School Ref April 6

Well I guess the ref went down in flames with Rouse and Ferrel elected to the school board. Next?

Ripon Paper on Ref Voting

There was an article in the Ripon paper by Aaron Becker on the voting in the last school referendum. He made very good points and backed it up with numbers. I look forward the next referendum. I have a feeling it will pass this time. They school board did a very bad job of educating the public about the need for the increase, why we have such a high per student cost and renewing Ken Bates contract just before they are asking for more money. Not the best planning on their part. Have they considered any consolidation of high schools at all? I can understand a community wanting to keep a grade school in a town, but what about High School consolidation? Is this being discussed at any level or are we going to be hit with these referendums forever?

Feb 16, 2010

Tuesday is the school board primary and referendum vote. Tell your neighbors and friends to make their point of view known.

County Board Meeting on Court House Options

Last night the county board had a meeting to hear options on the old Courthouse. It wasn't really options but what the county should do with it while it houses the 40 people that it left behind while the rest of them move out to the new building. I need to look at the pamphlet they handed out. It gave money figures for the options they were looking at but I did not have copy. They did hear from the Cornerstone Project people on what they would like to do with it.

I am very leery of the Cornerstone Project. I don't really see a need for it. We live in a county with a population of 19,000. The average age is 41.5 and getting older. We are building a bike path, we have a lake. We have winter sports. Most of these things are not being utilized to their full potential now. They say they don't want or expect tax dollars but I'm doubtful of that in the future if they get the funds to get off the ground. We don't have a population to support this sort of project.

School Board Ref. Feb 16 Continued

If you haven't read last weeks letter in the Ripon Commonwealth from Nancy Burns, former administrator of the Green Lake School District try to get a copy. It is direct and to the point by someone who has been there. She makes the point that it could raise Green Lake Prop. taxes by 25 percent this year by a school district that already exceeds the revenue cap by $600,000 per year already.

As a side note about voting in the school referendum these are the voting requirements that I got from the county:

1.Must have resided in the state of Wisconsin for at least 10 days in the last year, not consecutively.


2. You may register at the time you vote at the residents polling place.

3. You will not be able to vote in the spring election where you otherwise reside (Ill, Arizona, Florida for example) and will have to re-register there for their elections.

4. If you want to vote by absentee ballot it must be in by Feb. 11 for the Feb. 16 election.

Town of Brooklyn phone number is 920-294-6600
City of Green Lake phone number is 920-294-6912
Town of Green Lake phone number is 920-398-3492

I would call your government office to double check all this.

Careful on The Ice

I heard three people went through the ice at Horner's Landing today. One was on a snowmobile. I guess they all got out OK.

School Ref. on Feb. 16 for tax increase

The current school budget is about 6.1 million for the school On Feb 16 they are asking for permission to spend more.

For the next school year that would be about 775,000 increase over the current budget.

As I understand it this is perpetual.

2010 increase would be 775,000

2011 increase would be 1.1 million

2012 increase would be 1.3 million

Vikings vs. Bears

It isn't very often I hear a bar full of people cheering for the Bears.

Center House

I hear center house is closing Saturday. For good? For a little while? What's the story? They always have a pretty good happy hour.

The New School Year

Now that the new school year is in full swing how are things going there? I haven't heard much recently.

What is With the Court House?

I thought we built a new court house so everybody in the current courthouse would be moving out to the new one. Now I guess we need to add 25,000 square feet to the new courthouse to accommodate some other offices that weren't included. More tax $$$ at work. This is just ridiculous. What is going on with this town?

Oakwood Memories

I am sorry to say Oakwood Lodge is having an auction this Saturday morning at 10 AM. It is part of the orginal Oakwood and has been a B&B since before I was born. When I was a kid the Roth family owned it. I always had a great time there. Mary Ellen made great breakfasts and Patty was always working around the place somewhere. I wonder what will happen to it now?

David Greenway was the founder of Oakwood in 1867. It was originally 35 acres and was the first resort built on Green Lake. It accommodated 75 guests. At one point it could hold 300 guests and went all the way down Lake Street. It even had its own vineyard and telegraph system. People were called to dinner with a large Chinese Gong. The 1905 rate for a room started at $7.00. The current Oakwood building was the largest cottage for rent. The large white house kitty corner from the current Oakwood Lodge is the house built by David Greenway to retire in. He died there at age 79.

The auction is at 10 am Saturday. Do you have any great memories of Oakwood?

Vikings at Lambeau

So what about the Vikings at Lambeau?

New Library Roof

Since a simple commentary on someone being on "Millionaire" has digresses into a discussion about the library, let me enlighten some of you.

Yes, the library was a gift. A VERY generous gift. Not once but twice. The current GL Historical society is housed in the old library. (Before that it was in the city hall offices with about 4 book shelves.)

Officially the City of Green Lake owns the library. It is of course used by many more people than the city residents and the Town of Brooklyn does contribute part of the operating budget for day to day things.(Which it is not legally required to do) Maintenance of the building is legally part of the city because the city owns the building. We all know where city budgets stand right now. The cost of a new roof(which despite what all of you out there may think have a life span of about 15-20 years, read the fine print on your roofing contract...)is more than an annual budget of operating the library for a year. This town is very lucky to have this library. We are the envy of surrounding communities for our library facilities. But...it needs to be maintained. The city cannot afford this by itself. The library is trying to think ahead and get the funds to replace the roof before it becomes a critical issue. Stop bitching about your taxes, poor planning and what is wrong with everybody else approach and understand they are trying to plan ahead. Or are you just like a bunch of spoiled kids who are unable to take care of the gifts given to them now complain because they want someone else to give them more. Municipal funds are not going to be able to cover all the costs. Period.

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire

Was anybody else watching Millionaire on Tuesday afternoon? Linda Denell's sister was a contestant. Linda is the director of the library and her sister called her for her "phone a friend" line. Linda, of course knew the answer before her sister even finished the question. Congratulations! That was fun!

Feingold Town Hall Listening Session this AM

I went to the town hall listening session this morning at the Brooklyn Town Hall. It is always interesting to see your public officials in person. Feingold visits all 72 counties every year. It is also interesting to see who actually goes to this listening sessions. Joe Parise, Dan Priske and Sydney Rouse were all there. Joan Ballweg was also in the audience. One of the things I like the most with Wisconsinites is their innate sense of politeness. Even when they may disagree with certain positions they don't get into screaming matches like you see on TV in other states. They treat each other with respect. I like that. For those of you who have not ever shown up at one of these sessions you should. One of the interesting things he said was if he gets 30 phone calls or emails in one day on a subject that is a lot. He gets a log every day of the number of people who contacted his office as do all the congressional reps. He said he is always surprised by the low number of people who do contact their reps. I would bet more of you make your point of view known on this blog than actually contact you state or national representative with whatever concerns you might be having on a particular issue. Try contacting you elected officials once in a while and see what effect it has.

City Council Meeting Tonight @7:00

Mayoral Censure

I understand people should "follow the rules" but I think this whole censure think is way overblown. I don't really think it was such a big deal, we have bigger issues to deal with in this town, but I guess it was important to someone out there. I guess Joe is looking to be the mayor again.

Packer vs. Vikings?

So who is going down in Monday night's game?

ABA Development

It looks like we didn't have to have all the meetings regarding the Green Lake Center Development. Lindendwood Development is going to be its own worst enemy after they knock down all the trees, re-route the roads and ruin any of the beauty left in the ABA they will be broke.