This is a bit late, I got into a gardening project or two last week and abandoned all thoughts of blogging, but it was half done, so I finished it! Here’s the round up of last week’s news in case you had your own gardening project or other distraction and didn’t pay attention!
City
Wisconsin State Journal – City looking to mix of new rules to better clear streets, expand parking. “The area usually exempt from Madison’s unpopular alternate-side parking ordinance would expand and new rules aimed at making snow and debris removal more efficient would go into effect under a multifaceted proposal from the city’s Streets Division.” I blogged about it here nearly a month ago.
Channel300.com – Developer ditches $11M Madison housing project for homeless “The city says it’s holding off on pursuing Housing First projects to re-examine how to best provide the units. The projects focus on housing the chronically homeless and offering mental health, substance abuse and other services.”
Wisconsin State Journal – Madison offers peek at Public Market – “The 66-year-old building with sweeping interior open spaces and 20-foot ceilings, huge bay doors, and expansive rows of windows is poised for new life.”
Wisconsin State Journal – High-rise glass office tower approved for Madison’s Near East Side.“An 11-story mixed-use tower — unique from other Madison developments in that it will be dominated by glass — is coming to the Near East Side. With plans to complete the project by late November or early December of 2020, the building will have office space, a green roof with trees and grass, a parking structure and commercial space on the first floor. Developer Curt Brink said the commercial space could become a restaurant or bank.”
Cap Times – Madison Plan Commission approves outdoor space at east side Dexter’s Pub “At the Madison Plan Commission’s Monday meeting, some neighbors expressed excitement and support for the outdoor space, while others were opposed to the potential noise from the patio at the neighborhood hot spot famous for its Friday fish fry and craft beer selection.”
Wisconsin State Journal – Madison golf courses post record loss, renewing talk of closures. “After struggling for years and hit by an especially wet season, Madison’s public golf courses lost a record $863,320 in 2018, leaving the future of city golf operations uncertain with long-term closure of all four courses on the table, city officials said Tuesday.”
Cap Times – Record loss for Madison golf courses prompt Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway to create task force““Everything needs to be on the table,” Rhodes-Conway said, including closures. “These are significant pieces of land in the city’s parks portfolio and what is the highest and best use for them. I think that’s really the question.””
Wisconsin State Journal – Buckeye Road rebuild to start in mid-June, officials say. “The Madison Engineering Division said contractor Capitol Underground submitted the low bid of $6.26 million for the project, which stretches from Monona Drive east to South Stoughton Road. The work is expected to be completed by the end of November.”
Wisconsin State Journal – Preview of Madison Public Market offers taste of what’s to come in 2021. “Over the course of a two-hour open house at what is now the city’s Fleet Services building at 200 N. First St., the large room with 20-foot ceilings was almost always full. More than 1,000 people attended the event, according to Madison Public Market Foundation estimates.”
Channel3000.com Metro decides not to move bus pad dug into woman’s yard without her knowledge “On Wednesday Johnson found out through a phone call the city decided to keep the bus pad where it is, though it would be downsized to a 7-foot-by-20-foot pad. “After reviewing this with the Mayor’s office, City Engineering, City Transportation, and Monica’s alder, it has been decided that the safest place for a wheelchair pad and crosswalk is in this new location, in the right of way, in front of Monica’s house,” wrote Mick Rusch, a spokesman for Madison Metro Transit, in an email to News 3 Now.”
Channel3000.com City employee asked not to wear MAGA hat to work; says other can wear Medicare for All pins “Felix Caraballo, a street sweeper for the City of Madison, said he started wearing his hat a couple of months ago, but only recently did it become a problem.”
Wisconsin State Journal Shots fired calls down 44% in Madison, robberies slightly up ” PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD – PUT THE SHOTS FIRED IN CONTEXT OF MORE THAN A FEW MONTHS OF ONE YEAR!!!! I detest data games. “Calls for shots fired were down 44.6% this year, with 36 calls through April compared to 65 calls during the same time frame in 2018 . . . Robberies in Madison saw a slight increase in the first four months of 2019 compared to the five-year average, with 75 robberies reported this year vs. an average of 70, a 7% increase.”
County
Channel3000.com Dane County pilots $750K farm runoff program “Dane County plans to spend $750,000 this year in a pilot program that pays farmers to plant cover crops in an effort to curb runoff from heavy rains and snowmelt….Farmers participating in the trial program will have to set aside at least half an acre of land for 15 years. They’ll receive funding based on several factors, including number of acres and vegetation costs.”
Wisconsin State Journal Editorial: Build Tower behind the Dane County Jail“The price tag of $148 million is disappointing. That cost is almost twice as much as the $76 million plan approved two years ago. Back then, the idea was to add four stories to the main jail to consolidate and improve its functions. But county officials subsequently learned that adding stories to the existing jail, built in 1994, would make it structurally unsound.”
Cap Times – Dane County committees favor building $148 million jail tower on downtown Madison site“Following unanimous votes from two Dane County committees Tuesday, a $148 million plan to build a tower next to the downtown Public Safety Building is the favored path forward for the jail renovation project.”
Wisconsin State Journal – Field Narrows from 3 to 2 candidates in Race for Dane County Board District 17“Former Madison Ald. David Ahrens and Kristen Audet, a regulatory and compliance specialist at UW Organ and Tissue Donation, beat out Amanda McKaig by wide margins. Ahrens carried 51.1% of the vote, Audet received 40.6% and McKaig got 8.3%. The special election in which voters will choose between Ahrens and Audet will be held on June 4. Dane County residents also will vote on two other open seats on the 37-member board.”
Channel3000.com A Tale of two cities: Lanes of Raymond Road in Fitchburg not to be fixed until 2020. “People living along Raymond Road near the Verona Road intersection will have to wait until 2020 to see the eastbound lanes of the road repaired from this winter, while westbound lanes have already been fixed. Westbound lanes are managed by the city of Madison, and eastbound lanes are managed by both Madison and Fitchburg.”
Waunakee Tribune – Residents push for North Mendota Parkway instead “As area residents attended last week’s public information meeting on Dane County’s preliminary Hwy. M design study, many said they would prefer a North Mendota Parkway pursued as an alternate route for commuters.”
Waunakee Tribune – County grant helps conservation purchase in Westport “The Dane County Board approved a resolution awarding a matching grant for the purchase of approximately 84 acres in the Town of Westport, just west of Waunakee.”
Schools
Journal Times editorial: State’s government bodies shouldn’t circumvent the open meetings law “Wisconsin’s open meetings law exists to ensure that government business, the people’s business, is conducted where the people can watch it happening. The exceptions to it, the instances where a governmental body can act in closed session, are generally limited to contract negotiations and personnel matters. That is as it should be.
As fierce advocates for the concept of “government in sunshine,” we were dismayed recently to read of the Madison School Board tiptoeing awfully close to the line between lawful and unlawful government meetings.”
Wisconsin State Journal – Madison charter One City Schools looks to be “a model for what all schools could learn from”“One City officials admit there will be challenges to the expansion, particularly around financing, and critics of the method Republicans created to make charter schools independent of a school district continue to raise concerns about accountability and the impact on funding to traditional public schools.”
Cap Times Editorial: School Board must take the lead on school safety “Members of the Madison School Board moved to the forefront last week in the urgent discussion of school safety. This is a welcome, and necessary, intervention because the response from the school district’s top administrators to allegations of rape and sexual assault in the district’s high schools has been at best insufficient and at worst deeply troublesome.”
Channel3000.com MMSD: Superintendent Jennifer Cheatham plans to leave position, head to Harvard “Madison Metropolitan School District Superintendent Jennifer Cheatham will resign Wednesday, according to a release by the district.
A press conference will be held at 11 a.m. on Wednesday at the Mendota Elementary School. ”
Channel3000.com – Just two weeks ago, Cheatham was talking about her future with MMSD. What changed?“But in an interview with our Neil Heinen on “For The Record” just two weeks ago, she was talking about her future with the district, saying she was looking forward to working for the new, all-female school board.”
Cap Times – Source: Madison School District eyes Nancy Hanks to serve as interim superintendent following Cheatham resignation “Madison Metropolitan School District Superintendent Jennifer Cheatham will leave her post just before the start of the 2019-20 school year, capping six years at the helm of the state’s largest school district. A source said the Madison School Board, in a closed session Monday, authorized MMSD’s attorney to enter into negotiations with chief of elementary schools Nancy Hanks to take over as interim superintendent.”
Channel3000.com – MMSD Superintendent Cheatham sends letter to families about decision to leave district“Cheatham highlighted some of the changes to the district in the past six years in the letter and talked about the new agenda set by the district this past fall.”
Isthmus – Jennifer Cheatham resigns:Madison superintendent says district challenges are “absolutely not the reason why I’m leaving” “In March, Jennifer Cheatham confessed that it had been a “trying” school year for her as the Madison school district’s superintendent. There had been several high-profile incidents involving student safety and teacher resignations as well as growing racial tension. For two years, school board meetings have been dominated by a push from Freedom Inc. to remove Madison police officers from four of the district’s high schools. On May 8, Cheatham reiterated that there “have certainly been some challenges this year. There are in every school year.” Nevertheless, she insisted at a news conference where she formally announced her resignation that the challenges are “absolutely not the reason why I am leaving.””
Cap Times – Cheatham steps down as Madison superintendent, board and staff vow to continue equity work “As Madison Metropolitan School District Superintendent Jennifer Cheatham announced Wednesday that she will be leaving her job, community members thanked her for her service, again and again pointing to her work to lift up students of color. That work, Cheatham and others speaking at a press conference said, will not stop when Cheatham leaves her post at the end of August, ending six years as the head of the second largest district in the state.”
Cap Times – Explained: How will the Madison School District find its next superintendent? “The process a district goes through to find a new superintendent varies tremendously across individual school districts, according to former MMSD Superintendent Art Rainwater. In some rural districts, a board can conduct the search itself by soliciting applications or receive help from the Wisconsin Association of School Boards. In urban districts like Madison, however, it’s much more common for boards to hire a consulting firm to conduct the search.”
Wisconsin State Journal – Madison School District could ask for $280M in potential referendum focused on high schools “Improvements and repairs at Madison’s high schools in a potential 2020 referendum could be the first in a series of asks for taxpayers to upgrade the Madison School District’s 50 school buildings.”
