While I support a limited hunt in the parks, I applaud the Common Council’s diligence in researching the issue and allowing public input before making a decision.

West Bend officials will begin researching the logistics associated with hunting deer on the grounds of Lac Lawrann Conservancy.

Common Council members voted to approve a motion made by Alderman Steve Hutchins during Monday’s meeting to table the issue and return several weeks later, allowing staff to develop a plan to allow hunting at the conservancy and address what he claimed was a deer problem within city limits.

“I still don’t have a problem going with Lac Lawrann, I think it is a great idea,” Hutchins said. “The problem is that if you want to manage deer like that, taking it in one spot just to see if the system works, that is OK but it is not going to solve the problems in the other areas.”

Council members referenced a memo that Parks, Recreation and Forestry Director Craig Hoeppner wrote with recommendations of Parks and Recreation Commission members.

According to the memo, they suggested that no action be taken because of public safety concerns, associated program costs to West Bend, an insufficient deer population in the area to warrant action, and cited evidence they were not effective in communities that established deer management programs.

Well, that was a short-lived effort.

West Bend will remain chicken-free as officials highlighted their concerns to permit chickens in the area, despite several constituents publicly stating they are in favor of the measure. An ordinance that would modify the municipal code to allow chickens within city limits failed Monday because no other Common Council members would support the motion introduced by Alderman Chris Jenkins. Many highlighted enforcement issues and concerns from residents worried about the smell and noise.

The chicken craze is coming to West Bend.

Wow. Some amazing work happening in West Bend. Kudos to the Mayor and the Council.

Common Council members approved the 2017 budget during the Nov. 14 meeting that maintains the tax rate at $8.51 per equalized value, imposes a 2 percent merit pay adjustment for some employees, a $225,000 increase in contingency funding and road maintenance, and that continues to limit borrowing to $1.5 million annually to fund capital improvement projects.

“We are proud to say that the level of government is right around that same 2011 spending mark that we had been maintaining for a long time,” City Administrator Jay Shambeau said. “That comes with great accomplishment in trying to do things at a very lean manner, but also comes with somewhat of a risk.”

There have been multiple meetings related to the budget dating back to early October. At one session, Mayor Kraig Sadownikow instructed administrators to accommodate a merit pay increase for personnel while leaving the tax rate steady.

At a subsequent meeting, Shambeau warned the public that state transportation aid funding would be less than the previousyear by about $100,000. Staff and administrators are adjusting the budget to accommodate that shortfall.

The budget will generate an estimated $20.6 million in revenues from property taxes, along with a general fund balance of about $23 million. They will also pay slightly more than $4 million in interest and principal for debts incurred.

To incorporate the decreased state funding and Sadownikow’s directive into the budget, Shambeau and staff had to reduce expenses or find additional savings in other areas.

She’ll be missed.

Nov. 13, 2016 – West Bend, WI – West Bend City Clerk and assistant City Administrator Amy Reuteman is leaving.

This is a story you’ll read first at WashingtonCountyInsider.com

An email was sent Friday announcing Reutemen was leaving to take a job in Adams County.

Reuteman has worked with the city of West Bend for 16 years; she’s been the city clerk the past eight years and last November 2015 she was tabbed as the new assistant city administrator in West Bend.

It’s good to see the city being smart and using the change in the law for the taxpayers’ benefit.

West Bend officials will delay advertising a work contract, taking advantage of a change in the law, to determine if they are able to reduce the cost or solicit additional bids for a Public Works project.

Members of the Common Council unanimously voted Monday to permit city administrators to advertise a sanitary sewer extension for vendors to submit bids, with the caveat they publish it at the beginning of 2017 when changes to the prevailing wage law take effect.

The City of West Bend is reducing its costs and headcount.

City officials purchased trucks with a mechanical lever arm that drivers can maneuver to grab cans from curbs and empty them into a storage area on the vehicle. Prior to the purchase, additional staff was required to perform the same work.

Neumann sent a memo to acting City Administrator Amy Reuteman stating the upgraded trucks reduced the number of required employees from seven to three. Having anticipated the upgrade, city administrators cut a position in the department.

You always hate to see people lose their jobs. Hopefully these folks can be repurposed elsewhere. I don’t have the cost of the new trucks at my fingertips, but I remember that the ROI when they purchased them was pretty strong. Still, it’s good to see government actually being reduced for once.

It’s a start.

Members of the Common Council voted 5-4 on Monday to approve an ordinance to allow a change to the municipal code that allows residents to hunt deer with crossbows and bows and arrows at public parks in the city limits of West Bend. Mayor Kraig Sadownikow was the tie-breaking vote, along with aldermen John Butschlick, Steve Hutchins, Mike Chevalier and Steve Hoogester.

The issue occupied two agenda items for the Common Council and Hutchins introduced the topic for members to discuss.

“We are going to hunt the parks,” Hutchins said. “Part of the reason for that is, if you hunt everything around it, the parks turn into sanctuaries.”

According to the ordinance, hunting activities will be governed by the city’s participation in the Deer Management Assistance Program governed by the state Department of Natural Resources, which is responsible for issuing the required permits.

The designated parks are Regner, Riverside, Ridge Run, Quass Creek, Bicentennial, Silverbrook Creek Parkway and Royal Oaks.

There should be some continued discussion of the best way to safely hunt in the parks, but there does need to be a mechanism for population control.

This would be good news for my little city. Mayor Sadownikow has been a great mayor.

Sadownikow said, “It’s very likely I will be running again.”

This is hilarious…

It’s a story we told you about first at WashingtonCountyInsider.com as contractors worked today to move the new pedestrian bridge in place over the Milwaukee River.

It appeared the bridge delivered was not exactly what the common council had approved as they signed off on a white bridge.  Mayor Kraig Sadownikow said the contractor made a mistake, it will be white and the contractor has until the end of May to have it all done.

From the Washington County Insider:

One more step forward to saving the theatre/bridge: The Downtown West Bend BID Board met Thursday morning and voted unanimously to cover a surety, up to a $75,000 on the theatre bridge.

That means if the project to rehab the bridge does not move forward by January 31, 2017 and the bridge has to come down the BID would be responsible for covering that cost.

The reason the surety is need is because in the coming weeks the mayor is going to go before the Common Council and try to convince them to waive a $45,000 federal grant to cover demolition of the bridge. “I have to protect the taxpayers,” said Mayor Kraig Sadownikow.

There’s a bit of a kerfuffle going on in West Bend regarding a little bridge over the Milwaukee River that goes to nowhere. The Washington County Insider has been all over it for a while now. I encourage you to read through a lot of the back story there if you are interested. The West Bend Daily News also has a pretty good story about it in the newspaper today. I’ll give you the short version…

In 1982, an enclosed pedestrian bridge was built over the Milwaukee River between downtown and an outlet mall. Over time, the outlet mall was closed and then torn down. The bridge was abandoned and half of it was torn down with the mall. This is what it looked like this afternoon:

Until recently, it still had its glass walls, but it is in the process of being demolished, which brings us to the kerfuffle.

Over the past few years, and through several iterations of debate, the city has been trying to figure out what to do about crossing the river between downtown and the Museum of Wisconsin Art. Currently, between the two streets that cross the river, there are two small pedestrian bridges and the defunct bridge to nowhere. Earlier this year, the city decided to construct a new pedestrian bridge and tear down the bridge to nowhere and one of the other pedestrian bridges which is old and very close to where the new one will be. Here’s a picture of the river as it stands today:

You can see the current pedestrian bridge in the foreground and the bridge to nowhere in the background. Both are scheduled to be demolished and the new bridge built between them.

All good, right? No.

A group of people are also trying to renovate the long defunct theater in downtown West Bend. Their vision is to create an entertainment destination centered around the renovated theater. Central to that vision is the bridge to nowhere, which they want as a bridge to somewhere – namely parking across the river. Their plans are in the early stages, but they think that demolishing the bridge may endanger the whole project. To that end, Terry Becker has started a petition to save the bridge on Change.org.

The problem now is a matter of time and money. The project is already in motion. Part of the project is being funded with a grant from the state, which is based on plans to demolish the bridge to nowhere. If they don’t demolish the bridge, the city would have to waive the grant and come up with the funding from city taxpayers. That amount is about $45k, I think.

As Mayor Sadownikow points out in a letter on the Washington County Insider, if the Common Council is going to cancel the demolition and waive the state funds, they need to put it on the agenda for the January 4th meeting, which means it needs to be published by December 21st. Sadownikow says:

I will not support, nor ask the Council to support, removing demo from the State/Federally funded portion of the contract only to find out the Theatre project does not move forward and the money to remove the bridge is gone. West Bend will be left with half a bridge and the local taxpayer holding the bag.

I agree with that completely. The fact is that the theater and the bridge have been out of use and in disrepair for over a decade. We’ve heard rumblings of renovating the theater for years. I do not see any reason for the taxpayers to take a risk on having to pay tens of thousands of dollars on a promise of future development. And it is that… a promise. Nobody has put forth any actual plans with a plan for financing it yet.

The only way I would support changing the plan to demolish the bridge to nowhere is if two things happen. First, the developers who want it need to replace the money that would be lost in state funding if we do not demolish the bridge. Second, the developers would need to put funds in escrow for the purpose of demolishing the bridge if they do not complete their project by a specified date – perhaps this time next year. That way, if their plans fall through, we can still tear down the bridge so it won’t be an eyesore for another decade.