Check out these South Shore headlines …
Filed under Headlines, South Milwaukee
The spring primary election is on Tuesday, Feb. 16, and in-person absentee voting is open now through 5 p.m. Friday at City Hall.
Click here for a sample ballot, which includes primary races for Milwaukee County executive and Wisconsin State Supreme Court.
Keep in mind that voter ID is now required. Visit Bring It to the Ballot for more information on acceptable forms of ID and how you can obtain a free state ID card.
Absentee voting is available at the clerk’s office from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday and from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday. The last day to mail an absentee ballot out to residents is Thursday, Feb. 11th.
Please visit the city’s Election Information page for more detailed information.
Filed under South Milwaukee
We’re big fans of South Milwaukee Little League around the Brooks house.
From SMLL …
Registration for the 2016 season is now open. Come join one of the longest running little league organizations. South Milwaukee Little League is fueled by the passion of volunteers. Through volunteers we are able to foster 40 baseball/softball teams. Kids learn how to build relationship, work as a team but most of all, have fun playing ball! If this sounds great … come take a look at our website and learn more.
Opportunities are available for children ages 6-18.
Get more information and register at www.southmilwaukeell.org.
For those that might be interested in coaching, managing or umpiring please contact Bob Lubetski at bob.lubetski@gmail.com. Any other questions, please contact Southmilwaukeelittleleague@gmail.com.
Filed under South Milwaukee, South Milwaukee Little League
I received this email over the weekend, and I have permission to share this story on my blog. You’ll be glad you read it.
From a South Milwaukee junior varsity girls’ basketball parent …
Hello basketball families. I witnessed something Friday night that I think you all need to know …
Our JV and varsity girls were playing at Shorewood high school. During the JV game, Shorewood had a young gentlemen with Down’s syndrome announcing the game. (That in itself, melted my heart).
After our JV game, our girls went to the locker room, then got food, talked with parents, or whatever. Towards the end of varsity warm ups, this young gentlemen came and found each of our girls in the stands, and directed them to come down to the court. Our girls did. Then this young man directed them to the back line of the court and had them stand in a line. Again, our girls did, without hesitation. He also told them where to stand, handed one girl his cell phone, held hands with 2 of our girls, and there they stood, as a team, (plus one) for the national anthem, picture attached (pasted in this blog post).
After this, our girls came back into the stands, and sat as a team by the video camera to film the varsity game. Again, the young man joined our girls. He talked with them, shared snapchat and kik info with some, asked all their names, and even held many of their hands. (Yes, their hands. My husband had cringed, since of course his daughter might hold a boy’s hand, and we tell our 3 girls and their friends all the time, “boys are icky”). This boy also asked the girls (I think individually each girl) to the prom, in which they kindly declined since we live to far away.
These girls felt, I’m sure, weird and embarrassed, but they did it. They held his hand and talked with him, and had FUN! …
I’m proud to know that these girls opened their heart to a child with special needs and took time to make him smile. In today’s world, with all the meanness and bullying, I’m proud to say that our JV South Milwaukee girls were nothing but kind, thoughtful and polite. I can only hope, for the sake of humanity, that this boy is always treated this way. He was truly raised to be brave and have lots of courage, and our girls were raised to be kind and respectful. Thanks JV parents for raising remarkable girls and thank you girls for being so REMARKABLE!!! I believe we made a nice impression on this young man, named Sam. Way to make SM proud!
And this came as a follow up …
Our girls have developed a history with Sam, and his parents and the athletic director have made mention of this each year. We have great girls which is a tribute to our parents and coaches. Sometimes these great things get lost in the wins and losses, but at the end of the day we know we have done our jobs.
Amen to that.
Filed under Schools, South Milwaukee, Sports
We love our college basketball in the Brooks family … and we had a chance to check out one of the area’s top players on Saturday.
And he’s from South Milwaukee.
Austin Stueck is a senior at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, where he has scored 1,792 points after his 27 in Saturday’s loss to Aurora.
The 6-foot-3 forward is third on the all-time scoring list at MSOE and second all-time in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference. This year, Austin is averaging more than 20 points, seven rebounds and four assists per game.
Just as importantly, the 2012 South Milwaukee graduate is majoring in architectural engineering and construction management, according to his bio.
(In that bio, check out video of his two buzzer-beaters in five days from 2014.)
Go Rockets!
Filed under Schools, South Milwaukee, Sports
Fat Tuesday is in just a few days, and there’s a way to celebrate it in South Milwaukee style — with paczki!
Wild Flour Bakery makes and sells all their Polish treats at their South Milwaukee bakery at 1205 Milwaukee Ave. Raspberry, bavarian cream, lemon and prune are available for pickup and purchase from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Tuesday.
Pre-orders are appreciated. Call 414-571-1298 to place your order or learn more.
Learn more about paczki here. And happy Fat Tuesday!
Filed under Local Business, South Milwaukee
We are getting tougher on nuisance properties.
The South Milwaukee Common Council has passed changes to our nuisance property code, strengthening the ordinance to make it easier to hold property owners responsible for persistent police, fire, health and other calls to their addresses. From the revised code …
The common council finds that any premises that has generated 3 or more calls for city service for nuisance activities within a 120 day period of time has received more than the level of general and adequate city service and has placed an undue and inappropriate burden on the taxpayers of the city. The Common Council therefore directs the Chief of Police, Fire Chief, Health Department Administrator, City Engineer, Building Inspector and Street Department Superintendent or their designee, whichever may be applicable, report the circumstances of such properties and activities to the Common Council after forwarding to the owners of the involved properties notice of assessment pursuant to this ordinance.
There is a long list of violations that could qualify here, ranging from animal waste and annoying dog complaints to complaints over discharging fireworks and open burning to noise and littering.
The fines is $100 per call/response, once a letter is sent alerting property owners to the nuisance code violations, and within the 120-day window. It can be levied as a special assessment against the premises.
I strongly support this measure. There are real costs to the city for dealing with these problems, and property owners have a responsibility to their tenants, neighbors, and city to ensure this type of activity doesn’t occur too often. This ordinance will help make them accountable.
It takes just one bad property bring down an entire block. We now have more power to stop it.
Filed under South Milwaukee
Coyotes are becoming an increasing part of everyday life across the county — and that includes South Milwaukee.
Take a look at the website Milwaukee County Coyote Watch, a new public database that aims to track coyote sightings across the area and learn from that data.
Here is one report from South Milwaukee from October …
We hear coyotes on a regular basis howling across the street from our house on Oak Creek Pkwy in South Milwaukee. On this date, October 12th, I watched one walk right down the middle of the street past our house at approximately 10:15pm.
Learn more about the coyote database here and here.
And here is the county’s press release on efforts it’s taking to address urban coyotes, including trapping and tagging them in Wauwatosa and West Allis.
So, what should you do if you see a coyote? First, please record the sighting on the Coyote Watch website — do not call our Health Department.
From the tracker website …
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources also has information on coexisting with urban wildlife. Bayside also has some great tips for dealing with coyotes.
Filed under Milwaukee County, South Milwaukee
Last week, the city received a letter from the county executive’s office asking us to take a look at how we’ve zoned our county parks. It asked us to make any changes necessary to ensure they are zoned appropriately to allow for their preservation as parks.
No problem, I thought. This is an easy one.
Parks should be zoned as parks. And we’ll make sure they are.
Then came the press releases. Like this one from the county board chairman, listing Grant Park and Rawson Park on some sort of “at-risk” list.
That helped drive media coverage like this and this, and then there was a hearing before the county board’s Intergovernmental Relations Committee on Friday.
Our response was the appropriate one. We have put the issue on Tuesday’s council agenda, with a plan to refer to the Plan Commission for recommendations on what, if any, rezoning is necessary. If we need to clean up zoning, we’ll make the changes.
The story should end there.
Of course, it hasn’t, and it won’t, not when politics are at play. And this whole effort stinks of politics.
Local municipalities should be kept out of county political battles. In this case, we’re being put in the middle of them.
To me, this whole exercise is crying wolf about something that is almost assuredly not going to happen. Grant Park is not for sale. I would not support it being for sale. And from what I know of the county executive and his administration, and from what the county executive has told me, he does not want to put it for sale.
But insinuating as much sure makes for a good press release, and scores some political points as the county executive election nears.
Please see through the scare tactics and the headlines.
We will stand up for our parks, minus the politics.
Filed under South Milwaukee
The latest in a regular series.
OK, so Janet Halfmann isn’t technically from here, but she’s lived here 25 years, and we’re proud to claim this terrific children’s book author as our own.
She has published dozens of books — including a number in the Brooks family collection — and her newest one (“Grandma is a Slowpoke”) is due out Feb. 15.
From her website …
My mom says that I was always curled up reading a book. That’s probably why I majored in English at Michigan State University in East Lansing, MI. At some point, I also fell in love with Spanish, spent a summer in Spain, and graduated with a double major, with plans to teach.
But soon after I married, I saw an ad for a home-study course in children’s writing, enrolled, started writing, and was hooked. Becoming a published children’s author became my dream. Reading books to our kids became #1 on my list of favorite things to do. I had some success as a freelance writer, selling articles to magazines like Ranger Rick and Jack and Jill.
But I wanted to make a living as a writer, which took me on the following path:
Got another degree in journalism and moved to Wichita, Kansas, to be a reporter on a daily newspaper for three years (I loved writing feature stories, but hard news not so much).
Moved to Wisconsin to help start the national magazine, Country Kids–but the circulation didn’t grow fast enough and the job lasted less than two years.
Worked for twelve years creating coloring and activity books (Little Mermaid, Mickey Mouse, Sesame Street, Poky Little Puppy, and scores of others) for Golden Books in Racine, WI–a great job with wonderful coworkers!
In 1997, when Golden Books moved all of its operations to New York City and I lost my job, I returned to my original dream of being a children’s author.
I got my start on my dream by writing books for the Creative Company in Mankato, Minnesota. I visited the company for an informational interview before I decided to strike out on my own. Then when I made my decision, the company gave me the opportunity to write a series of insect books, and a children’s book author was born.
And we’re blessed to have her call South Milwaukee home.
Note: Janet will be at the South Milwaukee Spring Market at South Milwaukee High School Sunday, March 20, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. She’ll also be at South Milwaukee Family Literacy Night.
Filed under Local Business, South Milwaukee
South Milwaukee Family Literacy Night returns on Thursday, Feb. 25, at Rawson Elementary School.
Among the activities planned: reading student writing samples, listening to stories read aloud, creating your own book or journal and meeting local children’s book author Janet Halfmann. Students will also receive a book to take home.
The event runs from 4:30 to 7 p.m. All South Milwaukee School District elementary students are welcome. Sign up here.
Filed under South Milwaukee
South Shore headlines include another difficult 2016 week for Caterpillar, with more plant closings and a gloomy 2016 forecast …
Also, NOW has published a new police blotter.
And there is this item from police that occurred on Jan. 20 …
On January 20, 2016, SMPD was notified that a gunshot victim at St Luke’s – Main Hospital had suffered an accidental, self-inflicted gunshot wound, resulting in a minor injury to the victim. A subsequent investigation at St Luke’s – Main Hospital and the victim’s residence confirmed the shooting to be accidental and self-inflicted by the victim while he was cleaning his gun. The victim was counseled regarding gun safety.
Filed under Headlines, South Milwaukee
Big news for Grant Park and South Milwaukee: The beer garden is back!
The Parks Traveling Beer Garden will stop at Grant Park’s Picnic Area 5 from June 15 through July 10, putting it at the park for the city’s July 4th celebration.
There will also be a 5K tied to the stop this year — the Beer Garden 5K, set for July 7.
You can check out the full schedule here.
I’m excited to see the beer garden return, this time for nearly a month. The county tells me Grant Park was one of the more successful stops on the tour in 2015, and I’m sure it will be again this year. Mark your calendars, and let’s raise a toast to Grant Park!
Filed under South Milwaukee
I love cool events downtown. And local art. And local business.
Moran’s Pub is bringing them all together on February 13 through Sweetheart’s Art Night, a first-ever Valentine’s Day Eve celebration of local art and music presented by a new group called the South Milwaukee Art Collective.
The event begins at 7 p.m. Moran’s is located at 912 Milwaukee Ave.
You can see a full list of participating artists on the Moran’s Facebook event page.
I love the thinking behind the Art Collective, and I’m excited to learn more.
On its Facebook page, the group says its mission is “to showcase and promote local artists and musicians through the local businesses to have a positive economic impact on South Milwaukee.” James Moran and South Milwaukee artist Enrique Violetti are leading the group, which hopes to holding additional events at local businesses in coming months.
I’m hoping this is the start of something special.
Filed under South Milwaukee
Downtown momentum continues, with our newest restaurant, Grillworks, planning an opening for March.
The Orens have already made significant investments to upgrade to the former Nona’s and Grebe’s building on 10th Avenue, and they plan to open the restaurant and bar in March. They will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well as a Friday fish fry, prime rib and a Sunday brunch buffet.
Also, a big thanks to our Street Department for taking away the snowbanks along Milwaukee Avenue on Friday. It’s not something we’ve often done, but I hope we can do it more going forward. I’m happy to get behind efforts like this to help local businesses. (Thanks to Leah from Parkway Floral for the photo.)
Filed under Downtown, Local Business, South Milwaukee
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