You see that sign at the top of this page? It’s the city’s welcome sign at the intersection of Nicholson and College Avenues.
Well, it went missing several weeks back … and it’s been found again.
Apparently, all of the city’s welcome signs are being (or have been) temporarily removed to be cleaned and otherwise touched up to address fading from the elements. The new one looks great — it’s really eye-catching.
And that’s what a welcome sign should be, shouldn’t it?
Filed under Community
Here’s wishing you and yours a great 2011.
I appreciate your support during the past year and look forward to the next 12 months filled with optimism for our great city.
And what a year it’s been …
Among the top local headlines:
Through it all, I’ve tried my best to keep you informed on key issues via this blog. Thanks for reading!
What will 2011 hold? Look for news on Walmart, the closing of the Bucyrus deal and the spring elections, among many other stories I’ms sure, on my blog in coming weeks. And have a happy new year!
Filed under Headlines
The United Performing Arts Fund Ride for the Arts may have a new route in 2011: over the Hoan Bridge.
Why is this important for South Milwaukee? Because the ride’s most popular route (the 25-mile options) winds its way through the Fourth District and South Milwaukee each year, stopping and “turning around” in Grant Park.
Thousands of people take this route, thousands who have a chance to see one of the reasons it’s great to call South Milwaukee home. And with the route potentially crossing the Hoan, that will likely mean even more interest in the ride … and more people coming through our city.
Learn more in this Journal Sentinel story.
And check out these other headlines of interest from around the South Shore:
Also, the Greenfield Patch website has launched. Check it out here. The editor is David Cotey, a former NOW and Community Newspapers sports writer.
Filed under Headlines
Oak Creek has a new local news source. South Milwaukee? Not so much (other than my blog, of course).
The Oak Creek Patch.com site has launched, and with it hyperlocal coverage that that community hasn’t seen since the demise of the Oak Creek Pictorial newspaper. For instance, as I write this, the front page has stories on a car crash, the Oak Creek boys’ basketball team and student artists, as well as guides to local businesses and events. The site is edited by Mark Schaaf, who previously worked for the local NOW papers.
You can learn more about Patch in my previous post.
As I’ve said, I like the Patch concept. With the demise of the local community weekly newspapers and continually dwindling south suburban coverage in the Journal Sentinel, there is a huge demand for community news in this area. It’s just too bad that Patch only has plans for certain communities — and South Milwaukee is apparently not among them.
(Nor is Elm Grove, apparently. As an aside, a local businessman has started a monthly newspaper in that community for much the same reason I started this blog and the same reason Patch feels it can make inroads in the Milwaukee area.)
Filed under Community
Merry Christmas to all of my readers!
I hope this day finds you with family and friends celebrating the joys of the season.
This is my favorite time of year, and I hope you have a blessed holiday.
Barring some major breaking news in South Milwaukee, I’ll be taking a few days off from blogging and returning next week. Until then, God’s blessings to you and yours.
Filed under Community
The man convicted of killing a Milwaukee candy store owner — and South Milwaukee resident — has been sentenced to life in prison for the crime.
Learn more in this Journal Sentinel story.
There’s also news of more lawsuits over the Caterpillar acquisition of Bucyrus, which is going before shareholders in a vote on Jan. 20.
Also, you may have noticed police with rifles stationed outside an Oak Creek residence on Nicholson Avenue this week. Here’s what happened, according to South Milwaukee Police Department Lt. Cary Fischer:
At about 10:00pm on 12/19/2010 the Oak Creek Police Department took a report of a home invasion armed robbery of a residence on Susan Dr. The offender was a drug addict known to the victim. The weapon was reported to be a pistol of some sort. The offender was believed to reside at 1601 Nicholson Avenue Unit F. We responded with Oak Creek Officers to that location and found the door smashed in. We cleared the residence and found it empty of people. Small amounts of drugs and paraphernalia were in plain view and were confiscated. There was very little furniture or possessions in the apartment as the offender did not live there long.
I left two officers armed with rifles to watch the residence in an unmarked car. They were only there a few minutes when the suspect pulled up in his car at around 11:00pm. He was taken into custody without resistance. No one was injured. Him and his vehicle were promptly turned over to Oak Creek.
Finally, charges have been brought against a man accused in a shooting at the Drew’s Spot bar on St. Patrick’s Day in 2008, according to South Milwaukee police. The charges against Daniel Newman were “read in” to the record recently as he was sentenced to more than 25 years in prison and 17 years probation for other convictions.
Filed under Headlines
I am Erik Brooks, and I want to remain your alderman.
I am running for re-election April 5, and I humbly ask for your vote, as I look forward to being the voice of the 4th District — your voice — for two more years.
I filed my declaration of candidacy today.
It’s been a pleasure serving for the past 20 months, and I am asking for a second term because, simply, there is still work to be done.
Investing in our infrastructure. Finding new and creative solutions for our ailing downtown. Improving resident communications. Those are just some of the issues I promise to continue to tackle should I be re-elected.
In doing so, I stand proud of my accomplishments thus far. From co-founding the South Milwaukee Downtown Market to launching this successful blog, I have worked as hard as I can to earn your trust, respect and, hopefully, vote.
You can learn more about me and my campaign on my recently launched campaign website at www.brooks4alderman.com. And look for me around the district in coming weeks as I speak with as many voters as possible about the issues facing the city.
Thanks again for your support!
One additional note: I pledge not to write a lot about the election directly on this blog. I did not launch this blog to campaign. I launched it to keep residents informed on news and information from around the 4th District, South Milwaukee and the South Shore, and that’s what you will continue to see here. So please keep reading … and tell your family and friends!
As you may have seen in today’s Journal Sentinel, the Police and Fire Commission has approved the hiring of Ryan Behling, son of outgoing Chief Jay Behling, as a full-time firefighter.
You can read the story here.
The City Council will vote tonight to recognize the hiring and place Ryan Behling, a paid on-call firefighter with the department for more than six years, in the proper pay range.
I’d like to know what you think of the hiring, which has drawn criticism from the firefighters union. Post your comments below..
Filed under City Council
The Business Journal of Milwaukee has named Bucyrus CEO Tim Sullivan its Executive of the Year.
Read the story here (subscription required to read full version).
And check out these other South Shore headlines:
Filed under Headlines
Haven’t heard of Patch.com? You will.
Just don’t expect it anytime soon in South Milwaukee.
Patch is a AOL’s network of hyper-local news and information websites that is entering the Wisconsin (and Milwaukee-area) market in a big way, with more than a dozen sites coming on line in coming weeks.
Three are already up: Greendale, Fox Point-Bayside and Hudson of all places. Others are planned for Oak Creek and Greenfield.
It’s part of a broad expansion for Patch, which now has more than 500 sites across the country.
So, what is Patch? According to its website, it is “a new way to find out about, and participate in, what’s going on near you. We’re a community-specific news and information platform dedicated to providing comprehensive and trusted local coverage for individual towns and communities.”
Sound familiar? Indeed, this concept is not new at all. This is the role local newspapers played for decades until many of them died in recent years.
South Milwaukee Voice Graphic, anyone?
The demise of media outlets like this is a big reason why I started this blog. Simply, there are few, if any, options out there for residents and others to know what is happening in South Milwaukee, and as an elected official I felt, and continue to feel, a responsibility to fill this void.
The Journal Sentinel has basically given up on covering South Milwaukee, and the NOW sites aren’t much better. TV news stations only show up if something is bleeding.
That certainly creates an opportunity for networks like Patch. Let’s hope they arrive here soon. Our citizens would be better off for it. Until then — and even after — keep on reading the blog!
Update: Plale explains his vote in this BizTimes.com story.
State Sen. Jeff Plale is making his presence felt before he leaves office.
The South Milwaukee Democrat — who lost to incoming Sen. Chris Larson in the senatorial primary in September — was one of two Democrats to vote against controversial labor contracts for state workers late Wednesday night.
The other was Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker.
All Republicans joined Plale and Decker in voting “no” and, with one senator absent, the contracts failed to pass on a 16-16 vote (after passing by one vote in the Assembly). That means Gov.-Elect Scott Walker will have an opportunity to reopen those contracts when he comes into office in January.
Here is the Journal Sentinel story.
From springing a lawmaker from jail to secure a necessary vote to deposing legislative leadership at the last minute, the “inside baseball” involved here is about as ugly as it gets.
Of course, I’d like to know your opinions about how this all went down, including Plale’s vote. Post your comments below.
Filed under Politics
A quick shout out to Lauren Kleppin, a South Milwaukee High School graduate who recently finished third in the NCAA Division-2 cross-country championships for Western State College of Colorado.
Read the full story (and see a photo) here. From it:
Kleppin finished the six-kilometer course in 21 minutes and 4.5 seconds, and ran with the breakaway group through the entire race. It’s the highest finish for a Mountaineer in the individual results since Esther Komen won the individual championship in 2006.
Kleppin, a junior, led Western State to a runner-up team finish.
Congratulations, Lauren!
Filed under Sports
South Milwaukee Mayor Tom Zepecki visited the Caledonia Village Board on Tuesday to make the case for extending the Lake Parkway south — perhaps all the way to northern Illinois.
See the Racine Journal Times story here. From it:
South Milwaukee Mayor Tom Zepecki presented the advantages of continuing 794 from Milwaukee through Caledonia to the Village Board on Tuesday night at the East Side Community Center, 6156 Douglas Ave., saying it will create a hub for future development and bring jobs to surrounding areas.
The Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution in February to have the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission study the feasibility and impact of a potential extension of Lake Parkway from its current southern end point at Edgerton Avenue to Ryan Road (Highway 100) in southern Milwaukee County, according to the commission.
The commission should have preliminary information on potential project costs and traffic impacts by early next year, said commission Executive Director Ken Yunker.
Although the extension proposal is in its early stages, Zepecki spoke in support of building what he called an uninterrupted thoroughfare from downtown Milwaukee to northern Illinois sometime in the future. He gave the board a six-year timeframe for the extension project in Milwaukee.
As I’ve blogged about numerous times, I fully support this project, and I look forward to the day it becomes reality. However, I think six years is very aggressive timeline for this. My guess? You won’t see an extension until 2020 at the earliest, especially given other road projects on the state’s radar screen in coming years.
Filed under Transportation
Cudahy appears to warming to the idea of caring for area homeless. Finally.
See the Journal Sentinel story here.
The mayor of Cudahy, whose city has come under fire for rejecting a church’s proposal for a homeless shelter, said he will reach out to faith leaders to discuss “the best way and best location to provide a warm place for the homeless” in his city.
Mayor Tony Day issued a statement Wednesday after the Journal Sentinel reported that local churches were hosting all-night prayer services to accommodate the homeless on the coldest nights of the year. St. Mark Lutheran Church in Cudahy took in four guests Monday and Tuesday nights in response to a Journal Sentinel story on the shelter’s rejection in which an alderman made disparaging remarks about the homeless in Cudahy. The service moves to Tippecanoe Presbyterian Church near Bay View on Wednesday.
Day said in the statement that he regretted that comments made during an October Plan Commission meeting, in which an alderman referred to homeless people in his district as “stinky” and “drunk,” had “become the focus of this important issue.”
“This office is committed to the well-being of all Cudahy residents, especially those who have fallen on hard times,” he said.
I am glad Cudahy has finally seen the light on this … although it’s too bad it took a story in the Journal Sentinel exposing the problem to spur things along.
I’d like to think we’d have a different reaction in South Milwaukee, but I am not naive enough to think that the misconceptions and biases espoused by some in Cudahy aren’t felt by some here. I, however, don’t share them.
Homelesseness is a real problem everywhere, urban and suburban, and hiding from that fact does no one any good.
Finding both short- and long-term solutions should be the goal, and the graciousness of area churches to open their doors to the homeless is a great start.
God bless those who are doing this.
Cudahy’s Plan Commission and others have resisted efforts to bring a homeless shelter to the city.
Here is the story in the Journal Sentinel story. From it:
Plans have been on hold since October, when they were shot down by the Cudahy Plan Commission, where one commissioner disparaged the homeless in his district as “stinky” and “drunk,” and another suggested they would be best exported to Milwaukee.
“We really thought by this winter, we’d have multiple sites up and running,” said the Rev. Karen Hagen of Tippecanoe Presbyterian Church, one of four churches in Bay View and Cudahy that hoped to host the shelter starting out.
“Here we have people trying to be good citizens and be faithful to their faith traditions, and it’s gotten so hard.”
I must admit that this story was frustrating to me — that some Cudahy officials and others are trying to find any reason, reasonable or not, to keep this shelter out of their community. “We must help the homeless … but not in my backyard,” they seem to be saying.
What do you think? Would you support this concept in South Milwaukee?
Post your comments below.
Filed under Community
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