Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

This is real
Q: How many [insert your preferable Christian denomination here] does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: Change?





Change can be good...
Hopefully by now you've noticed that some new signage has gone up on Highway SS heading north to Rice Lake. On April 18 the County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to increase the speed limit on SS from 25 mph to 35 mph between the curve by the Chain of Lakes Motel and where the speed limit increases to 45 mph. Yes, Chetek's famous “speed trap” has officially been dismantled and there is much joy in town because of it. The new signs went up last week. Thanks to Barron County Highway
This is the kind of change that people like
Commissioner Mark Servi and the members of the commission to hearing our plea for the change and endorsing it. Of course, now that it's 35 mph most of us will naturally be driving faster on that stretch of road. If you get pulled over for driving 45 mph the mayor is not available to hear your complaint about a new and improved speed trap. Please drive carefully.



This will be a south-bound one-way for local traffic only
Change can be frustrating...
The Mill (i.e., “the old feed mill”) is soon to open and in preparation for that Buddy & Nancy Helms, the owners, have painted parking lines on Dixon Street. The Conditional Use Permit they have with the city allowed them to do that. This past December the recommendation of the Street Committee to the City Council was that Dixon remain open as a two-way street but the Helms were allowed to close the road between Center and Stout streets when they were hosting events. However, once they chose to paint lines on the street that narrow road – which, in reality, is an alley that somewhere along the way was paved – has become a traffic hazard. In fact, according to Director of Public Works Dan Knapp the day the guys were painting traffic continued to barrel through there like it often does and so for their safety he took it upon himself to close the road. I have been asked by several individuals since then when will it be open again. I'm sorry to inform you that it won't be like it once was. Dixon will now be a one-way south between Center and Stout. Entry onto Banks Street will only be for local residents. In fact, look for a “Dead End” sign to be placed around 6th and Banks sometime soon. All of us who used to zig-zag our way through between Roselawn and the HS/MS are going to have to find a new short-cut and frankly, there really isn't any good one. Unless you go by train.

Buddy & Nancy Helms
If you're not sure what all the fuss is about drive to the corner of Center and Dixon (usually called Eighth) and take a look for yourself. I think you'll see that by changing the road we're saving lives. For the neighbors of The Mill, their quiet neighborhood is sure to get a lot noisier if the place is going to be as busy as the Helms say it will be. Yes, more out-of-town customers who will stay in our hotels and frequent our eateries but more traffic, more trash, and more noise. For their part the Helms promise to stay on top of these issues and here's hoping they will. But as they old saying goes, “There goes the neighborhood.”




Change can be hard...
There's no easy way to tell you this: there's more bad news about Central States, the pension plan of the Teamsters which our local public works guys belong to. A few weeks ago the Chetek Alert reported that Central States was going bankrupt and that Congress had elected to do nothing about it. Within 9 years it will be insolvent. At last month's council meeting, the council decided to retain the services of Charles P. Stevens, a lawyer from Milwaukee who specializes in the narrow field of law concerning pensions, unions and the like. In a phone conversation that City Clerk Carmen Newman and myself had with Mr. Stevens just last week he informed us that, in fact, matters are worse. Insolvency is closer than a decade out. It's more like five years away. If we do nothing but essentially go down with the ship our slice of the pie of liability will only radically increase. His counsel to us: “Get out. Today if you can.” But, of course, you can't just inform the union that we're calling it quits. We have to buy our way out (as UPS did). According to Mr. Stevens, if we were to inform the union today that we were "decertifying" from the union this is what would happen: we would receive a bill for approximately $2 million dollars with a note in fine print: “Please remit in 30 days. Thank you.” Honestly.

He'll be on hand to break it all down for us on May 9
Mr. Stevens will be at the May 9 council meeting to explain all of this to us. He is hopeful that we can negotiate the bill down to say,  $1.1 million. If you want to hear it from the horse's mouth, I urge you to come and listen to what he has to say. There are no real good options for the city other than pay a lot now – or wait, and pay way more later. It's a leak in the dike that can't be easily plugged.

What will it mean for us? It means that for some time to come we'll be paying double retirement for our guys: paying on a loan for our own local “bail-out” of Central States and paying benefits with a new retirement program. Like I said, there is no easy fix for this. Where are we going to come up with a million dollars? Well, let's just say we're working on it.

City Public Works Foreman Tim Berning officially retires at the end of the month. Actually, he's already out the door and presently using up all his accrued vacation time. But he's agreed to show up at May's council meeting so that we may properly toast him for thirty plus years of service to our community. As grim as the news I just shared with you is it's still important to remind ourselves that this too will pass, that we'll get through this somehow and that good and faithful service is always something to be celebrated.

More often than not this was his ride while he worked for us




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