The Alyson Dudek International Ice Center

(L-R) Lana Gehring, Alyson Dudek, Allison Baver and Katherine Reutter.

 Do you remember Alyson “Aly” Dudek?

Alyson Dudek is a proud resident of Hales Corners and graduate of Divine Savior Holy Angels High School and a Bronze medalist from the 2010 Olympic Winter Games held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Presently there is a public—private effort underway between Hales Corners community residents, businesses and Milwaukee County Parks & Recreation to build a 100’ x 200’ outdoor Olympic-sized ice skating rink.  Supporters of the project say the completed project will make Hales Corners Park one of the premiere recreation centers in southeastern Wisconsin.

It will stand among other community treasures which include:

the pool, the new Veterans Memorial, Jake’s Rock (rock climbing wall), basketball courts, picnic area and softball fields.   If you would like to be a part of this effort, your donations are needed to make this happen. Please send your tax deductible contributions to The Friends of Hales Corners Park & Pool, 5811 S. 121st St., Hales Corners, WI 53130.

If you have any questions or would like to volunteer your services towards this community enterprise, please call 414-418-8299 or visit their website.

It is not clear how this project will affect Franklin Mayor Tom Taylor’s big dreams for the Crystal Ridge Multi-sport complex project—aka “jewel of Franklin.”  "Dust in the Wind?"

Mayor Taylor Throws Citizens Group Under the Bus

EDITORIAL--it was only a matter of time. Last Tuesday, Franklin Mayor Tom Taylor apparently has no more use for Greg Kowalski’s non-profit group; Citizens for Community Development which just over one year ago made this proposal to the City.  But that was then and this is now and this is now and the Mayor’s “flavor of the month” is Franklin resident and businessman Mike Zimmerman who presented an idea for a sports complex on county land currently being used by Crystal Ridge Ski Hill.

At the time, by all appearances Mayor Taylor seemed excited about the proposal Citizens for Community Development had put forth for the Milwaukee County Sports Complex located in Franklin just off Ryan road.

FranklinNOW wrote this in its coverage of the June 19 meeting:

"We've got a proposal that needs to get backing, needs to get support and needs to become reality. This will put Franklin on the map," said Mayor Tom Taylor, who asked city officials to consider plans for a multi-sport complex at Crystal Ridge, 7900 W. Crystal Ridge Drive.

Typical POLITICAL GIBBERISH. 

Define: “…put Franklin on the map.”

"We've got a proposal that needs to get backing, needs to get support and needs to become reality.”

What Mayor Tom Taylor is really doing here is setting up Franklin taxpayers for him and the common council to deliver the city’s $1.5 million impact fee fund to this developer, which in reality will become $3 million since the city (taxpayers) must match the $1.5 million impact fee in order for it to be used.

We also have a politician who based on his “resume” on the City’s website has never held a job in the private sector,  but includes that Taylor  served as an Executive Board member of Milwaukee District Council 48, AFSCME that represented approximately 14,000 public employees and served as Vice President and Chief Steward of Local 882, AFSCME.

This is the same government sector union that was recently part of a broad coalition of worker rights organizations that filed a legal challenge to Gov. Walker’s Budget Repair Bill. The organizations included the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 24, AFSCME Council 40, AFSCME Council 48, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC), the Wisconsin State Employees Union, The Wisconsin State AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union – Health Care Wisconsin (SEIU).

Together the organizations are filing a federal law suit against Scott Walker’s bill which denies hundreds of thousands of public employees their right to collectively bargain for a better life. The groups challenged the constitutionality of the state’s Budget Repair Bill which would destroy collective bargaining rights for all but a select group of public sector workers.  We all know how that went.

I heard the mayor say he was a Republican!

One thing seems certain though, Mayor Taylor seems to have a very short attention span.  Here are some of his administration’s unfinished “needs:”

South 27^th Street Corridor Project—remember the infamous “BOOMGAARD?

Remember the unfinished mess over the Payne & Dolan quarry  enhancement/expansion and that company’s ignoring air quality monitoring ordinances for more than six years.

Refer to theses stories:  to bring yourself up to speed on the mayor and common council’s lackadaisical approach to ordering Payne & Dolan to comply with city ordinances.  This quarry operation is releasing crystalline silica dust into the atmosphere:

1. Is the Quarry Expanding? Well...yes and no
2. Who's Monitoring the Quarry?
3. “There is absolutely no expansion of the quarry with the approval of this project”
4. City’s Elected Officials and Payne & Dolan’s Dirty Little Secret
5. Quarry Draft Ordinance Too Dense for City Leaders

According to OSHA the disease Silicosis is caused by exposure to respirable crystalline silica dust. Crystalline silica is a basic component of soil, sand, granite, and most other types of rock, and it is used as an abrasive blasting agent. Silicosis is a progressive, disabling, and often fatal lung disease. Cigarette smoking adds to the lung damage caused by silica. Silica has been classified as a human lung carcinogen.  Silicosis makes an individual more susceptible to Tuberculosis (TB), Scleroderma – a disease affecting skin, blood vessels, joints and skeletal muscles, as well as possible kidney disease.

Also, the quarry is surrounded by residential areas and is in close proximity to Pleasant View Elementary, Clare Meadows Senior Apartments, Franklin High School and the City's very popular the walking trail.

Franklin’s Public Hunting Grounds and what You Have Been Told—or Not

 

In separate stories published on November 22 and 23 we asked readers if they could identify the Wisconsin DNR Public Hunting grounds pictured in the story.  To-date we have not received the correct answer from among these choices: Tichigan, Vernon, Franklin or Oconomowoc.

Give up?  Well, the correct answer is Franklin.  We doubt that many Franklin and Milwaukee County citizens realize that there is a state-owned public hunting grounds within Franklin’s city limits on 116^th street, and wonder how many members of the Franklin Common Council are aware of this fact?  Depending upon how you feel about this we suggest calling your alderman or Mayor Tom Taylor with any questions or concerns you may have over this unique situation. 

We have a couple of concerns of our own on this subject.  First, the close proximity of Alderman Skowronski’s home to this state-owned land.  Secondly, we recalled the following statement by Mayor Tom Taylor in a September 26, 2010, JSOnline story favoring the now-controversial $41 million Ryan Creek Interceptor Project in what Taylor referred to in the article as the overdue period of growth for the city's southwest quarter, predicting with confidence that the sewer project:

“[Would open] much of the land to a building boom [and] would add more than $1.2 billion to the city's property tax base by 2025,” and that the added businesses would take some of the local tax burden off the shoulders of homeowners.”  Taylor added, “there’s little room for new businesses elsewhere: Only a few acres are left for sale in the city's business park at S. 51st St. and Ryan Road.  If a company came in and said they wanted a significant size property, we'd have to say no."

Taking the mayor at his word concerning the business (warehouse) park at S. 51st St. and Ryan Road, the mayor needs to explain to Franklin citizens how the state of Wisconsin became the owners of the 100 acres of land now designated public hunting grounds, being that, in his words ”there's little room for new businesses elsewhere.”  If the mayor is really serious about 'tak[ing] some of the local tax burden off the shoulders of homeowners.”  As Alderman Solomon likes to say, “It ain’t gonna happen.”  The state does not pay taxes to the City on the 100 or so acres it owns.

Speaking of development, we find it very “interesting” that the state-owned hunting grounds—baring its sale to a private party—prevents development of that property which just so happens to be just hundreds of yards from  Alderman Ken Skowronski’s home.  Yet, the City is preparing to take land (potentially by eminent domain) from Franklin citizens in order to build the Ryan Creek Interceptor for future sale to MMSD; which will tax property owners within its taxing boundaries, quite the oposite of Taylor's statement "...that "it will take some of the local tax burden off the shoulders of homeowners."

It must also be noted that Franklin developer Jim O’Malley, whose development company, O'malley Development, LLC owns land involved in the RCI project area.  In addition, campaign finace records filed with the Franklin City Clerk's office revealed O’Malley was a contributor to Mayor Taylor’s and Alderman Steve Taylor’s last campaigns.  In fact, O’Malley was a volunteer for the alderman’s reelection run.

RELATED MEDIA

• MMSD Public Hearing Regarding New District Boundary for the City of Franklin
• Ryan Creek Sewer Project Stinks to High Heaven

EXCLUSIVE: Mayor Asks County Executive to Veto Referendum on RCI Project

Is Franklin Mayor Tom Taylor Cooking a Back room Deal with County Executive Chris Abele over the $41 million Ryan Creek Interceptor Project?

County Executive Chris AbeleIn a six-page letter filled with half-truths and unsubstantiated tax revenue figures dated October 5, 2011 (See below), to Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele, Franklin Mayor Tom Taylor asked the county executive to veto a September 29, 2011, action by the County Board adopting a Resolution for an advisory referendum on the plan by Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) to pay approximately $41.1 million to the City of Franklin for the costs related to building the Ryan Creek Interceptor Project (RCI).

In a JSOnline story a little over a year ago Taylor was praising the project proclaiming “Development would follow the pipes.”

The story confirmed that the City was seeking, and has since received a nearly $31 million in low-interest Clean Water Fund loans through the state of Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) in order to build a large sewer across franklin’s “frontier,” a nine square mile corner of the state's most populous county where only a few scattered homes are visible within a mosaic of farm fields, fence lines, marshes and woods, without sewers and without neighborhoods.

Mayor Taylor forecast with confidence that building the overdue RCI would “[Open] much of the land to a building boom [that] would add more than $1.2 billion to the city's property tax base by 2025,” adding that the added businesses would take some of the local tax burden off the shoulders of homeowners  in Franklin.

This latest turn of events connected with this highly controversial project leaves us, and more than likely many of our readers, perplexed, confused and frankly, suspicious of Mayor Tom Taylor’s true motives for applying for a $31 million in low-interest Clean Water Fund loans with WDNR, and the subsequent sale of the RCI to MMSD for $41.1 million beginning in 2015.  MMSD would take ownership of the RCI in 2031, after paying an estimated total of $41.1 million in principal and interest. The motives of those Franklin Alderman who voted in favor of seeking $31 million in low-interest Clean Water Fund loans from WDNR, should also be questioned. 

Why the about face by the mayor, now? 

 We, like many of our fellow Franklin tax payers were under the impression that, based upon Mayor Taylor’s own words, “Development [would] follow the pipes, and that the project would [open] much of the land to a building boom [that] would add more than $1.2 billion to the city's property tax base by 2025.”

What would the County Executive’s veto accomplish?  It would prevent a county-wide referendum vote on the RCI project; essentially silencing county, and more importantly, Franklin voters on the RCI project.  Apparently, Mayor Taylor knows what’s best for us—"the unwashed masses."

Mayor Tom Taylor can be reached by phone at 414-427-7529 or Email at tom2563@att.net

Mayor Ltr to CoExec 10-05-11

Follow THE FRANKLIN INDEPENDENT JOURNAL, the essential voice for the citizens of Franklin, for continuing coverage on this and other Franklin issues that affect you.

RELATED MEDIA

• Milwaukee County and Franklin Lock Horns over Ryan Creek Sewer Project
• MMSD Public Hearing Notice Regarding New Boundries for the City of Franklin
• County supervisor seeks referendum on Franklin, Muskego sewer work
• Abele vetoes Ryan Creek interceptor referendum

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Will the Real Fiscal Conservative Please Stand Up!

City of Franklin Mayor Tom Taylor, a self-proclaimed Republican is at odds with Democrat County Supervisor Chris Abele, over of all things—spending cuts!  Three Million dollars to be exact.   County Executive Abele's budget cuts $3 million from the paramedic subsidy to municipalities.

According to Franklin Fire Chief James Martins’ 2009 Annual Report:

... since the new Emergency Medical Services contract with Milwaukee County in 2006, [the City of Franklin has] increased revenue for ambulance services to the City of Franklin dramatically.

Does this explain why our BIG TAX and SPENDING mayor wants Milwaukee County to put up a $6 million paramedic subsidy?

Haven’t We Seen This Movie Before?

Mayor Taylor has enlisted the help of his good ol’ boys network; the Intergovernmental Cooperation Council of Milwaukee County (ICC), a group of Mayors and Village Presidents that represent the 19 municipalities within Milwaukee County and is chaired by Taylor.  The ICC has faced criticism from a number of County Supervisors, especially District 16 Supervisor John F. Weishan, Jr., who said in a March 4, 2010 press release in response  to ICC comments on a County government study,

“The ICC comments divert attention from the true issues facing Milwaukee County: increasing health care costs, stagnant state funding and the failures of County Executive Walker to fulfill his duties as the County’s administrator.”

Of all politicians on the ICC, Mayor Taylor should know that even the $3 million subsidy historically has been challenged.  We remind “His Honor” that a portion of the County’s tax revenue comes from Franklin tax payers.  Isn’t the mayor essentially asking County Executive Abele to raise taxes on ICC-member cities including Franklin tax payers to come up with the addition $3 million?

Taylor and Abele approach the cuts from rather different views.

Taylor believes "We need to be proactive, which is much better than reacting to the budget after it is presented. The difficulty is that there are contracts in place between municipalities who are providing services to other municipalities.”  A rather odd statement, when one considers Taylor’s own lack of proactive success when it comes to economic growth in his own city and his well-known bullying, reactive style of governance.

On the other hand Abele is looking at the big picture and views the paramedic subsidy cut as part of a plan to fill a projected shortfall of $55million.  "I'm committed to introducing a budget without a deficit or levy increase, I'm looking for ways to save Milwaukee County taxpayers money, including by reviewing discretionary spending and encouraging consolidation."

So will the real fiscal conservative please stand up—not so fast Mr. Mayor!

Contributing material to this story: No quick rescue for paramedics funding (FranklinNOW)

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