Sunday, October 28, 2012
Looking to add new businesses as road projects improve the downtown area, Muskego is going to offer a 'finders fee' for leads that bring in commerce
City officials are hoping a little cash incentive will motivate residents and other businesses to put out the word that Muskego is open for business. A plan that was first presented by Community Development Director Jeff Muenkel to the Community Development Authority about a month ago has received the final blessing of the Common Council to move forward. Taking an existing program from the city of Grandview MO, which Muenkel says is a similarly sized community to Muskego, the CDA will offer a finders fee for any business or resident that brings a new business to the city. Muenkel told the council the program could "start immediately," calling the program "just another mechanism to generate new business to the city." Some features of the …
Friday, October 26, 2012
Finance committee decides to forward the issue without a recommendation to council, but former employees who worked during 2012 may end up not getting retro pay after council's August decision for 2 percent increase
While the Common Council hadn't made a decision on a 2012 pay increase for city employees until August of this year, it may turn out that employees who worked during that time and have now left may be out of luck to receive back pay for the increase. The Finance Committee met on Tuesday to discuss a request to provide the employees no longer with the city, but who had worked in 2012, with retro paychecks. The practice had been done in the past due to contractural agreements with union employees, but a memo to the committee from Mayor Kathy Chiaverotti admitted that these agreements no longer exist, with the exception of police employees. In addition the memo stated "the labor attorney has been consulted and informs us that we are not …
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Numerous business owners came out Tuesday night to argue for funding as the third and final year of construction looms in 2013.
The final year of Janesville Road construction is scheduled for 2013, and with that, the city will likely fund the Jammin on Janesville events for another year at the same levels it's seen in the past two years, but not without more debate. Business owners came to the Committee of the Whole meeting Tuesday night to speak out for continued funding of $19,000 in 2013, which helps to offset the cost to market the event. Two previous COW meetings had left doubt that the summer event would see the same level of support from the city, with several aldermen concerned that the amount was too high. Dan Koehler, incoming president for the Muskego Area Chamber of Commerce and Tourism said the businesses still need the city's help, as they are already…
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Aldermen say the popular senior program has merit, but the summer street festival can do with less funding
The Muskego Senior Taxi will continue to receive funding from the city in 2013 at the same level it has in past years, but Jammin' on Janesville will likely face a cut. Meetings at the Committee of the Whole Tuesday, aldermen asked questions of representatives from the taxi service, which provides low-cost rides for Muskego seniors, to determine if they would continue to approve a $5,000 request for funding in 2013. The organization started about six years ago and has received city funds every year since. At issue was not whether the program was a benefit to the city, but rather how the city should categorize funding for this and other community organizations and services. "There are a lot of other organizations that would appreciate the …
Thursday, August 30, 2012
The Muskego Common Council approved 2 percent cost of living increases for 2012, but increased employee contributions to health care and retirement benefits will result in about the same take home pay.
If you work for the city of Muskego, the good news is that your wages will increase 2 percent retroactive to January 1 of this year. However, a new resolution passed by the Common Council Tuesday night will also require higher contribution levels for benefits like health insurance and retirement, netting no gain in take home pay. Employees currently paying into their health insurance will be asked to up the ante to 9 percent, up from about 6 percent, effective with their next paycheck. That increases to 10 percent in 2013. Those who hadn't participated before and want to join going forward will be asked to kick in 12 percent of their monthly premiums, and 13 percent in 2013. Alderman Dan Soltysiak was the most vocal in questioning the …
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Yet another wrench thrown into plans for pub to be rebuilt, as legal wrangling causes council to wonder if the use of the requested rezoning of DJ's is enforceable, but ultimately votes to approve.
Despite another rocky night for DJ's Pub at Common Council, the outcome was much brighter for the business, which has been trying to get approval for rezoning in order to rebuild since early June. Tuesday night's approval will now send it to plan commission to hammer out the details. The agenda featured a reconsideration of the failed resolution to rezone the bar, which is currently residential. The owner has requested commercial zoning as the business will be torn down to make way for a wider Janesville Road. Rebuilding the business, which has been a fixture at the site for 90 years, hinges on rezoning, designated by the city as downtown revival (DR-1). However, it wasn't going to be easy. Jim and Heidi Lindhorst, property owners …
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Taxi service for the elderly and disabled has been growing since 2008, but needs financial support to keep rolling, and officials look to 2013 to plan better for such requests.
Since it began as a product of the Mayor's Senior Focus Group in 2008, Muskego Senior Taxi has provided more than 16,000 rides for elderly and disabled residents in the city. However, the popularity of the low-cost service hasn't brought it self-sustaining revenue, and its board members returned to the finance committee Tuesday to secure $5,000 in funds to help make ends meet this year. While the committee approved the request, Alderman Dan Soltysiak asked that future budgeting be in place to address all requests similar to Senior Taxi. "This is a worthy thing, but we need to have this budgeted going forward. Maybe we start a pool of funds for this and all community groups like it," he said. The group said it was fundraising to meet its $…
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Plan Commission recommends keeping language in the city's 2020 Comprehensive Plan that speaks of lake access from downtown, but even without any language about a lake park, some feel it will always be a possibility.
Like it or not, property owners around the lake could decide at some point in the future to offer their land for purchase by the city to be used as a park, no matter what language exists in the city's 2020 Comprehensive Plan. That seemed to be the conclusion plan commissioners drew as they reviewed the options of rewording the plan, which outlines the city's vision for the next 10 years. A second attempt to develop a public park on Little Muskego Lake fell through this spring because of vocal opposition and the eventual withdrawal of the offer from the property owners. Shortly afterward requests for a removal of references to those properties in city planning documents were made, and they were removed from the parks and conservation plan. …
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Indicating interest is not the same as an offer to purchase, mayor stresses, but others on council say the land at the corner of Lannon Drive and Janesville Road should remain with the county.
Waukesha County currently owns the site where the BP gas station once stood at Janesville Road and Lannon Drive, and has approached the city to see if it would be interested in purchasing the land. City Planner Jeff Muenkel proposed the idea to the Finance Committee in a memo in which he stated possibilities for the land, including reselling the property at a later date, and leaving the property open with an eye to the overall streetscaping plan for Janesville Road. No terms were given for a potential sale, but Muenkel indicated that previous similar circumstances resulted in a symbolic transaction of $1. While the price could be right, council members weren't so eager to jump at the chance to purchase property. "Why would the city get …
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
The city hopes to help motorists - residents and visitors alike - find their way to parks, schools and other resources, without making the signage itself too confusing.
In one way, it's nice to know Muskego has so many places people would want to go: parks, schools and city services to name a few. However, when driving past a sign pointing to each at 35 to 45 miles per hour, it may get just as frustrating as not having any directions at all. That is the happy medium the Common Council was hoping to reach as it reviewed the proposed signage plan, which will literally point motorists in the right direction. "The feedback we got during the Lake Park debate was that people, even many residents, can't find our parks, so we're hoping to make it easier to get to these places," said Jeff Muenkel, city planner during the Committee of the Whole meeting Tuesday night. However, there was concern about having too much…
Andrew McKee
9:21 pm on Monday, October 15, 2012
I would like to address some of the comments here. While I was fortunate enough to generate "Record Sales Weeks" during the construction. Particularly after the first JoJ event; I did not generate record profits. I actually broke even over a three week period, in which each week was a successive record week. Why did I just break even? Re-investment! Everything I made over those three weeks went … more ›