The Forum

The Village of Shorewood Police & Fire Committee agreed to place the Video Gambling issue before the Village Board again at a future board meeting.  For those of you unfamiliar with the issue's history in Shorewood, it is a fairly complex, multi-faceted issue which boils down to a simple conflict.  The Legion Post wants video gambling machines, which are currently illegal.  The Village Board has so far refused to repeal the ordinance which forbids the machines.

The American Legion Post wants to have video gambling machines at their facility on Wilson Drive, to enhance revenues, and bring back old clientele.  They had the machines previously, as did the Shorewood Inn, and the Village Pub, before it changed owners.  The machines are illegal under Shorewood ordinance, which the Legion Post wants changed.

The State of Wisconsin technically prohibits the machines.  However, the State will not enforce their own laws concerning the machines unless a particular establishment either has 6 or more machines, or does not pay taxes on the income received from the machines.  Not only will the State not enforce their own laws, but Wi State statutes prohibit any municipality from enforcing state law relating to these machines. 

I do not want to dive too deep into this issue, so please refer to this 2003 document from the Legislative Reference Bureau for full information.

The Village Board passed the 2008 budget at this evening's meeting.  The actual difference you will see on your tax bills should not be that great (2% to 3%), unless your reassessment was signficantly out of line with the rest of the Village. 

If you would like to know whether an item of interest to you is included in this year's budget, or in future years' budgets, refer to this quick summary.

Additional documents on the 2008 budget will be forthcoming soon.

I have written privately about my experiences since the war.  In honor of Veterans Day, I offer a few excerpts from my thoughts.

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We flew home commercial from Kuwait City to New Jersey.  The bands played, the wives and parents cried, and the kids held balloons.  We picked at cupcakes, pretzels, and soda, at once jubilant and wary.  Staff Sergeant Eaton’s official picture stood at attention in the corner, and a nearby soldier held his 3 year old in a sundress with a ribbon in her hair, and tried to tell her who the man had been. 

We stood at attention in sand colored uniforms, saluting the flag, and listening to speech after self-important speech before we could hug our families.  Our battalion commander had the unfitting last word.  A man who neither earned nor received the slightest modicum of respect, he meandered through his halting speech, and stopped.  Our families stood by, ready to welcome us home, and overcome the year of tormented absence in an avalanche of home cooked apple pie. 

Finally, our formation broke, and was flooded by a sea of family members and tears.  Children came, uncertain of where their mom or dad had been, and Infants found their way in to the arms of their fathers for the first time. 

The soldiers smiled and said uncomfortable goodbyes.  A hug is fit for the end of a year spent with college roommates, or a going away party for a casual friend.  No action can fit the goodbye between soldiers that comes at the end of a year at war.  So with no alternative, we shook hands, backslapped, hugged, and walked away.  Soldiers stay tethered to one another and the ground during war only by the strength of the bond between them.  After we said goodbye, we stayed tethered briefly by the recollection of the bond, and then we floated away on our own.

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Being an Iraq veteran is a lonely existence.  After WWII, a large percentage of all adult males were veterans, and nearly every US citizen had participated somehow, whether on the battlefield or the homefront.  I myself became something of a museum piece, as the only artifact of the war that many of my friends and neighbors had ever seen.  When Shorewood put on a Memorial Day event, I was the only Shorewood veteran from Iraq they could find to attend.  I listened attentively to a Marine Captain from several towns up, and saluted the flag with veterans of past wars. 

Village Trustee Michael Phinney said today that Blair Williams, the developer of the soon to be built condos on the 4500 block of Oakland Avenue has his eye on several surrounding buildings for possible conversion to parking lots or additional condominium developments.  Condominium development on the 4400 and 4500 blocks of Oakland have been controversial, with critics of the projects questioning the aesthetic appeal of the buildings, as well as their overall fit with the surrounding neighborhoods. 

According to Trustee Phinney, the following properties are on the list of possible acquisition targets.

1. The mobile station on the corner of Oakland and Kensington.  As several residents have pointed out, this station rarely has gasoline available, and is frequently not open for business.  According to the Village Clerk, their mail is also being returned to sender, including the recent Village assessment for the State of Wisconsin weights and measures update.


2. The China Palace Restaurant building, which also includes the North Star Bistro and the Russian grocery store.  According to Trustee Phinney, the owners of China Palace own the entire building, and are asking what he called an "outrageous amount of money" for the building.  "But the building is for sale," said Phinney, "and Blair [Williams] has been talking to them for months before they officially put it on the market." 


3. An unidentified building directly across the street, which is actually located in Whitefish Bay.

Several news outlets are reporting a series of setbacks to smoking ban efforts across the state.  At the state level, a comprehensive smoking ban has stalled in Senate committee, and is unlikely to move anytime soon due to a conflicting set of priorities between the Senate Democratic leadership and the Governor's office.    

State Democrats oust Robson, pick Decker as Senate majority leader

JSOnline, STEVEN WALTERS and PATRICK MARLEY
Posted: Oct. 24, 2007

[Decker] said he did not expect to let the Senate vote on a bill banning smoking in public places until a compromise can be reached between Senate President Fred Risser (D-Madison), the bill's sponsor, and Sen. Roger Breske (D-Eland), the bill's chief opponent. The smoking ban is a priority of Doyle and Robson.

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Doyle supports statewide smoking ban

Wisconsin State Journal, 11/5/07

 

Gov. Jim Doyle said he supports a statewide smoking ban, saying it's virtually inevitable.

"It seems to me we ought to move forward (with) a complete ban," the governor said, in response to reporters' questions Wednesday. "It's happening all across the country, all over the world."

A bill that would prohibit smoking in all workplaces in Wisconsin stalled in the Senate this week after Sen. Roger Breske, D-Eland, said he did not want taverns included.  Doyle said he would not accept an exemption, but he might go along with a "reasonable phase-in" period.

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At the county level, the Board of Supervisors has sent back to committee a bill which would have banned smoking in County Government Buildings. 

Following a growing nationwide trend, Pick 'N Save has introduced reusable, cloth grocery bags.  I came across them this evening, near the checkout line at the Oakland Avenue store. 

Although such bags have long been available at stores such as Whole Foods, they are now sweeping the nation, with even retail giant Walmart getting into the act. 

Greens bag huge mainstream ally 
Galveston County Daily News
October 28, 2007

If historians ever want to identify the point when the notion, at least, of using reusable bags went from alternative to mainstream, they’ll want to look at a decision Wal-Mart made this month. That’s when nation’s largest retailer — and arguably the largest shaper of shopping trends — unveiled black bags touting the slogan: “Paper or Plastic? Neither.” The bags, which will arrive in local stores next week, will hang near checkout counters and sell for $1 each.

The reusable bag trend is picking up so much steam, that fashion designers such as Stella McCartney and Hermés are getting into the act, selling their bags for $495 and $960 a piece.

99.1 WMYX made the wildly premature switch to 24/7 Christmas music this morning.  To be honest, I love Christmas music, and listen to it frequently starting in about mid-December.  But when 99.1 starts it 2 months early, and goes solid, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, I switch to other stations.  This was a frequent topic of conversation around the office today, and the subject of a few interviews on the local news this evening.  Every single person I have heard discuss it was negative on 99.1's early switch.

The piece of this story that mystifies my is that there must be a reason they switch so early in the year.  No radio station intentionally drives down ratings.  So for every one of us that switches over to the competition for two months, there must be others out there who just can't wait to hear 16 different renditions of "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas" day and night for months on end.

Do any of you who read this blog fall into the Christmas Music Maniac segment?  If so, please help the rest of us understand.  What is it about 2 months of "Mommy Kissing Santa" that is appealing?  Why must we start "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" a month and a half before the Christmas Tree even appears?