Wednesday, December 12, 2012
After decades of deferred maintenance on sanitary and storm sewer systems, rebuilding to meet current needs will cost resident ratepayers significantly more each year for the next five years and probably beyond.
- GOVERNMENT
- Jim Price
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Wednesday, December 12, 2012
It is time to pay the piper. The sewer piper, that is. After decades of low spending, both sanitary and storm sewer rates will increase considerably next year and would continue to rise over the four years thereafter, under a recommendation passed unanimously Tuesday night by the Budget and Finance Committee. The sewer rate increase will go to the full Common Council next Tuesday for consideration. If the measure passes, in 2013, the city's "local charge" for sanitary sewer service will rise by 20 percent, according to City Finance Director John Ruggini's recommendation — "The impact of the capital improvement budget on rates," Ruggini said. But because the resident ratepayer's sanitary sewer bill is split about 50 percent between the city…
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
In last opportunity for challenges before the Public Service Commission rules, almost all in a large turnout of citizens demands power lines be buried.
- GOVERNMENT
- Jim Price
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Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Hundreds of Wauwatosa and Milwaukee residents filled the chambers of the Common Council on Tuesday in hearings before the Wisconsin Public Service Commission, and almost to a single person their message was: "Bury the lines." In a debate that has gone on for more than a year, this was the last public part. The decision on exactly where two new 138,000-volt power lines will be routed, and whether all or parts of them will be overhead or underground, now rests with the PSC. That decision will come in March, as the members of the PSC, their lawyers and advisers, pore through reams of technical documents and testimony. Early this year, residents of the Fisher Woods and Underwood Creek Parkway neighborhoods, as well a neighborhood in …
Monday, August 20, 2012
The utility CEO signed a letter supporting underground alternatives for a power line in a different location. But Wauwatosa must first choose its own preferred route before it can hope for backing from utility company, city attorney says.
If Wauwatosa can somehow come to grips with controversy and pick a preferred underground route from the west for a new power line to the County Grounds, it could win an important endorsement. It might be the most important endorsement it could possibly get — from We Energies, the utility that would sell the power carried on that line. We Energies CEO Gale Klappa signed a joint letter Aug. 2 with Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and Ald. Michael Murphy in support of underground alternatives only for a second power line from the south through a Milwaukee neighborhood. The letter made no mention of any preference for any route for the western approach through Wauwatosa, underground or overhead. But that could be because Wauwatosa has not yet made …
Monday, July 16, 2012
A 60-day delay in the state hearing process means that Wauwatosa has a little more breathing room to find a consensus decision on final route.
No decision on a recommended route for a new power line in west Wauwatosa will be taken Tuesday night, the city attorney said Monday. An unexpected 60-day delay in the hearing process before the Wisconsin Public Service Commission means that the city has until October to decide how to respond to the contentious issue, said City Attorney Alan Kesner. Kesner and some aldermen had been pushing for a consensus recommendation on a route down Walnut Road, opposed by most residents of that neighborhood. But the delay has given the city more time to consult with engineers about possible alternative routes or modifications to that route, Kesner said. With that, Tuesday night's hearing before a meeting of the Common Council's Committee of the Whole…
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Engineers tell the city that what appears to be the direct and logical path along Watertown Plank Road is in fact prohibitively expensive.
There’s an adage that with enough time and money, we could engineer anything. The classic example is, “We could build an elevator to the moon” — if it weren’t impossibly expensive. But why can’t American Transmission Co. run a power line along what most people think is the most direct and sensible route from the source of power to the place it’s needed? Apparently, it’s impossibly expensive. In the ongoing debate over how to bring a new power line from the grid to the west onto the County Grounds, one route has stood out from the beginning, to nearly everyone involved, as the best and most obvious choice. The additional power, one of two new 138,000-volt lines, could come straight down Watertown Plank Road. The grid power lines — 10 heavy …
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Committee passes resolution opposing electrical transmission lines on Underwood Creek Parkway or through Fisher Woods neighborhood.
- GOVERNMENT
- Jim Price
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Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Citizens filled the Wauwatosa Common Council chambers to capacity Tuesday night, waited patiently until 9 p.m. for their chance to speak, and then collectively delivered a passionate argument against either of two proposed routes for new power lines through the city. Aldermen listened for an hour-and-a-half as one after another, residents stepped forward to decry the impact on parks and neighborhoods both routes would wreak on property values and quality of life. After its members weighed in, the Community Development Committee voted 6-1 in favor of a resolution from Ald. Dennis McBride officially opposing putting power lines along either route proposed by American Transmission Co. Ald. Jacqueline Jay, whose 3rd District does not include …
Lex Parsimoniae
10:51 am on Friday, December 14, 2012
Time for bigger, more efficient main sewers on our side...to overflow the deep tunnel even quicker. Just happy I live on the high ground. more ›