So Much to Say!
TLDR/ Key Points:
Budget season for the Village. The next few Village Board meetings will include substantive discussions regarding budget planning, including taxes, use of ARPA funds, and strategic initiatives we want to pursue.
The Fox Bay Theater building continue to be a priority but faces unique challenges given the announcement of a new theater operator at Bayshore.
The Public Works Committee and Dept of Public Works is doing an outstanding job of advancing environmental initiatives. I’m working with others on how to better leverage our “community of experts” to support their efforts.
Proud to have helped with a Dementia Awareness resolution to educate residents and municipal departments on dementia recognition and support.
First, a belated plug for Compost Crusader, who will be doing a presentation on Tues Oct 11 at 6:30 PM at the WFB Public Library in the upstairs program room. The meeting is hosted by the WFB Garden Club and you’ll learn “about how Compost Crusader makes beautiful garden enhancing compost while keeping everyday items out of landfills…the process of composting…[and] how their business works with villages and cities to divert garbage and turn it into something useful.”
How is it October already? Life has been such a whirlwind this past season. We just finished a home addition and we’re adapting to school year schedules again. Not to mention the usual slew of back-to-school non-COVID viral bugs that have passed through our family (or at least me, #WFBParentLife). It’s also that phase of life my wife Sumathi has referred to as the “sandwich” phase- where we and our close friends are wholly-invested in our kids’ lives but at the same time have to look after our parents. Having a few close friends navigating parent illness and death has been a sobering reminder of fleeting time really is. For all of these reasons, I am sorry for the hiatus in communicating with you and look forward to resuming normal dialogue with you!
A lot of great work continues on the part of the Village Board, Committees, and Staff. It’s budget season, and folks are hard at work ensuring that the services we’ve come to expect from our Village continue despite inflation and other pressures. For example, in my role on the Library Board, I’ve come to learn that our library (which just celebrated its 85th birthday!) outperforms most other county libraries despite having some of the lowest salaries in the county (something I hope the Board can address with the upcoming budget).
Village Manager Paul Boening and President Kevin Buckley also invited trustees to share strategic visions at our August board meeting. The goal was to assess our priorities and report back the feasibility of common strategic priorities. Some of the ideas proposed by trustees included: investigating feasibility of further solar panel installation on village buildings; installing electric vehicle charging stations in or near our Silver Spring corridor; investigation of augmented bike & pedestrian safety measures in the village; formation of an interdisciplinary Community Development Authority (CDA)-Business Improvement District (BID)-Village Board group to strategize about Silver Spring development; and bringing in an economic development advisor to assist with village growth strategy. In the coming board meetings we’ll be getting to brass tacks about basic questions (wages, benefits for staff) and deciding about the feasibility of some of these more strategic ideas. Since this is my first budget season in an elected position, and since municipal budgeting is SO different from any sort of budgeting I’m used to at home or in my practice, I’m taking this as an opportunity to learn as much as I can.
Importantly, I think no one wants to see taxes go up, given the already-high cost of housing in the Bay. But, since less than 25 cents of every tax dollar we pay actually goes to the village (most goes to the school district, some to the county, etc), I’m learning we will have some tough choices to make. For example, one decision has to do with using ARPA funds allocated to the village to make one-time capital purchases that might otherwise require a tax raise to accomplish. On the one hand, using ARPA funds will keep our taxes down this year (by ~$30/month). On the other hand, could we do anything “broader” with the ARPA funds? I don’t know the answer to that or have an opinion yet, but that’s the sort of discussion we’ll be having.
In other news, Trustee Koltun and I have connected with a few interested parties regarding the Fox Bay Theater building. What I can tell you is that everyone wants that space to succeed as a community space. It is a very high priority for us. What it will look like, especially with the news of Bayshore bringing in another theater operator to renovate the old iPic space, is another question. But, it’s a question that inextricably involves New Land Enterprises, the owner of the building, and our engagement with them is ongoing.
We’re also exploring ways to engage with residents on the notion of proactive environmental initiatives. For obvious reasons (i.e. the Great Flood of 2010), the Village has been amazing at initiatives to address stormwater drainage and flood prevention (for a list, check out the last page of the Sept Public Works meeting packet). We all benefit from that sort of ongoing dedication. The Public Works committee led by Trustee Tara Serebin and Director of Public Works John Edlebeck have also been very supportive of issues brought forward by residents. One of the things I’m wondering is whether a subcommittee or advisory committee (similar to the Environmental Advisory Committee that existed prior to 2012) to help deep-dive into workable solutions for things many of us want to see in the village: cost-effective strategies for waste reduction, composting, promoting native pollinators, and advancing a village-specific climate change action plan.
Finally, a resolution that I am proud to have sponsored was approved at our most recent September board meeting (Resolution 3132 on page 9 of the Sept Village Board meeting packet). Longtime resident and village servant Chas Mulcahy approached me earlier this summer given my medical background. Mr. Mulcahy has a wife in memory care due to Alzheimer’s dementia and was motivated to develop a community education/ awareness program around dementia. We sat down along with North Shore Health department leadership, Azura Memory Care, and Wisconsin Policy Forum leadership and came up with ideas for a concerted North Shore effort to educate the public about dementia and partner with local municipalities to provide/ augment training on dementia recognition and support. After approval from the North Shore Health department, our Village Board unanimously adopted the resolution. I’m excited to see efforts take shape to shine a light on this increasingly-common condition, and I’m grateful to Mr. Mulcahy, Village Manager Boening, and President Buckley for their enthusiastic support.
Ok, that’s it for now….!