South Milwaukee Blog

The diversity of programming delivered by the South Milwaukee Performing Arts Center continues to impress.

This time, it’s African American dance.

From the SMPAC …

We’re thrilled to present one of the top African American dance companies on November 18. Step Afrika! performances are more than dance shows; they integrate songs, storytelling, humor, and audience participation. The blend of technique, agility, and pure energy makes each performance unique and appeals to all ages and cultures.

Step Afrika! promotes stepping as an educational tool, focusing on teamwork, academic achievement and cross-cultural understanding. The dance company will hold a workshop for South Milwaukee High School students, as it does for K-12 and college students around the world.As part of a school district, our center is unique in that we get to bring international arts experiences to our school kids. This is positively the arts at its finest.

Here is the press release.

The South Milwaukee Parent Advisory Council — a group of parents from each of the six public schools that meet with the superintendent monthly to offer feedback and advice on the operations of our schools and district — recently posed questions related to education to state Rep. Jessie Rodriguez and Jack Redmond, her opponent in the upcoming election for Assembly District 21.

Here are their responses.

Downtown trick-or-treating should be bigger and better than ever this year, thanks to the work of Julie Arnold from Lovenote Photos, among others.

Be sure to check it out this Saturday from 2 to 5 p.m. … and while you’re out, why not check out two new businesses opening their doors for the first time?

• First, JB’s Tee Shirt Factory is moving from its current location at 1233 Milwaukee Ave. into a bigger building (they are eventually purchasing) at 1114 Milwaukee Ave. They are renovating the inside of the store now, and they have even bigger plans for the facade. Stay tuned for more details, and learn more about JB’s on their website. (I shared a photo from the renovation work in this post. Jason, Aaron, Berto and team should be proud of what they’ve done. I stopped by this week, and it looks terrific.) They will be handing out candy on Saturday, and expect to be fully open in early November.
• Also, Scrappy’s BBQ officially opens this Saturday, too, at noon, just in time for trick-or-treaters. Mike has been working hard the past month whipping the former Lloyd’s Lunch building into shape, and you can see (and taste) the fruits of that labor this weekend. Check out their Facebook page for more.

Our downtown momentum continues. See for yourself as you hunt for candy on Saturday!

I’ve had a number of questions in recent months similar to this: What’s with the construction work happening below the Mill Pond dam on Oak Creek Parkway?

Here is the answer, provided by Jim Ciha, Milwaukee County landscape architect …

During the heavy rains of 2010, a 15-foot section of the of this wall collapsed.  This wall, built in the late twenties, was constructed by some of the federal work programs of the depression.  This damage was part of the many areas in the park system impacted by the storm. 

In 2015, Milwaukee County bid the project out and awarded the reconstruction of the collapsed portion of the wall, stabilizing the wall foundation and tuck pointing the stone. Most of the work will completed by the end of the  month. 

The estimated cost of the wall reconstruction was $290,000.

I’m so glad this event has returned …

Thanks to Nels Monson and First Congregational for this Rocketober treat!

Saturday, October 29, should be a really fun Rocketober day in South Milwaukee.

Events at South Milwaukee Little League, St. Mark’s, downtown and at First Congregational — as well as the Human Concerns Haunted House. Check out the full Rocketober schedule here.

Here are details on downtown trick-or-treating, which is quickly becoming a staple event in South Milwaukee …

• When: 2-5 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 29
• Where: More than 40 businesses along 10th and Milwaukee Avenues
• How it works: It’s simple. Start by printing the scavenger hunt form, picking up a copy at a participating business, or downloading the app (there is an app this year). Stop at each participating downtown business and have them mark the form, or log your visit on the app using a QR code, while grabbing some Halloween treats. If you visit at at least 18 merchants, register on the app or turn in your form at Moran’s Pub, 912 Milwaukee Ave., at 5:15 p.m. for a chance to win raffle prizes.
• Be sure to visit Lovenote Photos at their new location, 1300 Milwaukee Ave., to get a FREE Facebook photo taken of your children in costume. (Thanks to Julie from Lovenote for leading this event; she’s done a great job.)

Download the app, and get more details here. Here is the flyer.

Spend some time downtown and support our local merchants, having some fun along the way. It promises to be a great day.

Happy Rocketober!

South Milwaukee High School’s a capella groups The Pop Rockets & Delta V have released their first two singles.

From Lee Stovall …

Thank you all so much! There are too many people to list who have helped out with this project, and of course the students worked very hard on it themselves. If you’re interested in supporting the groups further, all of the profits from the singles will go towards our April trip to Memphis. 

You can buy them here: 

• https://loudr.fm/release/survivor/StdkE
• https://loudr.fm/release/writings-on-the-wall/BfhNK

Listening to them on Spotify also gets us a marginal profit, so if you just want to hear the songs, feel free to check them out here:

• Delta V’s Survivor: https://play.spotify.com/album/0rMR61DQCuwcM7EKNFSUqk
• PopRocket’s Writing’s on the Wall: https://play.spotify.com/album/3JkjSYL2t2lvE9unjyVb1h

The singles also have been released on iTunes, Amazon, Pandora, and Apple Music, so feel free to check them out on whatever online music service you prefer!

From the South Milwaukee cross-country website …

The boys varsity turn in another fine performance and finished first in the WIAA Sectional Championships at Grant Park.  This will be the third straight year that the team will compete in the State Meet.

Jordan Janusiak continued an outstanding season by winning the individual title.  Also running well were Chris Sobczak (second), Aidan Sodemann (third), Wyatt Schlager (13th), Max Moran (17th), Nick Sluga (26th), and Andrew Strasser (32nd). Aidan Sodemann’s time of 16:29 puts him number 10 on the top 10 times list.  

I can’t remember any Rocket Team going 1, 2, 3 at the Sectional Championships.  It was a great team effort.  

The girls team finished in 5th place.  Maddie Wood finished seventh and qualified for her third State Meet.  Also placing were Maddie Smith (25th), Vivian Grossman (32nd), Miranda Ekleberry (39th), Kate O’Neill (40th), Alex Krane (44th), and Alex Zeman (45th).

The State Meet will be held on Saturday, October 29 at The Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids.  The boys Division 1 race will start at 1:10 pm, and the Girls Division 1 Race will begin at 3:05 pm.

The JV runners ended their season with some very good performances.  We had 8 boys and 3 girls get PR’s.  We changed the format for our end of the season JV Invite this year.  We ran 2 races for the boys and 2 races for the girls.  We our boys into two teams.  Our B team finished first in their race beating Oak Creek by 1 point.  The A team finished in 11 place.  19 boys teams competed.  The girls competed as one team in the B race and finished in 2nd place.  These results indicate that our future is very bright.      

And in other sports news …

Football

The Rocket football, minus star quarterback Jake Simuncak, fell 56-21 to Whitefish Bay in the first round of the WIAA playoffs on Friday. The finished the year 3-7.

Here is a story from North Shore NOW.

Josh Janusiak (Class of 2015)

Check out this story about his exploits at Lawrence University. From it:

With his shy smile and aw-shucks demeanor, Josh Janusiak has all the earmarks of the boy next door.

But make no mistake, the Lawrence University cross-country star is no wallflower. Janusiak has proven to be a fierce competitor and a thoroughbred who devours the miles, leaving the competition in his wake. He captured his third Midwest Conference performer of the week award of the season a few days ago and stands poised to challenge for the league title Oct. 29.

“Given the training this year, the effort put in by everyone and the positivity, I think this year has been very close to perfect,” said Janusiak, a sophomore from South Milwaukee.

Mackenzie Meyers (Class of 2016)

Mackenzie was a standout on the Rocket Varsity Tennis Team for the previous four years and is continuing that success as a freshman student-athlete at Marian University where she finished her freshman tennis season 20-9 playing the majority of her matches at #2 for both singles and doubles. Marian finished 4th in their conference, up one spot from last year. Mackenzie just recently was named as one of the All-Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Top Singles Players!

• Link to the All-Conference Awards Page: http://www.naccsports.org/sports/wten/2016-17/awards-season
• Link to Mackenzie’s Roster Page: http://www.sabreathletics.com/sports/wten/2016-17/bios/meyers_mackenzie_0pa8?view=bio

From the Grant Park Watch group … 

Hi Neighbors: Do you have questions about drugs in our community, but were afraid to ask?

SMPD Investigator Jon Rivamonte will be giving a drug presentation at Monday night’s Neighborhood Watch meeting taking place at the Grant Park Clubhouse at 100 E. Hawthorne Avenue, starting at 6:30 p.m.

All SM residents are encouraged to attend to get up to speed with this information. Inv. Rivamonte was assigned to the drug group for five years and has a wealth of knowledge in this area.

Looking forward to seeing you at the meeting.

In-person absentee voting is now open, and runs through Friday, Nov. 4.

Anyone planning on being out of town or unable to make it to the polling place on election day can cast an absentee ballot at the clerk’s office at City Hall, 2424 15th Ave.

For hours and availability, click here. Remember to bring your photo ID.

Requests for absentee ballots should be mailed to:

City of South Milwaukee – City Clerk
2424 15th Avenue
South Milwaukee, WI, 53172

The request must list the voter’s resident address, where the ballot should be mailed (if different), the election for which they are requesting the ballot, and must be signed by the voter. The last day to mail out absentee ballots by mail is Nov. 3.

Also, voters can register at the clerk’s office prior to the election date or at the polling place on Election Day. Voters should bring their Wisconsin driver’s license or state ID card when registering. If the information on your license does not list your current address, additional documentation with the current address will be needed to establish residency. A voter must have lived at their residence for at least 10 consecutive days prior to registering. Remember, you must change your voter registration if you are new to the city, have changed residences within the city or if you had a legal name change.

More details on voting here.

From the South Milwaukee School District … 

MARCHING BAND

Check out these South Shore headlines …

• With Open Land and Open Minds, South Suburbs Experiencing a Renaissance (BizTimes)
• Construction Starts on Another Oak Creek Apartment Complex (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
• Former Cudahy YMCA to Reopen as New Community Center (Journal Sentinel)
• Wisconsin “Fab Labs” Boost High School Tech Ed (Journal Sentinel)
• As $100 Billion Goal Crumbles, Peoria’s Caterpillar Shakes up its C-Suite (Chicago Tribune)
• Cudahy Police Investigating Saturday Night Stabbing (TMJ4)
• Lucky the Fox is Released Back into the Wild (Fox 6)
• Five Guys Burgers and Fries, Potbelly Opening at Drexel Town Square (Business Journal)

And NOW has published a new police blotter.

Thanks to the South Milwaukee Lions for carrying on this wonderful tradition!

This year’s crop of scarecrows is the biggest yet …

Thank you to Blakewood and Lakeview Elementary students for your works of art, to Ace Hardware and Geneva Lakes Produce for helping with supplies and to the Street Department for installing them around downtown.

I love it when a plan comes together. Happy Rocketober!

Farewell, Donn Powers.

Donn is retiring, and he is going out of business after 39 years in jewelry — 33 in South Milwaukee. He and his business will be missed. They are both one of a kind.

“Honest prices, quality jewelry sales and impeccable customer service.” That’s how Donn describes his business in a mailing advertising a retirement/going-out-of-business sale starting Friday for the general public.

But it’s much more than that.

In an era of mass, mall jewelers, Donn stands tall as an independent business focused on the community (and downtown) he serves. He is incredibly civic-minded, and that’s why all of South Milwaukee will feel this closure, whether you shop there or not.

He writes: “I, along with my wife Tracy, are very thankful that you have entrusted us with your family heirlooms and jewelry decisions for over 39 years. We have been blessed over the years with wonderful customers and many wonderful memories. …

“You never know what tomorrow may bring and now is the time to go out on top. Our customers have always been a blessing to us and we will miss you all tremendously.”

The feeling is mutual. Good luck, Donn and Tracy. We wish you nothing but the best.

South Milwaukee is a better place because of you.