“It’s De Ja Vu ALL OVER AGAIN”

As the man said; “It’s De Ja Vu ALL OVER AGAIN” – But why?

Well, it’s happened again. Let’s go back and remember the year 2006 when a few, and I do mean few, vociferous people in the Wilbur/Cottonwood area talked the City Council into closing off the street because of speeding cars, noise and the safety of their children when playing in the street.

When the alleged problems were investigated, no reason was found to close Wilbur. The Police investigation revealed that the street was completely within the safety standards of the City of New Berlin. There has been an accident reported on Wilbur. In spite of this negative report the Council closed off the street.

At first they closed Wilbur off completely. The movable barricades were pushed aside and people used the street as before. The barricades were then fastened into the surface but were completely ripped out at night by citizens, leaving holes in the road’s surface. This happened a few times and the damage to the street had to be repaired each time. The Council then surmised this effort would not work. I guess that it did not occur to them that New Berlin citizens did not want Wilbur closed. They then closed the street to eastbound traffic making it a one-way. This did not work either because drivers took a fast look around for a police car, finding none they would go right through and would ignore the one-way directive.

The demand that the street be opened finally dawned and the Council finally opened it up but added a couple of thousand dollars worth of speed bumps and stop signs. WOW, only eight months and they finally realized finding that no matter what they tried that there was no way to close Wilbur off effectively and after repeated actions by citizens, it was apparent that New Berlin wanted the full use of the street.

Don’t you wonder what buttons these few dissident people could push to get Wilbur closed again? The closing was again done in spite investigation showing no change in the traffic situation by the Police.

But we have not as yet heard the end of this tale. Let’s look at the financial end. The City has spent and continues to spend a goodly amount of money trying to comply with the directives of the Council, The new orders don’t seem to be working either for they only shift the problems to other streets in the area. What great neighbors these few Wilbur/Cottonwood people make. The next step is to complete the closing job in a first class manner with a permanent closure including curbs, bike paths, side paths that will close off Wilbur in style. Don’t laugh, for it’s already on the drawing board, the estimated cost is $89,600, not including the thousands already spent. Can you imagine, spending all this money for the happiness of a few dissidents when the people of New Berlin have shown many times they want Wilbur open. Just add up what has been spent up to now with the original blocking barricades, the multiple repair of the damaged done to the street surfaces, the change over and back with the one-way system and finally to the ineffective speed-bumps and stop signs that were installed in the area, Add what has been spent on this current closing, that’s a lot of money spent already and to think that it might be increased by the cost of that permanent closure. By the way, these figures do not include any planning, specifying or directive time by the City departments. Isn’t it funny that the City can dig up the money for a project showing no safety problems and seems to be cooked up just for the gratification of so few people? Maybe they can get the financing from what is left in the Mayor’s salary (they have cut it twice recently) or maybe they can cancel a necessary project that would benefit New Berlin. Oh Happy Day! `

New Berlin people from all over the city want Wilbur open. It is closed again. How does this happen? Obviously something is going on here that smells a bit and should be investigated ASAP.

NOTICE: People of New Berlin – (This is told you in all confidentiality) You can be as successful as these Wilbur people are, no matter how selfish and self-serving your project is and no matter how many of your fellow citizens are opposed to it or are inconvenienced by it, you still can accomplish your goal. All you do is to contact the proper alderman and he will do his utmost to make your desires come to fruition. It’s happened time and time again for other people and as long as you let him he will continue doing it. By the way, this man is now running for your mayor. What a treat that would be! Try this, it works. SHHH - don’t tell anybody else, it a secret

YOU CAN DO SOME THING ABOUT IT YOU MUST DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.