Franklin Today

Blogger takes out papers for alderman

No, ladies and gentlemen, the blogger who took out papers is not me! However, my name is frequently mentioned on this particular blogger's website.

Wag the Dog blogger Bryan Maersch has taken out papers for the 2010 Spring Aldermanic Elections. Bryan lives in the 5th district, currently represented by Alderman Lyle Sohns. The taking out of papers this early poses several questions, at least from this vantage point:

We're making an impact

It goes to show just how powerful an online media resource can be. Over the past several days, Franklin Today has been countered by Alderman Olson's good pal, State Senator Lazich's aide Kevin Fischer. Whether it is about the petition that recently ended, police presence at Franklin High School, or providing students at FHS a safer route to school, he has been aiming to dismiss the valid points made on this site. One such example is the near mocking tone he takes when it comes to constructing sidewalks for the students, which has received some backlash from residents.

Furthermore, as election season comes closer residents now have to keep tabs on FranklinNOW.com. An example of resident awareness is noticing that while the FranklinNOW article about the Aquatics petition clearly states that a public/private partnership is needed to make the project a success, the NOW online poll doesn't give any indications of such. Instead, it indicates to taxpayers that you're either for or against $11.5 million being spent on an Aquatics Center in the community. 

It goes to show that your readership and support of this site is making an impact with the "competition" in Franklin, with one blogger already working on smearing and trying to dismantle the topics made and discussions provided on this site. If you haven't thought about contributing $1 or $2 to help support Franklin Today, consider it. With your additional support, more can be done in covering the topics that you want covered, and continuing to concern others who have made income by selling newspapers every week.

President Obama's address to students not happening as planned at FPS

Over at Fairly Conservative, my good friend Cindy Kilkenny discussed a recent e-mail sent out by the US Secretary of Education to school principals across the country. The e-mail, which can be read in full here, states that President Obama will be making a national address directly to students in the classroom at 11am Central Time next Tuesday. It was noted that teachers should be encouraged to allow their students to watch the Presidential Address, which would be streamed over the Internet from the White House's website.

Personally, I was kind-of surprised that the President would make such a speech/address to students right in the middle of their learning experience. To make the point a little more clear, at 11am my sister attending Franklin High School would be in the middle of her 4th hour World History class. If the principal instructed all the teachers to drop everything to stream Obama's address to students, her class would be disrupted in the middle of learning what I believe to be something rather important - the history of our planet.

So as Cindy Kilkenny contacted the Brookfield East principal about his intentions for next Tuesday morning, I figured that it was worth the attempt at seeing what Franklin Public Schools was planning.

New tenants at the Shoppes at Wyndham Village?

Upon reading fellow blogger John Michlig's "Shoppes at Wyndham Ghost Town" postings, I was motivated to do a little "refresh" on the Shoppes at Wyndham Village. When we last discussed this project to some extent, it was to talk about Sendik's Fine Foods shutting down and to be replaced by a Pick n Save. While that's significant in many aspects, another issue that should have been brought up is the large amount of empty space in the several outlot buildings that are along Hwy 100 and Drexel Avenue. Fortunately, that might be shaping up into something a little more positive.

On this 4th of July Weekend...

Many will be out and about at area festivals. I know that most likely all of you will be at Franklin Fest at least one of the three days its running (today-Saturday), and will be enjoying a wonderful fireworks display on the 4th. It's these days during the summertime that perhaps we should take a larger look at our community's assets, and what brings people together. While Lions Legend Park isn't a part of the Milwaukee County Parks system, Franklin has several county parks within its borders: Froemming, Oakwood (with golf course), and parts of Whitnall (with golf course and the Wehr Nature Center).

Thanks to the blog Cognitive Dissidence, I came across this video made by Dan Cody, who is currently the President of The Park People. The Park People are dedicated to the continued preservation of the Milwaukee County Parks, and help the parks out in several ways. I encourage all of you to check out this video, and then to have a fantastic 4th of July!

It's "official" - Daykin reports on Sendik's closure

Journal Sentinel reporter Tom Daykin confirmed what people have been hearing yesterday. Sendik's Fine Foods at the Shoppes at Wyndham Village will CLOSE by the end of the month. Roundy's has acquired the store and will turn it into a Pick n Save, and will reopen as such in November.

What's concerning me is how Roundy's expects to have three Pick n Save locations all so close to each other. The stores I'm talking about are the ones at 76th & Rawson, Hwy 100 & Janesville, and now this new one on Hwy 100 & Drexel. I just haven't seen the massive growth in demographics that would tell me that a Pick n Save on Hwy 100 & Drexel would work out, given the fact that all those in the demographic area already go to the other two that are currently open.

Does this mean Roundy's will close one of their other 2 locations in the immediate area? I don't think so. The one on Rawson just got an facelift of sorts, and is on one of Franklin's busiest intersections. The one in Hales Corners (Hwy 100 & Janesville) was recently built as a larger store from the original one at the Garden Plaza strip mall, which they shut down once the new store was completed and is still vacant to this day.

So what does this tell us? Fortunately, we won't have an empty box for too long after Sendik's Fine Foods departs the city. It'll be Pick n Save before the Christmas shopping season. I suppose another plus is the fact that residents in the neighboring high-end subdivisions won't have to be worried about the first SuperTarget in the metropolitan area being across from their homes. If anything, what we're seeing here is Roundy's getting somewhat defensive of their home turf by preventing a SuperTarget or a Greatland Target (which also sells a lot of groceries) from getting a foothold near two of their more popular food stores (Rawson and Hales Corners).

On the other side of things, the dreams of Greenway Station are now long gone. However, a Pick n Save and a Target could generate extra traffic and thus make the center more appealing for, say, a Panera Bread or salon & spa to locate in one of the outlot buildings. It all comes down to what the potential tenants want, and from what we're seeing with the closure of Sendik's tells us that they weren't generating enough traffic to even keep themselves afloat. Maybe Pick n Save will...

Governor Doyle's potential recall and flashbacks in Franklin politics

As I was working on a story for Metro Milwaukee Today, I looked over a map that Citizens for Responsible Government (CRG) has up with regards to their possible recall against Governor Jim Doyle. The map shows off volunteers, organizers, and leaders where those interested can look to for advice. While Oak Creek only displays one such individual, Franklin has four. This makes sense to me, since CRG "brain" Orville Seymer lives in Franklin...in CCP Taylor's district near 27th Street, to be exact.

While Seymer's was a given on the list, a name (along with the Google pin associated with it) sparked my interest. "O'Malley" is listed as a circulator for such an effort, and the pin is located near the Root River Parkway along 68th Street, between Drexel and Puetz. Well, one of our seemingly many hometown developers by the name of Jim O'Malley lives in such a high-end subdivision between the Root River Parkway and 68th Street, between Drexel and Puetz.

Now I'm not going to go to any lengthy extent, but it would be my opinion, based on where the Google pinpoint lies, that "O'Malley" on the list matches with Jim O'Malley the developer.

It would be interesting to find out if any other influential members of Franklin's political past signs onto this particular endeavor. While you might ask how Jim O'Malley would be in Franklin politics, the answer is quite simple: all the hometown developers are! In the April 08 elections, O'Malley contributed to Pete Kosovich's campaign. Other hometown developers, such as Mark Carstensen and Icon Development, also contributed to the other campaigns for the April 08 elections: Al Hammelman, Ken Skowronski, and Mayor Tom Taylor. They're also extremely likely to contribute to incumbent aldermen in the April, 2010 elections as well. Those up are Aldermen Steve Olson, Lyle Sohns, and Tim Solomon.

It was Olson, Hammelman, Kosovich, Sohns, Skowronski, and Mayor Taylor, combined with individuals like Orville Seymer, Jim Rhiner, and Ted Grintjes who organized Franklin Citizens for Responsible Leadership. Due to the hometown developers' interests in making political contributions to these individuals, I believe they played a huge part in the past (and present) regarding their own influences. I personally made note of Olson's overly-friendly attitude towards Mr. Carstensen at Tuesday night's Common Council meeting, going to the extent of waving goodbye to Mark prior to him leaving the council chambers.

Don't you just love Franklin politics?

Have you taken the poll yet?

In what seems to be a miracle for Franklin residents, a governmental entity has uploaded an online survey for you to take!

Franklin Public Schools is looking for citizen input on the potential future of its 4K program. Go to www.franklinpublicschools.org and the survey should be easily accessible from the webpage. It’s not too lengthy, and asks some general questions.

On a sidenote: Franklin Public Schools is also on Twitter! You can follow them @ twitter.com/FPSDistrictWI

Perhaps the City of Franklin can take this example and create some surveys of their own, especially with regards to hot-button issues like road projects and developments. Recently projects such as the St. Martins Trail extension and the application for stimulus dollars for 51st Street stirred a lot of controversy amongst the population due to various concerns.

Regarding Twitter accounts, I'd be easily amused if I saw CCP Taylor or Alderman Olson tweeting away from their homes after council meetings! For the record, you can follow this site (as well as Metro Milwaukee Today) @ twitter.com/mmtoday.

The Technology Commission will review e-mail protocols

On their February 25th agenda:

VI. City Related Email Protocol for Elected and Appointed Officials

What an interesting topic to discuss! It just so happens that this pops up on the Alderman Olson-represented commission just weeks after I filed an open records request with City Hall asking for copies of ALL e-mail communications from Olson to Mayor Taylor and CCP Taylor. It's been now 2 weeks since my request was filed, and I have received no information on it. What's up with the delay? I usually receive information pertaining to my requests within 48 hours. Why are we entering several weeks with not even a peep regarding this request?

It all goes back to what I opined about yesterday regarding Olson's tactics and negative behavior. He'll point at everyone else for being vengeful, but will attempt to make himself look like a saint. If he is truly a saint, I'd like to see proof of such. If Olson refuses to supply me with his e-mails to the Mayor and Common Council President, I might have to escalate my request to a higher authority.

As for the Technology Commission's review of e-mail protocols, I just hope the Technology Commission doesn't attempt to become Tech Czars for the City of Franklin and its residents.

"Printed political discourse in this city has turned from an expression of ideas to vendetta and personal destruction."

That's from Alderman Steve Olson, commenting on our State Senator's aide's blog entry regarding Franklin resident and blogger Fred Keller. That entry, labeling Keller as a liar and in later comments, a closet liberal (???), has been disproved by none other than Keller himself, along with another resident who wrote on our State Senator's blog.

What's funny about Olson's comment is that I don't think it's very difficult to figure out that half the time it's none other than Steve Olson himself that feeds our aide information from City Hall, which then turns into political discourse. Seeing Olson try and warp this into a 180 making him look like some kind-of saint didn't please me very much, given the background and experience with my alderman.

This is the same guy that led barrage upon barrage of personal, negative, and smearing attacks against former alderman Don Dorsan back in 2004 to replace Dorsan as the alderman for the 1st District. To put things in perspective, Olson carried his aldermanic campaign so nasty that when the Kosovich/Taylor election in 2008 was happening, it spooked some people (including myself) because it was so friendly! Olson sent out so much negative material and rallied local media support against then-incumbent Don Dorsan that both still have issues with each other to this day...which is turning on 5 years now.

This is the same guy who was what I'd consider an integral part of the former political action group Franklin Citizens for Responsible Leadership, who knocked off several aldermen including Dorsan and had quite the past with the Milwaukee County District Attorney's office. I'm sure if I had a chance to sit down with Basil Ryan he'd be real excited to spill some of those beans on the clique Olson was part of. Don't believe me? Read the quote from the Journal Sentinel (emphasis mine):

Franklin Citizens for Responsible Leadership emerged in March 2003, saying it intended to recall Ryan and anyone else members saw as blocking the city's economic development efforts. Over the next year, the group replaced four of the six sitting aldermen with one of its founding members - Ald. Steve Olson - and three others sympathetic to its agenda. Olson later distanced himself from the group.

The group made what turned out to be false or exaggerated claims against opponents in fliers, claiming in one case that the candidate knew a sex-offender home was being planned for Franklin and that the candidate did nothing to fight a landfill expansion whose height would "exceed the Empire State Building."

"It was 'take the office at all costs.' That was the tactic they used," said former Ald. Don Dorsan, who lost to Olson and complained to the district attorney's office that the group had knowingly distributed false information about him.

Dorsan said the group's actions had discouraged others from running.

"You'd need a lot of money to fight this group," said Dorsan, who chairs the city's Environmental Commission. "The average guy who wants to be in office for all the right reasons doesn't have those kinds of resources."

Sorry, Alderman Olson, but I'll never buy your political tactics and schemes. If we took the quote that you put up on your press secretary's blog seriously, then you'd most likely be the start of a lot of that "vendetta" and "personal destruction" you speak of in Franklin politics. If some friends of mine were to speak their minds to you, I'm sure they'd say something along the lines of karma being a you-know-what.