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| This is real |
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
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.
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| This is the kind of change that people like |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| More often than not this was his ride while he worked for us |
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