WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM A SQUIRREL

I became aware of the plans for the resurfacing of Milwaukee Street because of a squirrel which is kind of ironic really given what I have found out in the last few days...

This story began a week ago today. We had a power cut on Saturday morning and as normal in this part of Delafield our neighbors had congregated at the back of the house on the lane to discuss the outage ( I had thought).

My wife Jackie went out and started chatting to Chloe (you will hear more from Chloe later). To cut a long story short Jackie was chatting for nearly an hour and it wasn't about the outage; it was about Delafield City plans for Milwaukee Street, a block way.......

Page 1 January 2012

The City have plans for Milwaukee Street as you can see. Back in January the plan was for resurfacing and the reconstruction of the street, monies had been budgeted and the council said that public input would be gathered. Its on the document so have a read through.

There were three options discussed;

1. Resurfacing the current surface
2. A revision to include a path
3. A further revision with a 6 foot sidewalk and guttering included

Page 2 January 2012

All three options are interesting and  the the road needs resurfacing (it should have been done in 2011 but was put back) and the council said that the public would be involved after any necessary revisions.

 These 2 pages are from the public works committee meeting minutes from the 4th January 2012.All of the minutes can be downloaded from here Public Works Meeting Minutes

So far so good, any improvement that brings tangible benefits to the citizens and the residents of Delafield is good with me.

There is a lot of copy well worth a read

However, it seems that things have moved rapidly on since then. Roll forward  3 months and at the April meeting a lot has been decided as you can see. If you have a read through the full document (download here) its got some statements within it that don't entirely ring true. First up the minutes state three drainage issues but go onto discuss only 2. 

The first reason was that the ditches overflowed in heavy rain. The second that the trees and shading were causing issues with wetness on the road, resulting in damage and deterioration.  The third reason it seems doesn't exist.

Its no surprise that they overflow

One reason that the ditches overflow might be because they haven't been maintained. This is a shot taken on Friday by Daniel Webster. 

Mike Court the city engineer went onto say that the plan involved destroying 23 quality trees as part of the project, with a budget of $10,000 dollars to replace them. This brings me back to to the Squirrel, that has in its own way created this blog.

The reason we lost the power was because a squirrel had a very bad day, it had decided to check out a transformer owned by WE Energies a little too closely resulting in it leaving the planet early. 

At this point you need to know that I personally have never hugged a tree (or a squirrel for that matter). 

But I have done a little research on them this week with Google and Chloe's help and I have to admit I have learned quite a bit.

For example did you know that an average mature tree uses around 30 gallons of water a day. That is a lot of water and living in Lake Country if that water wasn't removed from the ground by trees then where would it go? 

Its a good question especially when you cut down 23 trees and other poor quality ones. 

I needed to learn some more about trees. Did you know that a trees roots are really quite sensitive, that they don't go deep, but they do go quite far. 

If the roots are damaged its highly likely the tree will die

I wanted to do the numbers, and see how many actual trees were to be cut down. I got hold of the plan (download the full plan here) and sat down with Chloe to count up how many actual trees would likely come down because of work. These are the numbers

• 16 Quality trees
• 7 questionable trees
• 34 poor quality trees ( I would like to understand what makes a poor quality tree)
• 99 trees that would suffer root damage from the development plan

That is 156 trees that on average will each consume 30 gallons of water per day for around 240 days a year in our neck of the woods. Which when you do the math is:

  1,123,200 Gallons of water a year

Now that's a lot of water (if half the trees were saved its still a lot of water) and I would like to understand where it is going to go?

A LOVELY LAKE & WATER 

The lake in winter

A stones through (literally) from the proposed road development is a very lovely lake by the name of Nagawicka (Nagawicka means "there is sand”, the reason this name was chosen can still be seen in the excellent swimming areas surrounding it). The lake is really at the heart of everything in Delafield and as such making sure it is looked after and is protected is important to all the residents.

Some facts and figures on the lake; Its area covers 981 ACRES, with a maximum depth of 90 feet (and a mean depth of 36 feet). Its composition at the bottom is 0% sand, 60% gravel, 0% rock, 40% muck ( the term used to to describe it) and its draining system is hydrologic.

The thing about lakes is that they need looking after and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) are really keen that its citizens do so. So much so that they publish a lot of information on lakes (DNR information) .

There are three big problems associated with lakes:

1. Eutrophication (this when increased nutrients in the water lead to algae blooms and nuisance weeds)
2. Sedimentation
3. Contamination caused by the addition of harmful chemicals. 

The DNR goes onto say that these problems can be avoided or reduced through proper lake and watershed management. The DNR wants Wisconsin Citizens to play a key role in preventing the deterioration of lakes by supporting proper watershed management, protection of shorelines, and control of water uses.

An outstanding question hangs over the project that hasn't been answered by the city council. What environmental impact the road development (and specifically the storm water sewer) will have on the lake, its water quality and its fish? Without this being answered I'm not sure that a decision that effects so many people (including their livelihoods) should be made without further investigation. Now that's my view.

This was sent to me which makes for a good read that was hard to find in the online records:

April 2012 Page 1

April 2012 Page 2

Resolution 2012-06

You know the bigger picture issue for many residents is the lake, and with the exception of the residents on Milwaukee Street,  none of the local residents around or on the lake were asked their opinion or written to about the project. I'm not sure that this is the right way to go about things.  I think that the City council would get either a lot more buy-in or get a clearer picture of the feelings of the community if they involved them; by not doing so simply leads to distrust.

At the beginning I said that you would hear more from Chloe and this seems to me to be a good time to do so. Chloe has written a personal letter and I think that if you read between the lines the distrust is clearly there. Chloe has personally attended many of the meetings and she feels that she is not being listened to when she speaks. She is a lovely lady who has lived in the town for 40 years and as such I think her words are worth reading and listening to:

Just click on the letter to open it up in another window

There are more personal letters and this is one from Jim Buege

Jim Page 1

Jim's page 2

This was put together by Maddy Straka

Maddy has spent a lot of time on this fact sheet. 

And here are 30 questions put down on paper by the residents for the city council:

30 questions from Residents

TAKE A DRIVE DOWN THE ROAD

Probably the easiest way to get a real understanding for what the road looks like is to have a drive down it. Hopefully this video will give you a feel for aesthetics of the road as it is today.

The video starts out on Main Street before driving the full length of Milwaukee Street. It was filmed on Sunday the 2nd September around noon (Labor day weekend).

In the short term if the development goes ahead as planned the road is likely to look this one year down the road.

Just down the road, do wider roads increase safety?

One of the main reasons given for the proposed development is the safety of pedestrians which I totally agree with. According to the public records however there have not been any incidents of cars and pedestrians colliding on Milwaukee Street.

Should safety be compromised to protect the environment? Absolutely not would be my opinion. The safety of the the residents should come first and foremost, that said there are other options that were mentioned by Ed McAleer the Mayor. One such proposal was to make Milwaukee Street a one way street. it is stated that there was not enough support for this however there are no public records or surveys that support this.

And it for these reasons that i would like to see more discussion around the project that brings more voices and ideas to the table. Once a tree is cut down its down and this really is a concern. The tree below will surely go, the tiny pink flags at the bottom show where the roadworks will go extend to.

The Pink Flags show the boundary

Its the roots beneath the tress that that will suffer the damage that will bring them down.

Will fewer trees lining the road improve safety? Possibly as visibility is improved however when you can see further and have improved visibity its easier to speed. Its speed that kills.

A British Medical Journal study makes a compelling case for all speed limits to be reduced to 20 MPH to save lives, the majority of pedestrians struck at this speed survive, whilst the majority struck at 30 MPH die.

It would make more sense to lower the speed limit to save lives alongside paved walkways.

I'm sure that this would help however it hasn't been discussed (maybe it will now).



I don't want to stop progress, its necessary. If safety is the primary driver for the project then a 20 MPH speed limit needs to be discussed as well and it hasn't been, which is my point.

This brings me back to squirrels; to be continued............