Wag the Dog

Today's TMJ 4 blasts Franklin in last nights news for being one few places in Milwaukee County without tornado (formerly know as civil defense) sirens. Kevin Fischer in his blog posting Does Franklin need an overhaul of its warning sirens? suggest we all need to purchase a Weather Alert radio that gives an alarm when impending bad weather is coming. Funny you should mention that Kevin because that is exactly what the Franklin Public School system does and they are serious when it comes to students reacting to the tornado drills as you see in TMJ's video, featuring our own Robinwood Principal Tom Reinke.

Mick Trevey then goes on to interview a Franklin Resident - Rita Bruders:

TODAY’S TMJ4’s Mick Trevey: “Today was the big statewide tornado drill. Did you know about it?”

“No,” Franklin resident Rita Bruders said.

Mick Trevey: “Did you hear a siren?”

“No, I wasn't aware of a siren,” Bruders said.

Trevey: That's because Franklin doesn't have tornado sirens, even though the mayor and the fire chief have both urged the city council to approve them.

The next question Treavey should have asked: If there was a siren what would you do? My guess the answer would be "I don't know". 

Next the interview with the Assistant Fire Chief - Lloyd Bertram:

Mick Trevey: “Does it come down to cost?”

“I'm sure it does. Putting in sirens is a very costly endeavor, to try to find the funding to have that put in place,” Franklin Assistant Fire Chief Lloyd Bertram said.

Note: Kevin Fischer's source at city hall quotes a Franklin Taxpayer price tag of $200,000 since Wisconsin Emergency Management denied a hazard mitigation grant in 2004 that would have provided the city money for tornado sirens. The State does not think it is important enough to pony up the money for Franklin.

Trevey further points out:

The city is considering a reverse 911 system that could call people if there was a tornado warning, but for now, people have to count on weather radios for any information, if they happen to have them turned on. Franklin is one of the few places in Milwaukee County where you can't hear the sirens, but for the people that live in Franklin, that's small consolation.

OK Mick I grew up in the City of West Allis where we had a siren two blocks away. It went off at noon every Wednesday and guess what ... people ignore them.

They were angry when they went off by accident or when there was just a thunderstorm. These sirens were originally set up for Civil Defense and people have become oblivious to them. My guess if you interviewed a dozen people in the other Milwaukee County communities about the siren, many would say What siren? and What the heck is the Statewide Tornado Siren drill?

Alright, I have to ask, are you willing to pay more in taxes to get these sirens installed or are you going to go out to buy a weather radio with an alarm, just like FPS did?

Most of the Franklin Bloggers and commentators just chided the Council on the funny name the Zizzo group came up for the district, while Greg felt he needed to take it to the extreme.

Talk about WAGGING THE DOG.

Updated 4/24/2008 - 10:46PM

Greg Responded with:

My apologies to Greg as his posting looked like he was taking up 2+ hours of the Mayors time to discuss the naming of the Boomgaard District. You may remember that Greg currently is Vice Chairman of the Environmental Commission and an employee of Alderman Kristen Wilhelms Conservancy organization Milwaukee Area Land Conservancy (MALC) .

A Tip of the hat to Franklin BULLSEYE blogger Fred Keller as he sums up so perfectly the latest news about New BerlinNOW bloger Linda Richter in his Saw You in the News posting.

It seems that her current legal woes are due to Linda 's involvement through her We Care New Berlin-PAC that allegedly lied three times in the groups sponsored campaign literature, about JJ Blonien. Blonien was the opposing aldermanic candidate for New Berlins 6th District while the group supported, Bill Moore, the incumbent.

It is good to see the bad karma return to this mean spirited Blog Roll friend of one of our own FranklinNOW bloggers. This FranklinNOW blogger encouraged us all  to read Linda's inflammatory, Anti-Kevin Fisher blog just a few months ago even though she herself was featured as a personal attack blogger in a March 2008 Milwaukee Magazine article.

The NewBerlinNOW.com site features a similar war pitting blogger and ex-school board member Linda Richter against blogger Matt Thomas, current vice president of the board and a leader of its conservative majority. Talk about getting personal: Richter publicized the bankruptcy records of Thomas on her blog to undermine his claim as a champion of fiscal sobriety.

Her now infamous blogs promoted us to be calling State Senator Mary Lazych to reprimand and gag, Kevin Fischer, for accusations of name calling of other bloggers and commenter's to his FranklinNOW blog. I certainly hope we can encourage our friends that are New Berlin residents to contact the Waukesha DA and encourage him to prosecute Linda along with her group to the fullest extent of the law if he finds the allegations to be true.

Yes it looks like Actions Do Have Consequences for EVERYBODY!

Other reading on the subject:

• Matt Thomas's The Right Side of New Berlin - Breaking News: Criminal Complaint Filed Against Linda Richter, Rush Wilkens & Ray McInerney
• The Daily Scoff - The Richter Scale of Injustice

• Tonight’s City Council meeting included the swearing in of Mayor Tom Taylor, new Aldermen Kristen Wilhelm (3^rd District) , Steve Taylor (4^th District) and incumbent 6^th District alderman Ken Skowronski.
  
  During the citizen comment period after the swearing in, former 4^th Distinct alderman Pete Kosovich gave a very touching speech, summing up his past years on the council, the election and a promise in his best TERMINATOR  voice “ I’ll be back”.
  
   
• The interesting surprise of the night, was that new alderman Steve Taylor, was elected Council President.  Steve was nominated for the position by new alderman Kristen Wilhelm. Former Council President Lyle Sohns was also nominated.  Alderman Steve Olson was out of town on business but had requested the council wait until the next meeting for the Council President vote. Despite this request the nominations and the vote went ahead,  three to two in favor of Steve Taylor for Council President.
  
   I believe the two new council members that were voted in during the April 1^st election will make their mark on this council.  
  
  There was no WAGGING THE DOG at tonight's meeting or was there?

FranklinNOW editor Mark Maley has come through as promised with the Honor Rolls for the City of Franklin. This feature should be updated on a regular basis according to Mark.  I am a firm believer that academic excellence should be featured in the community just as we praise our students for their athletic and extracurricular achievements. After all, isn't this the key reason we are willing to pay the taxes we do, for the kids.

Or am I just WAGGING THE DOG here?

The Franklin insurance executive of National Insurance Co. and his wife have given $1 million to the YMCA proposed for Franklin, claiming the naming rights to the new complex located just north of the Northwestern Mutual Networks Franklin campus.

As you may remember, Northwestern donated the 4.3 million dollar, 18 acre, piece of land the complex will be built on.

With these donations plus 1.4 to 2 million in additional fund raising, the YMCA is looking to open its doors in Franklin in the spring of 2009.

The 45,000-square-foot Franklin center being marketed as a "Healthy Lifestyle Village," in collaboration with Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare is expected to include an indoor track, multi-lane swimming pool, group exercise studios and a child care center. A medical clinic and physician’s offices will be built by the Wheaton’s adjacent to the YMCA.

Third - Congratulations to former FranklinNOW (now solo flying with BULLSEYE) blogger Fred Keller with his effort to get Franklin elected officials to sign a pledge to keep tax increases to under 3%. He has taken some criticism from other bloggers as to the impossibility of this pledge. Yet he is getting members of the Franklin Common Council to sit down and discuss how they might be able to back a tax cutting pledge.

Despite the half empty glass, views of some FranklinNOW bloggers, this positive action by Fred shows that there are Franklin Taxpayers who are willing to go one step further than just talking about how things should be.  As Steve Taylor - unconfirmed (but soon to be confirmed) 4th District aldermanic candidate said at the candidates forum "Almost all the people I talked with have said we need to lower property taxes".

Well Fred is trying to make sure everyone got the message.

Just got this message that I think is important to pass along about the Franklin Sex Offender Steve Hanke and his upcoming trial.

Just a reminder that Hanke is the convicted Sex Offender that who is in violation of the city's tough ordinance restricting where sex offenders can live. Several months after the ordinance took effect Hanke purchased a home in Franklin and is now living near Forest Park Middle School.

Last November Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge John Franke ruled against the city of Franklin's lawsuit brought against sex offender Steve Hanke who, has continued to live in his Franklin home 600 feet from Forest Park.

Please read the message below.

                                                   Steve Hanke

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

On Monday April 14^th at 10:00 a.m., the case of Steve Hanke vs. the City of Franklin will be heard again at the Milwaukee County Courthouse in the courtroom of Justice Franke.

It appears that one of three decisions will be made:

1.        Dismiss the case (Hanke wins)

2.       Summary Judgment (Franklin wins)

3.       Case goes to trial (this is unlikely because there is no dispute of fact in the case)

(Thanks Alderman Olson for the above synopsis!)

Many of you have been supportive in the past by taking the time to attend the hearings in person.  If you are able, your presence in the courtroom next Monday is needed.  Not only is it important for the Judge to see that we are a unified community that wants to see our ordinance upheld, but it is also important for our neighbors in the area of 76^th and Forest Hill Avenue to see that the entire community stands with them.

This is not a single neighborhood issue!  This is case is vitally important in protecting our entire community from sex offenders and it may set an importance precedent for other communities around the state.

If you still have your  yard signs in support of Ordinance 167, please be sure they are out!  I’m sure your yards are empty now with all the election signs gone.  A bit of decoration in support of our neighbors and Ord. 167 would be great!!!

Please, if your schedule permits, join us in the courthouse on Monday, April 14^th!

As always, Thank you!

Shari Hanneman

As I  brought up in an earlier blog about the Franklin High School honor roll not being published. I have followed up on this with the editor of FranklinNOW and keep getting promises that it will be coming. It seems that they are waiting on some software to make it easier to publish our local school's honor rolls.

The original due date was mid-March which has come and gone, as we are finishing up with the 3rd quarter of this school year.

Several folks from the private schools in Franklin along with Tanya Ruder the Communications Specialist of the Franklin Public schools have told me they are ready to work with FranklinNOW editors to get this information published on the NOW website.

My question is. Will we be asking this same question next year?

If so, FranklinNOW, don't encourage the schools to send their honor roll lists, just remove it from your website

For Mayor, Tom Taylor easily swept challenger Basil Ryan with Taylor taking 67% of the vote to Ryan’s 33%. I don’t think there were any surprises here.

In the District 3 Aldermanic election Kristen Wilhelm squeaked out a win with 608 votes to  Al Hammelman’s  602 votes. Do the math, that is an obvious 6 votes and not much of a mandate but …...

Last but not least, Greg Kowalski said that Pete Kosovich had given up running for his Districts 4 Aldermanic seat. With a 50/50 % vote. Challenger Steve Taylor received 741 votes to Pete’s 730 votes. Not bad for someone who supposedly gave up!