2011 in Review: June

As 2011 comes to a close, Wauwatosa Patch looks back at the top stories of the year, month by month. Here’s a recap of the news that made headlines in June.

Hart Park janitor Jim Fork during the Scottish Fest Highland Games when he was the only person on hand who had a key to unlock the Hart Park Senior Center, where there was a life-giving defibrillator. Fork said he'd done little to deserve any recognition, but a grateful city honored him anyway.

Citizens fight City Hall and win

After of a vacant, decrepit home in the Ravenswood neighborhood for a collection of valuable Spanish figurines, residents became energized to demand that about the nuisance home in their area after a decade of complaints. Before the month was out, the city did issue some citations.

Let the floodwaters come

Ten years after they were conceived and following six years of construction, two massive stormwater detention basins on the County Grounds . The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District spent $100 million on the project, designed to mitigate flooding on Underwood Creek and downstream on the Menomonee River in the Village district.

School District breathes easier

With only a couple of weeks to spare, the Wauwatosa School District closed it's unexpected $6 million budget gap – a result of the hold-up of the state budget repair bill – when it , the one representing its secretaries and represented administrative assistants.

More madness at Mayfair

Another Facebook-arranged mass theft at Mayfair Mall – not as large as the one that had occurred after Christmas 2010 – resulted in six arrests after a group organized a "grab and run" spree at .

Long saga of mayor's pay begins

An issue that would come and go and come and go again all the way through year's end arose when the subject of was raised. It would be voted down once, then brought up twice more before finally passing at the end of the year.

A warning of financial trouble ahead

New Finance Director John Ruggini spelled out the steps the city would need to take going forward to avoid . The Wauwatosa Common Council told him to, by all means, begin taking those steps.

A short and unhappy life

A 30-year-old Wauwatosa man who had been in trouble with the law since his mid-teens was after he charged the officer with a knife. John Pekrun was on the run after he left his DNA .

Also of note...

• It happens every year, but it's always worth celebrating the graduation of .
• On the same subject, Newsweek named Tosa East .
• The Village Green Street Fair celebrated the that have been attracted to Tosa.
• A in front of Eisenhower Elementary School, prompting calls for better safety in school zones. Fortunately, . The child was only slightly injured.
• An ordinance rquiring would but only after being toned down a bit. It would still be the most stringent in the metro area.
• A motel clerk and a pedestrian on North Avenue were during the same weekend.
• A Wauwatosa woman was among 23 people in the Milwaukee area and across several states .
• Every Wauwatos police officer on duty was called to a single violent incident in the streets over the unauthorized borrowing of a can of charcoal lighter fluid.