South Milwaukee Blog

When voters made me the mayor of this great city two years ago, their message was clear as to our top priority: Fix downtown.

It’s with that in mind that we set out on this journey to deliver a promising future for our city center, one that, if completed, will lift all of South Milwaukee. Last week marked a big step on that journey.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is covering some of that progress, and promise, in Sunday’s edition. Check it out.

Here are the details …

On Tuesday, the Common Council voted 8-0 to adopt the comprehensive and downtown plans, giving us the road map we need to drive successful and sustainable economic (re)development in South Milwaukee.

The council also voted unanimously to pass two key elements of the plan related to downtown …

• Downtown Revitalization Grant. This will replace our Facade Grant program and focus investment in our city center, notably in the 900 and 1000 block of Milwaukee Avenue. Matching grants of up to $30,000 for both exterior and interior work are available, as we look to breathe new life into struggling downtown storefronts. Look for more details soon, and we’ll begin sharing it both broadly to downtown property owners and in a targeted fashion to prospective new property owners and businesses. The program is being initially funded at $75,000.
• Funding for downtown strategy No. 1. The council also voted to spend up to $16,000 to continue work with Graef consulting to bring to life the most critical strategy in the plan — figuring out what downtown “ownership” looks like for South Milwaukee. I expect this work will begin in June, and we’ll have a way forward by the end of 2016.

You will also recall that we’re already working with Graef on another key part of the downtown plan: Milwaukee Avenue streetscaping options and concepts. More to come on those this summer.

And of all of this is happening while we’re working hard to attract new businesses (like this one), and help our existing ones grow (like this one), and as we continue to deliver the best special event schedule in the area. (Saturday’s Little League parade through downtown was terrific, and don’t forget the Food Truck Festival on May 22 and the Downtown Market opener on June 2.)

Have a plan, work the plan. That is my focus as mayor, and we’re doing it, together.

We’re making significant progress, and you’ll see several endorsements of the direction we’re taking in tomorrow’s newspaper. However, our work is just beginning.

Join us on the journey!

The ribbons and big scissors are at the ready.

Last week, it was Jen’s Sweet Treats. You can add three more South Milwaukee grand openings in the next month.

• May 13-15: Ace Hardware. Ben has a full weekend of activities planned, including a ribbon cutting at noon on Friday, grilling demos, a visit from WTMJ radio’s Jeff Wagner on Saturday, Family Day on Sunday and free coffee and donuts each day. There are also daily specials and discounts to celebrate the significant upgrades and renovations the Gil family, the new owners, have made to their Sunrise Plaza location. Check out the full list of activities and specials here.
• May 13: Tracker’s Pub and Grub. The tavern at 1401 Rawson Ave. has actually been open a few weeks now, but Tony and Jennifer are planning a formal opening — ribbon cutting and all — for 5 p.m. on Friday. Please join me and representatives from the South Milwaukee Community & Business Association at the event. Learn more about Tracker’s here.
• May 22: Lovenote Photos. The photo and graphic design studio opens at its new location at 1300 Milwaukee Ave. at 10 a.m., ahead of the start of the South Milwaukee Spring Food Truck Festival.

And there are more formal openings to come, including Ferch’s Beachside at Grant Park Beach, and three more on Milwaukee Avenue: Military Connection, the renovated and expanded DB Tax Service and Mara’s Sewing House, which is coming to 915 Milwaukee. Work also continues on Grillworks in the former Grebe’s and Nona’s Cafe building.

Stay tuned, and spread the word!

I’ve been so impressed with the renewed energy and vitality of the South Milwaukee Community & Business Association.

We are a better city with a strong chamber of commerce, and we have it.

One new initiative for the SMCBA — Networking After 5 Mixers. The first one is coming up on Thursday, May 12. All are welcome, members or not. I hope to see you there!

Check out the full-sized flyer here. 

Check out these South Shore headlines …

• IKEA Unveils Plans for New Oak Creek Store (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
• Behind the Deal: How Plans for the Oak Creek IKEA Store Came Together (Business Journal)
• Five Guys, Potbelly Coming to Drexel Town Square (BizTimes)
• Cudahy Football Player a Light to Everyone he Meets (Fox 6)
• Venemous Snake Bite Doesn’t Stop Love for Exotic Animals (TMJ4)
• Rio Nuevo Board OK’s $52 Million in Incentives to Bring Caterpillar to Tucson (Arizona Daily Star)

From South Milwaukee Performing Arts Center Director Rachel Sorce …

A regional bank is awarding grants ranging from $3,000 – $50,000 to non-profits and schools based on a 1-minute video that shows how the organization is building community. SMPAC is clearly building community across generations and cultural backgrounds, and our emphasis on education and creative, innovative and diverse performing arts make us a great candidate for this contest. Funds would be applied to technical upgrades to replace aging equipment that serves students in the performing arts.

Our plan is to showcase this through the people we serve. Please join us for a fun, no-stress video shoot on Saturday, May 14, from 10:00 – 11:30 am.

WE HOPE TO SEE:

• Student and adult musicians
• Drumline
• A cappella singers
• Ballet or other dancers
• Actors
• Drama students
• Annual ticket subscribers
• Yoga students (you know who you are)

All ages are encouraged to attend, dress in costume (or not), bring your instrument or dancing shoes! No preparation required. We only have one minute.

Please bring your friends! The more the merrier! Coffee, soft drinks and bakery will be served. RSVP appreciated, but not required. Please park in the NW lot and use door 9.

This sounds like fun!

Check out the new Facebook event. This will be fun. Spread the word!

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article …

The Clifton, N.J.-based Federation of Balkan American Associations Inc. bought the property, 3244 E. College Ave., Cudahy, for $1,135,000, according to state real estate records posted Wednesday.

The two parcels that make up the former YMCA total 12.8 acres, according to city assessment records. The building is around 53,500 square feet, according to LoopNet.com, commercial real estate Internet site.

The Balkan American Association promotes activities that include lectures and seminars, language courses and cultural activities, including film festivals, according to the group.

The association will use the former YMCA for its activities, said Roland Cinari, the organization’s office manager. The group’s members include people whose ethnic roots are in Kosovo, Bosnia and other Balkan countries, he said.

Cinari said the group also plans to reopen part of the building as a fitness center for both the organization’s members and the public.

Here is Business Journal coverage.

Disappointing, albeit not surprising, news from Caterpillar today …

This morning, the company announced to employees a decision to centralize its Surface Mining & Technology Division in Tucson, Ariz. The move “is the result of a comprehensive study to place our footprint closer to customers and proving grounds, drive a deeply collaborative culture between employees, dealers and customers, and create strong mining-focused career pipelines,” the company tells me.

The transition will occur over the next five to seven years, and does not impact Cat’s approximately 250,000 square-foot manufacturing footprint in South Milwaukee — one that continues to undergo upgrades with millions of dollars of new equipment and other investment, according to our local spokesman, who said the goal remains to make South Milwaukee a “world-class” maker of rope shovels and draglines.

(Last year, you’ll recall Cat announced it was shrinking by half its local manufacturing footprint, closing two buildings while investing in what remains.)

The opening of the new Tucson facility will result in some management roles moving from South Milwaukee and other locations around the country to the Tucson area over time. This year, about 10-15 employees from South Milwaukee will move. Longer term, more of Cat’s engineering and support positions will transition, although key operations support will remain. The bulk of the local moves will occur closer to 2018.

All in, a Cat spokesman tells me South Milwaukee could lose about 200 jobs to Arizona, including some that had been located in Oak Creek before Cat announced last year it was closing that facility and moving those workers to South Milwaukee. 

Cat has about 800 active local employees today, including about 600 in salaried and management positions.

Please keep the families of the impacted workers in your thoughts and prayers. These types of transitions are never easy.

While this news is disappointing, I am not discouraged. We will continue to push, undeterred, forward. We have to.

Tonight is a big night on that journey, as the council considers final passage of our comprehensive plan update and downtown plan — one that begins to ponder a smaller Caterpillar — as well as an enhanced downtown small business incentive program and additional funding to bring the top priorities of the plan to life for South Milwaukee.

We have strong economic redevelopment momentum in our city. We will build on that and work harder than ever to deliver on the promise of our promising future.

The case to do so has never been stronger, especially with today’s news.

Here is early newspaper coverage from Tucscon. Here is a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story, with this comment from former Bucyrus CEO Tim Sullivan: “This is truly a very sad day for Milwaukee and Wisconsin as these jobs have existed in the region for 136 years.”

From the South Milwaukee Police Department …

Today at about 3:42 PM South Milwaukee Police received a call of a reported robbery at Walmart at 222 N. Chicago Ave. The caller reported that a person had passed a note at the service counter demanding money and, based on the note, the clerk believed the suspect may be armed. No weapon was displayed. Money was obtained and the suspect fled the store in what appears to be a Silver Chrysler 300 4dr.

Suspect is described as a m/b possible in his 20’s approximately 601-603with Black medium length hair in short twists type hairstyle. The suspect also had a mustache and beard that were short in length. The suspect was wearing blue jeans, red jacket over a red t-shirt, red shoes (red on top-white on the bottom) black rimmed glasses.

Check out these South Shore headlines, including information on significant development happening with our South Shore neighbors …

• Ikea Considers Oak Creek (BizTimes.com)
• Valentine Coffee Co. to Open Location at Drexel Town Square (BizTimes.com)
• Puppies Found in Trash in South Milwaukee Now One Week Away from Going Home (Fox 6)
• Snakes, Gators Removed from St. Francis Home After Man Bitten (WISN)

Also, NOW has published a new police blotter.

And Caterpillar recently reported first-quarter earnings. From CNBC:

“We’re close to the bottom or bottoming,” Chairman and CEO Doug Oberhelman told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” He said he hopes 2016 is the last down year. Citing a bright spot, Oberhelman said: “We’ve seen actually an adjustment upwards in China in the first quarter, which is kind of nice. It’s the first time we’ve talked about that in a couple [or] three years.” “China is stimulating and they’ve added a little debt to their GDP forecast,” he said. “We’re feeling some of that in large products. Hopefully that will be sustained; something they do throughout the rest of the year.”

Caterpillar also announced the closure of five more factories last week.

Our city employees continue to step up to help others.

This time, it’s the South Milwaukee Fire Department. From Fire Chief Joe Knitter …

I wanted to bring you up to date on a volunteer initiative started by FF/Paramedic Ryan Wendt to help the family of a nurse from St. Luke’s – South Shore Hospital whose husband fell from a scaffolding over the weekend while helping a friend repair a helicopter.  The man fractured his neck in 3 places resulting in what appears to be permanent paralysis from the neck down.  In fact, he was placed on a permanent ventilator and had a feeding tube inserted [last week]. … 

Members of Local 1633, the Firefighters Protective Association, have stepped up and offered to take care of all the yard work for the family in their time of need.  The family accepted quite willingly knowing that their focus must be on their husband and father. Even though the family resides in Oak Creek, this offering by members of Local 1633 and spearheaded by Ryan exemplifies the type of guys we have working for us.

In addition, members of the department have been donating to a GoFundMe Campaign started by the ER Supervisor at SLSS. (https://www.gofundme.com/ricklloyd). If you click on this link, you can learn more about this terrible tragedy. 

Thanks to our firefighters for making this tragedy a little easier to bear.

Brenda Santiago is the local mother of two-year-old Naty and her two older siblings, who attend South Milwaukee schools. (One plays basketball with my son.)

Brenda wanted to give Naty a birthday present of a lifetime, one that would also help in her therapy. Naty suffers from Spondyloepiphyseal Dysplasia Congenita, also known as SEDc. It is advanced dwarfism, and the condition has limited her bone growth.

I’ll let Brenda take it from here, from Facebook …

Today Naty received a special birthday gift from the Home Depot! She has enjoyed walking up and down her new stairs and plopping herself in her bed. I walked in to the store on Sunday and spoke to Rob Rafalski about what my idea and needs were. We spoke for about 20 minutes or so and by the end of the conversation rather then telling me what supplies were best, he offered to get a crew together and build it for Naty. He wanted to do something special for a special girl. Rob and the team at home depot took a drawing I had and turned it into a reality within a matter of days, staying after shift to make sure it was done in time for Naty to be able to take it home and use on her birthday. Not only did they build it, but they had a team decorate it fit for a princess! They worked hard and it is greatly appreciated. I am amazed at how much effort and creativity these wonderful people put into this project for a child most of them had never even met. It’s moments like these….when a group of strangers can come together to shower my daughter with love…the emotion I have is unexplainable. Although Naty may not be able to know or remember what is going on, this is a day I will never forget.

TMJ4 told the story last week.

The headline says it all. Thanks, Officer Mike Hill. Well done!

You can see the Facebook video here. And check out coverage on WISN.

Here is the recap from Rita Wiskowski, who filmed everything (and took photos).

I was on my way out of the park after the Grant Park Warbler Walk (that happens every Sunday morning in May). I was driving past the Mill Pond when I saw the female mallard acting all agitated, so I stopped and looked down the sewer and saw the ducklings. I called Betsy Abert, who I had just been birding with and she came right over. I called the police and she left to get a net to scoop up the ducklings. She then stopped by the fire department to tell them about it. The police arrived first. After Officer Hill had rescued all the ducklings, the fire department arrived. It was a lot of effort for a bunch of ducks, but I couldn’t have been more grateful. I was on the verge of tears when I first saw the situation, before knowing that the police would be so quick to respond. I love this city!

I couldn’t agree more.

I certainly have. WUWM has the answer, courtesy of local historians.

Thinnes says it was that combination of independent spirit and manufacturing might led South Milwaukee to establish, early on, its own infrastructure including a water filtration system, sewer system and its own street and address scheme.

“South Milwaukee, they didn’t really feel they were a continuation of the City of Milwaukee, so they tried to keep their own identity. And when this whole process started, they decided, no, they were not going to do it; they were going to keep their street numbering system and keep their street names,” according to Milwaukee address history buff Carl Baehr.