Two Day Round Up

I’m a bit behind since I didn’t do one yesterday . . .

OLD HOUSES – RESEARCH, REGISTER AND REWARDS
Madison Trust Sets New Series of Old-House Workshops for 2010

Homeowners who are curious about the history of their homes and what “being historic” means will want to join us for a program series with preservation experts from the Madison Trust and Wisconsin Historical Society.

The Madison Trust will offer three old-house programs we call “Research, Register, and Rewards” at the Goodman Atwood Community Center at 149 Waubesa Street in Madison. Workshops are $25 for the series of three, or $10 each, payable at the door. Questions? Call 608-441-8864.

The 2010 workshop series is being sponsored by Home Savings Bank.

Old House Genealogy
7 p.m. Monday, Jan. 11
Historian Joe DeRose of the Wisconsin Historical Society will discuss the treasure hunt that is researching your historic home. The program will demonstrate the resources available for discovering the history of your home’s construction and the previous owners who passed this home onto you.

What Does “Historic” Mean?
7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 8
Wondering if your home is a part of a Madison historic district or listed in the National Register of Historic Places and what it all means? This program will explain the processes for local, state, and national designation, the meaning of designation, and dispel the common myths that discourage owners from listing their homes. Trust Executive Director Jason Tish will discuss local designation and Wisconsin’s National Register Coordinator Daina Penkiunas will explain how to be individually listed or part of a National Register Historic District.

Historic Homeowner’s Tax Credit
7 p.m. Wednesday, March 10
Jim Sewell, the Society’s senior preservation architect, will explain one of the advantages of listing in the State or National Registers of Historic Places — eligibility for a 25 percent state income tax credit for repair and rehabilitation work! Learn how to qualify for this program that helps you preserve your home and your wallet.

KRAFT SELL OSCAR MAYER?
I’m not sure why this is an article or if we’d notice if they sold it, but I thought others might want to think about if it matters.

GRANTS FOR DANE AND JEFFERSON COUNTY SMALL BUSINESSES
Community Action Coalition for South Central Wisconsin, Inc. (CAC) is offering a limited number of grants to small businesses in Dane or Jefferson County. Through the CAC Small Business Development Grant (SBDG) Program, which is funded by Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), eligible applicants can receive up to $5,000 for their business needs. This is a one-time grant, and only 10 grants will be awarded.

A fact sheet about the SBDG Program and a grant application are available on-line at www.cacscw.org. If you are interested in applying for a grant, please download these materials, complete the application, and mail it to or drop it off at the CAC office in Madison or Watertown. We will not accept e-mailed applications. [I don’t understand their resistance to email, drives me crazy!]

The application deadline is February 1, 2010. CAC will be hosting three informational workshops January 12-14 for businesses interested in applying for a grant. Applicants are encouraged, but not required, to attend one of the workshops.

If you have any questions about the SBDG Program or the grant application process, please contact Araceli Esparza, Income and Asset Development Specialist, at (608) 246-4730 ext. 201. Questions may also be directed to Kevin Brown at (608) 246-4730 ext. 202 or Greta Hansen, CAC Executive Director, at (608) 246-4730 ext. 217.

UNDERSTATEMENT AWARD
I read the article about domestic violence deaths being up and I was kind of curious how many death occur annually in Wisconsin. However, when I read the numbers, this isn’t just a modest increase. This is huge. From 36 to 59! I think, as the story mentions, this is related to the economy and the stress that puts on families as they struggle to pay rent, utilities, seek health care and so many other rising daily expenses.

PESTICIDE NOTIFICATION REGISTRY
Want to be notified when pesticides are being applied in your neighborhood. You have until Feb. 1 to sign up with the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. Forms can be obtained from:

Landscape Registry Coordinator, DATCP, P.O. Box 8911, Madison, Wis., 53708-8911 or call (608) 224-4616. Or, print the registry form from the department’s website at then enter “landscape registry” in the search box. Return your completed registry application to the above address by Feb. 1, 2010. Faxes are also accepted until Feb. 1 at (608) 224-4656.

CHEROKEE MARSH
A proposal for the City to pay $1.7M for 23 acres of Cherokee Marsh was introduced on Tuesday. Channel 15 jumped the gun when they announced “City buys” the property. And I find it odd that Schumacher waited til the council meeting to send out the press release to his neighbors:

from Northside Alder Michael Schumacher
to Announcement for the Northside
date Tue, Jan 5, 2010 at 8:04 PM
subject [northsidediscuss] Purchase of Cherokee Park 5th Addition

TOM FARLEY EXPLAINS WHY NOT ON BALLOT AND DEFENDS HIMSELF
Several interesting things in his response. For the record, I was standing in the hallway around 4:30 when Eileen Bruskewitz says “Brenda lives in Madison”. I stopped and Tom Farley is standing there with his nomination papers and needed 2 more signatures. They asked me to sign. I hesitated a moment and said, sure. Although I would have likely supported James Howard, I believe people should get on the ballot and I hadn’t signed James Howard’s nomination papers. Our signature requirements in Wisconsin are low to make it easy to get on the ballot and after talking to politicos in other states and their struggles to get on the ballot, I think that is a good policy. So, I signed. They found two more people standing there. I originally dated it 09, but fixed it thanks to Joel Plant pointing out my error. But all that, still wasn’t enough . . .

HOLD THE HANDCUFFS

Police cannot justify temporarily detaining a person with handcuffs based on the mere fact that other police officers believe the individual was involved in an earlier crime, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals held.

In State v. Pickens, 2008AP1514, the court held on Dec. 23 that the police must provide specific and articulable facts justifying such an intrusive detention for the officer’s safety or similar concerns.

THUY’S ABSENCE STILL A MYSTERY
“She called from the airport” is the only explanation provided. But that doesn’t explain why people knew about her absence Monday night. I’ve heard back from the council office, clerk’s office and Mark Clear. This is all they can tell me:

From: Fields, Debbie
Sent: Tuesday, January 05, 2010 11:47 AM
To: Bruer, Tim; Clear, Mark; Witzel-Behl, Maribeth
Cc: Gallagher, Adam; Veldran, Lisa
Subject: Absence from the 1/5/10 Council meeting

Ald. Thuy Pham-Remmele, District 20, will not be in attendance at the January 5, 2010, Common Council meeting.

Still waiting to hear from Bruer and Manaici regarding my open records request.

CAP TIMES EDITORIAL ON UNION CORNERS
I happen to agree, but that’s not what struck me about this editorial. What struck me was that it was fact filled and accurate. It seems that should be a basic criteria, but I’ve learned over the years, that the WSJ doesn’t fact check their editorials and if you complain about it, they tell you its an opinion and so they can write what they want. Facts, is that really too much to ask from newspaper editorials?

STUDYING SNOW
I don’t think they wanted to, but they agreed to have a city committee look at snow and many questions surrounding it. The alders did a GREAT job asking all the questions I would have asked and a few more. Do we have more accidents than other places?, asked Michael Schumacher. Marsha Rummel asked about the incident that showed the plow drivers coming close to residents when they plowed down the snowmen. (Schumacher said the police asked them to be removed, but then after two requests for the to show to assist, they went ahead and plowed them down without the assistance of the police, but in the future they will wait.) Bryon Eagon asked about further cooperation with the University. Shiva Bidar-Sielaff asked for more data and analysis of the trends. Chris Schmidt stepped up to serve on the committee. Good work by all. Well, except Mark Clear who sort of poo-poo’d the concerns, was defensive and wondered if people just don’t remember how bad things have been in the past . . . indicating the attitude of the group that worked on the report. And, I’ll just say it again, this is a good article on the topic of snow.

Here’s something I hope they look into. It started snowing last night, and yet they won’t START plowing the residential streets until after midnight tonight, why? This is from this mornings “snow alert”.

Crews have been out salting and plowing the main arterials and thoroughfares since the snow started falling during the overnight hours. We will continue to plow and salt the main arterials throughout the day. At 7:00 am this morning, we will add additional plow trucks to assist the trucks spreading salt in plowing off the main arterials and thoroughfares. While the salt routes are being salted and plowed, the morning and afternoon commutes are expected to be slow as the streets will still be snow covered and slippery due to the persistent snow fall.

We are expecting the temperatures to fall to below 15 degrees by midnight. At that time, salt will become ineffective and our goal is to have the main arterials in good, winter driving condition shortly after the storm ends later tonight. Salt will be ineffective all day Friday and Saturday as temperatures are expected to stay below 15 degrees during that period.

The snow is a light and fluffy snow that is expected to add up to between 4″-6″ before it ends around midnight tonight. Should the forecast hold true and we do reach the predicted accumulations, residential plowing will begin around midnight so that we can have the majority of the City plowed by Friday morning. There will be some blowing and drifting of this light snow as well later today in the outlying areas of the City as wind speeds are expected to increase during the afternoon and through the overnight hours.

COUNTY BOARD ELECTIONS
Phil Salkin from the Realtors Association throws down the gaunlet. Chamber of Commerce to endorse this year, a first for county board elections.

COMPTON IS NOT WRONG
She’s, uh . . . um . . . right to question why our costs for consultants is so often not accurately calculated up front. It’s not just the engineering department either, but they have more room to wiggle than other departments and a larger number of projects. Sometimes I wonder why we just don’t hire more staff with the expertise and stop paying so much for private contractors to do the work.

SHORT TERM DEVELOPMENT?
I don’t know what happened with the towers on Spring and Orchard at Urban Design Commission last night, but I found it really unusual that Gary Brown describes the UW position on the project in an email to commissioners and others, and has this to say:

Hi, Christopher… thank you for your correspondence on the planned student housing project with Mr. Gebhardt. The university has been in conversation with the developer over the past several months and assume you are suggesting a project on the north side of the 1200 block of Spring Street. I would note that these parcels are currently shown in the 2005 Campus Master Plan as development for a future academic building (see attached). As we have noted to Mr. Gebhardt in our prior meetings, housing development on this site would not be consistent with our long range campus plan. However, our plans to acquire and develop university facilities within this block are at minimum 15 years out into the future. The university has no immediate plans to acquire or develop these parcels and would not object to the existing housing stock being redeveloped to meet current needs.

SNIP

In summary, the university neither supports nor objects to the proposed housing development in the 1200 block of Spring Street with the understanding that this development is meant to meet short term needs for student housing and that in the long run, these parcels will be acquired by the university to support our long range future academic and research needs.

RTA 2 LEGISLATION
I got an email that says there may be more RTA legislation that would “allow communities to invest in transit using a dedicated funding source, and provide regional coordination of transit.” I’m curious to hear more . . .

EDGEWATER
Some strong words to Hammes from Cnare (a Plan Commission member) about working with City Planners.

THANK YOU
I was surprised to find out that at least one of the more popular bloggers had as many hits last year, as I did in December, and recently, those numbers just seem to be going up, up, up, setting new personal best records for me both last month and two days ago. So, thank you! The more readers, the more worth it to continue doing this!