.

Damien opened the store in 2012 as a way to get his collection out of the living room — and now he is eyeing expansion. Here’s to 50 more years in South Milwaukee!

By the way, here is the story on the name, from their Facebook page …

This story is really a two parter. The first part, I used to be what you would call a backpack dealer of Magic cards. This means that I would travel to events all around the midwest and trade cards for a profit with people at those events. There were several other people that did the same thing as myself, and we all sort of hung out with each other at the events.

The next part had really nothing to do with my Magic dealings. My girlfriend Ericka, had ordered a coat online. When the coat arrived, it did not look like the picture on the internet. The one that arrived was shaped like a big square, while the one pictured online was shaped like a woman. She was going to send it back, but I asked how much it cost her. It was only $20, so I told her to keep it and I would wear it. The coat in question was a fluffy, furry Pink coat.

Now back to my side gig as a backpack dealer. Magic was almost all males at the time, it is still a lot more males than females now, but we are moving in the right direction. Back then however, a room with 1000+ Magic players likely had less than 10 women in its population. Back then, I started wearing this fluffy Pink coat. I was just wearing it to be that goofy guy that did abnormal stuff, but what I didn’t realize, was that I was creating a brand. When a player walked into that room with 1000 people in it and had to find one of us backpack dealers to get that last card for his deck, I stood out like a sore thumb. It was fairly easy to pick out the fluffy Pink coat in a room full of guys.

All of the backpack dealers had nicknames for each other, and mine was Pink Bunny, due to my coat resembling the energizer bunny. I wore that coat for several years before it had to be retired, but the nickname has been with me ever since.

Fast forward a few years, and I had made the decision to open a store, rather than continue working out of my apartment. When decidinbg what to name the store, I made the decision that a descriptive name was not as good as a memorable name. I could have been Game Store, or Game Emporium, but if you looked at a list of generic sounding names, mine would dissappear into the mix as soon as you got to the next page, however, a name like Pink Bunny Games would stick with you, it would stand out, much like the fluffy Pink coat did for me so long ago.

Check out these South Shore headlines …

• Bumpy Road: An Endless Quest to Fix Local Roads in Wisconsin (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
• Comic Jackie Kashian Took a Very Long Road from Minneapolis to National Success (Minneapolis Star Tribune)
• South Milwaukee Man Pleads Guilty in Crash That Killed 2 Bicyclists (Journal Sentinel)
• Local “Blessing Box” Brings Community Together (CBS 58)
• “Oak Creek Fights” Facebook Page Taken Down Amid Concerns (Oak Creek Patch)
• Cudahy Man Held in Canada Over Fake Bomb in Luggage (Journal Sentinel)
• Oak Creek Delves into Milwaukee Aerotropolis Plan (NOW)
• Improved South Shore Terrace Beer Garden Opens for Season (NOW)

Also, NOW has published a new police blotter, including this item …

Officers were called to an apartment in the 1200 block of Michigan Avenue at 12:52 p.m. April 4 and 8:49 a.m. April 5 after a 35-year-old woman told police that she had received phone calls she believed were from actor Kiefer Sutherland. She was advised it was a scam and to ignore the calls.

From the South Milwaukee Performing Arts Center …

Please mark your calendars for the South l Performing Arts Center’s 2017-18 Season Preview & Tasting Party, Wednesday, May 24 at 6:30 pm, at the PAC. 901 15^th Avenue.

In addition to sneak previews of the upcoming season, we’ll feature our NEW official caterer, Skyline Catering, and some of our PAC sponsoring restaurants. The following sponsors have graciously offered to participate in our event by hosting a complimentary tasting (small bites) of their specialties:

• Skyline Catering
• Scrappy’s BBQ
• Barbiere’s Italian Restaurant
• Azteca Mexican Restaurant

This FREE event is open to the public.  Invite family and friends to join in the fun.

From the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission and Root-Pike-Win Watershed Initiative Network …

You are invited to our Residential Stormwater Workshop & Planning Update! The event will be held Wednesday evening, April 26, 2017 in South Milwaukee and will include a brief informational update on the Oak Creek Plan from Laura Kletti Herrick P.E., CFM and Thomas M. Slawski, Ph.D. of the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission. Topics of their presentation will include a short summary of the stakeholder comments received at the August 2016 planning meeting and presentation of some of the field data collected to date. 

Recently, I had a chance to speak with Steven Broeker, a South Milwaukee resident who is making his city a better place by feeding the hungry. It’s a terrific story, and a creative approach to solving a real problem with too many of our local students.

I’ll let him take it from here. From Steven’s Go Fund Me page …

Growing up, my family was hit hard with the recession, making it difficult for me to have funds for food and clothes. Luckily, I was blessed with a very caring support system including my grandmother, friends and their family members, that would provide for me. Without these people I would be a different person today. I know my middle school/ high school experience would have been much more difficult.

When I was younger, I thought the only way that I was going to be able to help was if I was wealthy. Later I realized that this wasn’t the case. My help came from my grandmother, close family, friends, and friend’s families. It was a combination of people coming together that was able to help me throughout my life. I would like to provide help to these students and will need your assistance in doing so. Please help make a difference in a student’s life, from experience; it can make all the difference.

The hardest part of being a student and having to go through this was a sense of concentration throughout classes. As lunch would get closer, I would start to wonder if the lunch ladies were going to let through the line with an already negative account. If so, I would get the bare minimum, which would lead to more distractions throughout the rest of the school day. Luckily on days where my balance hit the max negative amount, a friend would step in and provide something for me, or they would borrow me money until a check would come from my grandmother. At times this would be embarrassing and I would try and keep my situation to myself. 

And he’d go hungry because of it – “some days I wouldn’t eat at all,” Steven said.

This is a story repeated every day in our schools today, as kids, even those who receive federally subsidized free or reduced lunch, “fall through the cracks,” as he put it.

Now a college graduate and a sales rep for Palermo’s, Steven wants to help solve the problem. He is helping those kids, because he can. We all can.

“You don’t have to be wealthy to do it,” he says.

Steven is working with South Milwaukee School District social workers to raise money to help students who don’t have money that day to eat or eat well. They might be kids who don’t qualify for the lunch program but still lack money for lunch, or students who do qualify but may want more than what the lunch program can provide. Or, perhaps most importantly, they may be kids who probably do qualify for the lunch program, but their parents haven’t signed up for it for whatever reason – maybe out of pride, like Steven back in his school days at Rawson Elementary and the middle and high schools.

To help, Steven has started a Go Fund Me campaign He launched the effort less than two weeks ago, and he raised more than $1,000 in the first 24 hours.

“It brought tears to my eyes,” he said.

The campaign has now raised more than $3,000, surpassing Steven’s revised goal.

My hope? We can keep resetting that goal higher, especially as Steven aims to eventually expand the effort to the middle school and the elementary schools.

There is no shortage of need. Around half of South Milwaukee students qualify for free or reduced lunch – across the district and at each local school. It’s a sobering statistic – one that Steven lived first hand. Now that he doesn’t, he wants to help those who do.

It’s an inspiring story. I just gave $50. How can you help?

Work is beginning this month on a We Energies project to upgrade natural gas facilities in a number of neighborhoods in South Milwaukee.

The project to replace aging natural gas mains and laterals will affect more than 1,800 customers in the city, and could lead to brief gas outages and minor traffic impacts. Customers/property owners directly impacted by the project will receive a notice (mailing or door hanger) of work to be done in their neighborhoods.

Here is a project overview from We Energies …

We will begin upgrading natural gas facilities throughout areas of South Milwaukee soon. This work will allow us to continue to provide safe and reliable natural gas service to our customers. We expect to complete the work in stages by the end of 2017.

The work includes replacement of natural gas mains within the road right-of-way as well as service laterals to individual homes. Michels, our construction contractor, will complete the work on our behalf.

Our activities will require traffic control and excavation measures, which we are coordinating with the City of South Milwaukee. Construction staging may require the temporary removal of on-street parking in some areas to accommodate a work zone. There also will be intermittent impacts to pedestrian sidewalk access throughout the project.

We will contact impacted residents through letters and in-person visits in advance of work being performed to provide project details, review the timeline and answer questions. A project contact number will be made available for follow-up questions.

We appreciate your understanding as our crews work to complete the project as safely and quickly as possible. Thank you for your cooperation.

Check out the full map of impacted neighborhoods here.

We continue to build the foundation for successful downtown redevelopment, taking the steps necessary to revitalize our city center for the long term.

The latest example: An application that was made today to the state’s Connect Communities program … “where the path to revitalization begins.”

Connect Communities is a statewide network providing a wide range of downtown resources to local communities, including expertise from Wisconsin Main Street. It aims to “help local leaders leverage the unique assets of their downtowns and commercial districts, providing access to resources and networking opportunities to local leaders interested in starting a district revitalization effort.”

From the Connect Communities website …

“Downtowns and historic commercial districts play an important role in their communities and in Wisconsin’s overall economy, functioning not only as prominent employment and business centers, but oftentimes as the historic foundation of the municipalities they serve. Successful commercial districts don’t just happen. They need to be planned and nurtured. Their prosperity requires interest and action from many stakeholders who share a vision for the community.”

Thankfully, we have that.

This is a joint application, between the city and Project ReStore, a subcommittee of the South Milwaukee Community & Business Association, and none of this could happen without the work of these dedicated local business owners and residents. I thank them for their work to date, and for their work to come on this critical issue.

The application follows months of study of with a consultant around ways to bring the No. 1 downtown strategy from the 2016 comprehensive plan to life: “Organize a downtown revitalization structure to build local capacity and credibility to conduct successful work over the long term.”

The key word is “long term,” and, indeed, this is just the start. ReStore is also exploring forming a business improvement district or similar downtown organization to serve as an “owner” for downtown redevelopment. Much more to come on that.

For now, we’re hopeful we’ll be accepted by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. into the Connect Communities program, and begin realizing the benefits of membership. The biggest one, to me, is education.

We are not reinventing the wheel here when it comes to downtown redevelopment. What we’re doing in South Milwaukee has been done before in dozens (hundreds?) of communities across the state. We will learn from them through our membership in Connect Communities.

And, with that learning, we’ll revitalize our downtown, together.

Here is the proclamation the city council passed last week in support of the application.

WHEREAS, the City of South Milwaukee and Project Restore, which is a subcommittee of the South Milwaukee Community and Business Association, have mutually agreed to apply for the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) Connect Communities Program; and

WHEREAS, the Connect Communities Program will assist the City of South Milwaukee and Project Restore in leveraging our assets and providing valuable resources to accelerate our efforts to revitalize the downtown district; and

WHEREAS, the Connect Communities Program will provide networking opportunities, on-site visits from WEDC staff, training for the downtown group, webinar training, and participation in Main Street workshops, to enhance the revitalization and economic development efforts downtown; and

WHEREAS, given the present condition of downtown South Milwaukee and recent revitalization efforts, this program will provide the City of South Milwaukee with much needed assistance.  It is in the best interest of the City to continue building momentum and expanding on the progress of the downtown district;

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT, the City of South Milwaukee hereby authorizes the submission of the Connect Communities Application, hereby supporting the membership to the WEDC Connect Communities Program;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the City of South Milwaukee and Project Restore partner in the Connect Communities Program and further revitalization efforts for downtown South Milwaukee.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the City of South Milwaukee clerk transmit a certified copy of this resolution to the Project Restore subcommittee.

From State Rep. Jessie Rodriguez’s office …

Don’t miss my listening session next week at the South Milwaukee City Hall to discuss the budget recommendations and other priorities related to state government. A member from the Joint Finance Committee will join me to help answer your questions.

The listening session is open to all residents of the 21st Assembly District. Additional details are listed below. Hope to see you there!

I had a great time at tonight’s inaugural South Milwaukee Community & Business Association Spotlight Awards at the South Milwaukee Yacht Club.

It was a high-energy and fun event for an organization that is as energized as I’ve seen it in my time in politics. It’s exciting to see.

A strong chamber of commerce makes for a stronger South Milwaukee.

Donn Powers was the star of the show — the roast, actually — and for good reason. This business and community icon leaves quite a legacy as he heads into retirement, something we celebrated with a proclamation.

The two business award winners were also perfect choices: Sorce Martial Arts as Business of the Year, and Scrappy’s BBQ as Newcomer of the Year.

South Milwaukee’s past, present and future are built on a foundation of small businesses, and we celebrated that tonight. Congratulations to all of the winners!