Monthly Archives: July 2008

Not enough from New Berlin

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$1.5 million and an annual talkfest is not worth it.

New Berlin wants to buy more Milwaukee water and send it further west into the suburb. In exchange, New Berlin will pay for the water, kick in an extra $1.5 million and agree to meet with Milwaukee representatives once a year to talk about “opportunities to improve the availability of skilled workers in both communities and to improve the access of workers in each community to job opportunities,” according to a proposed agreement between the two communities.

Jim Rowen does a nice job deconstructing the $1.5 million payment. An agreement to talk, though, is an agreement to do nothing. New Berlin needs to commit to helping fund transit between the two cities; it needs to commit to building affordable housing within its borders.

Those commitments should be made, memorialized and maybe even partially implemented before Milwaukee sends more water and sprawl over the county line. The Common Council should not go along with the deal as it stands.

Latest proposal for the old greenhouse site in Story Hill

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Here’s the latest designs developer Sheila Firari is proposing for the lots she owns with a partner on Bluemound Rd. west of N. 50th St. in Story Hill, the site of the former greenhouse. Note that the garages are on the west side of the houses and very near Mitchell Blvd. Park. Previous, similar layout proposals have been rejected by neighborhood residents. Click on the pictures to see larger versions.

The plans received a lukewarm reception when Firari presented them to a group of neighborhood residents according to a couple people who were there. 

Hank Aaron extension getting electeds’ attention

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State Sen. Jim Sullivan (D-Wauwatosa) and Milwaukee Ald. Michael Murphy are pushing to develop and open the the Hank Aaron trail from Miller Park through the Veteran’s Administration and west past the Zoo to Underwood Creek Parkway, where it would hook up to the with the Oak Leaf Trail. The DNR has a nice map here.

The two, along with West Allis Ald. Marty Weigel, who also is chair of the county’s Trail Council, want the trail open before major construction begins on the Zoo Interchange project, to serve as an alternative east-west route.  

The DNR owns the abandoned rail line that will one day be the Hank Aaron extension. but the $1.6 million the department has to develop the trail is rapidly becoming not enough to complete the project because the price of asphalt needed to pave the trail is soaring. In addition, there are six overpasses that will be reconstructed during the Zoo Interchange project that hang directly above the trail. The trail likely would be extensively damaged during the Zoo Interchange project if it is paved before hand.

Yet, as the electeds point out, there is no reason the trail could not be “paved” with crushed limestone in that Zoo Interchange area. Folks may have to detour for a while, but most of the trail would be nicely paved, and all of it would be ride-able for much of the Zoo Interchange reconstruction period.

Sullivan, Weigel, Milwaukee bike / ped guy Dave Schlabowske, Hank Aaron Trail Manager Melissa Cook, Wauwatosa Mayor Jill Didier and others (Murphy had another commitment and was unavailable) met Friday at the Hawley Rd. entrance to the trail to discuss its development. There are some challenges, to be sure, as a tour on Sunday showed. The bridges need work — one of them is just downright scary — and there is a lot of loose rock in some small areas. Most of the vegetation growing along the trail is just different variety of invasive species and should be removed. Still, even in its unpaved, overgrown state, the trail (not officially open, so stay off it, ya hear?) is a level shot from the VA to west of Highway 100. People will use it, both for recreation and transporation.  

 

State Sen. Jim Sullivan and West Allis Ald. and County Trail Council Chair Marty Weigel discussing the future of the Hank Aaron Trail.

Confusion on the Water front

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Did the Water Works get its math right? It doesn’t look like it, but maybe I’m missing something.

Here is sentence and table from the Water Works feasibility report regarding selling more water to a larger piece of New Berlin.

Based on an average day demand of 3.5 MGD, estimated annual revenues to Milwaukee Water Works for the combined existing and proposed service area are summarized in the following table:

The report also says that the commodity charge is the result of 3.5 MGD multiplied by 365 days per year multiplied by the wholesale rate of $0.668 per 1,000 gallons.

I did the math and came up with water sales of $853,370. The Water Works table, though, shows a total of $895,854 for the water sold to the eastern third of New Berlin sold in 2008 and the amount projected for the middle third’s first full year. Why the $42,484 difference? It’s not explained.

Later in the report, Water Works also cites the $853,370 figure, but says that the entire amount will be realized only through sales to the middle-third section of New Berlin. That amount actually is what is expected from the entire New Berlin sales area.

From the report:

This method assumes that the anticipated additional revenue from water sold in the “middle third” of New Berlin would have reduced the 2007 rate increase by a proportionate amount. The revenue requirement identified by the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin for the Water Works’ 2007 rate case was $4.0 million. This method assumes that the additional estimated revenue of $855,370 from the “middle third” of New Berlin would have reduced the revenue requirement by 21% to $3.1 million. The calculation assumes that the 6% rate increase that satisfied the $4.0 million revenue requirement would have been reduced to 4.7%, saving the average residential customer $1.60 per year.

The daily average demaind for the entire New Berlin area proposed to receive Milwaukee water would be 3.6 million gallons to 3.9 million gallons. The Water Works uses 3.5 million gallons per day in its calculations, presumably to be conservative in its revenue estimates. By attributing all the revenue to the middle third area, Water Works could be overstating by 100% the economic benefit of the expansion to Milwaukee water customers. Instead of $1.60 annually for each residential account (no big whoop to begin with), the benefit of the expansion could be as little as 80 cents. 

Unless, of course, I’m totally missing something.

More water sales to New Berlin on tap

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New Berlin would pay Milwaukee $1.5 million for the right to buy Lake Michigan water and a much larger portion of New Berlin would get Milwaukee water than does now, under agreements to be considered by the Milwaukee Common Council.

About one-third of the suburb now receives Milwaukee water, and the proposed deal would add the middle third of New Berlin to the Water Works’ customer base. Click here and go to page 10 to see a map of the expanded service area.

“This area is outside the Great Lakes Basin but is within the MMSD service area; water is returned to Lake Michigan,” according to a Water Works feasibility study of the proposal.

The deal will provide economic benefits to Milwaukee water customers of an estimated $1.60 to $4.50 per residential account per year, the study said.

“Future water rate increases would proportionately increase the amount of the benefit,” the study said.

The maximum amount flowing to the suburb would increase from 4.8 million gallons per day to 6.3 million gallons per day. The proposed agreement also sets hefty charges of $10,000 to $30,000 per hour for excessive demand by New Berlin.

“This is intended to be an incentive to New Berlin to use various storage and well pumping combinations as well as emphasize their conservation efforts,” the Water Works study said.

The $1.5 million New Berlin payment to Milwaukee would go to the city’s general fund and would be in addition to regular water rates that go to the water utility, according to a resolution introduced by Aldermen Michael Murphy and Jim Bohl.

Under a proposed agreement between the two communities — a sort of side agreement to the actual water sales proposal — representatives from Milwaukee and New Berlin will meet once a year to talk about “opportunities to improve the availability of skilled workers in both communities and to improve the access of workers in each community to job opportunities.”

The two communities also promise not to “promote, encourage, offer economic incentives to, or otherwise solicit businesses to relocate from the City of Milwaukee to the City of New Berlin, or the City of New Berlin to the City of Milwaukee.”

Both the water sales agreement and the $1.5 million payment are scheduled to be considered by the Common Council’s Public Works Committee on July 29.