Enjoyed the fruits of my tax dollars again this evening. And helped a good cause in the process.  It was the annual "Pulling O' The Green" dinner and Celtic music  fundraiser to benefit Grant Park, held at the Milwaukee County Grant Park Clubhouse. It was a beautiful setting in a beautiful park. The whole idea is to try to keep the park beautiful. 

That's become a growing challenge. Milwaukee County has fewer workers per acre than the average metropolitan-area park system -- .30 full-time employees per 1,000 residents versus the .76 full-time employees per 1,000 residents average for all metropolitan areas. Milwaukee County ranks 75 out of 77 metro areas polled. This is according to a Milwaukee County Parks Funding fact sheet available at tonight's event.

That's primarily due to the dramatic decline in funding over the past 25 years, which has been essentially cut in half since 1986. That's not because county residents are paying less taxes. They've gone up. According to the fact sheet, park funding was only about 35 percent in 2007 of what it was in 1983. 

Don't know how much was raised tonight. I hope to find out later. The food sure was good, though -- Irish stew, corned beef and cabbage or potato soup entre, a brewsky or root beer, bread and cake. And the music, performed by the Garlic Mustard Pickers, was great. Interestingly, the Garlic Mustard Pickers band members all met as volunteers pulling the invasive Garlic Mustard weed from Grant Park and discovered their mutual love of -- and ability to play -- celtic music.

E.W. Luther Elementary School's annual Ice Cream Social and Raffle Fundraiser last night was a ROARING success! In a couple of ways.

One is literally, in the sense that I should have worn ear plugs.

The other is of much greater significance. From a preliminary, unverified report, the amount raised exceeded last year's proceeds. That's quite a feat these days when so many families have serious economic concerns.

The backdrop for the evening was a fantastic display of Luther students' artwork, which lined the school's hallway walls. Projects exhibited a wide array of artistic techniques, traditions and styles. Way cool!

The success of the raffle and ice cream party was due entirely to the generosity of the volunteers who put it together and kept things running so smoothly, the businesses and families and others who contributed raffle prizes and donated money for same, and the hundreds of supporters who attended the event and participated in the raffle and bought refreshments.

Among the dozens of really fabulous items in the raffle, which included everything from tickets to professional teams' sports events; professional, college and high school sports memorbilia; a wide array of toys, and a huge basket of chocolate, the most coveted prize of the evening was an Xbox.

There were some moans and a few tears of disappointment at not winning, but as one third-grader philosophically told his younger sister who really had an eye on the Xbox (I think secretly wanting to win it for her brother), there could be only one winner and there is always next year.

I hope to post a list of the raffle donors and a more complete accounting of the results when that's available.

Meanwhile, here are a few more items of note from the E.W. Luther PTO: 

Our spring Mr. Z’s sale had begun.  If you would prefer not to sell Mr. Z’s products, please consider making a $20 per child buyout contribution.

We will be doing another Marcus Movie Ticket Fundraiser in March. The tickets will be here in time to fill Easter Baskets. Watch for your order form the first week of March.

Mark your calendar to Tuesday, March 16, to attend Luther’s annual Spring Concert at the South Milwaukee PAC.

Don’t forget about Luther's Weekend at the Wilderness Resort in the Dells. Every year is more and more fun!!! The kids have a blast and the parents relax and hang out by the pool! PLUS, $9 from each room for each night goes to right back to our school. What more could you ask for!? If you missed the flyer sent home with your child(ren), contact the school office for details and the reservation deadline.

We still need volunteers to be Officers for next year's PTO. Please consider being part of this great organization. The officers consist of President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer. It would be a shame to lose the great PTO Luther has. Without PTO, there will be no one to organize dances, fundraisers or Ice Cream socials. The PTO is the organization that pays for most of the events at school. Without a PTO, there would be no Santa Breakfast, Field Trips or end of year celebration. Please consider taking on one of these roles to continue the success of our wonderful school! It is an adventure with endless rewards!  If you are interested in a leadership position in the PTO, please contact the office (766-5326).

WPR's Kathleen Dunn's 9 a.m. program today featured Grand Haven, Michigan, Mayor Roger Bergman to talk about the 'happiest towns' in the country and what makes a community a happy place to live in. Lots of great calls from listeners -- including mine. The point I wanted to make is that 'happy' is what a person makes it. My husband, a 21-year-career U.S. Air Force officer, and I lived many places in this country and others and I can honestly say we liked them all, including Tehran, Iran, where we lived in 1978 and the first few days of 1979 during the run-up to the Islamic Revolution.

And now that we've lived in South Milwaukee for coming up on eight years, I can honestly say that we not only like it here, we love it.

One of the points Mayor Bergman made was the impact large shopping malls can have on communities. Towns people used to see each other and chat at their local stores, but that kind of frequent contact is lost when shopping malls replace local businesses for our shopping needs.

I agreed that shopping malls can tend to be isolating, so my question to Mayor Bergman was what can people do to regain some of the 'community' that can contribute to a sense of happiness. His advice was to urge community leaders to work together to promote local businesses and events.

What I didn't get a chance to say because time ran short is that South Milwaukee is doing just that. We have the traditional holiday parades and gatherings, as well many other events such as Evening on the Avenue, the Firehouse Spaghetti Dinner, the Police Department's Community Night Out, Heritage Days, a Farmers Market that is growing in both size and popularity, the Chamber of Commerce supports and promotes a number of activities, and this coming Sunday, March 14, the annual Friends of Grant Park fundraiser, the Pulling "O The Green at the Grant Park Clubhouse. (See previous blog post for details.) And I couldn't help but think of the water main break of last month and how friends, neighbors and city officials helped spread the word about the break and its repair, and the following Water Days in appreciation of residents' cooperation and to support restaurants and bars that lost business on a Friday evening when the water couldn't be used.

Yep, so far as I'm concerned, South Milwaukee is right up there at the top of the list of happiest places to live.

Sure, government has its flaws, but the current fad of demonizing government it almost to the point of sounding traitorous really gets to me.

The people participating in and cheering this movement on rail against having to pay taxes and fearmonger about "socialism." Yet they benefit every day and in so many ways from government services and infrastructure, including being able to travel on publicly funded (socialized) roadways to get to their rallies, gathering at government buildings and grounds to hold their protests, and relying on publicly funded airwaves to convey their messages.

That kind of hit home the other day when a South Milwaukee resident told me about a pothole in the street in front of her house. When she called City Hall about it, the city employee she talked to said she would put it on the project board and that it would get fixed. She then thanked the resident for calling and reporting the pothole.

My question to this resident was did her neighbor who has voiced an ideology similar to the no-taxes, no-regulations, no socialism factions make any self-sufficiency move or indicated any intent to repair the pothole himself. Her answer was, "No".

Although the pothole wasn't in the street in front of my house and even though I might never drive on the street that does, I want to give the City of South Milwaukee a big "thank you." One aspect of government that is generally overlooked in the government-bashing trend is that the "you" in my "thank you" includes me. It also includes the resident who reported the pothole. It includes the city employee who answered the phone, whose salary we pay and who also pays taxes to fund the city that employs her. It includes my neighbors and all of my other fellow South Milwaukee residents. We are all part of this society we live in and need to contribute to its common good.

The same day my South Milwaukee acquaintance told me about her pothole-city response experience, I learned about a movement called The Coffee Party.  http://www.coffeepartyusa.com/

Seems like a more reasonable approach than screaming, name calling and insulting.

South Milwaukee's Garlic Mustard Pickers Celtic band will be in full swing in observance of St. Patrick's Day. The band will be playing at the following locations and events:

Sunday March 14, 2010
Grant Park Golf Course Clubhouse, 100 Hawthorne Ave, South Milwaukee
4:30 - 8:00 PM
"The Pullin' O' the Green" (It's the annual fundraiser for Friends of Grant Park, and it's South Milwaukee's best Irish party!)
Check out details at www.fogp.org for where to buy advance tickets ($10), which will get you guaranteed seating for either the 4:30 or 6:30 dinner.
Tickets will also be sold at the door ($12), but availability of seats (and tickets) will be "iffy" at that point, depending on how many tickets had been sold in advance.

Wednesday March 17 (St. Pat's Day!)
Carleton Grange Pub, 3807 So. Packard Ave, St. Francis
6:00-9:00 PM

Thursday March 18, 2010
Sheridan's Cafe, 5133 So. Lake Drive, Cudahy
6:30-8:30 PM
 

This from South Milwaukee Alderman Jim Shelenske:

Monday, March 1st (tonight) 6:30PM -

This just in from Don Lawson of South Milwaukee about this year's 6th annual "Pullin' O' the Green":

Date:  Sunday,  March 14, 2010

Place: Grant Park Golf Course Clubhouse

Two Seatings:  4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

Music by The Garlic Mustard Pickers Celtic band

Menu includes Corned Beef & Cabbage, or traditional Irish Stew, or the "veggie" Irish Potato soup

Tickets: $10 in advance, $12 at the door, $3 for children under 12

Advance tickets are available at these South Milwaukee businesses:

Parkway Floral, Wild Flour Bakery, and Nona's Cafe, or by calling 764-7262.

Seating is limited, so purchase tickets early.

To avoid some of the logistical issues of last year, the event this year will have two separate seatings. The first seating will be from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. The Garlic Mustard Pickers will take a break from 6 to 6:30 p.m. while the tables are cleared and reset. Anyone from the first seating who would like to remain and listen to the band during the second seating can do so from the bar area of the clubhouse.

Another change will be that the event organizers will be working with a catering firm with a good track record which will help ensure that the food won't run out before everyone with tickets are served.

Selling advance tickets, which will be numbered and specify first or second seating, will also help ensure adequate quantities of food. Since seating is limited, more controlled ticket sales will contribute to a better managed event.  

This year's "Pullin' O' the Green" has a special significance for Friends of Grant Park (FoGP).  The old carpeting in the golf course clubhouse was wearing out. At the request of the Milwaukee County Parks Department with its ever-shrinking budget, FoGP (with an assist from Friends of the Mill Pond) replaced the carpet. FoGP is hoping to replenish its coffers with a successful "Pullin' O' the Green" event so it can continue to support its other projects.

A major project is the ongoing effort to eradicate the invasive garlic mustard weed from Grant Park, which includes spraying in November around the Seven Bridges area.  

The new carpeting was installed last week. Appropriately, "Pullin' O' the Green" is the first event at the Clubhouse with the new carpeting.

A recent article in the Journal Sentinel about U.S.Senate candidate Terrence Wall raised a question for me and, to be truthful, also raised my hackles.

Mr. Wall, who is a millionaire many times over and whose annual income tops many millions of dollars, has paid nothing in Wisconsin personal income taxes nine of the past 10 years. Zero. Zip. Nada. And he avoided paying taxes because he took advantage of legally allowable tax credits and deductions because he, like other wealthy Americans, can structure their finances to avoid paying state and federal taxes altogether.

This is, in part, because people like Mr. Wall have either used their wealth to become elected officials, have become wealthy after being elected to public office (look at the personal wealth of all U.S. Senators and Representatives) or receive campaign contributions from those who benefit from laws that enable corporate/wealthy Americans' to shirk their personal tax responsibilities.  

This man, Terrence Wall, who has ducked contributing personally to the cost of running this state by shifting his personal income tax burden to those of us who can't afford shrewd accountants, don't have any "my corporations pay taxes" curtains or other shelters and dodges to hide behind, and are otherwise far less able to finance the state we live in than Mr. Wall is, wants us, the very people to whom he has shifted his personal income tax obligation, to make him our U.S. senator.

Mr. Wall's defense is that his many companies pay "other kinds of taxes." Excuse me, Mr. Wall, but those are your corporate, not your personal, tax responsibilities. I pay lots of other taxes too, but that hasn't relieved me from having to pay my personal income taxes.

So my question is, why is this man so keen to become a U.S. Senator? So he can vote for even more laws that will further benefit the wealthy and shift even more of their tax obligations to us, the people Mr. Wall says he wants to represent?

The system worked. It really did. South Milwaukee deserves kudos for the way city officials and residents handled last Friday's water main break and efforts to spread the word about possible water contamination.

The city got word out to the media -- and the media followed through with timely reports. Still, not everyone listens to the radio, watches TV or monitors local websites during the day. I'm one who doesn't.

So here's where South Milwaukee residents did their part. I got a phone call from someone who'd gotten a phone call from someone who learned about it from their child's school. I think.

The point is that people called people. I called a bunch, leaving voice mail messages when no one answered. My daughter did too. She also drove to the store and bought gallons of bottled water and delivered them to folks around the neighborhood. she thought might not have been able to get out.

The city was busy handing out bottled water too, according to today's Milwaukee JS, to about 1,800 households. Water that was donated by a variety of businesses, organizations and other communities.

The city also posted news releases on its website www.southmilwaukee.com, Alderman Jim Shelenske posted information on his website www.southmilwaukee.org and sent emails to residents who subscribe to his electronic newsletter.

Although the broken main was fixed and the water deemed safe by Saturday morning, restaurants and bars took a hit Friday night, one of their busiest times of the week.

To help compensate for the lost business, Alderman Shelenske (I'm told and have no reason to doubt it) came up with a great win-win proposal. The SM Chamber of Commerce and SM Downtown Market are partnering to sponsor "Fresh Water Days" next Thursday and Friday, Feb. 11 and 12.

The idea is to encourage folks to patronize participating "Fresh Water Days" SM restaurants and bars those two days. In return, the participating establishments  will offer meal or drink specials.  made available only as part of the promotion.

Participating establishments will display a "Fresh Water Days" sign.

In addition to being able to take advantage of the specials, residents dining, relaxing and enjoying themselves at participating bars and restaurants will be elegible for the 10 $20 gift certifications the SM Downtown Market is providing.

More details about the event is at www.southmilwaukee.org.  Here's hoping lots of folks will make it out on either Thursday or Friday or both!

If others beside Jim Shelenske share credit for coming up with the "Fresh Water Days" idea, please excuse me for not including all the names here.

This looks like a worthwhile event in the wake of Friday's water main break. (Thanks to SM Alderman Jim Shelenske for the heads up and this news release):

“Fresh Water Days” To Help Restaurants

Affected by South Milwaukee Water Emergency

Discounts, Farmers’ Market Gift Certificates Offered to Customers

SOUTH MILWAUKEE (February 6, 2010) – The South Milwaukee Chamber of Commerce and South Milwaukee Downtown Market are teaming up to encourage area residents to patronize South Milwaukee bars and restaurants affected by the city’s water problems of the past two days.

The Chamber has declared Thursday and Friday, February 11 and 12, “Fresh Water Days” in South Milwaukee and is working with the Downtown Market to give people two big incentives to eat out or get a drink on those days.

• As part of the promotion, customers of South Milwaukee bars and restaurants showing a “Fresh Water Days” sign can take advantage of meal or drink specials made available only as part of the promotion.
• Also, the South Milwaukee Downtown Market – the city’s successful farmers’ market – is offering ten $20 gift cards for use at the market when it returns to 11^th and Milwaukee Avenues this summer. Only people eating or drinking at South Milwaukee bars and restaurants taking part in the “Fresh Water Days” promotion can win the gift certificates. Entries can be made at participating establishments.

“While we’re glad the water emergency is over in South Milwaukee, the impact on our bars and restaurants was real,” said Jim Shelenske, Third District Alderman in South Milwaukee. “They lost a lot of business because of what happened, and we want to do our part to help support these local establishments.”

For a full list of establishments taking part in this promotion, watch www.southmilwaukee.org throughout the week.

South Milwaukee Chamber of Commerce President Bryan Lorentzen said he is expecting most, if not all, local bars and restaurants to take part.

“The Chamber has the interests of business at heart, and we’re excited about what ‘Fresh Water Days’ will mean for them,” Lorentzen said. “We hope the extra business from this promotion will more than make up for what they lost on Friday.”

For more information

• Alderman Jim Shelenske: 414-651-2221
• Chamber President Bryan Lorentzen: 364-5253
• Website: www.southmilwaukee.org

South Milwaukee children's author Janet Halfmann is blazing the kudos trail. She recently posted on Twitter that her book, Little Skink's Tail, was chosen the Best Children's Book of 2009 by Tif Talks Books: http://www.tiftalksbooks.com/2010/01/best-of-2009.html. And the most recent issue of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Bulletin says her non-fiction picture book, Seven Miles to Freedom: The Robert Smalls Story, has been selected for the Missouri State Teachers Association Reading Circle Program, and her fiction picture book, Little Skink's Tail, was placed on the Florida Recommended Reading List. Kudos, Janet! South Milwaukee is proud of you and happy for you. 

Ida and Tom Spack got a nice Christmas present -- their Nona's Cafe on Chicago just north of the Post Office was featured in The Business Journal on Christmas Day. The Spack's have been weathering the recession thanks to lots of business from South Milwaukeeans. Go Ida and Tom!

Now if The Business Journal would do a feature on the Madison Avenue Market., on Madison just east of Chicago. Thanks to this great new deli and bakery, we enjoyed delicious spinach, meat and tomato byreks and scrumptous baklava during the holidays.

Two local businesses worth supporting.

www.anatomyofatrial.com

Delivering 8,079 petition signatures and a letter signed by a bunch of elected officials to the governor seemed to have been effective. But after the forces behind tearing down the Hoan Memorial Bridge and replacing it with a retrograde, traffic-clogging lift-bridge seemed to have dropped that plan, Milwaukee County Supervisor Pat Jursik in her December newsletter reports this:

"City of Milwaukee Attempts to Delay Re-decking of the Hoan

In spite of the overwhelming show of support for the Hoan Bridge, we need to continue

)to read more. We will see what comes of this letter."

So the work of the Coalition to Save the Hoan is apparently not done. 

Instead of 'ripped from the headlines' much of this blog post is ripped from South Milwaukee 4th District Alderman Eric Brooks' blog and from the Greenfield News & Hobby newsletter.

Alderman Brooks reminds South Milwaukeeans of the Christmas festivities in the city starting at 5 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 21, with the Chamber of Commerce’s tree lighting and music ceremony at Heritage Place (10th and Milwaukee).

The  next week, on Sunday, November 29, residents -- and anyone else who's interested -- can line up along the South Milwaukee Christmas Parade route, which starts at 1 p.m. at 12th and Milwaukee and ends at City Hall. The parade will be followed by Old Fashioned Christmas festivities, including a visit from Santa Claus, food, music and a tree-lighting cermony at City Hall.

A little further afield is an fun time for kiddles and Thomas the Tank afficionodos. Greenfield News & Hobby is hosting a Thomas the Tank Play Date on Sunday, Nov. 22, at its hobby store, 6815 W. Layton in Greenfield, and again on Sunday, Dec. 13, from 1 p.m.-4 p.m. on both days. The newsletter promises a play table, crafts, stories and refreshments for kids who love Thomas and his train friends. Why did this catch my eye? Actually, my husband who is putting together a model train set and picked up the newsletter on one of his trips to the hobby store pointed it out to me. He was thinking our 3-year-old grandson who is a huge Thomas the Tank fan would like it. I think so too, and thought our South Milwaukee neighbors with Thomas fans might like to know about it too.

We keep reading and hearing about the horrendous, heartbreaking stories of people without healhcare coverage who have major medical problems. Last week my friend Lisa joined that list.

After weeks of tests and hospitalization for a sudden onset of double vision, being unable to use her arms and hands and feeling like her torso was being squeezed in a vise, Lisa was disagnosed in May with multiple sclorosis.

Even though she and her husband paid nearly $4,000 to meet deductibles and co-payments and spent weeks hassling with the insurance company -- they had coverage with through her husband's employer -- over paying for pretty expensive medications (turns out they were covered), she felt fortunate that at least they had medical coverage.

That ended last week. Lisa's husband was laid off. He would be eligible for Cobra, at $500 a month. Pretty steep for someone on unemployment and a wife unable to work.

The good news is, the medications have helped ease her symptoms to the point that she can now dress, feed and care for herself. The bad news is without them, she would have to find someone to assist her. As long as her husband isn't working, he can do that. But he needs to find a job so they can afford Cobra and remain independent (i.e. not have to move in with relatives.)

Although she's got a great attitude and positive outlook, Lisa expresses dismay at the turn their lives have taken. "Here we are both college graduates, we both had good jobs, then almost overnight through no fault of our own, we're facing the possibility of financial disaster."

Lisa is but one reason I'm hopeful healthcare and insurance reform can be achieved so people like her and my adult son who has been deemed 'uninsurable' because of a so-called pre-existing condition and so many of our neighbors can have access to affordable medical coverage and not live at risk of bankruptcy or death for lack of that access.

www.anatomyofatrial.com.

I've been pretty good recently about complaining and focusing on some negatives, such as the slowness in getting the word out about the change in Trick or Treat day, pranking the Parkway near the high school into a septic tank and the Hoan Bridge matter. Time now -- way past time, actually -- to accentuate a positive.

Remember the wind storm a few weeks ago that took down some trees and tree limbs around town? One of the trees was a big one two yards over from us. It fell across the yard next to us with the canopy crashing into ours. Luckily for everyone, it didn't hit any structures and took out only a TV cable, power lines and a few fence boards. That happened in the evening when it was dark.

The next morning, Lindsey Saylor, who with her husband Shaun are relatively new in the neighborhood and whose tree blew down, came over to see what damage it had caused. She not only showed concern but offered help to clean up and cart off the debris.  She and Shaun also helped their other neighbor clean up and repair their fence. Although we were able to take care of the clean up in our yard ourselves and figured Lindsey and Shaun had enough on their own plates, she checked back with us a couple of times just to make sure everything was OK and that we didn't need any help.

Certainly a neighborly thing to do. Thanks, Lindsey.

www.anatomyofatrial.com

Trick or Treat came and went. Slowly. Probably about half the ghouls, gobblins and fairy princesses  as usual. Might have been the chilly, overcast weather. Might have been not everyone getting the word about the change from the traditional Trick or Treat day in South Milwaukee. My own three grandkiddies were among the missing. Plans made before the Trick or Treat date change became known took them with their folks out of town for the day.

On the upside, realizing that the lack of a South Milwaukee paper and dwindling city resources have left an information vacuum, some elected officials are exploring ways to bridge the communications gap.

Alderman Erik Brooks, elected last year to represent the 4th District, started a blog a couple of weeks ago, which he says he updates daily with news and information about the city and his district. The URL is www.4thdistrictblog.com.

Brooks and his fellow 4th District alderman, Dave Bartoshevich, are publishing a newsletter for 4th District residents and are planning to hold a town hall meeting on Saturday, Nov. 14, at 10 a.m. at City Hall, 2424 15th Avenue. Brooks says it's to be a general meeting, opening with brief remarks by him and Bartoschvich, then a discussion of a variety of subjects -- "whatever is on residents' minds." Hopefully, Brooks says, the meetings will become a regular event.

"These are small steps toward helping keep South Milwaukee residents better informed," Brooks wrote in a recent email, "and I hope they help."

Another source of information about South Milwaukee is available at the website, www.southmilwaukee.org, which is maintained by 3rd District Alderman Jim Shelenske.

Funny that in this world of ever-advancing technology and increasing ease and speed of communication, we have to work harder to stay informed. Kudos to the aldermen who are trying to help us do that.

www.anatomyofatrial.com

Interesting article on page 3B of today's Journal Sentinel. Apparently, the six-lane wide, 125-feet high Hoan Bridge will not be regressed to a four-lane, 45-feet high equivilent of a drawbridge for the forseeable future (a few decades).

Instead, the Hoan will most likely be resurfaced, reenforced and repainted. The reason? Not enough time to do a full bridge-replacement study before preparation needs to begin for the repairs, which have to get underway by 2011 to avoid certain traffic restrictions.

That appears to be the conclusion of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, which was aired Wednesday at a Milwaukee Press Club Newsmaker Luncheon panel discussion featuring Save-the-Hoan Bridge advocate Milwaukee County Supervisor Patricia Jursik and replacement proponent Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce vice president  Peter Beitzel.

Way to go, Supervisor Jursik. Let's hope that when the bridge has to be replaced 40-or-so years hence, the unanswered questions, including what the real total cost of the MMAC-backed lift-bridge propsal would be will be disclosed. Of course by then, we could all be driving hovercraft.

South Milwaukee

www.anatomyofatrial.com

Milwaukee Magazine ran a story in its November issue (I know, I know. It's still October) calling for the Hoan Bridge to be torn down (complete with exclamation point).

What the article didn't have were answers to questions raised in public meetings Milwaukee County Supervisor Patricia Jursik held  in South Millwaukee and Cudahy during the summer. Question such as:

1) Why are tear-down activists going to the Department of Transportaion (DOT cited repeatedly in the MM article) and bypassing the Southeast Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, which Jursik says is the transportation-planning agency for southeast Wisconsin (not mentioned in the MM piece)?

2) Where is the SWRPC in all of this? What is that agency's position?

3) Estimated cost to "redeck" (remove and replace the pavement and steel supporters and repaint the superstructure) the Hoan in the next four years and extend its life out to about 2050 is between $200 million and $250 million. Estimate to replace the bridge in 2050 -- 40 years from now -- is $2 billion to $3 billion (a spread of $1 billion -- an estimate so inexact that the range from low to high ends is about 1/3 of the total). The estimate to build a replacement "lift" bridge -- one that would be some 80 feet lower than the existing bridge with a section that would have to be raised for lake-Port of Milwaukee shipping traffic that needs more than a 40-foot clearance -- is $220 million. So, does that $220 million include the cost of tearing down and hauling off the debris of the Hoan?

4) Given that the proposal would result in the 794 losing Interstate designation, how much in federal funding would be lost and become a local tax burden?

5) With tear-down proponents envisioning the freed-up waterfront property being available to be developed for commercial use, condos, parkland and more, will an environmental impact study be required, given the industrial and salt-storage use that land has hosted over the years? Is an estimate available for the cost of such a study? 

6) Should it be determined that the property needs detoxification and decontamination before it can be developed for commercial, residential and recreational use, is an estimate available for what that would cost?

7) What would the personnel costs associated with monitoring the bridge and raising and lowering the lift section be?

8) What would the maintenance costs of keeping the lift section mechanics functioning and safe be?

9) The MM piece says a replacement bridge would still span the sewage plant that sits beneath the Hoan and emits such a stench at times my young grandchildren hold their noses and exclaim about it when we drive over it. How would that odor be mitigated to the satisfaction of the sewage plant's envisioned new residential and commercial neighbors?

10) An estimate of six minutes is cited as the time motorists would be delayed by the lift section to be raised for lake shipping to get into or out of the Port of Milwaukee. I'm trying to envision traffic signals changing, cross arms or other barriers lowering into place, the lift section being raised, an ocean-going vessel moving through and clearing the bridge, the lift section being lowered and traffic barriers being raised all accomplished in just six minutes. Is six minutes really realistic for all of that to occur?

11) A lift bridge would have to be raised only, on average, one time a day, according to the DOT report. Is that average spread out over every day of an entire year? Does lake shipping and the Port of Milwaukee operate 365 days a year, including weekends, holidays and throughout the winter? If not, then the actual number of "lifts" would be more than one per day.

12) Given that parks in Milwaukee County are deteriorating for lack of adequate funding -- parks' budgets have remained flat since 1983 -- that's 25 years -- and are suffering from $200 million in deferred maintenance, according to Friends of Grant Park Chair Don Lawson, where will the money come from to maintain the new parkland envisioned in the lift-bridge development plan?

13) What would be the impact of what sounds like the gentrification of the area in question on the Port of Milwaukee as a major transportation and road-salt distribution center?

14) What are the pros and cons people have encountered in other locales that have lift bridges on main arteries into or out of a city?

15) Would the envisioned economic boon lift-bridge proponents enumerate offset the cost of building a lift bridge, plus the other costs that are not included in their discussions, if, in fact, all the hurdles could be cleared?