Franklin Today

The #1 Issue: The Great Recession hits Franklin

It doesn’t come to any surprise that the Great Recession would be the #1 Issue that was faced in 2009. There were many setbacks that residents faced during the past year, and everyone felt the pinch. The City of Franklin was impacted in the following areas:

The #2 Issue: Tom Reinke's abrupt disappearance from Robinwood

When the students at Robinwood Elementary School went back to classes this past Fall, they and their parents were surprised to see their principal absent from the main entrance of the school, greeting the kids as they would walk in. It turned out that Reinke had to take leave of the school while the school district performed an investigation on allegations by another employee at Robinwood.

The #3 Issue: Residents unite for an Aquatics Center

When governments were proposing budgets, an issue arose that made its way throughout Franklin. Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, in his budget that had a 0% tax levy increase, proposed a county Aquatics Center, which is basically a mini water park, for southeast Milwaukee County. The areas in the SE included lands around the airport, Oak Creek, and South Milwaukee.

Franklin wasn't anywhere in sight.

Noticing the lack of attention, Mayor Taylor and Alderman Tim Solomon made several public comments during a public hearing on Franklin's city budget. They noted that the county seems to bypass or overlook Franklin on a variety of matters, including the Aquatics Center.

The #5 Issue: School Board incumbents continue to step aside

This past April, there wasn't many elected positions on the ballot in Franklin. Locally, it was just the Municipal Judge and two School Board members in the Franklin Public School District. Even with that in mind, last April's election was no different from School Board elections going back to just after the 2007 referendum. This time around, incumbents Mary Karolewicz and School Board Vice President Jim Ward both decided to not run again for their elected positions.