POLICE UNION: COUNCIL TOO BIG

POLICE TO PROTEST BUDGET CUTS
The Milwaukee Police Association held a news conference Tuesday November 8th at the Bay View Post 180 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars to "propose a decrease in the number of aldermen and / or their pay as a way to put more cops on the street."
The police union figures a threat of a referendum in April for that purpose might be a way to get the council members' attention on what is the real issue for the police -- a $1.5 million decrease in police overtime in the 2006 budget.
This is a serious matter for our public guardians. The first thing rookie cops learn after how to pin on their badge is how to sign up for overtime, so the mayor's proposal to implement a "Community Service Officer Program" has riled up the boys in blue, especially in a department with over 250 vacant officer positions.
The Community Service Officers would not be sworn officers, union Vice-President Sebastian Raclaw told milwaukeeworld, and it is not certain whether they would be union members. The CSOs would be dispatched to answer low priority calls, like minor fender-benders or noise complaints, which might seem reasonable at first glance. We've all heard complaints about police doing insignificant things (like ticketing our own cars) when they should be doing something about that drug house across the street.
The police, however, say that minor calls often escalate to more significant events that the Community Service Officers would not be able to handle, and in, fact could make matters worse.
For example, police responding to a noise complaint might be able to determine that there is an underlying problem -- let's say the place is noisy because it is a drug house.
Whereas the Community Service Officers might only be able to tell the residents to keep the noise down, fully-sworn officers might have the wiles to receive permission to search the property ("you don't mind if we look around, do you?") and to effect a bust. The CSO visit might simply serve as a warning for the evil-doers to flush their drugs or split the scene.
One officer at the press conference said he had been shot at three times in events that he had thought were of minor character when first dispatched to the scene. People are crazy out there.
The Milwaukee Police Association, in a press release on the subject, said it is "urging the citizens of the City of Milwaukee to join MPA members at City Hall on Friday, November 11th at 9 a.m. to voice your concerns to our elected officials," during the City's budget hearings.
According to John A. Balcerzak, president of the union, "the city of Milwaukee has not missed the two aldermanic districts that were deleted in 2004, but the city has missed the 250-plus police officers who have not been hired. This is clearly evident by the current and rising homicide rate."--Michael Horne

TAB FOR TIMMERMAN REPORT
We learned yesterday that Coffman and Associates is working on a master plan for the county-owned Lawrence J. Timmerman Airport. It is not clear at this time what are the parameters of the report, but we do know the cost of the document, expected to be issued next year. It will cost $172,000, according to Pat Rowe of Milwaukee County, who cautions us that this is not taxpayer money, but from funds derived from the operation of Milwaukee's airports, including Timmerman and its big brother General Mitchell International Airport.--Michael Horne

OUR LOVELY SCAFFOLD -- NOT!
Whitney Gould of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel went into transports about the scaffold encircling City Hall, calling it the best piece of public art that is hidden in plain view, and compared it to the Michael Graves scaffold that surrounded the Washington Monument during its restoration in the late 1990's. Puh-leeze!
Milwaukeeworld called months ago for an attractive scaffold for the City Hall project, and we certainly did not get it.
The scaffold, although it creates an airy web around the 19th century landmark, hardly deserves any credit for originality, attractiveness or functionality.
It is just a scaffold.
Certainly the south end of the scaffold could have been constructed with arches at the base, to mimic the entrance of the Great Hall of the People. (Think Eiffel Tower, which is essentially a giant scaffold.) I mentioned this in print and in person to Rocky Marcoux, the Mayor and Robert Greenstreet months ago, suggesting a competition be held to design an attractive scaffold. The plan obviously went nowhere.
We will be looking at this scaffold for years to come, and the entry to City Hall could not be more unattractive or user-unfriendly. As for the comparison to the Graves scaffold for the Washington Monument, I saw this well-lit structure in person several times and found it to be quite elegant.
--Michael Horne

FALK FLAK AND MORE

Dear Reader,

I have just a couple of items here today for you. I did find out that the County has commissioned a study of Timmerman Airport, and can't wait to see what it will contain, and how much the study will cost the taxpayers. Also, I try to figure out why so much of the milwaukeeworld traffic is routed through Houston, Texas. Imagine my surprise when I find the answer.

Finally, I take a tour through the websites of the attorney general candidates. It seems at this time that the Republicans are the only ones on the ball. Paul Bucher, in particular is throwing some fastballs, calling Democratic Party opponent Kathleen Falk a "radical."

Bucher is from Waukesha County, Falk is from Dane County.

I made an error, I believe, trying to connect links in this story, so please pardon the confusion if it comes out that way, looking a little goofy. I also seem to have lost the formatting that bolded the names of all of the worthies mentioned here. Sorry.

I have to run right now.

Catch you later,
Michael Horne
Editor / Publisher
1 414 978-8039

TIMMERMAN STUDY EXPECTED IN 2006

Coffman Associates, airport consultants, are working on a master plan for Lawrence J. Timmerman Airport . The plan will be released after the end of the year, according to Pat Rowe, who handles information for Milwaukee County’s airports. The master plan is supposed to enable comments from the public, and after a laborious process I registered to make my comment. Unfortunately, the comment system does not work on the website, nor is there very much information on the ought-to-be-abandoned, 420-acre airport which is virtually entirely within the city limits. We’ll just have to wait for the report to be issued. Coffman Associates referred me to the County, so that wasn't very helpful. I'll get back to you with a report on how much Coffman Associates "Airport Planning is our Only Business" will be paid by the taxpayers for their study.-- Michael Horne

CITY DPW WEB TRAFFIC ROUTED THROUGH HOUSTON

A good deal of the traffic to milwaukeeworld.com is local, which you would expect. I was puzzled, though, by a considerable amount of visitors routed through Houston, Texas.
Upon research, I determined that the Houston-routed visits to milwaukeeworld were all from a domain called mpw.net , and registered to the funkily-named Beeper Boutique, Inc.
Mpw.net is the website of the City of Milwaukee Department of Public Works. It is the only website hosted by Beeper Boutique , Inc. I tried to connect to the Beeper Boutique website, but my connection was refused. I would like to know why the City of Milwaukee Department of Public Works, the municipality’s stodgiest, routes its internet through 3333 W. Katy Freeway in Houston.

This is the department that controls the underground conduit that will be leased to provide a wi-fi system that is to be the nation’s envy, and it runs its traffic from a company that sounds like it sells pagers? From Houston?

All other City and County traffic runs through the combined Milwaukee Portal. Looks like DPW got lost in the April 2005 creation of the portal - or decided to stay hidden in Houston.

I emailed the DNS administrator of the www.milwaukee.gov site to see what the story is, and will get back to you.

However, according to Joe Klein, who studied this at my request,

It is only a registration problem with the block of IP addresses used. Internet Protocol (IP) addresses are registered with ARIN (American Registry for Internet Numbers). Contact information is associated with contiguous blocks of IP addresses. This information is used to contact a site if bad traffic emanates from within that block of addresses. Time Warner Telecom allocated 128 IP address for one side of the dual-connected DPW firewall which uses a
technology called Network Address Translation (NAT) to map the many addresses used by the City of Milwaukee into two 128 address spaces provided by Time Warner Telecom and Wiscnet.

Time Warner Telecom apparently failed to change the registration on the block allocated to the City of Milwaukee, so it retains what is probably an old registration to the Beeper Boutique. The web tools used by snoopy webmasters and bloggers like yourself thus map the block back to Texas.

By Internet Best Current Practices (BCP), the owner of the block should insist on accurate registration data. Thus,when a computer is compromised within the City of Milwaukee network and it starts sending worms, viruses, or spam to the Internet, alert network administrators know who to contact. This protects both the Internet and the City of Milwaukee.

And, we gather, we are un- or underprotected right now, according to Klein's analysis. It's somebody's job -- fix it!

-- Michael Horne


FALK FLAK

Now that she has a primary opponent in Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, I wondered how Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager’s website was doing. Alas, the Peg4ag folks have only a rather ugly red white blue page telling us that the exciting website is coming - someday.
There is still a Falk for Governor website that has been assumed by a search engine not related to the campaign. Net Nations Communications of Canada took over the site in January 2005 when Falk’s original dominion over it expired. I don’t see a Falk for Attorney General Website yet.
On the republican side, the Van Hollen for Attorney General site ranks among the top 9 million worldwide. His opponent Paul Bucher’s site is not yet ranked, but is mightily homespun.
Bucher put out a press release calling Kathleen Falk a “radical” and saying she is anti-law enforcement.
According to the release,
“Republican Attorney General Candidate Paul Bucher blasted the policies of Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk Monday, stating that Falk advances a radical agenda that will compromise public safety and which is out of touch with average Wisconsinites.
“You must be kidding,” Bucher stated of Falk’s entrance into the Attorney General’s race. “This anti-law enforcement individual wants to run for the state’s top cop? I work day in and day out and have spent my entire career putting criminals in prison, as have other law enforcement officers throughout this State, and this individual wants to release them? What does it say to the average law enforcement officer and citizen? That we care more about the rights of thugs and gangsters than we do about the safety of our families? I look forward to this race. I look forward to debating this anti law enforcement candidate who now conveniently cloaks herself in pro criminal justice rhetoric. Her consistent, long-time record opposing law enforcement both in Dane County and Statewide will be front and center in this race.”
--Michael Horne

TIMMERMAN A TAXPAYER WASTE

Dear Reader,
Thanks for checking in with Milwaukeeworld today. Today's theme, quite inadvertently, is transportation, and we are going intermodal with a vengeance.
First we look at Milwaukee's "other" airport -- Timmerman Field, as we locals call it. Why does the county still own this money-loser? Could it be that people who own airplanes like the convenience of Timmerman and vote republican?
Then, as 21st centurites, our knowledge of Great Lakes Schooner basics is woefully limited. Our friends at Pier Wisconsin answer a few questions like, "how do you turn a schooner around in the Milwaukee River?" It can be done, as the Denis Sullivan has proven recently.
Finally, we look forward to the reopening of a long-abandoned tunnel.
Thanks for tuning in, and please let me hear from you.
Michael Horne
Editor / Publisher
horne@milwaukeeworld.com
1 414 978-8039


TIMMERMAN A BOONDOGGLE?
By Michael Horne

Milwaukee County's two airports are budgeted to bring in $62,085,486 in revenue in 2006, and are expected to earn a profit of $2,721,316. Thus, County Executive Scott Walker can proudly say that the airports do not cost the taxpayers a dime -- unless you look at the books of Lawrence J. Timmerman Airport, the county's general aviation (i.e. private plane) airport. Timmerman's books are combined with those of General Mitchell International Airport, Wisconsin's largest, which serves mostly commercial passengers -- generally those who do not own private aircraft.
In 2004, the most recent year for which information is available, the airport system of Milwaukee County -- that is, Mitchell and Timmerman brought in revenue of $53,924,727. After expenses, $1,262,848 was left over.
In 2004 Timmerman had 69,134 takeoffs and landings compared to Mitchell's 188,133. That sounds impressive, but Timmerman had expenses of $372,910 yet brought in revenue of only $265,347. So, as a stand-alone operation, it lost $107,563. The 2005 budget calls for Timmerman to lose $216,965 this year, and to lose $133,526 in 2006.

This leads to the question of why taxpayers must absorb the losses of a county-owned airport that caters to small craft owners. If you can afford an airplane, you could afford to fly it out of an airport that is not subsidized by the taxpayers, you'd think. Of course, I'd bet you that most airplane owners vote Republican, favor a tax freeze, and oppose government subsidies.
Furthermore, Timmerman occupies a large tract of potentially valuable real estate.

The County, which is hard-pressed for money these days, should either see to it that Timmerman pays its own way, or sell the place and use the potential tens of millions of dollars it would receive from that valuable real estate to bail itself out of its never-ending fiscal disasters.
Maybe a good first start would be to give Timmerman its own line on the County's budget, rather than burying its losses within General Mitchell International's budget report.

May I also suggest that with the closing of the 440th at Mitchell Airport, that former military base could be used for pleasure aircraft, Timmerman could be shut down, much or all of the land could be developed and the tax base would increase considerably.
But as it is right now, Timmerman is Milwaukee County's biggest and most exclusive park -- it's our "airpark."


SULLIVAN SAILS THE MIGHTY MENOMONEE
A couple of weeks ago I sat in the M&M Club on N. Water Street, well within view of the Water Street Bridge, a bascule span that doesn’t open very often this time of year. I noticed the bridge open, and was expecting a coal boat like the K. E. Barker (which was in town over the weekend) or the steel ship Isolda, which I believe I saw idling off Brady Street last week.
But, no, the ship was the Denis Sullivan, sailing downstream.
This led me to wonder a number of things, including how the Sullivan manages to turn around in the Milwaukee River, whether it can sail backward, how Great Lakes schooners managed to navigate in the Milwaukee River back in the days when there were hundreds of them and what is the Denis Sullivan doing here in Milwaukee in Novemer?
Meredith Berghauer of the Pier Wisconsin was kind enough to respond to my questions, and I thought you would like to read what she had to say:

Hello Mr. Horne!
Yes the Denis Sullivan did go up the Menomonee River twice in the past few weeks, once on Oct. 19th and again on Nov 1st. Our first trip up the river was to dock on the River Walk in the Third Ward. We stayed there for an afternoon to help kick of the Christmas in the Ward celebration and to pre-sell Christmas trees.
Boats similar to the Sullivan would make yearly trips in November from northern Michigan and bring Christmas trees to southern Wisconsin and Illinois. One of the most famous of these vessels was the Rouse Simmons, one of the boats we are modeled after, and in its memory we have been selling trees for the past few years.

The second time we went up the river was to dock for the winter. The Sullivan will be staying in Wisconsin this winter; normally we head south to Florida to conduct educational programming. Our new facility will be opening in early June so in order to make sure the Sullivan is here for the grand opening we will just stay up north for the winter. We must dock up the river, next to the power plant, to avoid being frozen in and ice damage occurring to the vessel.

Now as to your question of the turning radius and how they did it in the old days…Our turning radius is 140 ft (the vessel is 137 ft long), if we are using a push boat and we have good weather. The push boat will push our bow around for us enabling us to turn in small areas (we also use this method in high wind days at roomier docks). You are correct about the high traffic of schooners in the 19th century as well. The way they managed to come up the rivers was first they had a center board that they raised up which made the draft much less. The Sullivan has a lead keel to meet Coast Guard regulations unlike the schooners of the past. Once the center board was up a tug would come and pull or push the boats up the river. The same tugs would then turn the boats around if needed. I have also heard that they would sometimes pull the boats up the river backwards to avoid having to turn around.

The last question you asked is can we sail her backwards, the answer is yes, sort of. The Denis Sullivan and the old Great Lake schooners had a very unique sail called a Raffee. It is a gigantic triangle sail that is on the top of their foremast. This sail is rigged perpendicular to the hull, allowing the vessels to catch winds above the buildings in the harbors and to back the boats up under sail. While we can back up it is not the desired or designed way to move the vessel (the bow is design to “cut” through the water much better then our blunt stern) nor is it the most efficient method of movement.
Thanks so much for your interest and I hope to see you out sailing with us next summer.

Meridith Berghauer
Interim-Marine Operations Coordinator
Pier Wisconsin


VALLEY TUNNEL TO REOPEN

At the groundbreaking for the Palermo Villa pizza factory in the Menomonee Valley last week, Laura Bray of Menomonee Valley Partners told the audience that a long-closed tunnel would reopen in the valley. This abandoned public works project was news to me. Corey Zetts, the project director for Menomonee Valley Partners wrote to tell me where to find the tunnel, and about its original purpose. His letter follows:


Hi Michael,

The tunnel ran from S. 37th under the railroad tracks and then connected
to a bridge the crossed the Menomonee River -- this was the route
workers on the south side took to get to their jobs at the Milwaukee
Road shops. When the Shops closed, the tunnel was boarded up on both
sides, as there was nothing to walk to.

This year MVP received $2.08 million in funding from the federal
transportation bill (TEA-21), thanks in large part to the efforts of
Representative Gwen Moore and Senators Feingold and Kohl, to be used to
create pedestrian and bicycle connections from the surrounding
neighborhoods to the future park. After detailed study, we decided on
three or four best options for these connections, one of which is
reopening the historic tunnel. We've had some meetings with
neighborhood groups about this to get their thoughts on how to make the
tunnel as safe and inviting as possible.

If you go along Pierce St., look to the south at 37th Street. The north
entrance to the tunnel is beside the large brick building, but down
below street grade (it's easy to pass by unless you're actively looking
for it). You can also see the south entrance now from the new section
of Canal Street (near where Palermo's groundbreaking ceremony was) as
the trees are being torn down and the riverbank graded. A section of
the Hank Aaron State Trail would pick up at the tunnel and run the
length of Airline Yards, the strip of land between the railroad tracks
and the river, with pedestrian bridges connecting to the park near 35th
Street and also connecting to the Domes near 27th St.

Hope that helps! If you have more questions, let me know.

Corey