Franklin Today

The announcement...

I have been given the privilege of taking over Janet Evans' In the Race blog on FranklinNOW all the way up to Election Day. For further entries on Franklin issues, make sure to redirect your focus over there for the time being.

Sabers play at home against Milton Saturday

For those interested in watching our very own Franklin Sabers fight off top seed Milton in the WIAA playoffs, tickets are available at FHS today, tomorrow, and Friday.

Kickoff is Saturday night at 7pm. I strongly suggest those who are not going to the game to avoid 51st Street during that timeframe, since it's sure to be quite busy.

GO SABERS!!

A special announcement!

Friends and fellow Franklin neighbors,

Something cool is about to happen, and it starts tomorrow morning and goes through the weekend. You'll find out what I mean later today.

The Boomgaard in 15 years...if not less

The following video easily shows what will happen to 27th Street if Franklin continues on railing against other forms of transit coupled along with rapid development and poor planning:

Just replace the intersection names with "27th & Rawson" or "27th & Ryan"...you get the picture.

Would you want to be involved with that traffic hassle?

H/T: John Michlig - - Sprawled Out

Joint meetings begin to deliberate on budget proposal

Tonight marks the first date for the joint meetings between the Finance Committee and Common Council regarding the proposed 2009 budget. This is where the Mayor's 3% can maintain its current form or change. Remember, while the Mayor proposes the budget with a certain levy increase, the Council can amend that number.

Mayor Taylor stayed true on his election promise with maintaining only a proposed 3% increase. I guess we'll have to see if the Council feels more money is needed for projects and/or staff.

My faith is strengthened

Throughout the day, I worked on trying to clean up the mess that you see in the last entry. It was disappointing to see this kind-of stuff happening elsewhere hit home here in Franklin. However, something rather unexpected occurred over trick-or-treat time.

While my sister was passing out candy to the children (and some teens) dressed up as anything or anyone, several neighbors approached us and expressed their frustration over what occurred at our home and throughout our neighborhood. Some of them noted to me that they are McCain supporters and find it truly distasteful and disgusting that anyone would go out and impact someone else's free speech and freedom of opinion. Regardless of our political differences, they were more than happy to come up to us and have the discussions that most could consider "off bounds". For me, what really stood out was when the neighbor who lives across from our home, a McCain supporter, promised me that if he saw any crud going on with our signs that he wouldn't hesitate to call the police. It's a good feeling to know that even if you might share different political views with your neighbor(s), they won't hold a grudge or negative thoughts towards you or about you.

In closing, kudos to fellow neighbors and residents for strengthening my faith in this community. At the end of the day, the vast majority of us know that we all share the same neighborhoods, streets, schools, and parks. Whether you're a McCain or Obama supporter, at least you will feel comfortable in expressing your points of view. It has become obvious to me that whoever did the damage must have come from either outside our neighborhood or outside our community completely. Let it be known that no one appreciated the graffiti.

What's up with these yard sign vandals?

Apparently some people just can't tolerate other points of view. In this case, the victims of those people are Franklin residents supporting Barack Obama for President, including my family. When we hopped in the car heading off to my sister's volleyball game this morning, we discovered this on our Obama yard sign:

As one can clearly see, my sister was rather disheartened by those who'd want to eliminate our right of free speech of supporting Obama for President. The vandals did this on every Obama sign in our neighborhood, which was surprisingly dead even in yard signs to those supporting John McCain.

Perhaps next time the vandals decide to target Obama signs, they'll choose to do it during the daytime so everyone can witness their willingness to go out and attempt to eliminate suburban voters' right to display a Democratic yard sign. 

Have nothing to do on a Saturday night?

Well there's always the wine tasting event that will be going on tonight at the Franklin Public Library! It'll be taking place from 6-9pm, and tickets are $35 at the door. The proceeds for the event will go towards purchasing new computers for the children's section of the library, of which strongly need replacing.

So if you enjoy wine, watching and listening to cooking demonstrations, and want to support our kids, this is the event for you later tonight

Good luck Sabers! Onward to V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!!

The memories of FHS pep rallies prior to playoff games, or during Homecoming and Saber Spirit Week. Franklin has a strong and dedicated citizenry aimed at promoting Saber Pride, and hopefully that pride will lead to further Saber victories in the coming days. The Saber football team will be playing in Oregon this coming Tuesday, and Kevin Fischer tells us the Saber soccer team has also proclaimed its victory in the first round of their playoffs and will be facing Marquette @ Marquette today at 5pm.

GO SABERS!!!

OK, what's the problem?

Probably one of the hottest topics since this blog was born a few months ago has been the issue of Gus' Mexican Cantina. When I announced that Gus' brought back lunch at his Franklin location last week, the only positive remark I received was...well...from me! That's concerning me a lot, since I'd like to see this local restaurant, of which the owner contributes a lot back to the community, succeed and become a strong anchor for southern metropolitan Milwaukee Mexican dining.

So I figured this entry will be focused on what YOU, the Franklin resident, diner, and consumer of Gus' food, feels should be done to enhance the restaurant, the food, the service, and/or anything else in-between. I'd like to hear some suggestions and remarks instead of repeat criticism. Considering that Gus' opened just a few months ago, I feel that there's still plenty of time to make some amendments to better appease you.

For those who haven't posted a comment before, the comments section is a very liberal system, unlike what you see over at the NOW. Ultimately, you can send me an e-mail at franklinblog@gmail.com if you don't feel like posting a comment.