A homeowner in Waukesha for 20 years, Steve is president of the Waukesha Dog Parks Organization and enjoys motorcycling, fishing and staying on top of politics.
You will read it from better writers than I that the city council passed the measure to donate $5,000 from the park development fund to the county to create the Minooka Dog Park. The next step is for New Berlin to perform the same steps as Waukesha has done the past two month. That is, their Parks Committee must consider to recommend the $5,000 contribution and if so, then the city council will vote upon it.
The discussion was certainly facinating. You see, Aldermen Johnson and Waldenberger are both on the Parks, Forestry and Recreation committee. Of the committee, Alderman Waldenberger was the sole vote against it. Alderman Johnson was absent this evening so Waldenberger present the board's recommendation. He immediately moved to add an amendment to the measure that would pay back the $5,000 to the city from the permit fees for the dog park. This in effect would have made the $5,000 a loan rather than a contribution. Fortunately after discussion the amendment was voted down.
After further discussion on the motion of the initial Parks committee recomendation, it was a roll call vote. That means there is likely opposition and a voice vote would not be accurate. In the end, the measure passed with two votes against it, as I recall. The arguements against were "the county has enough of it's own money to do this. Why should we spend money on it?" and "Let's save the money for when we build our own dog parks." I can understand their arguements, but I disagree with it and fortunately so did the majority of aldermen and alderwomen. A special thank you to Alderwomen Cummings.
