Village Spillage

Grab bag: Trustee Meeting, Chronic Nuisance, Manikowski Sentence, State Aid, etc.

2009-07-09T21:29:00.006-05:00

I wasn't able to attend the Trustee meeting on 7/6, so here's a vague summary of the highlights:

* We are working on an arrangement with MMSD to re-engineer the Fairmount road/sewer project. The long and short of it is, they believe some changes to the sewer will help backup problems, and will pay about $1m of the cost. In return, the Village will take ownership of the sewer. The unfortunate part of this, is that the project which was scheduled to kick off this summer, probably won't be completed in 2009.

* 6 Villagers were appointed to the Environmental Commission. Apparently, I was also appointed as the Trustee representative on for the commission, which I found out via the NOW of all places.

* A "Chronic Nuisance Ordinance" was passed. This is aimed squarely at the "drug house" issues whereby residents have repeatedly called police to report probably drug activity, yet the police had been unable to catch the dealers in action.

Speaking of Chronic Nusiance .. many Villagers may be totally unaware of the "original" bad guy in WFB.

Tim Manikowski, who lived at 4965 Berkeley, lived a block away from the more famous Matthew Laughrin, but had similar stories.

In both cases, neighbors called police repeatedly for suspicious drug activity.

In both cases, the police were unable to stop the drug sales.

In Laughrin's case, he supplied drugs to a 15 year old WFB girl who overdosed. He's in jail now with a pending case.

Manikowski supplied drugs to an adult Wauwatosa woman who overdosed. This week he was sentenced to 7 years in prison for 1st Reckless Homicide .

It really is amazing the similarities between the two cases, although I think if you asked 100 Villagers who Manikowski is, they'd have no idea. It does remind you how a cute 15 year old girl overdosing makes the news, while a 24 year old 'Tosa woman does not.

So .. here's hoping that the "Chronic Nuisance Ordinance" will help get these guys out of our communities before they deliver their final dose.
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Anyone notice that WFB will be losing $1.27 million in State Aid funding for our school district? Ouch. That's gonna do wonders for our property taxes.

Last year, the school district's budget was about $30.3m, which is going up to $30.5m. The State picked up $11.1m of that. Next year, the State will pick up only $9.7m, meaning the local property tax levy will go from $19.1m to $20.9m. (Working from this report.)

If my math is correct, my guess is that the average WFB property tax bill will go up about $350, directly due to the recent budget the State of Wisconsin just passed.

Thanks, Madison.

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A number of Villagers commented about the "rusty" new grates surrounding the trees on Silver Spring. I asked the Village Engineer, and his response was that the grates will eventually "oxidize" and look like a manhole casting, which I assume is a brownish/black color.

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I was pleased to hear that a handful of Villagers opened up their checkbooks for the WFB Civic Foundation, as I received a few email pledges.

As a reminder, if you had a great time during the parade or Klode park festivities, please consider writing out a check for the CF. Click here for details.

Great 4th in the Bay

2009-07-04T22:37:00.003-05:00

Just a few notes from WFB's 4th of July festivities:

While I enjoyed walking in my first parade, I sure missed watching the parade with my family.
Anecdotally, one Trustee, a veteran of many WFB parades, thought the attendance was much higher this year.
I did not run out of candy. Apparently, 4,300 pieces of candy is exactly the right amount. Maybe even too much. I had a ton left when I was a couple blocks away from Klode, so I had to start tossing it out quicker. -- And, parents, please keep your kids off the street. There were some pockets where the kids were 10-15 feet off the curb and it gets pretty crazy.
The folks at the WFB Civic Foundation are awesome. They give up so much time in preparation and execution of Whitefish Bay's biggest party, it's not even funny.

I had the honor of volunteering for a couple hours at the beer tent, but that paled in comparison to the dozens of hours that each of them put in to preparing for the parade, the food, drink, games, and fireworks, time spent away from their own families on the 4th of July.

So, to Greg Ramirez, Dana Serrano, Ann Pasterski, Jay Kuehn, Crystal Luehne, Bob Kuesel, Paul Dryden, Lynn Short, Carol Cochran, Tracy Rothman, Amy Lukas, Doug Weber, Mike Bortolotti .. THANK YOU. You put on a hell of a show today.

(I hope I got everyone in that list.)

Hey, here's a thought. Did you like the parade? The picnic and games and fireworks? All that stuff costs a ton of money. That's not your tax dollars at work, the Civic Foundation depends entirely on donations from fellow villagers and local sponsors.

How about stepping up to the plate, and writing out a tax deductible donation to the WFB Civic Foundation while you are in the mood to support the 4th festivities, Ice Cream Socials, Sounds of Summer, Great Pumpkin display, etc.

Seriously, I mean it. The CF is supported by just over a hundred donors, yet the events touch thousands on a day like today.

Consider it your WFB party tax.

Mail to:

Whitefish Bay Civic Foundation
5300 N. Marlborough Drive
Whitefish Bay, WI 53217

Silver Spring Complete

2009-07-03T21:02:00.006-05:00

Silver Spring's construction ended today with a ribbon cutting ceremony.

It was nice .. several hundred Villagers attended, Mike Strehlow, CBS 58 anchor and WFB resident was the Master of Ceremonies, and root beer floats were supplied.

Kudos to all the merchants on Silver Spring who endured the construction.

It's now our turn, as Villagers, to shop on Silver Spring with reckless abandon.

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UPDATE: In the last post about the Armory Park, I messed up the email contact information. If tried to email your questions or support for the Armory please re-try your message to ArmoryPark@sbcglobal.net.