Crime & Safety

Week Ahead in Tosa: Fireworks in Store at City Meeting! (for Football Classic)

Permit for big game between East and West high gridiron squads is on agenda, along with much else.

We all hope the big fireworks will be on the field, but in any case, we'd also like to see some afterward.

Coming this week in official business for Wauwatosa is an application for fireworks following the scheduled for Aug. 20.

That request comes Tuesday night before the Committee on Legislation, Licensing and Communications from the Red Raider Touchdown Club and the Tosa West Athletic Booster Club, jointly, in preparation for a celebration after the big game.

Find out what's happening in Wauwatosawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The two crosstown schools have not met on the football field since 1996, and the boosters of both schools want to make it a party. There will be a community tailgate in Hart Park starting at 4 p.m. before the 7 p.m. game.

Plenty of city business

Also Tuesday night, a host of ordinance changes and other measures will be brought back to the Employee Relations Committee as collective bargaining becomes a thing of the past for many public workers.

Find out what's happening in Wauwatosawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The measures would: Repeal four ordinances that set health insurance rates; for police (1) and fire (2) supervisors; for other non-union employees (3); and finally (4) a proposal to set health insurance contribution rates by resolution rather than ordinance.

Without collective bargaining, it makes sense to do away with separate legal designations and treat everyone's benefits together under an employee handbook, city officials say.

Other changes include:

  • A resolution establishing health insurance benefits for police and fire supervisors aligned with police and fire unions. That measure ensures that supervisors are not compensated less than those they supervise. Police and fire union members were exempt from the state prohibition on collective bargaining, meaning that in some cases they could have ended up being compensated more than their supervisors.
  • A resolution establishing the active and retiree health insurance benefit for general employees (non-police/fire) replacing existing ordinances.

Essentially, these ordinance changes remove any differences between union-represented and non-represented city employees in the wake of the state's budget repair bill outlawing most collective bargaining.

Another new ordinance would create the position and pay grade for a business specialist position in the Department of Economic Development Department. It will be heard again after it was sent to the Common Council two weeks ago without a recommendation on a tie vote, 2-2. Ald. Jill Organ was absent for the first vote from the five-member committee.

The Employee Relations agenda also notes that a memo will be introduced by Fire Chief Rob Ugaste regarding removal of residency requirements for deputy chief and battalion chief positions.

Ugaste has done a little shaking up since taking the position of chief earlier this year, and some of those who he would like to advance to high rank apparently do not live in Tosa.

In other city action:

The Committee on Traffic and Safety will hear a memo from the director of public works regarding a 90-day trial of no parking trial on the west side of North 77th Street at 521 N. 77th Street.

The Community Development Committee will hear a memo from the city attorney regarding an amendment to the Mount Tosa development on property formerly owned by the city at the Public Works yard. The developer wants to make a late change to an assisted living development on part of the property that was not part of the original agreement.

The Committe on Budget and Finance will hear:

  • An overview of the 2010 city audit by Clifton Gunderson;
  • A memo from the finance director regarding the 2011 second quarter general fund status;
  • A memo from the finance director regarding the 2011 second quarter capital budget status;
  • A memo from the public works director regarding bids for Hart Park playground and site infrastructure construction; and
  • A memo from the director of public works regarding staff recommendation for the basement flooding reduction program.

Waukesha water request

On Wednesday at 7 p.m., one of three public hearings on Waukesha's application to draw water from Lake Michigan will be held at Hart Park's Muellner Building.

Although just a few miles away, Waukesha sits in the Mississippi River watershed. It's well-water supply is contaminated by radon, and for years it has been seeking permission to take water from Lake Michigan and return it after treatment to the Great Lakes watershed.

The chosen avenue for returning that treated water is Underwood Creek, which flows from Waukesha County into Wauwatosa before draining into the Menomonee River, which runs through the heart of Tosa.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has given preliminary approval, subject to a round of public hearings.

Waukesha contends that the treated water added back into Underwood Creek will enhance the habitat for fish and aquatic invertabrates; opponents say that a.) the water should not be drawn from the lake watershed in the first place; b.) the treated water is not of pristine quality; and c.) the added flows to Underwood Creek could contribute to flooding in Wauwatosa and downstream.

Waukesha contends that the quality of the treated water will not harm the environment and that during flood events, it would shut off releases to the creek.


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