Top Stories July 13th

Milwaukee House Demolition Delayed


7/13/10 - Demolition of the Milwaukee House in downtown Beaver Dam has been delayed again. The Operations Committee last night rejected bids for the project after it came in $28,000 over engineering estimates at $69,000. The high bid was $98,000. Committee Chair Laine Meyer says the city will split the project into two bids in hopes of getting a lower cost. Of the three bids that came in, the remediation costs for two were very reasonable, while the bidder who had the lowest cost for demolition had an “unreasonably” high estimate for lead-clean-up. City officials say the building known commonly as the Milwaukee House has fallen into a state of disrepair that makes it a public hazard. James Stricker owns the property located at the intersection of South Center Street and Ryan Cantafio’s Way and will be assessed the costs for the demolition. Stricker has spent the past five years trying to do something with the property but has run into a number of hurdles. He says he still plans on opening a custard stand one day. Officials are still confident the demolition will take place this year.

Downtown Constructon Projects Moving Along

7/13/10 - Preliminary work is now underway to convert the old Weyco Shoe Factory in Beaver Dam into an apartment complex. Wisconsin Redevelopment Vice President Todd Hutchison says his firm secured funding last Thursday. The structure at 222 Madison Street will be converted into 33 loft-style apartments. Hutchison says construction should take about one year and the units should be ready for occupancy by next June. He says there have already been a number of people that have requested marketing a packet to sign-up for a unit.

Meanwhile, the developers of Madison Place, right across the street from Weyco, say they are right on schedule. Silverstone Partners of Middleton is constructing a 62-unit, three-story independent senior living center at the site of the former Thomas Chevrolet lot. Silverstone President Tom Sather says the doors to Madison Place will be opened as planned this October. Sather says the $7.1 million dollar project has created jobs, eliminated blight, and will continue the revitalization of downtown Beaver Dam all while providing much-needed high-quality affordable housing for seniors. Madison Place will offer 36 one-bedroom apartments and 26 two-bedroom apartments to those 55 and older. They have already received 44 rental applications, which Sather says is much more than usual.


Bankers Don’t Expect Economy to Heal Quickly

7/13/10 - Bankers say you should not expect the state’s economy to recover quickly. The Wisconsin Bankers Association recently surveyed 114 bank C-E-O’s. 56-percent of them said the state’s economy has hit rock bottom, but 96-percent say conditions are still either fair-or-poor. Association president Kurt Bauer says there’s still a low demand for business loans, because companies are not sure how strong the recovery is. And they’re concerned about the way government at all levels will handle revenue shortfalls in their next budgets. Also, bankers are not happy about the financial overhaul bill that’s up for a vote in the U-S Senate.

BD Raceway Park Fined for Races Going Late

7/13/10 - Beaver Dam Raceway Park was fined Saturday for allowing races to go past the time allowed. The park is allowed to run races until 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and up to midnight if it rained. Town of Beaver Dam police say they received numerous reports of the races going until nearly 1:30 Sunday morning. The fine is $366 and police say they will be turn over their report to the towns planning committee for review.

Barrett: District should be Equally Represented by Dems and GOP

7/13/10 - Tom Barrett, the Democrats’ main candidate for governor, said yesterday that a non-partisan board should draft the boundaries for state legislative and congressional districts. Barrett, the Milwaukee mayor, says his goal would be to have Democrats represent half the voters in each district, and Republicans the other half. Right now, legislators complete the redistricting on their own. And even though a federal court normally steps in, there are criticisms that lawmakers draw the lines with as many friendly voters as possible. Barrett’s plan would let lawmakers, outside groups, and others draft redistricting plans and submit them to the Government Accountability Board. That panel would choose the fairest maps, and submit them to lawmakers for approval. And if the Legislature cannot agree, the accountability board would have the final say on the maps.

Neumann Admits to Not Paying Transfer Fees

7/13/10 - Mark Neumann’s campaign for governor admits that he failed to pay over 25-thousand-dollars in state government transfer fees for his real estate holdings. The former Republican congressman is now a home-builder. And the campaign said the firm of Neumann Developments mistakenly thought it was eligible for an exemption from the fees, when it transferred millions-of-dollars in properties to another corporation formed by Neumann’s son Matt since 2008. But Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist Dan Bice said he learned that Neumann did not qualify for the exemption. That’s because he failed to hold the properties for at least three years. And the exemption applies only to transfers from a business to a shareholder – not from one corporation to another, as was the case with Neumann. Campaign spokesman Chris Lato tells the Journal Sentinel that Neumann is paying back the 25-thousand in state fees he owes. His G-O-P primary opponent, Scott Walker, did not comment. The governor and Legislature approved the real estate transfer fee to help eliminate one of the state’s recent budget deficits. The state gets three-dollars for every one-thousand dollars of property that’s transferred.

Officials Warning Public About Jobs Scam

7/13/10 - State consumer protection officials say there’s a second wave of scams being pulled off in connection with the Gulf Coast oil spill. The first dealt with bogus donations. Now, bureau administrator Janet Jenkins says false job ads are being posted in newspapers and on-line. Their goal is to get people to pay for training and certifications for jobs that are promised, but don’t really exist. First of all, Jenkins says no legitimate company guarantees anyone a job without checking things like experience and references. And she says real employers don’t ask for money or personal information up-front. It has apparently gotten so bad that scam artists are posing as B-P officials.

Corn Crop Ahead of Last Year’s Pace

7/13/10 - Wisconsin’s corn crop is still growing faster than normal. Officials say the corn is 59-inches tall on average – seven-inches above the norm for the past five years. Eighty-four percent of the crop is good-to-excellent, but there are still reports of yellow corn in low-lying areas and uneven stands due to the wet conditions. Last week’s hot weather helped the corn grow, with temperatures up to nine-degrees above normal. No place in Wisconsin is “very short” of moisture anymore. But four-percent of fields statewide are still listed as “short,” while 26-percent have a surplus of moisture. Eighty-two percent of Wisconsin’s soybeans are good-to-excellent, with 21-percent in bloom – three points below the norm. 87-percent of the oats are good-to-excellent, along 86-percent of the winter wheat crop.

Magazine Ranks WI 9th in Sustainability

7/13/10 - Wisconsin is the ninth-most sustainable among the 50 states. That’s according to Site Selection magazine, which ranked states on things like their incentives for energy efficiency, green industrial projects by the private sector, and the redevelopment of polluted industrial lands designed as “brown-fields.” Editor Adam Bruns said Wisconsin did especially well in cleaning up brown-fields. It received 41-million federal dollars, and combined it with 78-million in other monies to clean up those polluted lots. Tom Still, head of the Wisconsin Technology Council, also cited the state’s “Green-to-Gold Fund.” It loans federal stimulus dollars to environmentally-friendly industrial projects – and when it’s paid back, it gets loaned to other similar business projects. The magazine rated California as number-one in sustain-ability. And three of Wisconsin’s neighbors made the Top-10. Minnesota is fifth, Michigan sixth, and Illinois 10th.