Common Ground

Art is my Grandfather. It can also be an acronym. Awfully Rough Thoroughfare, comes to mind. But I'm speaking of artistic art. My Grandfather Art thought that art was a well designed rifle or a piece of farm machinery that was not only repaired well but was clean and well painted. Art was also seeing the rows of corn growing in perfectly straight rows. Did you know that John Deere makes a tractor guided by GPS which assures the path is straight within four inches from end to end? That's would have been his paintbrush while the land was the easel.

But back to the acronym that you are likely puzzling over. You see, Grandview Avenue was recently reworked and repaved. Now gone is the plop keplop that I've been acoustomed to hear from my tires for the last 20 years. Smooth asphalt now makes the tires hum. That kerplop could have been a form of art. The road was the record and the tires were the Victrola. No, I'm not that old but I'll let the kids guess about that one. But it is not the new improved pavement on Grandview that prompted me to write this. To explain would take a thousand words. So, dig the Sunday paper out of wherever you have it and look at the front page of the Waukesha section W. On it you will see an ART.

First I want to acknowledge an oversight of mine in commenting on the Parks Department survey. It did contain a reference to dog park within it. So make that three items that had something to do with dogs. Speaking of which, Kanook and I did a few laps around the City's dog run on MacArthur Drive today. The trail of freshly laid wood chips was covered with multicolored leaves. Given the wet weather recently, I made it around the trail without so much as mudding up my shoes. Even if you don't have a dog to walk, it is a pleasant walk in the woods. Just remember that it is for dogs and dogs running free at that.

I have to add my two cents about the failure of the proposal for a round-about on Summit Ave. I hope the neighbors in the immediate area realize that they might have perpetual annoyance of flashing lights in the evenings. I drive through the round-about in Okauchee from time to time on the way to and from my son's pet store out there. I wish those opposing the one here would have checked that one out before fearing change. Speaking of lights, some night drive south on Hwy T/Grandview Ave from north of Interstate 94. The blending of traffic lights, the red airport clearance lights and store lights further up the road all blend together into a confusing mess.

Finally, I am amazed at all the press being given to pit bulls attacking the unfortunate little Vizsla puppy. I can understand the puppy's owner wanting the dogs to go away, but a ban on the entire breed? Putting on my dog park president's hat, I can say that one of Kanooks favorite playmates is a pit bull and she is very well behaved. On the other hand, some of the most poorly behaved dogs at the park are Labradors, which happen to be the most popular breed around. It's how the puppy is raise and socialized, which is where dog parks become a very important community asset. Did I ever mention that Dane county has NINE money making dog parks? We can't get the county supervisors or city aldermen to catch up with the surrounding counties but the city seems quickly ready to consider some new laws base on emotion rather than reason. I hope reason wins out quickly. Again it is a case where existing laws are adequate so long as they are enforced!

If you were not a recipient of the Waukesha Parks, Forestry and Recreation Department's survey, you can take it on the city's website HERE. I won't try to influence your answers, but being president of the Waukesha Dog Parks Organization and having participated in scoping out some potential dog park sites, I am disappointed to see no mention of them, the closest being two questions. One asking if you support dogs on leashes in certain parks and another if you own a dog.

The questions seem to be leading in that they essentially ask you what level of entertainment the city should provide. I didn't know municipal government was supposed to entertain. While I did avail myself to City of Milwaukee chess events when I was a youngster living on 22nd and Burleigh, parks were there to give us some place to enjoy a bit of the country when our yards were mere postage stamp sized, often with a "cottage" where the back yard was supposed to be.

So, no matter how you feel about parks or how the survey is worded, It is a chance to speak your mind on how your tax dollars are spent. Do it!

I won't recap what you already know. If you missed it, Sunday's Journal Sentinel Crossroads section has lots of good articles on the city's water problem. One statistic that I find interesting is that we have dropped our water use by 20% while the population increased by 17%. It is interesting that time period is when everyone started walking around with bottled water in their hand.

Looking at those bottles, the water comes from places around the country and sometimes the world. We are lucky that we don't have to return the bottles for a deposit. Use your imagination about that! But that is what a requirement is if we have any chance of getting Lake Michigan water to solve both our radium issue and declining aquifer issue.

I appreciate what Mayor Nelson is doing to get us that Lake Michigan water. However, as the Great Lakes Compact is written, It appears that it won't happen anytime soon. With that in mind, I have to look at that 17% raise in population. It isn't all larger households. What could that 20% reduction in water use have been without the new houses? At what point will water use begin to raise again. It is said our aquifer can never replenish itself at the rate we are using water. Let's hope those bottled water companies never require a deposit!

In days gone by, I graduated from High School and in the summer between my jobs at two airports, I visited the watering holes in Ixonia. The drive up highway 135 was thrilling. Highway 135 you ask? Oh, that's now county trunk F. Which leads me to today's encounter with road renaming.

At work I received a call from a customer of mine in Green Bay. He had a worker in Pewaukee that needed some material. He said he was looking on the computer at Mapquest and asked if he drives down Redford Road to get to the shop. I said that I think there are only two small street signs identifying Redford Road and twice that many people that call it that. I went on to point out that if the driver has an older map in his truck, it might show Redford as Hwy 164, but the signs, other than Redford, will call it either Hwy 74 or Hwy F, depending where you intersect that ribbon of concrete. If you turn the wrong way, it might be named North Street or maybe St. Paul Avenue if you do a U turn. But if you want to get back home, don't go on 164. Take Highway J. It'll get you to 164 quicker than staying on 164. But J might be 164. You got that?

Someone got paid good money to rename these roads.

Kanook and I had been passing on visits to the Dog Run lately due to the muddy conditions there. However, as promised by Ron Grall of the Waukesha Parks Department, fresh wood chips have been laid on the ENTIRE trail. Thank you Ron, for getting this important maintenance item done.

But as Paul Harvey says, here's the REST of the story.

As I understand it, there is a group of students at Carroll College that belong to a group that are called "Up With People". They get course credit by doing community service and this was one of those projects. I did not know that this was being done otherwise I would have made an outing of it and seen that some refreshments, cheer-leading and some help with the shovels was provided. Instead, they quietly went about their service and got the job done.

I get a warm and fuzzy feeling thinking about these people! A huge THANK YOU on behalf of dog owners in Waukesha that use this secret off-leash dog exercise area. For information and directions to this trail, click here.