Here is a very moving video from Dan Cody, President of the Park People of Milwaukee County:
The Park People of Milwaukee County
Also from Dan Cody, on his personal blog, is a listing of some of the devastating cuts that the parks are facing in the upcoming budget from Scott Walker:
The highlights, or perhaps low lights, are now being circulated:
- First off, a cut in the tax levy support for the parks from $19.8 million to $15.1 million. A 24% reduction in funding for the park system via the property tax levy.
- Closing the Martin Luther King and Kosciusko Park Community Centers.
- Installing parking meters on Lincoln Memorial Drive and elsewhere along the lakefront.
- Shut down every outdoor pool. The pools at Washington Park, Sheridan Park, Jackson Park, McCarty Park, Wilson Park, Grobschmidt Park, Holler Park, Hales Corner Park and Pelican Cove would all be shut down. There would be no outdoor pools in the Milwaukee County Park system.
- Cutting the positions of 48 full time maintenance workers. A total of 85 people, 15% of full time employees, would be laid off.
- Privatizing or selling off the 108 public acres at Crystal Ridge.
- Cut maintenance work (snow plowing, plumbing, electric, etc.) to the senior citizen centers, apparently leaving seniors to shovel out their own parking lots and replace light bulbs. That includes Kelly, McGovern, Rose, Washington and Wilson Park senior centers.
Milwaukee County was just over here (by my house) butchering the hell out of the beautiful trees in the parkway. Apparently…they hired “professional arborist” but all they did was cut limbs off indiscriminately…and made all the trees look the same. Professional arborist should know trees are suppose to look different…each having their own special characteristics. I don’t understand what they were thinking. It’s as if they didn’t even look at the trees to see what needed to be done before cutting. I have pictures of the trees before MC started to cut the limbs off and they were beautiful. Now…well…they just look butchered.
Then when they were done…they dumped all the wood chips in the wooded area near the creek and left this area looking terrible.
I tried frantically to contact someone at the Parks’ Dept. but since it was only “my opinion” the trees were being ruined…I got dismissed…and transferred to a voice mail. I called back and explained to the condescending jerk receptionist…I needed to speak to someone immediately before all the trees were ruined…hoping someone would help…and he was unable to find anyone for me to speak to. The same thing happened over at Walker’s office. Now it’s too late. Now…instead of having beautiful trees with character…all the trees look the same with their bare trunks and being full on top. No cascading branches and/or unique shape to them. It may seem unimportant to those who don’t enjoy the natural beauty of the trees everyday like I do…but what they did to these trees was completely unnecessary…a waste of money…and destructive.
The County doesn’t have money to improve things but they have money to hire tree butchers to destroy the beauty and character of the trees in our parks. I just can’t believe they did this…I’m in shock.
[...] past 27 years. This year will be no different, except that it appears that the parks will suffer the most severe cuts yet. Some of the options being considered by the current administration is closing ALL of the outdoor [...]
Golfed at Brown Deer this past Friday and the course was in horrible condition. I have golfed over 500 rounds at this great course and was very surprised on the course conditions. Green were the worst shape i have ever seen. Sand traps were unplayable, flower beds and planters were non-existant. if this is your gold course and expect people to pay top green fees, you are gong to be in trouble. i will not play here again until i see vast improvements. You are letting this great course turn into a run of the mill municipal course.