Town of Brooklyn
There is an election on April 3, 2007. Mike Wuest the current Town of Brooklyn Chairman and is running a re-match with Roger Ladwig. Wuest has been the current chairman for the last two years while Ladwig was the chairman for the 6 years before that. Ladwig lost in the last election to Wuest. Let’s see where this one goes.
There are also three seats open for the Town of Brooklyn board with 4 people running. Two are incumbents, Sue McConnell and Ron Benson. The other two are Mike Krause and Sydney Rouse.
In Ron Benson’s questionnaire in the Green Lake Reporter under the question for generating additional revenue he makes a suggestion of new manufacturing for the area.
This is unrealistic for today. Manufacturing has fled the city, county, state and country. If we want new manufacturing we should move the county to China. We will all have jobs. At sevens cents per hour.
Ten days after this election there is to be the joint meeting of the planning commission for the Conference Center Development so some of these members could be newly elected and might not be up to speed on the development.
The city, townships and county government should be looking at our current infrastructure. The whole county should be going for reliable wireless access for everybody in the county. This would help make the county an enticing work area for engineering companies, software companies, and board of trade guys. These companies provide “clean” manufacturing and high pay. They would appreciate the natural attributes the area has to offer. These are the kinds of things we should be working on. Like it or not manufacturing has fled. Information exchange is here now and we already attract the kind of people who want this service. Don’t argue with the way the world should be or was. This is the way it is. Make your public officials face the future not the past.
It seems silly that a certain amount of people in the area can’t get cable TV or only have access to “dial-up” internet service. This is ridiculous and part of the reason we don’t have higher income people spending more than their tax dollars here. They can’t get the services they need to do the work they need to do to stay in the area to spend their money at the gas station, grocery store, liquor store or hardware store. It comes down to a basic infrastructure many people need to do their jobs everyday. They can’t do it here so they head back to the city. We lose out.
Manufacturing plants are so ‘50’s. Our city leaders should be looking toward what is coming and should be working together. The area is governed by too many separate government entities without a complete plan. Really the only complete government body is the County Board. Much of this should be planned together with joint committees. The city, townships and county government all seem to have committees that overlap. This area has endless committee meetings with no bold ideas. Maybe this has always been the way has been done but maybe it is time to change.
Board of Education
There 3 people running for the Board of Education. The truth is I don’t know a lot about the school board. Two are incumbents, Jodine Deppisch and Bur Zeratsky. The challenger is Gordon Farrell. In reading about their qualifications in the Green Lake Reporter I see Deppisch is the warden of the Fox Lake Correctional Institution. That alone seems like a good qualification for the school board.
Gordon Farrell has obviously been educating himself in the ways of the school board and is committed to its needs.
Bur Zeratsky didn’t bother to return his questionnaire. I guess arrogance is a qualification for running for school board.
City of Green Lake
There two people running for City Council in Green Lake, incumbent alderperson Michele Polzer and Regina Furo is the challenger. It is a toss-up.
Just a little aside. State census records project Green Lake County to be one of the ten slowest growing counties in the state until 2030.
Posts
12 years ago
33 comments:
Hey Chief, do you even have kids?
I have been reading the Dartford blog with interest, and have a few things to say.
To get Green Lake back on track, for all of us, we need to do the following:
FIRST, form a Green Lake Citizens advocacy group to meet, discuss and lobby on the following issues:
1—Not enough families. What can be done, BEFORE we lose the school as well as the downtown and any semblance of community life? Some suggestions include pushing the Chamber to redirect its advertising, in tone, content and direction. We have a good school, a safe town, a great lake, etc. Let’s sell that to middle-income families instead of developers and land speculators. Aim advertising at the Valley, Minneapolis, Port Washington, Madison. Get out of Chicago.
Let’s nudge the Realtors to steer their speculative clients away from family-type houses in town. Geez, even our youngest local police office couldn’t get a house here. He had to petition the City to live in Princeton!
Let’s contact our local developers/Realtors to see if we could work with them to set up an affordable family subdivision.
Any other ideas, Highknocker? Readers?
2—A failing downtown. No one can make a profit downtown because the rents are too high. A second problem is people setting up poorly thought-out businesses. Third is dwindling traffic.
Let’s nudge the Realtors to free up the street side of their storefronts. After all, Green Lake’s most successful Realtor, Ron Hagstrom, made his $$$ without being up front on main street. And it looks like hell to drive into town and see all those realty signs.
Petition the City to pass an ordinance that all street-side storefronts on main street have to be some sort of retail business. Princeton already has this in place, as do other communities. The next time there is a speculative surge, we will be protected.
Set up a committee to work with incoming prospective business people to guide them with their enterprises. Do they have a business plan? Are they aware of the hours they need to keep in season? Do they duplicate existing businesses? [Why is the City supporting the Grocery Bag proposal for a fitness center when there is a free one half a block away (at the school) and a long-standing fee-based business on the other side of town run by an RN who is a local person? Makes no sense.]
That committee should also make up a list of desirable businesses for GL and try to attract them. One idea is an internet cafe. There were folks wandering around town all last summer looking for a $4 cup of latte and internet hookup and couldn’t find it.
Set up a committee to reach out to people who will help us build a fund to buy back some of the key local buildings. This isn’t as far-fetched as it sounds. I’m aware of some interest in this idea from people who could afford to put $$$ somewhere at no return, if they were used productively to revitalize the downtown.
Any other ideas, Highknocker? Anybody?
3—Uncontrolled development. The City has a comprehensive plan. The state has mandated that the City follow that plan—in 2010. Until then, unless the zoning code is updated, current development proceeds based on old rules, which are no longer appropriate. Look at the results: an unworkable marina that isn’t even fully operational; a poorly configured major development on a main entrance road, lot-line to lot-line condos on Lake Street, and the back of our premier downtown park scalped. Looks like hell. And that’s the short list.
So, let’s petition City gov. to work with us to review the code, every line of it, with an eye to supporting the comprehensive plan. The plan commission should be at those meetings and instructed to put the comprehensive plan foremost in their thinking when they are vetting proposals. That means buildings should have a GL “look,” be appropriate size for the lot they are on, have some green space, shaded lighting, etc.
In exchange, we will work with the City to help solve its ongoing financial pinch. There are brilliant financial minds in this community; we can do this.
It is important now for day-to-day City business to be directed by a hired, professional, adequately compensated city administrator. Princeton has one; Ripon has one. Let’s find a way to pay for that person and get him or her here. Even small-town gov. is too complex to be done the way we are doing it now. And the way we are doing it now is part of the financial problem.
Regarding traffic, one wave of the future is eco-tourism. That means nature paths, wildlife viewing places, bicycling,etc. We threw some of that away at Maplewood. It was common to see pileated woodpeckers there. Most people will never see these magnificent birds in their lifetimes, and we clear-cut ours away. Charlie Marks (GLSD) tried to work with the developer to do a more eco-friendly development. But he wasn’t supported in his efforts there as he was by the Town of Brooklyn with the Sunnyside development, where he worked wonders. Thank you, Charlie.
Another pillar to build on is cultural events and we have a wonderful base with the Opera House.
Any other ideas, Highknocker? Anybody?
SECOND, we need to support what we have. A local man stepped forward, put $5 million on the line and gave us a grocery store. I’m not seeing that many local people there. The store has everything, good meat, fair prices, cool old-time GL pictures on the wall. Thank you, Tom Willett. People of GL, where are you?
We still have some neat shops downtown. A 100+ year-old hardware store, a top-notch educational/office supply store (39 years), a candy shop, jewelry, gifts. How long since you’ve been in any of them? Where are you?
Have you had lunch or dinner at Norton’s in the last year? Mike Havey stuck his neck out for us. Thank you, Mike, and also for all the things you do for GL, and never take a bow. People, where are you?
Tuscumbia had a rocky start, but the road is turned. Good food, warm and friendly atmosphere, mellow music at night. People, where are you?
But most important, at all these meetings about GL in the last couple of years, PEOPLE, WHERE WERE YOU? Other than myself, there were only consistently two other people there, a man and a woman. And for those of you who criticized Friends of GL on this blog, tell me why they should show up when you won’t? I know that Tom Wiscomb endured personal, sustained, venomous attacks. It was tough on him and on his family. Thank you, Tom, for having a vision for GL and trying to share it.
Since this is getting quite long, I’ll quit now. If someone steps forward to set up an advocacy committee, I’ll be there, even at the price of my free time. If we put a lot of minds together and listen with goodwill, solutions may arise.
It doesn’t take much to wreck a community, but it is a very difficult job to rebuild one. We better get going.
Hey Sad, nice response. A publice discussion without rancor is what this is all about.
What a lot of nice words, but why should anyone do these things?
You talk about poorly planned businesses, there's an empty store for rent on Mill st, why don't you rent it and show us how it should be done?
Why should realtors move out of town?.....just more storefronts sitting there empty?....why not just board the place up and move to Princeton?
You gotta realize that this whole town is all about real estate and property developers, and people sitting on plots of land that will soon become available for the developers.....you just gotta look at the two downtown motels to know where they're headed.
We have a Mayor who panders to developers, with his links to the big City, a chamber board who are mostly all realtors/developers/bankers....what do you think they care about retail in Green Lake...they could give a crap!
So rent yourself a nice storefront before First Weber move into it, or shut up and leave us all alone.
sad but wiser made excellent points. I do shop at the local stores and would love to see more poeple at crossroads. It is so nice to a have a grocery store in the area again. On the other hand, you couldn't pay me enough money to take my business to Tuscumbia. I will not support someone who treats people the way the owner of Tuscumbia does.
Oh it's me again....anonymous from the previous post....hiding behind the curtains (where did those stains come from?)
I sholud add that rent for certain downtown locations is dirt cheap...you can rent a storefront for $100/mth in certain cases....I'm sick of hearing people say that high rent is keeping people away...that's bullshit...you obviously haven't checked into it for yourself, you just assume it's too high, and pass the information around like it's fact...well it isn't.
What is too high is the perceived value of these downtown businesses, and subsequently the associated property taxes. Who can afford $360,000 for a banged-up old building, with retail sales potential of maybe $50K/year?
The quicker those retailers move from the main streets, and open up more space for realtors, the better. Buy your candy at pick n save.
If I could afford to rent a store in GL I’d sell hats. Everyone wears hats these days, they look cool and keep your swede warm in the winter. That or shoes….yeah, I’d sell shoes. Or maybe both; shoes and hats. Seems like everyone wears shoes and hats these days.
DB
I like the candy store; leave it alone.
Was it just this drunken old bastard who found the whole ‘Responses to GL Candidate Questionnaires’ in the GL Reporter rather odd?
Does Regina Furo actually know where she is?
Come on lady, you keep telling us that you’re not from around here, how’s that supposed to make us all feel?
If a freakin’ alien landed today it’d have more clue about what’s going on in Green Lake than you do.
If someone asked the little green fellow “Please tell us about yourself and why you’re running for office”, it sure as hell wouldn’t preface every comment with the disclaimer "I am what you might call fairly new to this area”.
No, it would have done its homework and would offer something intelligent without having to apologize every two minutes for having arrived here from another planet.
At least I hope so.
So until the aliens land in Green Lake, I suggest we all vote for Polzer. At least she can help tourists with directions to the fucking Heidel House.
DB
Love it!!
Hey DB:
What kind of shoes. I just love shoes. Do you have any of those cement kind? I really could use a pair of those. Not big on the hat thing, but it does seem lots of people like to wear them!
I've always been suspicious of people who wear sandles.
Feet were never meant to be exposed to the public in that way.
Sandles and slippers....my mother used to say "never trust a man who wears sandles or slippers"
Not sure about cement shoes, wouldn't they be expensive to ship mail-order?
Hats seem much safer and less bothersome.
DB
Hey anonymous,
Your reference about John, who owns Tescumbia, was way out of place. Don't forget there are two sides to every story.
Who in the hell is going to Tuscumbia anyway? They do treat you like crap there. They obviously are looking for the tourist business. But who isn't. I'll never go there again. I'd rather go to JT Skewers - they are a lot more entertaining.
To Princess Lowknocker,
I am aware there are two sides to every story but if you are treating like crap then who cares about his side of the story....
Huh?
Would someone please explain John's side of the story??
About the school, we should all be more concerned about the administration, K-Bates and e jon Tracy...there not from here, nor do they have a vested intrested in gl school...staff and parents are leaving..please vote against the charter school. Talk with the school staff...they will let you know how bad it is on the hill.
Sad but wiser,
You raise many good points. Obviously everyone isn't going to agree with ALL of them; however, I think there is truth to what you have shared. What was wrong with shops and realtors in town, can't there be both instead of one or the other. The other point being I LOVE what G.L. has in town, I wish there was more for people to enjoy and visit, but I have no sense for business so can't help out there. I do think there are some affordable places in town and some less affordable places in town. I think it would be great if most of us could work together to bring back our downtown so we don't have to move to bean town.
I think we should not vote against the charter school. The reason staff are upset is because they are being forced to improve their teaching styles and having had control over the school for so long, they are not use to actually having an administrator to answer too. The teachers that are upset, are probably the ones that will get weeded out if the school does go to charter, and having graduated from there, this may not be a bad thing for the students. If you have done any research on the charter school, you will see that this is a great thing to have and will only be better for those students pursuing higher education.
Newsflash... We don't have a "vote" in regards to the Charter school. It's all up to the school board now. If you didn't attend the open meetings or voice your opinion via a letter or private meeting with administration, you're almost to late!
I understand they vote at their April Board meeting. You better speak up soon to let your concerns be heard.
Charter school??? Higher Education???? You dont get grades in a charter school...how do you get higher education without being graded? You have no structure!Charter schools are back up schools for delinquents if you havent heard! Hello UWM Id like to apply for enrollment, no I dont have a GPA...hell I havent even gone to an academic class in years but I sure would love to attend your college?????
Is that true? You don't get grades in ANY charter school or some charter schools. I can't believe that.
A possible place to start on what a charter school is might be here. It is NOT true charter schools don't grade and are some sort of free form atmosphere run by the students wants..People should do a little research about things before they sound off.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charter_school
Sad,
In response to some of your statements.
FIRST, Why would we want to get out of Chicago advertising? They spend the bucks! Why Port Washington? they have a Great Lake of their own. Minneapolis? Highest crime rate per capita - great let's bring those people here.
Madison? More Politians!!!
Lets market within a 100 mile radius & build middle class homes.
More people are choosing to live outside of the cities (Milw,Appl)and commute.
SECOND,failing downtown
The rents are not high downtown. The reason that they fail is that very few locals shop them.
When Crossroads opened I can't tell you how many times I heard that the Mayonaise was too expensive. Then go to Ripon and spend the extra on gas - idiot!!
We did have a coffee cafe that no one used.
Love the idea of the ordinance allowing only retail on the lower level store fronts.
I welcome development but do agree that there should be strict guidelines in place.
The reason no businesses can last in the downtown area is that no local people can afford the capital to start them and cash flow in the off season. It takes a serious philosophy from the locals to support these business in the October to May timeframe.
Plus, how do you attract anyone to take the gamble on opening a business, when all of the current business owners are so quick to complain about the bad times? It takes a positive outlook to consider the building vacancies as 'opportunities'. The city and the Chamber could help to promote these vacancies (and maybe the building owners). For example, there is a great, very cute hardware store for sale right now, for a reasonable price. Isn't it convenient for locals to be able to get hardware in a close proximity? I would be a shame to see that building empty?
SAD,
You hit it right on the head. To save our school you need to have more affordable housing. Did you know that about half of the homes in GL are owned by non-residents or seasonals. The City has discouraged modest priced homes and apartments. They want the big tax dollar homes. They've created market condition that has more demand that supply. This forces prices up and away from families and young singles.
Want to save the school and retail?
Create more supply for the transplants so they stop buying the lower priced houses. Also, allow the evil developers to make a buck by encouraging more affordable housing.
When the City implimented their impact fees they just pushed affordable a little more out of reach. The City should waive or severly reduce the impact fee for appartments and small homes.
THe City's attitude has been affordable housing attacts "trailer trash". The real fact is young families and singles are our future. Without them we'll all be sitting in the nursing home wiping our own ass's.
Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!
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