Story Hillers — Lock your cars and close your garage doors. The summer thieves are out. The Milwaukee Police Department is reporting some car break-ins in the neighborhood over the past few days, and it appears somebody ripped off my very nice, new bike mirror from the bike parked in my garage (dumb me, must have left that door open). At least the miscreant left the bike. From what I’m hearing, not all the car break-ins were reported to police and the incidents may be somewhat more widespread than appears from police reports.
Archive for the ‘News’ Category
In the hood — car break-ins galore
Thursday, August 12th, 2010Wisconsin makes out nicely in federal highway money
Monday, August 9th, 2010Wisconsin received $1.22 in federal highway aid for every dollar it contributed in federal highway taxes, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.
The report looked at highway funding since 2005.
Wisconsin was not alone in the windfall. From the GAO:
For the time period for which data are available, every state received as much or more funding for highway programs than they contributed to the Highway Account of the trust fund. This was possible because more funding was authorized and apportioned than was collected from the states and the fund needed to be augmented with general revenues.
That makes it official, folks. The old road builders’ argument that “transportation projects are paid for with transportation dollars” is officially garbage.
County objects to state cut in highway maintenance money
Friday, July 30th, 2010The Wisconsin Department of Transportation unilaterally cut by $1.2 million the money it pays the county to maintain state highways, according to Jack Takerian, interim director of the Department of Transportation and Public Works.
The cut means that the county cannot afford the 29 temporary third shift employees who work in the winter months, Takerian told Dewayne J. Johnson, WisDOT’s southeast region director. Cutting those workers may result in more accidents, more serious accidents and more disabled vehicles and stranded motorists, he said in a letter to Johnson.
“WisDOT should also be prepared to notifying (sic) the public of their decision,” Takerian wrote in a memo to Supervisor Michael Mayo, chairman of the County Board’s Transportation and Public Works Committee. “A similar snow event that Milwaukee County has seen in years past would have huge impacts on travel times due to snow accumulation or road disrepair.”
Area highway commissioners have asked WisDOT to notify local school districts of the funding cuts so they “might plan for more late starts or more closures,” Takerian wrote.
The county will not have enough staff to maintain response times to weather-related road hazards “such as the emergency pavement blowouts that have occurred on several occasions this past year,” he wrote.
Takerian asked WisDOT’s Johnson to restore $750,000 of the funding so the third shift can be maintained.
Why do county plow drivers destroy things?
Thursday, July 29th, 2010True memo, from this month’s County Board committee packets. It’s from Robert E. Andrews, deputy corporation counsel, to Lee Holloway, County Board chairman:
Ms. Cele Stepke owns the building at 1210 E. Potter Avenue in Bay View. The building is occupied by a company named Piedmont Property Corporation. Located at this address are two garages that abut Hwy 794.
On January 8, 2010, a county truck engaged in a snow removal operation threw snow over the wall between the highway and the two garages. One of the garages incurred significant damage to its structure and doors.
This is an on-going problem of which the Highway Department is aware. The plow operators have been instructed to lower the speed of their trucks as they pass along side the subject property.
Gosh darned that Highway Department for damaging buildings and God knows what else through careless snow plow operation. Can’t help wondering, though, if the problem has anything to do with fewer people expected to plow the same number and miles of streets and highways.
Budget cuts have consequences.
Tax the hell out of ‘em
Tuesday, August 10th, 2010Semi-hypocritical me, who ends up with plastic grocer bags every time I forget the reusable bags in the car (asking for paper bags means that plastic bags will end up tucked inside the paper ones), thinks taxes should be levied on the plastic bags to fund litter clean-up.
Sigh. Unfortunately, neither the state of Wisconsin nor the city of Milwaukee is paying me much mind.
Rajasthan, India’s largest state, though, has the right idea. From the Environmental News Network:
From the beginning of August 2010, the manufacture, storage, import, sale and transport of plastic carry bags will be illegal in Rajasthan. No shopkeeper, retailer, trader, hawker or vendor will be allowed to supply goods to consumers in bags.
The measure was proposed after local municipalities had complained of blocked sewer lines, drainage systems and water distribution pipelines due to plastics buried in the soil, providing breeding grounds for malaria and dengue fever. In Mumbai in 2005, India experienced massive monsoon flooding partially as a result of drains blocked by plastic bags, resulting in over 1,000 deaths.
Only a few percent of all plastic bags are recycled and the rest of the bags can theoretically persist for centuries in landfills, floating in the breeze or, as in India plugging water lines and creating disease sources.
Let’s just do it.
Posted in City of Milwaukee, Commentary, Environment, News | 2 Comments »