Family. Community. Church. My day job at MillerCoors. The chance to serve my constituents as an alderman.
On this Thanksgiving Day, I find myself thankful for many things.
What are you thankful for today? What about South Milwaukee are you most appreciative of?
I’d like to know. Post your comments below … and let’s celebrate some of the things that make this city great.
And happy Thanksgiving!
Filed under Community
Update: Here is the Journal Sentinel story on this with even more troubling (and alleged) details.
The WTMJ radio website has a disturbing story about a lawsuit involving the Franciscan Villa nursing home in South Milwaukee.
Read the full story here. From it:
A lawyer for Mary Speigl claims she was sexually assaulted inside her room by a male resident who was notorious in the Franciscan Villa nursing home in South Milwaukee.
The lawsuit says the male resident, who was notorious within the facility for being sexually aggressive, was allowed to wonder the halls by himself. That is when he allegedly made his way into the 90-year-old woman’s room and assaulted her.
Speigl died less than a month later.
I’ll keep you posted on this as I learn more.
Filed under Headlines
We’re making strong progress in addressing flooding concerns in the 4th District and across the city … even if there are no quick fixes or silver-bullet solutions.
City Engineer Kyle Vandercar is sending residents in the Parkway Drive area an update on what’s being done to address issues with the stormwater and sanitary sewer systems.
You can see the whole letter here.
You’ll recall that following the July 22 storms, the city contracted with engineering consultant R.A. Smith National to analyze the storm sewer system in the Parkway Heights area and find solutions to ongoing flooding problems there. We also contracted with Applied Technologies to evaluate the sanitary sewer system in certain areas of the city and make recommendations to reduce “inflow” into the sanitary system and increase capacity.
The Parkway Heights storm sewer study is complete, and you can see the full report at City Hall. It includes several alternatives to ease flooding in and around two especially hard-hit areas — the 500 block of Parkway Drive and 17th Avenue south of Oak Street.
In both places, water is essentially funneling from large sections of the northwest side of town and overburdening the storm sewer infrastructure during larger storms. The fixes involve adding capacity … essentially widening the bottom of that funnel.
Neither option is set in stone and will require approval by the City Council. And neither option is cheap.
For now, 4th District and Parkway Heights residents should expect to see survey workers in the area before the end of the year, weather permitting. That will be followed by design and preparation of construction plans. I’ll keep you posted as this moves forward.
Meanwhile, the sanitary study work continues across the city, and a final report is not expected until March. The fixes here are more complex, and likely even more costly — including addressing inflow, lift station capacity, emergency relief station pump capacity and pipe design.
Keep in mind that any storm sewer work (like the Parkway Heights options) would also help reduce basement sewer backups, in addition to helping prevent water from flooding streets, spilling over curbs and into front lawns.
I say “help” because it’s become clear to me in the past year that there are no 100 percent fixes here. As Kyle puts it in the letter, “unlimited capacity to the storm and sanitary sewer systems cannot be cost effectively engineered.” Instead, we’re working to identify “improvements which will greatly reduce the chance of flooding and the potential for sewer backups.”
Obviously, the issue quickly becomes how much money it will take to truly make an impact. Most of these are not small projects. The recommended 4th District stormwater project alone, for instance, may cost more than $200,000 — and that doesn’t include any street repaving and sanitary work.
As you know, money is tight and might be getting tighter, and there is limited money from the stormwater and wastewater utilities to fund these. So we’ll have to find other sources, potentially including borrowing.
This raises two questions …
How much should the city spend to address these problems? And how much will citizens support, especially if that means higher taxes?
They are big questions we’ll have to answer in short order. I look forward to the debate — and finding ways to smartly invest in our infrastructure.
Filed under 2010 Flooding
Laurie Bembenek’s sister apparently lives in our fair city, according to media reports of Bembenek’s death on Sunday.
See the full Journal Sentinel story here. From it:
Bembenek, 52, died early Saturday evening in Portland, Ore., where she was in hospice care, her sister, Colette Bembenek of South Milwaukee, said Sunday.
Bembenek, who later changed her first name to Laurie from Lawrencia, had been admitted to a hospital and then was transferred to a hospice, her sister said. Her health problems included hepatitis C and liver and kidney failure, Colette Bembenek said.
“It went real fast. I’m glad she didn’t linger,” Colette Bembenek said. “I knew it was inevitable that she probably would be expiring early in life.”
Colette Bembenek said she did not have a chance to speak with her sister before she died. She said she was told of her sister’s death by Martin Carson, Laurie Bembenek’s ex-husband. According to Martin, Laurie Bembenek was in and out of consciousness, said Colette Bembenek, adding that she last saw and spoke to her sister when their father died in 2003.
Please keep the entire Bemebenek family in your thoughts and prayers.
Filed under Headlines
Update: The Journal Sentinel has a story Sunday on the global impact of the Bucyrus and Ladish deals.
A Bucyrus shareholder has sued the company claiming it could have gotten a better deal than the one it agreed to with Caterpillar this week.
Check out the story here. From it:
Directors of South Milwaukee-based Bucyrus have a duty to get the best possible price for the company, including through an auction, and used an unfair process in the Caterpillar deal, investor Margaret C. Richardson said Wednesday in a complaint in Delaware Chancery Court in Wilmington.
The price “is unfair and inadequate because, among other things, the intrinsic value of Bucyrus’s stock is in excess of the consideration offered” based on the company’s prospects, lawyers for Richardson said in court papers.
The story is one of several offering more perspective on the deal this week.
The Business Journal has items on CEO Tim Sullivan’s future and Joy Global’s (non) reaction to the deal. Here is a National Public Radio item with an interview from Mayor Tom Zepecki, and here is a trend item from NPR on the Bucyrus and Ladish deals.
And check out these other headlines of note from around the South Shore:
Filed under Headlines
Update: I took my 6-year-old to this, and it was a really nice event. And the tree looks great. The new LED lights — paid for in part with a donation from the South Milwaukee Lions — are a real improvement. Drive by and see for yourself.
It’s not Thanksgiving yet, but there’s a chance to get into the holiday spirit a bit early this weekend.
The South Milwaukee Chamber of Commerce is holding its annual tree lighting ceremony from 3 to 5 p.m. on Saturday at Heritage Place Park at 10th and Milwaukee Avenues.
Learn more on the chamber website here. And check out my previous post on other local Christmas activities here.
Filed under Community
It sounds like only good news for the South Shore, and Cudahy, resulting from the purchase of Ladish by its largest raw materials supplier, Allegheny Technologies of Pittsburgh.
Here is the Journal Sentinel story on the transaction. From it:
Company executives say they have no plans to reduce employment at the Ladish headquarters and plant in Cudahy. The 105-year-old company has 1,700 employees at operations in Wisconsin, California, Oregon and Poland.
“This is about growth. It is not about consolidation,” said Gary Vroman, Ladish president and chief executive officer.
“This is not putting any blue-collar or white-collar people at risk,” Vroman said. “I want to stay. I look forward to this, and I am sure that we will work things out.” …
The deal is the second blockbuster sale of a Milwaukee-area manufacturer this week. On Monday, Bucyrus International Inc. of South Milwaukee said it was being acquired by Caterpillar Inc. for $7.6 billion.
Ladish also is a major supplier to Caterpillar, which expects to own Bucyrus in mid-2011.
“Years ago, we did quite a bit of work with Bucyrus. And we certainly are looking forward to having discussions with the Caterpillar and Bucyrus combination to see if it will mean something positive to us,” Vroman said.
Also, click here for a Business Journal story on the purchase. From it:
No layoffs are expected as a result of the deal and Ladish brand will remain intact, Vroman said.
“Without question, this merger significantly improves the long-term outlook for Ladish,” he said.
Filed under Local Business
The former South Milwaukee resident convicted of taking nude pictures of women without their consent is going to prison for eight years.
The sentence was handed down Wednesday.
See the full story here in the Journal Sentinel. From it:
Timothy Moseley, 49, was found guilty last month by a jury that had to examine photos and videos of him and two victims, women he argued had implicitly consented to the acts and photos in question because they had agreed to many other acts of sexual bondage and recording during extended relationships.
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Richard Sankovitz told Moseley he was not being punished for engaging in unpopular conduct, nor for being “a selfish, egocentric toad.” Rather, the judge said, it was because Moseley crossed the line when he took photos of the women in extremely compromising situations while they were unconscious or incapacitated by drugs or alcohol.
The judge told Moseley that despite his long, decorated career in public service, he remains a higher-than-average risk to re-offend because of his sexual addictions. He ordered Moseley to be listed on Wisconsin’s sex offender registry for life.
Moseley’s most recent address in online court records is listed as 1204 Memorial Drive in South Milwaukee.
Filed under Crime
Cudahy-based Ladish is being acquired by Pittsburgh-based Allegheny Technologies in a $778 million deal.
Read the Journal Sentinel story here. From it:
Cudahy-based Ladish manufactures metal components for jet engines and aerospace equipment. The company has 1,700 employees and operations in Wisconsin, California, Connecticut, Oregon, and Poland.
In a conference call, Allegheny executives said there are no plans to move manufacturing out of Wisconsin.
We’ll see. Post your comments below.
Filed under Local Business
I’m giving up on the Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee commuter rail line. It’s dead, certainly for the next four years.
Of course, my heart still harbors a modicum of hope that political leaders will come to their senses and see that southeastern Wisconsin deserves a transportation system competitive with other major urban areas, one that includes a real commitment to rail and other forms of mass transit as a complement to the almighty car.
I still want to believe that political leaders will see this as an economic development issue, that they’ll realize what Bucyrus CEO Tim Sullivan and numerous other business leaders have said consistently: that the KRM is first and foremost about jobs, about keeping and attracting employers who need to get people to and from work.
I still want to believe that people will see that the KRM is not the Milwaukee-to-Madison high-speed rail line … despite election-year attempts by politicians and right-wing talkers to unfairly vilify and denigrate all rail and all rail supporters, even though not all rail projects are the same, nor of the same value and need.
I still want to believe that people will see just what kind of impact the commuter rail line can have on downtowns like South Milwaukee, which would stand to reap significant development benefits from a KRM station.
I still want to believe that the 20 years of detailed discussion and study of the KRM line — almost all pointing to the viability of the commuter line over the long term — means something and wasn’t wasted.
I still want to believe, against my better judgment, that politicians will realize that we need a viable and permanent regional transit authority to make this all happen, taking buses and other transit options off the property tax rolls and delivering the proper funding source for transit systems that nearly all major population centers across the country already employ.
I still want to believe all of this. But I really don’t. Not anymore.
Not with a Republican governor and Republican legislature bent on spending every last transportation dollar on roads. Not when even Democratic politicians like U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore speak out against the KRM. Not with little other vocal local support for commuter rail.
No, I’m a realist, and KRM is dead. Rest in peace. I hope those who killed it are proud.
Filed under Politics
Update: Check out the Journal Sentinel’s editorial on the deal. It, too, casts a wary eye to the statements about job cuts and raises a point that I also have been concerned about: the potential impact the acquisition will have on corporate giving.
The Journal Sentinel has some more details on Caterpillar’s purchase of Bucyrus in Tuesday’s edition.
Here is the story. From it:
Under the deal, Caterpillar, based in Peoria, Ill., would move the headquarters of its mining equipment division to Bucyrus’ headquarters in Oak Creek. The Bucyrus plants in South Milwaukee and Milwaukee would remain intact, according to Bucyrus and Caterpillar executives.
Caterpillar would bring some senior managers here to run the mining division, including Bucyrus. That’s likely to come at the expense of some Bucyrus executives jobs, according to CEO Tim Sullivan.
“I am sure that with (Caterpillar’s) existing mining team, some of us at the senior executive level will not be required as time progresses,” Sullivan said.
“I will have between now and the closing (of the sale) to think about what I will be doing,” he added.
The combined companies say they expect about $400 million in cost savings, beginning in 2015, as a result of coming together.
The bulk of that savings won’t come from job cuts, according to Sullivan, adding that much of it would be from things such as combining equipment service centers and sharing a global distribution system.
“We see this as nothing but upside to continued growth and expansion of our Milwaukee operations,” Sullivan said. “I think it’s the best move, in the long term, for our existing employees.” …
In recent years Bucyrus has spent millions of dollars to upgrade and expand its Milwaukee area factories.
“The scale of the products that it makes in South Milwaukee is at least on par with the largest Caterpillar factories. I would not be terribly worried if I were a Bucyrus worker,” said Robert McCarthy, a senior analyst with Robert W. Baird & Co.
Also, the Journal Sentinel has a story about Sullivan’s future. See it here.
Filed under Uncategorized
Little if any local job loss, at least for now. A continued strong commitment to local manufacturing. The establishment of Oak Creek as a “nerve center” for a global mining business.
Heck, South Milwaukee can even say we’re still home to “Bucyrus.”
In other words, the potential fallout from Monday’s announcement regarding the sale of Bucyrus International to Caterpillar isn’t as damaging as it could be.
The Business Journal of Milwaukee has some new details gathered at an afternoon press conference at the South Milwaukee company.
See the full story here. From it:
Caterpillar Inc.’s acquisition of Bucyrus International Inc. isn’t likely to lead to immediate job cuts in the Milwaukee area.
In fact, Peoria, Ill.-based Caterpillar has vowed to create a global mining headquarters in Oak Creek at the site of the former Midwest Airlines corporate offices on South Howell Avenue.
Bucyrus currently has about 1,600 employees in the Milwaukee area, including about 880 hourly production workers, Sullivan said. The sale to Caterpillar doesn’t alter Bucyrus’ plans to add as many as 515 jobs, evenly split between administrative and production personnel, in the Milwaukee area in the immediate future, said Sullivan, who will leave the company after the deal closes.
“The great situation that we’re in today is that we’re in a booming market,” he said. “When two companies like this get together, you’re usually talking about cost synergies. We’re talking about expanding. My hope is that this is just the start and that we can continue to grow employment in the Milwaukee area.”
Caterpillar CEO Doug Oberhelman also said he sees growth for Caterpillar’s mining operations, but added that it’s unlikely any Caterpillar manufacturing jobs would be shifted to South Milwaukee. And he wouldn’t completely rule out job losses: “I can’t say with certainty about anything with the state of the economy today, but we are very optimistic with where we see growth and what we see happening in the mining industry.”
Here is a story with additional local reaction from the Daily Reporter.
I’ll keep you posted on this story as it develops. And feel free to post your comments below. I’m interested to know what you think about this.
Filed under Local Business
In an interview with CNBC this morning, Caterpillar CEO Doug Oberhelman — thanks in large part to U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan — shed some light on to what his company’s acquistion of Bucyrus might mean for local operations.
Check out the full interview here. Among the CEO’s comments:
Catperilliar is coming to Milwaukee and Wisconsin. Bucyrus is not leaving. We will be moving a fairly select number of senior level, executive-type jobs to Milwaukee over the next couple of years. We intend to keep the headquarters for our global mining business right there in Milwaukee. We like the facliites, we like the people and we think it will serve us very, very well as we go forward in this business in a lot bigger way.
He said the future is “very bright” locally. However, when asked if employment would increase locally, Oberhelman said: “I don’t see it decreasing much. It’s hard to say. It’s early.”
Of course, everyone keeps saying “Milwaukee” here. I am assuming they mean “South Milwaukee” and “Oak Creek.” If I suspect otherwise, I will let you know.
Filed under Local Business
Caterpillar is acquiring Bucyrus International in a $7.6 billion deal.
Here is the press press release, and check out coverage from Reuters and the Journal Sentinel.
So, what does this mean for South Milwaukee? I wish I knew. I was as surprised as anyone with this announcement. But this quote from Bucyrus CEO Tim Sullivan is telling:
This is an outstanding and financially compelling transaction for our shareholders. More fundamentally, it is a testament to the tremendous value our talented team of employees has created over the past several years and to the strength of our brand in the global mining machinery marketplace. I am confident that we have found an excellent partner in Caterpillar. Caterpillar is a first-rate global company and it shares our commitment to providing innovative products and exceptional service to customers, creating a collaborative and safe work environment for employees and minimizing the impact on the environment.
We are very pleased that Caterpillar has committed to locate its mining business headquarters in Milwaukee and we are confident that the combined global platform will be extremely well positioned to capitalize on the substantial growth opportunities in this market in the years ahead.
Headquarters in Milwaukee? Not sure what that means. Maybe “Milwaukee area”? After all Bucyrus now has operations in South Milwaukee, Oak Creek and Milwaukee after recently acquiring the former Midwest Airlines headquarters building on Howell Avenue.
The Reuters story says: “Caterpillar said it would locate its mining business in South Milwaukee, Wisconsin.”
I tend to believe that South Milwaukee will continue to play a major role here. With the hundreds of millions of dollars Bucyrus recently put into its local manufacturing operations, I can’t envision much of a change there. The South Milwaukee and Oak Creek office complexes are another story, however, and it remains to be seen what amount of change we’ll see there going forward.
After all, how many white collar workers will Bucyrus need now that it’s part of a global behemoth like Caterpillar?
There is an 11 a.m. CT teleconference that I am sure will yield more details on this. I’ll keep you posted.
Filed under Local Business
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has an interesting story providing some good context around Walmart’s expansion in the area — including the store planned for South Milwaukee.
Read the story here. From it:
In recent years, Wal-Mart has opened supercenters in suburbs ringing the city, and it has converted two existing stores in Milwaukee County into supercenters by adding full grocery departments.
Now, the Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer is planning to bring its newest generation of grocery and general merchandise stores to locations around the metro area. The company hasn’t announced a number, but a retail industry source estimated there could be eight or nine sites under consideration.
“We’re looking to serve our customers all over the state,” said Wisconsin-based Wal-Mart spokeswoman Lisa Nelson. “There’s plenty of opportunity in Milwaukee.”
Last week, South Milwaukee agreed to sell 3.5 acres of land to Gatlin Development Co., a Tennessee-based developer that is assembling what will be an 11-acre parcel on N. Chicago Ave. Gatlin hopes to build a nearly 120,000-square-foot Wal-Mart store that would sell both groceries and general merchandise. The size is a bit smaller than its typical 140,000-square-foot supercenter and is sized appropriately for the neighborhood, according to Nelson. …
Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, faces more challenges entering the area than the Wisconsin-based supermarkets. When Wal-Mart tried in 2008 to build a store in Cudahy, for example, officials refused to approve the plan, hoping to get something better. News of Wal-Mart’s suburban plans posted on the JSOnline website last week brought dozens of negative responses from people who identified themselves as living in the communities, but also drew favorable comments.
Wal-Mart spokesmen cite new jobs and low prices as reasons that communities should welcome them.
Danielle Devlin, executive director of South Milwaukee’s Community Development Authority, agrees.
“Wal-Mart has a community giving program,” Devlin notes. “We have a tradition of our corporations being involved, but Bucyrus is pulling back from that. In terms of an economic impact, it will be significant.”
And not only that, Devlin notes: “Residents will be able to buy a pair of socks in their own community.”
Filed under Local Business
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