In response to "Voice's" comment on the NBCRG blog site, I called mayor Chiavatero by telephone and asked about the March 27 forum at New Berlin West High School.

The Aldermanic forum is scheduled from 1:00PM to 3;00PM.

It will NOT  be televised live, but will be taped for a possible rebroadcast on either the City or School cable channels.

There are several unanswered questions which have caused this situation.

Mayor Chiavatero said he would announce what the results are.

We are evaluating the list of candidates for the New Berlin Spring Elections.

We will post them before absentee ballot start date

There will be a forum at West High School on Saturday March 27 from 1:00 -3:00PM 

Mayor Chiavatero has agreed to telecast it on Channel 25

Thank you.

Congratulations to Bode Miller for winning his first Gold Medal at the Vancover Games. This brings the United States total to 24,

Miller also won a Silver Medal and a Bronze Medal in 2 other events.

Apolo Ohno has won several medals in Short Track racing as well

The results are in

Jake Krueger 177

Deena Liska 166

Joe Poshepney. 29

Congratulations to the 2 candidates

Guest Editorial for Vern Bentley

Public Forum

The Waters' Wood Recycling Services proposes to operate a processing site for clean wood waste at the Johnson Sand and Gravel Pit located off of Crowbar Road and Interstate 43 in New Berlin.

City Staff was asked if the present, centrally located recycling Center would be moved to the Johnson Quarry Site?

Reply! Moving the Recycling Center is not part of this public hearing.

Their Business description reads; Waters will work with the City of New Berlin to reduce or eliminate the costs of their existing recycling center by offering Waters' site as a replacement for residential drop off of clean 'waste materials' thereby allowing the sale of the city's tub Grinder, support equipment and all labor costs.

This might be the first step in moving the recycling center from it present  site behind city hall.

Editorial comment from Ralph Heun

Not part of public hearing???  Why not? Remember a couple of years ago closing the recycling center seemed to be a priority with city staff.

The resulting firestorm changed the staff's mind pretty fast.

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This is the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America, 1910-2010

It was a Fortuous thing when  William Boyce got lost in the fog in London and asked a young man where a certain address was.

The reply was " I will take you there sir". Upon arriving at the address, Mr Boyce offered the boy a tip.

The boy's reply was to refuse the offer of the tip, with the words "I am a Scout" and this is my Good Turn.

The rest of the story is history and since that time there have been many millions of boys, men, and women active in Scouting and many more millions active in the World Scout Movement.

This summer there will be a National Jamboree celebrating the 100th anniversary at Fort A.P Hill, Virginia.There will be more than 40,000 members from the The United States and other countries from around the world.in attendance.

AS Will Rogers, a favorite American Humorist once said, "The only trouble with Boy Scouts is there is not enough of them"

Good Luck Boy Scouts for another 100 years!.

Today, Friday, February 5, 2010, I received my copy of the School Board District Digest and an invitation to complete a survey which will help the School system to see how they are doing and how the education level can be strengthened in the future.

The survey takes into consideration the students, parents, taxpayers and retirees of the city.

It will give direction to future programs and and facilities as well.

Maybe it will help to put an end to rumors and other disruptive events that surface from time to time.

Please read the District Digest and get your unique access number to complete the survey on line. That will also help the District to save money

February 1, 2010 at :00 PM at city hall

Public Hearing on a Conditional Use Agreement.

Randy Johnson of Johnson Sand and Gravel and Ed Waters of  Water's Wood Recycling Services would operate a wood recycling service under contract at the JSG site at 6600 Crowbar Road.

Would allow recycling of construction wood waste, pallets, brush waste, logs, wood chips etc.

Semi Trailers would truck in the materials and stockpile it to accumulate 2500 tons .

Grinding operationswould br 10 hours a day for 4 days per week.

180 truck loads per day on Racine and National Avenues would be required to accumulate the 2500 tons. Some of these loads will be forced to use the Roundabouts on Racine Avenue.

40 to 70 loads of inbound materials and 12 to 20 loads of outbound material will account for the eatimated 180 vehicles per day. This is in addition to the 400 trips per day at present.

Semis would then take the processed wood to Milwaukee where it would be made into Commercial wood pellets fof shipment overseas.

The Conditional Use permit is open ended and could be used for many years to come. and would be effective upon the the granting of the Conditional Use Permit

Hours of operation would be from 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM, 6 days a week.

Question: Why isnt the chipper being located next to the wood processing plant? This would elimate a lot of extra handling and save precious fuel and pollution from runninng the large trucks on our crowded highways.

Public Notice, Not  a Public Hearing

 COFFEE ROAD

Neighborhood meeting

I will be holding a neighborhood meeting to bring you up to date on the Coffee Road reconstruction project, from National Avenue west to Calhoun Road, known as the Coffee Road east project. The Coffee Road east project includes the National Ave., Moorland Rd. and Calhoun Road intersections. All three intersections will include lane improvements. City Streets Engineer Ron Schildt will be there to explain the reasons for the change in the schedule and the new timetable and potential affects on this project.

As a result of my meetings with staff and consultant the plans for this project still include storm-water improvements along the entire length of the project. It will also include lane widening, completely reconstructing the base and surface of the roadway as well as to lower (cut down) the hill just west of St. Francis Drive along with 5’ shoulder paths.

Because Coffee Road between National Avenue and Moorland Road are in the 2^nd District, Alderman Ted Wysocki will be there along with residents from his district. 

The neighborhood meeting will be held on Wednesday, January 27, 2010 at 6:00pm at your New Berlin City Hall 3805 S. Casper Dr. in the Common Council chambers. The meeting will not be televised.

I hold my regularly scheduled 7^th District Open Office Hours on the 3^rd Saturday of each month from 10:00am to 12:00 noon at City Hall in the A-B Room.

You can also join my 7^th District Email Update Group. Simply send me your Name, street address, phone number and email address and I will include in the group.

Dave Ament

7^th District Alderman, New Berlin

262-544-4534        

Guest Statement

Ralph Heun

I would like to thank you for this opportunity to set the record straight and explain my position concerning Mr. Poshepney's resignation, because there is a considerable amount of inaccurate information about this issue.

There has never been any conspiracy by the Council or any alderman to remove Mr. Poshepny from office. Quite simply he resigned due to health reasons, leaving the 5th District seat vacant.

The Council does not have the authority to "reinstate" him as he had requested. However the Council does have the authority to waive Council rule #34 requiring a vacant position to be advertised before the Council appoints someone to the vacant position. So by waiving Council  Rule #34 the majority of the Council can appoint whomever they want..

Some may not like it but Mr. Poshepny was elected by a majority of the voters in the 5th District as their alderman. He has indicated that he is now physically able to continue the position he previously vacated due to health reasons. Seeing as it was never the intension of the Council to remove him from office (remember he resigned)!

It would seem to me appropriate for the Council to consider appointing the person that was duly elected to that office. If the majority of voters in the 5th District think that Mr. Poshepny should be removed from office they can vote him out of office in the upcoming spring election.

This is not about the Council changing direction under the threat of a lawsuit. It's about doing the right thing by filliing the vacancy with the person that was elected in the 5th District.

Alderman Dave Ament     7th District

An agenda item on the Common Council Agenda calls for a vote on re-enstating former alderman Joseph Poshepney ( 5th District) to the post . I suppose it will include all his past wages from the date of his resignation too.

We feel this sends a message to anyone who does not like what the council is doing, to simply find an attorney, who might even do it for free, to threaten a lawsuit.

This will set a precedent which could come back to haunt city government for elected and for hired employees. It is not good public policy to change directions under a threat of a lawsuit. No one who is in private industry should ever quit and then try to get their job back because it just will never happen.

This is apparentley what is probably going to happen  this coming Tuesday evening.

Mr. Poshepney resigned with his own free will and apparentley admitted that he signed the document, but said he wanted to change his mind.

Joe, it is time to stop this; drop the lawsuit and try to win the primary election on February 16

The City attorney ruled that the resignation was effective on the date received and the post was vacant.

Mr Poshepney contacted Attorney Jim Gatzke, who once was the New Berlin Mayor, to file suit to get his old job back because he claims his health is better.

The Council should continue with it's present hands off policy. Joe kicked himself off of the council. Period, end of story.

The end is near... hopefully

The filing deadline for candidates for local offices passed at 5:00 PM, January  5, 2010

The following candidates are listed for 3 openings on New Berlin School Board,     All listing are in alphabetic order.

Thomas David

Keith Hastings

John Kegel, Incumbent

The Following have filed for

District 1

              Dennis Friedrich

              John Hopkins, Incumbent

District 3

             David Jeske

             Ron Seidl, Incumbent

District 5

             Jacob Krueger

             Deena Liska

             Joseph Poshepney, a former alderman

District 7

             David Ament, Incumbent

             Kevin Zokan

New Berlin Citzens for Responsible Government  thank these candidates and encourage an open discussion of the issues and fiscal realities of 2010.

New Berlin Citizens for Responsible Government would like to wish you all a Merry Chritmas and a Prosperous Happy New Year.

The new year will bring new opportunities to make our city, state and nation a better place to live. Lets make it happen.

We regret to inform everyone that a former New Berlin Alderman and long time community activist passed away on December 17.

Details of his passing and funeral arrangements are undetermined as of this date.

Mr Schueble was very articulate and forcefull is stating his beliefs about local government, our schools and the environment.  We offer our deepest sympathies to his family and friends. His comments will be missed. 

As is the New Berlin tradition, the second Saturday of December is the date that our property tax bill will magically appear in our mailbox.

The tradition continues this year.

I for one feel that the bills appear on Saturday when City Hall and other governmental offices are closed, for a reason. If you feel that the taxes are too high there is nobody that you can call and complain to until Monday. By that time the taxpayer is calmed down and probably won't complain at all.

We in New Berlin have had a decrease in our total taxes again this year, inspite of being re-assesed. My taxes actually decreased more than $100.

We should all thank the  Aldermen for insisting upon a 4.5% decline and the School Board members for a 1.6% decline.

This will help all taxpayers at least a little.

Seniors receiving Socail Security payments also received their 2010 statement which confirmed that there will be no increase for 2010.

The Friends if the New Berlin Library are sponsoring a Nutcracker Sweets at the New Berlin Library

Featuring Nuts, Used Book sale, Cookie Walk, Handmade Ornaments and crafts.

Proceeds benefit the New Berlin Public Library.

December 5, 2009 from now until 3:00PM.

The New Berlin Common Council in a Special meeting called by Mayor Chiavatero, voted to overturn the Mayor's veto of the 2010 City Budget.

The pros and cons were debated at length and the Mayor had a spirited defence of his veto. He also predicted a major City Tax rise in 2011.

The final tally was 5-1 with Alderman Moore supporting the veto.

We would hope that the administration will work more closely with the Common Council to keep the 2011 increase to a low level.

Of course if the economy improves we all would be in better financal shape next year too.

Guest Editorial

New Berlin has had a lot of flooding and storm water problems for may years. The June rainstorms in 2008 and 2009 show that flooding is still happening in spite of remedies that have been attempted.

The City of New Berlin Water Resourses department and the Aldermen on the committee are trying to solve  these problems so they do not recur.

The expenditures for the Water Resources Department are partially covered by the $15.00 per quarter fee (($60.00 per year) that residents pay to the city. City businesses pay much more due to larger parking lots.

It is called a fee instead of a tax, which helps the City of New Berlin to keep the property tax within the State guidelines. This fee is not tax deductible.

We can all do our small part to control flooding, by keeping sewers and ditches free from debris and dead leaves.

In winter we can also remove ice build-up in sewer openings to allow the water to drain away.

It also is a good idea to help the Fire Department in winter by removing the snow from around the water hydrants!

Thank you

Ron Koessler

The New Berlin Common Council voted at the November 10, 2009 meeting that the post formerly held by resigned alderman Joseph Poshepny is vacant.

Ken Harenda made a motion to ask for applications from persons willing to serve as an interim alderman for District five until the spring election in April 2010.

Alderman Wysocki seconded the motion and it was approved on a 4-2 vote with aldermen Hopkins and Moore casting no votes.

Persons interested in the position are asked to contact City Clerk Marilyn Gauger at 262 786 8610. Persons applying will be asked  to include a letter of intent and a resume.

Packets for people interested in running in the Spring Election for aldermen in Districts One, Three,  Five and Seven may also obtain Candidates Packet from the City Clerk as well.

The new Berlin Common Council will conduct a Public Hearing on the 2010 City Budget on Tuesday November 10, 2009 at 7:00 PM, at the Council Chambers at City Hall.

The Public is invited to ask questions and speak in favor of , or in oppsition to the proposed budget.

New Berlin Citizens for Responsible Government (NBCRG), is encouraging Mayor Chiavatero and the Aldermen to "hold the line" on Budget requests,  due to the fact that many residents are unemployed. We are all facing a decline in our spending and quality of life due to the recession and public spending policies in Madison and Washington D.C.

Senior Citizens and people on fixed incomes are facing a much more difficult economic future due to lower returns on investments and a "Freeze on Social Security Benefits until at least 2012 or 2013".

Government employees have increases in salary promised for 2010. We would hope that employee unions would be will to forego part or all of these increases to allow all of their present workers to keep their jobs and not be forced to be terminated.

Hopefully we can all survive until the economy revives!