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Grab Bag: Trustee Meeting, Chronic Nuisance, Manikowski Sentence, State Aid, etc.

Posted by on July 9, 2009

Silver Spring, Police, Crime, Trustees, Whitefish Bay Civic Foundation, Streetscaping

I wasn't able to attend the Trustee meeting on 7/6, so here's a vague summary of the highlights:

* We are working on an arrangement with MMSD to re-engineer the Fairmount road/sewer project. The long and short of it is, they believe some changes to the sewer will help backup problems, and will pay about $1m of the cost. In return, the Village will take ownership of the sewer. The unfortunate part of this, is that the project which was scheduled to kick off this summer, probably won't be completed in 2009.

* 6 Villagers were appointed to the Environmental Commission. Apparently, I was also appointed as the Trustee representative on for the commission, which I found out via the NOW of all places.

* A "Chronic Nuisance Ordinance" was passed. This is aimed squarely at the "drug house" issues whereby residents have repeatedly called police to report probably drug activity, yet the police had been unable to catch the dealers in action.

Speaking of Chronic Nusiance .. many Villagers may be totally unaware of the "original" bad guy in WFB.

Tim Manikowski, who lived at 4965 Berkeley, lived a block away from the more famous Matthew Laughrin, but had similar stories.

In both cases, neighbors called police repeatedly for suspicious drug activity.

In both cases, the police were unable to stop the drug sales.

In Laughrin's case, he supplied drugs to a 15 year old WFB girl who overdosed. He's in jail now with a pending case.

Manikowski supplied drugs to an adult Wauwatosa woman who overdosed. This week he was sentenced to 7 years in prison for 1st Reckless Homicide.

It really is amazing the similarities between the two cases, although I think if you asked 100 Villagers who Manikowski is, they'd have no idea. It does remind you how a cute 15 year old girl overdosing makes the news, while a 24 year old 'Tosa woman does not.

So .. here's hoping that the "Chronic Nuisance Ordinance" will help get these guys out of our communities before they deliver their final dose.
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Anyone notice that WFB will be losing $1.27 million in State Aid funding for our school district? Ouch. That's gonna do wonders for our property taxes.

Last year, the school district's budget was about $30.3m, which is going up to $30.5m. The State picked up $11.1m of that. Next year, the State will pick up only $9.7m, meaning the local property tax levy will go from $19.1m to $20.9m. (Working from this report.)

If my math is correct, my guess is that the average WFB property tax bill will go up about $350, directly due to the recent budget the State of Wisconsin just passed.

Thanks, Madison.

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A number of Villagers commented about the "rusty" new grates surrounding the trees on Silver Spring. I asked the Village Engineer, and his response was that the grates will eventually "oxidize" and look like a manhole casting, which I assume is a brownish/black color.

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I was pleased to hear that a handful of Villagers opened up their checkbooks for the WFB Civic Foundation, as I received a few email pledges.

As a reminder, if you had a great time during the parade or Klode park festivities, please consider writing out a check for the CF. Click here for details.