Ground was officially broken on the Walmart project on Wednesday, as about 25 project supporters — and about that many protesters — gathered at the site along Carroll Avenue.
Construction will take about a year, Walmart officials said, putting the opening in late spring/early summer of 2013.
Demolition of the buildings on the west side of the property will begin in the next couple of weeks.
I’ll try and provide regular project updates as work progresses.
Filed under South Milwaukee Walmart
The city sent this update to neighbors this week about the ongoing work on Parkway Drive and 17th Avenue.
From it: Base asphalt will be paved Thursday, and final pavement will be installed the week of June 18.
Please use alternate routes and patience when driving through the area.
I’ll keep you posted.
Filed under Construction
Mark Honadel has Democratic competition as he seeks his fifth full term in the Wisconsin Assembly: William Kurtz.
Kurtz is a former Milwaukee-area journalist and most recently worked in public relations at Carthage College in Kenosha.
I’ve met Bill, and he is excited about the challenge of unseating Honadel in the 21st Assembly District — even though he knows it will be an uphill climb.
Kurtz, who lives at 221 N. Chicago Ave., turned in 227 valid nomination signatures (200 are needed) as of June 1, the due date, according to the Government Accountability Board. Another potential candidate in the 21st, Michael Schmidt of Oak Creek, who listed his party as “Forward Wisconsin,” had only turned in 44 by that date, likely keeping him off the ballot.
Honadel turned in 394 valid signatures.
I’ll keep you posted as the campaign develops this summer. The general election is Nov. 4.
Of course, I’d like to know what you think. Post your comments below!
Filed under 2012 Elections
Check out the headlines from around the South Shore:
And NOW has published a new police blotter.
Filed under Headlines
In April, I wrote about the effort by some local residents to use the direct legislation process to enact an ordinance requiring that all city capital projects costing more than $1 million be put before voters in a binding referendum.
To make this happen – and either compel the South Milwaukee City Council to pass the ordinance or at least call a referendum on the referendum requirement – the group needed 1,197 valid signatures, or 15% of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election.
Well, the group turned in its signatures recently, and there aren’t enough.
That’s according to this letter sent from the city to Jim Leavens, one of the leaders of the direct legislation campaign.
The letter notes that the city found there were only 1,172 signatures submitted.
And not all of those signatures were deemed valid, either because they fell outside of the 60-day window necessary to obtain them, were missing key information, or other factors – including 17 sheets that were signed and dated by the signature collector before the dates accompanying the signatures themselves.
The group has 10 days to fix some of the “deficiencies,” and if 1,197 valid signatures are not presented within that timeframe, the city clerk will not forward the petition to the City Council.
I’ll keep you posted on what happens … and I reiterate my stance against the proposed city “spending cap.” You can see my argument in my previous post, but it boils down to this: The City Council is elected to make decisions like this, and putting major spending like this to a vote not only is unwieldy, costly and chilling to the prospects of necessary projects, it goes against the whole idea of representative government.
City leaders are up for election every two years. That’s the ultimate referendum.
Filed under City Council, Community, South Milwaukee Walmart
A 57-year-old man was reportedly hurt in an industrial accident at ATI Ladish in Cudahy late Saturday afternoon.
Check out the WISN story and video here. From it:
“A 30-pound piece of metal sign fell off a crane and hurt his head and his shoulder,” Cudahy Police Department spokeswoman Melissa Maker said.
The victim, who was identified as Gordon Zettel, of Muskego, was transported by helicopter to Froedtert Hospital.
Hospital officials said Zettel was listed in stable condition.
The South Milwaukee Fire Department also reportedly responded to the scene.
Filed under Fire, Local Business
County Supervisor Pat Jursik has published a new eNews update, and it includes a couple of interesting updates on airport projects.
Check out the update here. And here is a sampling of the airport items:
Filed under Milwaukee County
Check out these headlines from around the South Shore …
Also, Assisted Living Concepts — under fire for violations at some of its facilities and under investigation in several states — has fired its CEO. Assisted Living operates Crest House in South Milwaukee. See the Business Journal story here, and here is a story from 2011 about a lawsuit filed against Assisted Living Concepts following the death of one of its residents.
Filed under Headlines
The Public Policy Forum has issued its report looking into fire department consolidation involving Oak Creek and four other area departments.
Check out the report here, as well as coverage from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Oak Creek Patch.
You’ll recall that the Public Policy Forum is also working on a study involving the potential consolidation of the South Milwaukee, Cudahy and St. Francis Fire Departments, as well as dispatch services. Work on those reports continues. The report on the potential dispatch consolidation is expected in July, while the report on the potential fire consolidation is expected in mid-fall.
I’ll keep you posted as the process continues.
The Oak Creek-Franklin-Hales Corners-Greenfield-Greendale study contains several potential options for consolidation, with some leading to significant cost savings. From the story:
Franklin, Greendale, Greenfield, Hales Corners and Oak Creek could save $1 million annually in operating costs and about $4 million over the next five years in vehicle replacement costs if they formed one fire department, the report released Wednesday states.
The communities could save money if they stopped short of consolidation and shared some services, but the saving would not be as great, said Rob Henken, forum president.
For example, if the communities retained all five fire departments but operated under an “automatic aid agreement” in which the closest unit responds to a fire or EMS call regardless of municipal boundary, the municipalities potentially could save $3.35 million on vehicle replacement costs over five years. The report refers to this set up as an “operational consolidation.”
“Essentially, all calls would be treated as if it was a consolidated department, but still you would have five independent departments that would maintain their own personnel, their own personnel policies, their own equipment,” Henken said.
A third option, the report says, is to share some services, such as fire inspections, vehicle maintenance and training. This would produce efficiencies but probably not a lot of saving, Henken said.
As I’ve posted before, I’m certainly open to considering consolidation locally. But I want to be convinced we won’t be sacrificing service just to save money.
What do you think? Post your comments below!
Filed under City Council, City Services, Fire
The formal groundbreaking for the new Walmart on North Chicago Avenue has been set: It’s June 6. And, if all goes to plan, the store will open its doors in March of 2013.
As you know, the City Council has granted several approvals of the project in the past 18 months, most recently approving borrowing and spending related to cleanup of the site in April. The land sale — including a city-owned parcel fronting Chicago Avenue and a private parcel west of it — closed that week.
The site has sat largely untouched since then as project developers awaited approval from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources related to demolition of the property west of what is now 11th Avenue.
The groundbreaking starts at 9 a.m., and local government officials and representatives from Walmart and Randolph Construction, the project’s general contractor, are expected to attend.
I’ll keep you posted as the project progresses.
And you can learn more about the project in this one-pager.
Filed under Local Business, South Milwaukee Walmart
Update: There are more details about the crash in this Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story.
There was a fatal motorcycle crash this afternoon on the border of South Milwaukee and Cudahy.
Our police and fire departments responded to the scene at Lake Drive and College Avenue, and another vehicle was involved.
I don’t have many other details beyond that, but I’ll keep you posted.
Here is the TMJ4 story.
Filed under Fire
Check out these headlines from around the South Shore …
Filed under Headlines
South Milwaukee High School graduate Lauren Kleppin continues to make a name for herself as a collegiate runner.
Kleppin, a senior at Western State College of Colorado, finished second in the women’s 10,000-meters at the NCAA Division II Outdoor Track and Field Championships on Thursday. She took fifth in the 5,000 meters on Saturday.
Check out coverage on the Western State website here. From it:
Kleppin finished as the national runner-up in the 10,000-meter run for the second time in her outdoor career for the eighth All-America title in her overall career. She finished in 34:56.86, less than two seconds behind champion Rachel Patterson from Grand Valley State.
Lauren was 10 seconds off the pace in the 5,000.
Here is Lauren’s bio. She finished third in the last two NCAA Division II Cross-Country Championships.
Congratulations, Lauren!
