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.

Brewers catcher Gregg Zaun, on why his charity-oriented web site is so out of date: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?

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.

“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.

But man, if the Department of Public Works could deliver worse customer service to the people who live here, I’d like to know how.

There generally is no parking in the neighborhood for one hour before stadium events to one hour after stadium events. In June, when Harley representatives and Ald. Michael Murphy talked about the birthday party’s impact on the neighborhood during a Story Hill Neighborhood Association meeting, they assured us the H.O.G. event Thursday and the Harley parade Saturday would be treated as stadium events.

Oops. Never mind. On Thursday, the Story Hill Neighborhood Association delivered a flyer for the neighborhood picnic on Sept. 13. On the reverse side was the news that DPW decided not to enforce the parking restrictions on Thursday — the day the flyer was delivered — and on Saturday. I don’t know if everyone in the neighborhood got that flyer.  SHNA is a volunteer organization and the delivery system is not fail-safe.

Why on earth is it left to a neighborhood organization to let us know what DPW is up to? Why didn’t DPW tell us what was going on well in advance of the events? It could have changed a lot of plans for a lot of neighborhood residents.

There also is the matter of DPW just unilaterally deciding not to enforce an ordinance. Who at DPW decides that? Whom do I call at DPW when I want the ordinance to be waived? The precedent is disturbing. If DPW waives the parking rules for Harley-Davidson, can it treat the Milwaukee Brewers any differently if the Brewers have a huge play-off series and fans are arriving from all over and out-of-state? Can DPW legitimately turn anyone down who requests a waiver? Maybe there are criteria for deciding when or when not to enforce parking restrictions, but like the waiver itself, DPW hasn’t shared them with us.

Cars jammed into Story Hill Thursday afternoon. Photos by Paul Trotter.

Traffic cops, severely lacking earlier in the season, worked at N. Story Pkwy. and W. Bluemound Rd. during the big Cubs series. There were still long lines of cars waiting to get into Miller Park, but they kept moving.  That was not the case earlier in the season.

It’s always wet here on the sidewalk and road near Miller Park, near Story Pkwy. and Bluemound Rd.

The water was the topic of conversation and concern at the June membership meeting of the Story HIll Neighborhood Association.

Duckett said the Milwaukee Brewers agreed to use money from the segregated reserve fund, which is jointly funded by the Stadium District and the Brewers. The water could eventually damage the road, he said.

 A similar stream along the ring road caused the road to heave upwards a few years ago, necessitating repairs.

It’s not clear yet how the fix will happen, although there is a decent chance it will involve the installation of additional drain tiles. It also could involve planting new vegetation, but the area — just a few years ago lush with native grasses — is being overrun with invasives and it is questionable whether new vegetation could survive.

The Stadium District and the Brewers need to do more research before deciding on an approach, Duckett said.

“Protecting the road is something we want to do yet this year,” he said.

Duckett said he hopes to have a fix before winter, when the little stream across the sidewalk, if left alone, will turn once again into a thick layer of ice.

“It’s not safe,” he said.

Click on the pics. The heads aren’t really all cut off.