Tag Archives: City of Madison

City Gives Tips for a Green Holiday

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The City of Madison Streets Division has a new section on their website where you can find tips on how to green up your holiday and save the planet. According to Recycling Coordinator George Dreckman, we generate 25 percent more waste during the holiday season.

Among the suggestions are using more china and silverware instead of serving food on paper plates and plastic cups, giving gift certificates for local events and services, or giving the gift of your time.

“Two of my favorite gifts are cloth shopping bags and rechargeable batteries,” Dreckmann said.  “It will help your friends reduce waste all year round.”

You can view the website here

City’s Emerald Ash Borer Website Updated

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The City of Madison Forestry Section has updated its Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) website. There are two new features including a direct email link to the Forestry section to report a suspected EAB sighting. The site also has a search function that will indicate if there is an ash tree planted in front of your residence or within the neighborhood.

At this time, there has been no confirmed sighing of EAB in Dane County but the City encourages residents to visit the website to keep learn more and keep up with the effort to prevent EAAB in Madison and Dane County

Visit the EAB site here

 

Yard Waste Sites Will Close Sunday

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Saturday and part of Sunday, minus the Packer game, is all the time that is left to clean up your yard and dispose of it before spring. The City of Madison yard waste drop off sites will close for the season at 4:30 p.m. on Sunday December 2nd. The Site at 402 South Point RD will be closed permanently.

Residents with leaves and yard waste who do not get their material to the sites this weekend can still bring material to the Sites at 1501 W. Badger Rd or 4602 Sycamore AV, compost material at home or hold it until spring.  Continue reading →

Interview: District 2 Alder Bridget Maniaci

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Madison District 2 Alder Bridget Maniaci. Courtesy: District2MadisonBlog

City of Madison District 2 Alder Bridget Maniaci decided politics was for her after observing then Mayor Dave Cieslewicz run for re-election while serving as his press intern.

After studying journalism for a time, Maniaci switched to politics, completing internships at the State Capitol and with Mayor Cieslewicz.

While exploring journalism she worked for the Capital Times, The Daily Cardinal, and WSUM-FM. Bridget is also pretty good at sailing, serving as Vice-Commodore of the UW Hoofers when she was a student.

 

Maniaci graduated from Sun Prairie High School in 2002 and the University of Wisconsin in 2007 with a degree in Political Science and Economics. She was elected to the Madison Common Council in 2009. Outspoken at times, according to some, but she is energetic about Madison. Maniaci has a rare command of local public policy, with facts, figures, and grounded analysis often at the tip of her tongue…

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Editor’s Note: When we talked with Ald. Maniaci, funding for ice rinks and lifeguards in the City Budget was still in doubt. The Board of Estimates restored that funding at its meeting on October 22, 2012; with Maniaci supporting an amendment to restore funding for lifeguards. The Budget still needs final approval from the Common Council, which will likely vote on it in November.

 

Budget Cuts Could Sink B.B. Clarke Swimming Platform

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Quality-of-life, big city priorities clash during budget process

B. B. Clarke Beach circa 1951. An early version of the diving platform can be seen. Later version paralleled the shore and were located approximately 150 yards off shore.

As the Madison Mayor Paul Soglin prepared his budget for the coming fiscal year he asked all departments to make a five percent cut in their operational budgets. At the Parks Department they arrived at those cuts in part by eliminating and consolidating some very popular services in some parks; specifically the elimination of nine seasonal ice rinks and focusing lifeguard services at regional beaches.

In a city known for year-round recreation probably the most sacred of activities is ice skating and swimming. It is almost a cruel irony that a community whose water-borne identity is intrinsic should have to cut back on this celebrated quality-of-life benefit.  Continue reading →

Two Union Corners Proposals Now on ‘Short List’

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Gorman and Livesey plans lead the way

Plans from Livesey Co./Stone House Development along with Gorman & Associates are under final consideration for the Union Corners development.

The City of Madison Union Corners Committee held a public hearing Wednesday evening (Sept 12) on the four remaining proposals for development of the Union Corners site. The committee voted to “short list” two of the proposal from Livesey-Stone House Development and Gorman Associates.

The next step is for city staff to conduct a basic preliminary financial review of each proposal. Following that review the UCC will decide what the next steps will be.

Related: C.D. Smith / EUA Withdraws Union Corners Proposal

Related: Where the Sidewalk Ends

 

C.D. Smith / EUA Withdraw Union Corners Proposal

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The C.D. Smith Construction/Eppstein Uhen Architects proposal includes a plan for a grocery store. EUA also designed the Goodman Community Center.

In an email to City of Madison officials C.D. Smith Vice-President Mike Krolczyk said the firm was withdrawing their proposal for Union Corners due to “specific market conditions” and other opportunities they were pursuing.

C.D. Smith partnered with Eppstein Uhen Architects (EUA) on their proposal which included a grocery store as part of the retail component of the site, however the plan did not depart much from a 2004 plan that failed before ground was ever broken. EUA has history in the neighborhood as just over the hill to the east of Union Corners is the recently redesigned Goodman Community Center, which was an EUA project.

Union Corners had been dying a slow death for decades as businesses struggled to exist on that corner and Ray-O-Vac’s manufacturing plant faded away. In 2010 the city purchased the site for $3.57 million and issued an RFP in June. The remaining proposals vary in cost, topping out at $108 million with public assistance requests as much as $15 million, which the Mayor said may be difficult to provide.

With C.D. Smith / EUA dropping out only the team of Livesey / Stonehouse remains to present to the Union Corners Committee which will take place August 29. A public hearing on the four active proposals is on September 12, 2012 at 5 p.m at the Madison Senior Center.

Related: Where the Sidewalk Ends

Potential Union Corners Developers to Give Presentations

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Developers to take questions about proposals

Following a meeting on August 6 to score the five proposals for development of Union Corners, a second meeting will be held August 15. At this meeting the developers who have submitted proposals will be given 15 minutes each for a presentation and time will also be made for questions from the public.

The session will be held for 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Goodman Community Center. The results of both meetings will be compiled and presented to the selection committee for consideration as the process moves forward.

Where the Sidewalk Ends

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Five proposals for Union Corners redevelopment revealed

Union Corners has been vacant for quite some time but the City sees its redevelopment as one of the crown jewels of resurrecting the Capitol East corridor. Many of the plans submitted for the site include using the bricks (left) from the French Battery Company plant that used to reside on a portion of the site.


Everyone wants Union Corners developed. Once the location of a Kohl’s food store and the French Battery Company plant, it has sat grass-covered and empty for years. Now five proposals have been submitted in response to the City’s recent Request For Proposal and the vetting process begins.

We have been down this road before, McGrath Associates had an approved plan with neighborhood support for mostly residential buildings in 2004 but the economic downturn derailed the project by 2007. Union Corners had been dying a slow death for decades as businesses struggled to exist on that corner and Ray-O-Vac’s manufacturing plant faded away. In 2010 the city purchased the site for $3.57 million and issued an RFP in June.

Continue reading →

Atwood-Fair Oaks Intersection to Open Soon

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Paving is complete as City expects to open the intersection the week of July 23

With paving finished, the Atwood-Fair Oaks intersection is expected to open the week of July 23, 2012.

In just over a month, construction crews are nearly finished with the complete reconstruction of the intersection of Atwood and Fair Oaks Avenues. In an update posted on the City of Madison website, the intersection was being paved and signs and markings would be installed soon in preparation for an opening the week of July 23.

Indeed by Thursday (July 19) contractors were observed paving the intersection and by Saturday morning the intersection appeared completed, save for lighted traffic signals, signs and pavement markings. So far the project is at least a week ahead of schedule.  Continue reading →