SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL POLICE: GO TO A BALL GAME!

The City of Milwaukee Public Safety Committee recommended adoption of council file 080317, a proposal to amend a grant from the Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Club Limited Partnership to the Milwaukee Police Department to pay for security at home games and other activities at Miller Park.

The original grant, approved on March 22^nd, 2007, called for the Brewers to pay the city $1.2 million for law enforcement services in 2007 and 2008.

However, “due to Brewer game attendance increases and an increase in the salary rate for police officers, it is anticipated that the Brewers will pay more than $1.2 million” during the contract period, Chief Edward A. Flynn wrote in a letter to the common council. “Therefore, the Milwaukee Police Department requests that the total grant amount be increased from $1.2 million to $2 million.”

The committee agreed on a 4-0 vote, with one member excused, and the council will take up the measure on July 1^st, 2008.

According to a Legislative Reference Bureau analysis, the grant was established at an $800,000 level in 2003, and was increased by an additional $400,000 in 2006.

Fun Fact: The corporate records for the Brewers filed with the State of Wisconsin list the team’s “Principal Office” as “Milwaukee County Stadium.”

WILL WELLS GO BOTH WAYS?

For years there have been unsuccessful attempts to return Wells Street to two-way operation. Ald. Robert Bauman was successful converting the traffic west of N. 6^th St., and he is trying again to make the change complete all the way east to the street’s terminus at N. Prospect Ave. The matter was assigned to the Public Safety Committee, which placed 080295 on file at today’s meeting, Thursday, June 19^th, 2008. “The committee was very receptive,” Bauman said in a telephone call. He believes the change will go forward once the parties “work out details, logistics … and financing. “ Bauman’s request for the change, which affects his district, was supported by a letter from the Pabst Theater Foundation citing difficulties for its patrons to get to and from the facility. The matters were exacerbated by the closure of bridges downtown for reconstruction. The letter also mentions the traffic-calming nature of two-way streets, and the hazards of one-way operation.

In the past, stiff opposition to the proposal materialized from tenants at the east end of the street, particularly residents of the Cudahy Tower, owned by Michael Cudahy, who also owns the Pabst Theater.

“They weren’t there” this time, Bauman said. He added that in the portions of State and Wells streets where the conversion has taken place and where traffic now runs as God intended , the traffic is slower and there are fewer vehicles.