We have seen a pattern of willful neglect from the current county executive that has never been seen before.
We have seen how the historic Eschweiler Buildings are being left to rot, presumably so they can be condemned and razed for his developer pals to take them over.
We have seen how the parks and parks facilities have been allowed to go for years and years without the needed maintenance and repairs. The bill to restore these once gemstones of Milwaukee County’s green necklace is over $238 million.
Even Walker’s own palace, the Milwaukee County Courthouse, is literally falling apart before our very eyes due to poor upkeep.
Recently, we have learned that this pattern of neglect and disregard appears to be very pervasive and has touched almost all aspects of the county.
This time, it is the Milwaukee County greenhouses. The County greenhouses, located in Wauwatosa, north of Watertown Plank Road and west of the freeway, have been vital to making some of Milwaukee County’s major attractions what they are, while saving taxpayers a lot of money.
The greenhouses have been used to raise plants for the Mitchell Park Conservatory (aka The Domes) and the parks. This saved a lot of money due to not having to buy these plants from a private company and then having to worry if the plants were healthy or not.
They would also sell some of the flowers and other plants to various municipalities in and around Milwaukee County. At the end of every May, the County would further enhance their revenue by having a giant plant sale.
In their day, the greenhouses would look like this:
How the greenhouses should look
or this:
Another look at a greenhouse
Unfortunately, Scott Walker did not care about how the greenhouses saved tax payer dollars or actually generated revenue. Now there are only a few that are still functioning and kept up.
What Walker did care about is the fact that he had found someone who wanted to buy the land for development.
That someone was Wisconsin Lutheran College, who wanted the land to build an expansion to its athletic complex. One of the problems was that the land would be sold for less than market value because Walker didn’t add in the cost of remediation and clean up:
The project would include cleanup of asbestos in the old greenhouses and cleaning contaminated soil.
The president of Local 882 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees said the county will lose money on the transaction because the county agreed to share the cost of environmental remediation with the college and will spend $1.5 million on the new greenhouse. Kurt Zunker also said the county is selling the land for less than its market value.
Zunker objects to Walker including the matter in his capital budget that is unlikely to receive scrutiny at the County Board committee level.
“The question is what is the county getting out of this deal?” Zunker said.
The greenhouses weren’t sold, but some other parks buildings were and were razed. The county did lose out on the deal when the cost of the clean up was included. On the bright side, until the county grounds deal, it slowed the County Board down for a little while from just rubber stamping any of these land sell offs.
On the downside, Walker continued to ignore and neglect the greenhouses leading to their disrepair. Here are some pictures of how many of the greenhouses look now:
This greenhouses is boarded up like the Eschweiler Buildings
The lack of maintenance and repair is obvious
Note the broken panels
Can you imagine how much heat is being lost through these broken windows?
The inside of one of the greenhouses - overgrown with weeds.
More weeds
Things are so bad, snow was accumulating on the inside of this building.
Expensive equipment allowed to go to waste due to a lack of protection
This picture has it all: The weeds, the broken glass, and the snow inside the building.
It is sad when one thinks about all of these county treasures that have been allowed to falter and rot for no good reason.
We all have years of hard work and great expense to get Milwaukee County back to being a world class place to live, to work and to play.
What would you cut from the budget to save the geenhouses?
We could start with the $50,000 raise Walker gave himself. Then move on to the tens of thousands of dollars he gave his administration. Then we could move on and negate all those expensive privatizations and put in the more reliable, more accountable and less expensive public sector workers.
I agree, cut more positions at the county level.
I would cut the salaries from Scott Walker and his staff. I would take away the cars the supervisors have to run around Milwaukee and gas allowance and car insurance! That is just a beginning.
Maybe if Walker digs deep in his pockets he might find a couple of million some where like he did a while ago…..$15 million to be exact.
This is criminal — think of the food that could be produced for the poor – the nutrition lessons and everything — disgusting
Think about how solar could be installed and installation taught — compost lessons, education for school children who have never grown anything. These elected officials are so corporate – so brain dead that every real opportunity for the evolution of the working class is lost.
It’s governments responsibility to teach children how to grow plants?? Theres a place where thats done for free, its called home.
The children i am talking about have no one to teach them to grow anything –their mothers are children. Please see the link I gave below — all over the country , the concept of public gardens especially in the inner cities is catching on because of the benefits in revitalizing neighborhood, feeding nutritious food to the hungry and educating people without other opportunity. Please follow the link below. It is so narrow minded to think that everyone comes from families that are skilled and resourceful. This is a perfect opportunity to really help people and get a big payback by taking children off the street and showing them another way. Whether dem or repub you should put politics aside and just seize this opportunity out of love for the earth.
“We have seen how the parks and parks facilities have been allowed to go for years and years without the needed maintenance and repairs.”
You mean the same parks that one a national gold medal of excellence?
That medal was won despite Walker, not because of him.
Actually, it was the video that won the award, not the parks themselves. The judges never even came to Milwaukee.
But leave it to Aaron to think that hundreds of millions of dollars in repairs and maintenance is a good thing. If that’s the way he really thinks, I’m glad I don’t live in his house. Roof probably leaks because it costs money to maintain it.
The more reliable county employees that got caught sitting around while on the clock? Even when the house keepers did work at the courthouse, it still looked like a dump. And anyone can stand behind a metal detector.
my gud it happened — DID YOU DO THIS?
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/46555537.html
if these are not the same greenhouses let’s force the county to refurbish and give them these greenhouses as well. The county will get the money back in food for the hungry.
Some of it could, but some of the greenhouses should stay to help save money by growing the plants and flowers for the Domes and other county parks.
No, the parks and Domes don’t plant native species but instead use pesticides and other wasteful and toxic growing practices. Let them plant native prairies and species that come back over and over without a lot of maintenance. This will teach about WI history. Let these greenhouses be used to grow organic food by community members who need the knowledge and can bring the results back into their own neighborhoods.
I disagree with the domes. They are for things that don’t grown naturally around here to help people learn.
But there are enough greenhouses that, once repaired, they could meet the needs of both the domes and the community.
Attn Greenconsciousness, With almost 3 decades under my belt working at the Domes, I can promise you that the Domes (Horticultural Conservatory) does NOT use pesticides, wasteful and toxic growing practices. In 1980, the Domes stopped all pesticide use and switched to IPM, an integrated pest management system, that incorporates using natural predators for pest problems. The only other product used to control insects is insecticidal soap, very safe. These controls are more cost effective, safer and easier than any chemical usage. Also, we have visitors ranging from newborn to 99 year old, do you think we want to harm them, ourselves or the environment?
I’m afraid that you mis-understand what the mission of the Conservatory is, as your statements are very misguided. As the name implies, we ‘conserve’ horticulture (read plants). We focus on indigenous plants from all parts of this big beautiful world– tropical, arid and temperate. Remember, they ARE native species somewhere in their homelands, and we’d like to keep them even if their habitats are being destroyed. So please, the next time you visit and see a giant aloe in the arid dome, remember that it’s indigenous or native to someplace, in this case, South Africa. Do you see what I mean? Wisconsin natives are not the only important species to value.
Yes, we do grow ornamental plants at the County Greenhouses. You’ve probably had pictures taken at the Domes with the floral display, maybe Christmas or Easter with loved ones, family and friends? Perhaps you’ve studied flowers or the natural world through our displays? Maybe you had an enlightening field trip where you saw a plant that grows in your own backyard? It’s both an educational and pleasurable world when you enter the Show Dome.
ALL plants of this world are important to mankind. Yes, Wisconsin native prairie plants, forbs, grasses and other species are wonderful, and necessary, as are the collections at the Domes. By the way, the Greenhouse Center does grow natives, under the Parks Trails system, seeds are collected, sown, grown and planted out in the parks. So please, Greenconsciousness, be a little more conscious about what you spew, because it hurts to think our community will get the wrong idea from you.
Back to the greenhouse issue, indeed, how sad they are- thank you Scott Walker! My suggestion is to repair these once state of the art greenhouses, hire more professional staff, and get back into the job of the parks department- whether it is nature education for school children, plant production for Parks, Boerner Botanical Gardens and the Domes, or yes, even urban food production for those less fortunate.
Come on County Board, wake up, Walker & cronies are destroying over 100 years of Milwaukee County history, and YOU are letting them! History will show you for what you are…or are not. Oh, and impeach Scott Walker…jail is too good for him!
A Park Worker stated at a recent John Gurda lecture on the History of the Parks, held at Boerner recently, that the thinking is to put up a smaller Greenhouse at Mitchell Park, this new structure would service the Domes. Let’s face it, the current Greenhouse is really hurting, and I say this from the viewpoint of a 1998 Seasonal worker. I drive around it now, I remember it then, I cringe.
Does the county need some volunteers to help clean out the greenhouses before they can be repaired and used? When I was a student at UWM we had plants throughout the county parks, boulevards etc. Now, they are rather sparse in comparison. Plants and flowers make people feel good, help the environment in countless ways and give people work. I worked for the parks and rec department and the zoo during my high school and college summers. The greenhouses are a great source of flowers for us to plant throughout Wauwatosa and what a difference we make as a community making a positive impact.
North Avenue Angel
Wauwatosa Beautification Committee