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:

Is an auditorium in the future for FHS?

As County Supervisor Mark Borkowski plans to hold a town hall meeting at Greenfield High School's new auditorium in 8 days, and the Franklin Cultural Arts Center organization moves from being active to a "suspended" state, what's does the future hold for an auditorium for Franklin residents and students?

FCAC depature highlights need for Franklin First

In his message to supporters and members of the Franklin Cultural Arts Center (FCAC), Don Dorsan highlighted some of the issues that plagued and immensely hurt the organization. As an individual, I have supported the FCAC in the past both on the blog and through donations. I have also witnessed firsthand at the overall impact the organization had in the community, especially during summertime events.

I believe that organizations like the FCAC can survive and take on a more vital role in building the community if it solely isn't on one singular topic. After observing the passions of many residents, I discovered that the concept of "divided we fail" can easily apply to the situation in Franklin. Simply put, there are too many amenities residents desire and thus too many organizations fighting to get donations out of residents.

Franklin Cultural Arts Center operations to be suspended

A significant blow to the City of Franklin and its residents, an e-mail by Franklin Cultural Arts Center President Don Dorsan was leaked to Franklin Today. In his e-mail, Dorsan writes his supporters and volunteers that the organization will suspend operations as of now. Here is Dorsan's e-mail, in its entirety:

You have a say on the CMP

I figured it would serve you better to post two separate entries on the Comprehensive Master Plan. The first post was regarding what the CMP recommended to the council. This piece is about what YOU, the residents of Franklin, want and what PDI/Graef (the consultants who worked on the CMP) felt about it.

Comprehensive Master Plan approval delayed

Last night, the Comprehensive Master Plan (CMP) for the City of Franklin was not approved by the Common Council. Instead, thanks to the efforts of several aldermen, the CMP will be furthered reviewed, modified, and then will approved no later than early November.

Franklin needs to be first

Why is it when opportunities to expand on our community's culture or build on our community's value arise, someone puts a wrench in it? On Monday I provided notice that the Franklin Park Commission would discuss the possibility for a dog park. At a previous council meeting, there seemed to be support for a dog park. Unfortunately, that thought was not carried through on Monday evening.

A bummer for those who'd like to see more in Franklin

For those who've been around since my days on FranklinNOW.com, I hope you'll recall a post I had that discussed Franklin's community pride, or should I say the lack thereof regarding such pride.

It recently struck a nerve in a reader, which then ended up striking a nerve in me, when they found out that Franklin High School honors students would be receiving their awards & scholarships at a dinner...in Oak Creek. Yes, that's right - FHS students are receiving awards and scholarships at the Oak Creek Community Center, which is just a couple dozen yards from Oak Creek High School, Franklin's primary rival in sporting and academic events.

One has to wonder what the heck happened to create such a void in the community where FHS students couldn't receive their awards here in Franklin. Granted, we don't have very large facilities, but we do have some space available at the Polish Center, or City Hall, or the Public Library's Fadrow Room, or even in the FHS multi-purpose room or at area restaurants like Gus'. Options are available in Franklin, but yet Franklin Public Schools decides to bump it over to Oak Creek. What a shame.

Franklin does have funds available from impact fees to help construct a community center for, well, the community. Unfortunately city leaders haven't been too gung-ho about the idea, and I've always heard in the background an option where the impact fees go back to taxpayers and nothing gets built at all. It's frustrating to hear about this in a community where things such as community investment are little-to-none. Having been involved in Franklin and its politics since April of 2007, all I've seen is the lack of such investment, and to be quite honest if something like the Franklin Public Library was proposed today or even a year ago - I don't think the council would have ever approved of its construction!

All I'm seeing is aldermen looking only at the checkbook and nothing past that when it comes to community projects. Seeing a project, such as a community center, doesn't seem to stir a lot of thought in terms of how that center would likely attract more residents and businesses to Franklin. It also would attract more events to Franklin, which would generate more traffic into the city that would feed its retail and dining venues. Community investments generally equal out to economic development and additional tax base if one looks at a bigger picture.

Meanwhile, it seems to me that with no funding going towards community projects and investments, all of it is going elsewhere for items that quite frankly perplex me. For example, at the last council meeting the aldermen approved of over $12,000 to go to PDI/Graef for their work on our Comprehensive Master Plan. Considering that PDI/Graef has been working with the City of Franklin on our CMP for quite some time, I'm afraid to see the total numbers, especially if it ends up totalling a lot more than just simply hiring an extra employee or two in the Planning Department to work on the CMP for the city. Another expenditure that I believe was an extreme waste of taxpayer monies was all the studies that were done for the city since 2000. The Ticknor Report, the Franklin First Report, the Crossroads Plan, and others that have been approved by the council for who-knows how many tens of thousands (maybe even hundreds), and for what? From what I see, the city leaders don't even follow the reports in terms of development.

When one sits down and goes through the numbers, a lot of things begin emerging that poses the question: If we didn't spend all this cash on items we don't need, how much would we have for items we do need?

In the meantime, our students and their parents have to travel across city limits for an awards ceremony in Oak Creek...and that's only the tip of that gigantic economic and social iceberg hitting our community.

Recap of the FCAC Community Outreach meeting

Last night after I attended the special Common Council meeting, I decided to join Alderwoman Wilhelm and Franklin resident Scott Thinnes by walking down the hall to check out the Franklin Cultural Arts Center's community outreach meeting. The meeting was mainly a powerpoint presentation given by the President of ArtsMarket, which is the firm hired to do the feasibility study for the FCAC.

The presentation and the discussion made by the ArtsMarket President was very informative. It showcased multipurpose arts centers across the nation, from California to Denver's suburbs to Skokie, Illinois. It also provided a variety of concepts that arts centers can take on, from performance halls to truly a multifunctional facility that can hold various items from weddings to business conferences to performances all at the same time.

Perhaps a disappointment to the meeting was a very low attendance from the general public. I believe there was only 5 citizens present, including myself and Scott Thinnes. I can't say I'm completely surprised about this, however. During my time as a blogger, I've noticed that 95% of the time when I get the most reactions and comments from Franklin residents is via electronic communications - - e-mail, online petitions, and online polls and forums. Going to Common Council meetings to speak at citizens comment periods is truly a thing of the past for this community. So is going to outreach meetings for projects that aren't set in stone or have received much attention via the media or the elected leadership in City Hall...which probably is the bigger disappointment of the evening.

Personally, I find the Common Council's position(s) and stance(s) on the Franklin Cultural Arts Center rather puzzling. The most I see several aldermen do is lip service for the center, if even that. Alderman Steve Olson, for example, seems to enjoy the opportunity whenever it presents itself to provide some criticism of the proposed center. I'll assume that's because his former rival, Don Dorsan, is spear-heading the project and devotes much of his personal time to its future success. Regarding this meeting, I find the lack of aldermen present to just hear the expert on arts centers speak rather disturbing. It must have been what people in my high school days would call a "TMI": Too Much Information. Hearing an expert on arts centers and their impacts on the community both economically and socially must have not been worth hearing for those aldermen. By the way, when I speak of aldermen I'm pointing my fingers at Aldermen Steve Olson, Lyle Sohns, and Tim Solomon. Olson is on the Economic Development Commission, and Tim Solomon is on the Parks Commission and the Community Center Ad-hoc Committee, of which the FCAC could include a community center if the city can learn to be more cooperative with nonprofit organizations.

It puzzles me as to how the Common Council can truly take strong stances on the Franklin Cultural Arts Center when only one member of it actually took the time out of her daily tasks to listen and learn potential benefits. Kudos to Alderwoman Kristen Wilhelm for at least spending 30 mins after the Council meeting attending the FCAC's presentation down the hall. As for Olson, Sohns, and Solomon, I can't think of any excuses for them not even spending 5 minutes after the meeting at the FCAC's presentation. To me, it just indicates to me that they're not interested in the project and don't want to see it succeed...which is a true shame for Franklin residents.

The main thing I learned from the meeting was that there are a variety of items to include or put aside for future expansions for the future cultural arts center. The price tags can also vary from a few million to tens of millions of dollars. Some centers were built alongside country clubs and corporate retreats. Some were so big they seconded as convention centers that rivaled urban downtowns. Some were anchors to major commercial centers that included upscale shopping, hotels, and residences. Some were simply attached to the local high school, or located on the high school's property. All had their perks, and all had some possible restrictions. However, all were very feasible to be built in Franklin, and several sites throughout the community provide ample space for such a facility.

A question asked by Mr. Thinnes will definitely be the biggest question for the FCAC to grasp: Who is the FCAC's customer, and how do they expect to maintain a successful business model to remain afloat. The discussion ranged from being centrally located in Franklin (perhaps with a smaller facility) to one that would facilitate multiple jurisdictions (suburbs) and thus have a committee set-up to carry out the construction and operations.

After the meeting, I approached Don Dorsan and applauded the presentation. I also spoke to new Community Development Authority member Jim Mullarkey, who is on the FCAC Board of Directors, and mentioned to him a potential problem with the FCAC concept. It's the notion that the FCAC claims to be providing services to multiple suburbs, and wishes to gain support from multiple suburbs, but yet the "F" remains in the FCAC. "F" stands for "Franklin", and why would Greendale or Oak Creek support a center that seems to be solely dedicated to Franklin? Perhaps that's another task to overcome, and hopefully the Board of Directors for the organization are looking into changing the name to something more neutral to gain more brownie points with the neighboring burbs.

On a last note, hopefully more Council and School Board members spend some time in looking at this project seriously. I wish the FCAC and Mr. Dorsan luck and success for this venture.

Some updates regarding stimulus packages

Good morning Franklin!

After my criticism of Mayor Tom Taylor in not consulting the Common Council before submitting Franklin's nearly $104 million stimulus package, I decided to look at our neighbors for some advice.

I first looked at our direct neighbor to the north, Greendale. After contacting Greendale Village President John Hermes about the matter, I received word that Hermes did in fact receive input from members of the Board of Trustees prior to his submittal to Governor Doyle. Greendale requested a little over $9 million in their package.

Around the same time, I looked eastward to Oak Creek. While we know Oak Creek submitted roughly $83 million for their package, I couldn't get a definite answer on whether or not the Common Council had any input with Mayor Dick Bolender's office.

Then last night while I was looking into the Greenfield Mayor's race, I came across Mayor Michael Neitzke's stimulus package for his community. Greenfield requested a little over $34 million, with the majority being in road projects and building rehabilitation.

Download Greenfield Stimulus Package

I have yet to hear as to whether or not Greenfield's Common Council had a say prior to Neitzke submitting his package.

In closing this particular entry, I'll leave you with some personal thoughts on this. I feel that an open government is necessary in order to weed out some of the nonsense we see on plenty of legislation. Mayor Taylor's stimulus package oozed of several major "pork" items, including the full $20 million it would cost to build the Franklin Cultural Arts Center and several million for new parks that included ice skating rinks. I like what Village President Hermes did in Greendale by including the Village Board of Trustees in his decision-making for this important package. Also, while I never met him in person, I do have some respect now for Greenfield Mayor Michael Neitzke. While the jury's still open on whether or not Neitzke had any aldermanic recommendations, his proposed package didn't have much of pork at all, and I thought presented a reasonable proposal to the Governor. Greenfield also took the iniative by putting up the entire proposed stimulus package on their website for anyone to view. Greenfield in this case leads the southern suburbs in this matter; upon researching the other suburbs I have found that not one other burb has their stimulus package proposal on their website. With regards to this blog being a Franklin-centered one, I express my utter disappointment with the fact that my blog had to be the first to show Franklin residents the complete stimulus package from Mayor Taylor's office. So much for that open government that Alderman Olson and the Technology Commission proclaim we have...