The Anderberg House

by Jay Allen

Good day.

Last night, the Council approved a new ordinance regarding the issuance of demolition permits.  They now require Plan Commission and Common Council approval, and the Plan Commission must review the historical significance of the structure to be demolished.  In addition the applicant must provide a detailed plan for the re-use of the property.

In addition, the Council passed a moratorium on the issuance of new demolition permits until the new ordinance takes effect on Saturday.

The Alexander Company took out a demolition permit in January for the two houses on the Drumlin Farm site.  Our ordinance requires that demolition must commence within six months or the permit lapses.  That would have taken the permit into the middle of July.  They did not commence any demolition, therefore, the permit they obtained in January is no longer valid.

Today, upon recognizing this, the Alexander Company brought in applications for new demolition permits.  Those applications will be returned with a note explaining that we are not accepting applications until the new ordinance takes effect.

The Demise of the Fitchburg Star

by Jay Allen

All good things must come to end, or so the saying goes.

After almost 35 years, the Fitchburg Star will be ceasing publication.  I will tell you that I have mixed feelings about this.

Henry Schroeder ran the paper well.  He was a local businessman, with local connections, and really cared about the local community.  Eventually, it was time for him to retire, and he sold the group, which included the Verona Free Press, the Oregon Observer, and the Stoughton Courier Hub to Woodward Communications, and Iowa-based company.  The Fitchburg office of the newspaper was closed, and all infrastructure was relocated to Oregon or Verona.  Eventually, the decision was made to severely limit distribution of the free newspaper, to the point that it became largely irrelevant.

Despite whatever acumen the owners of Woodward Communications claim to have, they refused to exercise it in their operation of the Fitchburg Star.  They operated it as a free newspaper, mailed to a minority of residential addresses in the City of Fitchburg.  For a company like mine, advertising became a waste.  They refused to invest in improving the newspaper, so it is really no surprise that it has become an economic liability.

The City will continue its efforts to make City information more accessible.  We are now live-streaming Council and Plan Commission meetings, and they are archived online.  We are looking at changes to our newsletter which will make more information available in a more timely manner.  We will be making changes to our website.

I am also making changes to this site.  In a few weeks, a discussion forum will be available, and I will be posting blog entries more often.

Times are changing, and newspapers are struggling all over the country.  The Fitchburg Star, being the latest victim of corporate mismanagement, will be soon forgotten, I'm sure.  But the City still goes on.  Please take advantage of the sources of information available to you, and watch for more.  There are many things happening, and you will want to know about them.

Goodbye Fitchburg Star.  Your demise is not a reflection on the City of Fitchburg, but a repudiation of the bad management of your owners.  The City goes on and will succeed where Woodward Communications proved to be an utter failure.

Library Public Input Meeting

by Jay Allen

Good day!

September 15 will be the first public input meeting on the Fitchburg Public Library.  An advertisement can be downloaded here.  This is a critical meeting, as it is the first opportunity to add your thoughts to the conceptual design phase.  After this point, changes will be harder to make, as the intent is to have a working design by early December.  If you have thoughts about the Library, please make every effort to attend this meeting.

Controversy

by Jay Allen

As I close in on my first 100 days in office, we have accomplished a lot of good things.  We have begun to address some of the major capital projects which have been neglected by previous administrations.  We now post draft minutes to the website within a few days of the meetings.  We are making progress toward having our entire agenda packets available for download.  We now stream Council, Plan Commission, and Committee of the Whole meetings on the internet.  We held the first town hall meeting in over a decade.

However, a rather intense controversy is brewing.  The City has been interviewing construction managers for the library project.  It came down to two choices:  Tri-North, from Fitchburg, and Mortenson Construction from Minneapolis.

At this juncture, I do not have all the details.  I was not part of the selection committee.  However, I do know that the committee, by a 3-2 vote, selected Mortenson.  On Tuesday, July 14, Paul Woodard will have a memo to the Council explaining the process, and his perceptions of why the committee did what it did.  I am looking forward to reading that letter.

Since this news went out, I have been contacted by two dozen people who are very unhappy that we are not going with the local company.  At this juncture, I am really torn.  Tri-North has done a lot here.  They built a great green building, which has added to the tax base.  They employ a lot of people who make good wages.  There must have been something in the materials which caused the selection committee to lean toward Mortenson.

I will be looking more into this, and I hope to have information to report soon.  In the meantime, I would appreciate hearing what your thoughts are regarding this situation.  Please let me know.

It's been a while

by Jay Allen

Well, it's been a while since I have been able to post here.  Things have been quite busy, but we have taken off running, and many improvements are happening.

I have two things to let you know about right now:

1. The 2010-2014 Capital Improvement Plan is now posted to our website.  This is the first time in City history that this document has been made available in this manner.  To download, please go here:


http://www.city.fitchburg.wi.us/index.php


Scroll down about 3/4 of the way.  It is in six bite-sized pieces.  Proposed amendments will be posted as soon as they are available, sometime around July 16.


2. The Council passed a resolution to form a Complete Count Committee for the US Census.  I am looking for people to serve on this committee.  The purpose of this committee is to do community outreach to ensure that all Fitchburg residents are counted in the census.  This is absolutely critical, as we are near the point where we will be eligible for certain external funding sources which are based on population.  The areas for which I need representatives are as follows:


Chairperson, Education, Faith-based Organizations, Media, Community-based Organizations, Business, Recruiting, Home Schooling, Multi-Cultural


For more information, please download this document:


http://2010.census.gov/partners/pdf/cccGuide.pdf


If you would like to join this committee, please email me.