Franklin Today

Superintendent schedules early morning public forum on upcoming budget

It is what it is. On the Franklin Public Schools website, it is stated that Superintendent Dr. Steve Patz will be holding a public forum on Wednesday, March 17th. This forum will focus on the upcoming 2010-2011 budget, which is slated to have a $1.6 million shortfall that needs to be remedied. It's great to have a public forum, however I see one huge problem: the forum is on a Wednesday morning from 7:30 to 9am.

Franklin leaders are heading to Madison

This past Saturday the Common Council met in special session to discuss the recommendations by the Community Safety Task Force, which met last Friday. The Community Safety Task Force has its main concerns surrounding how to tackle Senate Bill 548 and now Assembly Bill 759, which if enacted into law pose a threat to Franklin residents by eliminating our current sex offender ordinance and impacting Franklin's right to home rule.

Support Boy Scout Pack 538 by donating blood

I received a forwarded e-mail from a reader about an upcoming blood drive that will be held at the Franklin Public Library from 2:30 to 6:30 on Monday, March 8th. If you're interested, click the link contained in the message below.

All,  

Please consider donating blood on Monday March 8th from 230-630 at Franklin Public Library.  This event is being coordinated with the Blood Center of Wisconsin.  Please go to the link provided to schedule an appointment.  If attendance proves to be too low the event is in jeopardy of cancellation.  Any scout who recruits at least one donor will be entered into a raffle to win a prize!

Patients are counting on receiving this blood to help them survive or heal. Let's all participate and make this blood drive a success for all of us. If you haven't signed up yet, please consider doing so.  Thank you!!

http://bloodcenter.com/pack538

SB 548: The sponsors and history behind the bill

After speaking with several contacts, many issues came to light revolving around Senate Bill 548. The issues are significant since it caused the bill to land bipartisan support. After the jump will be the list of sponsors as well as some recent history that likely sparked this.

Forum for School Board candidates set

Mark Schaaf of FranklinNOW is reporting that March 16th will be when the Franklin Educational Foundation hosts the forum for those seeking (re)election to the Franklin School Board. It will be held in the Green Room of Franklin High School at 7pm. This comes days after Library Director Barbara Roark informed me that the Root River Junior Women's Club, which sponsored city and school district candidate forums in the past, decided not to pursue a forum this year.

With the School Board candidates having a forum, that leaves those running for aldermen without one at this time.

Sex offender ordinance in jeopardy

Senate Bill (SB) 548 was introduced in the legislature, which could jeopardize Franklin’s current sex offender ordinance.

The bill includes several changes ranging from Department of Correction release policies to where released sex offenders are allowed to go. A significant difference between Franklin’s ordinance and SB 548 is the reduction in distance that must be maintained from facilities and locations utilized by children. Franklin’s ordinance places a 2,000-foot radius around such facilities and locations. The proposed bill would trim that to 100 to 250 feet. Franklin's ordinance is also more broad on the restrictions, facilities, and locations relating to where sex offenders aren't allowed to be.

Friends of Franklin's Parks

Franklin is blessed with many city parks that range from tot lots to large active parks to passive conservancies. In addition there are several public conservancy areas and county parks in Franklin Maintaining these parks is a challenge that our parks department staff does an excellent job of. However at a Parks Commission meeting back in October, Parks Department Director Jerry Scheffer reported that some functions or maintenance of the parks would have to be deferred due to an ever increasingly tight budget. In fact, many of the long term maintenance projects such as weed outs, and removal of invasive species keep getting pushed back year after year.

Keep your eyes on Crystal Ridge

In recent weeks discussion has grown rather large over the future of Crystal Ridge Ski Hill. The most recent action was made by the Common Council last Tuesday with a decision to have the Parks Commission review the city's special use permit for the ski hill to operate. Mayor Taylor and his supporters are arguing heavily that the ski hill's operator and Milwaukee County seem to have failed in their promise to bring the former landfill up-to-par so the area can hold various sporting activities during the Spring-Fall months.

With this in mind, several aldermen last week mentioned the thought of a possible takeover of the ski hill by the City of Franklin, with some strongly suggesting against the notion altogether. A takeover of the ski hill by the city would quite a feat, and would require the signing off of Milwaukee County, which currently controls the property. Even with that major hurdle, it looks like city leaders are poised to take the offensive.

Saber Spirit Club's calendar raffle supports many programs at FHS

With my desire to share the accomplishments of Franklin organizations, I wanted to congratulate the Saber Spirit Club and its members for generously supporting activities and athletics at Franklin High School via the yearly calendar raffle. Our family joined the Saber Spirit Club this year, and we intend to continue to be members of the organization for many more years to come. Anyone can become a member of the organization, which has a great website with a lot of information.

I recently spoke with Jan Coenen, President of the organization, who told me that the proceeds from the yearly calendar raffle have been posted online. Here are the many groups who were able to benefit from the sales:

An explanation of the Civic Celebration's dollars

With my recent posting about the Civic Celebration Commission's budget, I have been asked several times about the budget and what it all entails. The numbers can be confusing, especially when it relates to which numbers are coming from taxpayers and which aren't.

The budget for the Civic Celebration (Franklin Fest) this year has been announced as $76,400. It was on the agendas for the Committee of the Whole and the Common Council because they had to approve of supporting it in case the donations and revenues don't balance the books.