2011 in Review: September

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 September.

Goodbye, Coach

Someday, somebody may make a movie about the too-short, so eventful and so tragic life of .

As a young coach, and in just a few years, he brought the West basketball program up from the basement to leadership of the Woodland Conference and a strong challenge for the state title. But he was diagnosed with kidney cancer and had to turn over the helm for awhile to his assistant during the triumphant 2010-2011 season.

Nevertheless, he returned after treatment to lead his team to the sectional finals against the eventual state champions, Whitefish Bay. Then, unaccountably, he was denied a new contract to coach another year.

On Sept. 25, shortly after the new school year began, he died, leaving behind his wife and two children, one 3 years old the other just 2 months. He was 31. Landisch is still being memorialized, with a fundraiser for the family scheduled for Jan. 7 at the basketball meeting of Wauwatosa West v. East.

Ambitious plans for the Village

The vision for the Village turned out to be when the Village Business Improvement District turned in its long-range plan, but by far the lion's share was in projected private investment in an enhanced Village layout. Only a few million dollars over a number of years was expected in public investment in infrastructure.

Close encounters of the scary kind

It was hard to say who was most frightened when two Tosa neighbors and a Milwaukee resident . First they repeatedly rang the doorbell of one Tosa woman who refused to answer, then her neighbor happened to come home while they were breaking in to his house, then they fled and one of them broke into another house and tried to hold off police while holed up inside. Officers finally sent in a K9 officer who wouldn't take no for an answer.

Short on cents

A would-be bank robber did take took when a teller told him she didn't have any money for him when he tried to hit the at 7501 W. North Ave. for cash. He left empty-handed but was sought and anyway and was charged with a federal felony. The robber was pretty identifiable from bank surveillance video – he was 4-feet 11-inches tall.

Ocean's two: Couple hits busiest place in town

In what must have been one of the , a couple planned and somehow succeeded in robbing the Subway restaurant in the Mayfair Mall food court, got out of the mall with a large amount of cash, and then bolted in fear when they saw a Tosa cop – who was on his way somewhere else and had no idea any burglary had occurred.

He chased down one of the suspects, who accidentally gave up his female accomplice when he thought he heard her voice in the police station. It wasn't her, but he told police his girlfriend's name under the impression they already had her in custody.

If you're hiding something, show it

The first proposal for a came forward from the Wauwatosa administration. The ban would pass, making it illegal to bring a gun into any city-owned building even though police and the city adminstration admit it will be impossible to tell that anyone has a concealed weapon unless they reveal it.

Show them the money

The City of Wauwatosa was forced to pay back nearly $8.5 million to Wheaton Franciscan Health Care to avoid interest costs in settlement of a lawsuit over property taxes the state Supreme Court ruled were wrongly collected over eight years. The city actually saved about $35,000 by paying all the money back a few weeks early.

Men and women of steel

Wauwatosa firefighters to prepare the department's 9/11 steel artifact for .

Not over my back yard

Tosa parents of students at the Milwaukee Montessori School just across the city line tell American Transmission Co. to "" in a protest against a plan to run new overhead power towers through the school's neighborhood.

Stealing from the dead... really?

Crime seemed to take on a new low when the price of metal attracted thieves to from graves at Pinelawn Memorial Park.

Defending her young

A Tosa mother in defense of her children when he lunged into her car to steal her purse in the parking lot of Pick 'n Save. He got the purse and got away, although police came within minutes of catching him by tracing her cell phone's GPS.

Drinking and driving and drinking and driving and...

Tosa police, participating in the Southeast Wisconsin OWI Task Force, over the Veteran's Day weekend. Two drivers were Tosa residents, one of whom recorded his fourth OWI offense.

Beaten to the punch

Several witnesses to a notorious schoolyard beating all gave , who did not even fight back, while the defendants in the case refused to give any statements at all to police but defended themselves as reverse victims to broadcast media. The beating of a Wauwatosa boy had been .

Way to go, Tosa – let's eat

and two more that are no more than across the street made Journal Sentinel dining critic Carol Deptolla's Top 30 list for the entire metro area.

Just say no – just barely

The Tosa Common Council said no to allowing a liquor store to set up , fearing not only the direct consequences of so much booze available by the drink but more so by the precedent of possibly any establishment demanding the right to open a tavern within. In Wisconsin tradition, though, it was close. The vote failed on a tie.