Repairs to the western stadium ring road are underway should be open very soon, according to Stadium District Executive Director Mike Duckett.
The road was closed two weeks ago when a broken water main on the grounds of the neighboring Veterans Administration property froze into slush and ice on the road, making it dangerous, Duckett said. The decision to close the road was made by the Milwaukee Brewers, he said Monday.
Duckett said the break was discovered and reported to the VA in September and that he was disappointed the federal agency did not respond more quickly.
The Brewers will clean the road once the repairs are complete, Duckett said. At that point, Story Hillers will once again be able to use the ring road to get to critical, life-supporting destinations such as Target. An exact date for repair and cleanup completion was not available at press time.
Not because it is brilliant, but because it is such obvious bull.
Brewers catcher Gregg Zaun, on why his charity-oriented web site is so out of date:
“I kept changing teams so much and it costs like $1,000 just to change the colors on the site.”
Oh, really?
It looks like the Milwaukee Brewers are sticking shuttle operators for costs related to having traffic cops at W. Bluemound Rd. and N. Story Pkwy. on game days.
The shuttles, though, have nothing to do with the traffic problems there on game days.
Traffic control there has been sporadic since the Police Department took over stadium duties from the Sheriff’s Department a few years ago. On some game days, when there is no traffic cop there, cars are jammed bumper to bumper for a half-mile at least in each direction on Bluemound and are jammed on Story as well. (There are, on occasion, traffic cops working the intersection on game days and, on occasion, there are traffic cops sitting on their motorcycles at the intersection observing traffic jams).
The big traffic jams are a pain. They prevent residents from getting into or out of the neighborhood and, for drivers caught in them, they certainly add to road rage. If there is an emergency in the neigbhorhood, too bad so sad. Ambulance or fire trucks aren’t getting through.
The lack of traffic control, Ald. Michael Murphy has said, stems from a dispute over who should pay for the traffic cops — the city or the Brewers.
And now, the Brewers are foisting on shuttle operators both costs of staffing both the intersection with cops and shuttle drop-off points with other personnel, according to the Journal Sentinel:
Brewers’ spokesman Tyler Barnes said the $300 fee was imposed because of safety concerns related to the intersection of W. Blue Mound Road and N. Story Parkway and the drop-off point near the home plate area. Those concerns include pedestrian traffic and shuttle activity.
“The best solution in our eyes was to staff the intersection with Milwaukee police officers, as well as add staffing to the drop-off locations,” Barnes said. “The fee will help, but not completely cover the expenses related to staffing.”
The shuttles, though, are not and never were the issue at Story and Bluemound. Look at the pictures here and here. See any shuttles or shuttle-related problems?
Smooth move, Brewers, the way you shifted the cost to businesses that have absolutely nothing to do with the problem. If you could make trades that slick, the team would be World Series champs.
The Milwaukee Brewers and Milwaukee Police Department should resolve their differences over who should pay for traffic cops at intersections near Miller Park on game days and make sure those traffic cops are posted, Ald. Michael Murphy said.
“I’ve received complaints on the ad hoc placement of officers,” he told the Common Council this week.
Traffic near the stadium has become a bigger issue since the Brewers started winning regularly and drawing large crowds. Brewers-generated traffic jams made it extremely difficult to enter or leave the Story Hill neighborhood last year on some big game days because there were no traffic officers assigned to intersections such as W. Bluemound and N. Hawley Roads or Bluemound and N. Story Parkway.
The Brewers pay for the city to provide security at Miller Park and the council this week approved a $1.5 million agreement for the upcoming season. There apparently is disagreement, though, between the Brewers and the Police Department about who should pay for traffic officers working on city streets outside of Miller Park, Murphy said.
“The two of them need to get that resolved in the coming season because there is a traffic safety issue,” Murphy said.