It has been a big week in city and schools news, with a few key stories dominating the headlines.
On Monday, the Wauwatosa School Board heard from district administrators as they made their preliminary case that the district and community cannot wait much longer to decide on a facilities plan for the four middle and high schools. The district's Secondary Schools Ad Hoc Committee is scheduled to present its report and recommendation to the board on March 3, with an estimated price tag of at least $350 million.
“There are a number of different steps that the board needs to engage in," Superintendent Demond Means said. "This is just the beginning.”
The tax impact of past referendums and the potential for additional borrowing sometime in the future to pay for long-delayed projects are sure to come up March 2 when the eight candidates for School Board in the upcoming spring election attend a forum at Longfellow Middle School. It will be hosted by the Wauwatosa Council of PTAs. Full details of that forum are here.
After months of deliberations and negotiations, the Common Councils in both Wauwatosa and West Allis voted Tuesday to enter an agreement to merge their fire departments into a joint agency. A lot still needs to happen before a combined department fully takes shape, including negotiating a new union contract. The two cities' firefighter unions issued a joint statement offering conditional support for the merger.
At least one person was not happy about the department's new name: Milwaukee Metro Fire Rescue. Milwaukee Alderman Peter Burgelis accused Wauwatosa and West Allis of "stolen credibility," but Tosa Mayor Dennis McBride pushed back with his response, as reported here.
David Paulsen
The Wauwatosa council also approved $7.85 million in TIF-funded incentives to enable Irgens to build a 204-unit, four-story apartment building in the southwest corner of the Milwaukee County Research Park. Tosa Forward News got a copy of the term sheet, which can be found here.
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At the same meeting, the council approved several conditional use permits, including a new cafe with Vietnamese flavors in East Tosa and a Mediterranean food restaurant on Mayfair Road.
One conditional use permit that didn't get approved was for Flash Laundromats, which had asked for permission to open 24 hours a day at 7105 W. North Ave. When the city offered to let it open only to midnight, the owners withdrew their application and said they instead will operate within the zoning-allowed 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. hours. The target for the laundromat's opening is now this April.
David Paulsen
One more tidbit, off the news: Please take a look at Tosa Forward News' new DataHub, and tell us what you think.
This will be a place to post a mix of watchdog reporting, government documents, useful community statistics and the results of deeper dives into data obtained from official sources. You know, what journalists like to call "First Amendment reporting."
It's still a work in progress, and your feedback can help. What would you like to see us seek and add to the Tosa DataHub?
Tosa Forward News Staff
