MPS PRINCIPAL TAKES ON WISDOT

By Michael Horne

You don't mess around with Julia D'Amato, the Principal of Ronald Reagan College Preparatory High School in Milwaukee. Teachers, students and parents are impressed with the efforts she has put into the school, at 4965 S. 20th St.and so are the editors of U.S. News & World Report, which awarded Reagan a Bronze award as one of "America's Best High Schools 2009" this week.
D'Amato's school was one of three chosen from MPS, and one of only 58 selected from Wisconsin. [Press Release pdf]
"My phone's been ringing off the hook since the article came out," she told a small group after school Thursday, December 1 in a conference room. "I'll have 900 students here, and I do not want heavy truck traffic in front of my school."
Her audience included two representatives of the school district, a consulting engineer for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, Roberto Gutierrez, the project manager for the proposed I-94 North South Expansion and Reconstruction Project, and this reporter.
D'Amato cited a list of complaints about the project, rattling off numerous examples of when she felt transportation officials failed to listen to community concerns about the project. The examples took place at every turn, she said. "There were informational meetings that were completely dominated by WisDOT, they have never acknowledged thousands of letters in opposition to the project from businesses, neighbors and others. The elimination of a full interchange at S. 27th St. will kill this neighborhood."
Gutierrez told her the project was going to move forward, and that the best use of her energies at this time would be to cooperate with the department during a window of time when heavy construction trucks would be expected to use S. 20th street to ready the construction.
"I don't believe this is done yet," D'Amato announced. "I want to talk to Frank Busalacchi," she said, producing a hand-drawn map that she believes might be the solution to the problem her school faces. Her solution is a "half-ramp" that would divert traffic from S. 20th Street. The engineers scoff at the suggestion that anything other than a complete new ramp could be considered anywhere (although they are not hesitant to slice up an existing ramp).
"A half ramp would not be possible," D'Amato is told. It would not be permitted by officials at the Federal Highway Administration. [However, the FHwA tells Milwaukeeworld a half ramp could be considered, but was never brought to the agency's attention.]
The engineers see no reason to change the plans they have made for the expansion and reconstruction of the highway. "The mayor told us not to remove any houses in this project," Gutierrez says, making it seem that the entire $1.9 billion project extending from the airport to the Illinois state line was designed to preserve the city's tax base. He trots out the old DOT line that for the current exchange to be preserved in its fullness would require the removal of 26 homes.
The reporter noted the project was designed with exits and ramps more appropriate to rural North Dakota than to an urban environment, and that with a few waivers there should be no problem retaining full access to the S. 27th St. corridor. The highway widening funds could be better expended in rescuing the street grid torn asunder by the freeway and its appurtenances. Ald. Robert Bauman that day had produced a release decrying the Doyle administration's insistence on placing the I-94 proposal at the top of the list of Wisconsin's ready-to-go construction projects for the new administration's consideration.
This drew no response, nor did Gutierrez have any comment when he was asked why his department failed to appear at a recent meeting of a county board committee. (Response: "we are on the agenda for January.")