The Brookfield Scene

The Elmbrook School District (SDE) has nine weeks to convince voters in its district to back a $99.3 million dollar referendum. The nearly $100 million will be used to renovate and expand two high schools. The district is also requesting approval of field houses for each school, for an additional $9.5 million.

In the last few months over forty “focus groups” have been held with area residents, with apparently favorable results. Building tours are being sponsored to demonstrate the buildings’ shortcomings. Residents are being told the buildings do not meet current ADA requirements and that new facilities are needed for the school district to “remain competitive.”

The rhetoric continues. The current schools are nearly a half-century old. But the proposed building additions and renovations for the schools should last fifty years.

It makes someone wonder how other communities deal with aging buildings. So I contacted Wauwatosa School District. Wauwatosa East was built about 1930. Wauwatosa West was built in 1970. Its forerunner, now a middle school, was built in 1960. All buildings are still in service.

The Wauwatosa School District has modified the interior and exterior building entrances. Elevators and chair lifts have been installed where needed. In some instances programs (classes) have been moved to more accessible spots. The school district works closely with parents of students with disabilities.

Most construction projects (additions or renovations) have cost overruns. Because our school district built two elementary schools in 2000, I contacted it about the budgeted versus actual costs of Dixon and Brookfield Elementary schools. These schools came in “on budget” -- $10 million each. During Dixon’s construction, there were many problems with soil conditions at the site and delays. The fact that it came in “on budget” is surprising.

Cost overruns are usually higher for renovations than new construction. The rule of thumb for renovations is up to 8% more. Let’s hope the school district has “cushioned” the price for the high schools.

If the $99.3 million referendum is approved, school district taxes (for owners of an average $339,000 home) will increase about $312 a year for 20 years. If the $9.5 million field houses are approved, taxes will increase about $30 a year for 20 years.

Remember. Those anticipated property tax increases are for only the new facilities, not education. School district taxes are only one component of the total property tax bill.

Today's blog shares feedback received about three topics.

1. An interchange at I94 and Calhoun Road (to divert traffic from Bluemound Road)
2. The probable loss of Ruby Farms
3. A response to another reader's contention that widening Calhoun will result in 'massive safety improvements' and improved marketability of homes on Calhoun Road.

Interchange

“I can’t believe you think an interchange on Calhoun Road will make Bluemound safer. The interchange will channel more traffic to Bluemound Road. It will bring increased, faster traffic within FEET of homes in an established neighborhood, a historic site and an elementary school.

Calhoun Road will be a thoroughfare for commuters going back and forth between New Berlin and Menomonee Falls. It will bring even more home burglaries to our neighborhoods. This will all be for the benefit of a greedy developer.”

Ruby Farms

“I've talked to several aldermen about saving Ruby Farms, but got not much of a response. [I feel] they don't want to put in the work that it would take. Ruby Farms is such a neat place and could become a tourist destination like the old Stonewood Village was in the 70's before it was sold. Brookfield will have nothing to distinguish itself by if we keep on tearing down and replacing."

Safety and Marketability

"Ask the person who said a wider Calhoun is a “massive safety improvement” to try to get across the new wider Calhoun at the entrance to Tri City Bank at 5 o’clock on any Friday. It took me 8 traffic light changes to go make a turn onto Calhoun and go across Bluemound.

This project will add medians and similar intersections to Calhoun. The one at Swanson Elementary should be interesting to all when the school buses and parents are dropping or picking up their children. Consider this will only be a few hundred feet from the entrance to V-Richards Plaza and Bluemound Road.

The homes along the south end of Calhoun will all be noncompliant. They will have limited space to park their cars and no space to park for anyone trying to visit them. They will probably be in danger entering Calhoun due to the speed limit increase to 35. The medians will require a U turn either coming or going for almost all of the residents along Calhoun.

Improved marketability? This person doesn’t know much about real estate. Improved safety? I’ll let you be the judge.”

Managing Bluemound Road traffic and a suggested interchange at Calhoun Road caused quite a stir.

Here are some comments.

How can you believe an interchange will relieve traffic on Bluemound Rd.? With all the new development on Biuemound and more to come (hundreds of condos, apartments, office spaces, more new restaurants and stores, what would another interchange accomplish?

Does all this development and road widening in district six improve your quality of life? Are your taxes lower? Mine aren't. Do you enjoy your drive on Bluemound Rd.? Will an interchange make it easier for semi trailer trucks, delivery trucks and other vehicles; will the noise and pollution make your life better?

When you say it will make Bluemound Rd. better you say it will take traffic off the road, but think how much more it will add. Is that what you want? Be careful what you wish for. New Berlin and their vacant land to the south is just waiting for us to spend the sixty-million for an interchange. Think before write in your blog. That interchange might be the worst thing to happen to this city except maybe two new high schools. Is that what you call progress?

* * *

Nice piece on Bluemound Rd. Perhaps the answer is for the state to build overpasses on Moorland, Calhoun and Barker Rds. and make Bluemound Rd. 'limited access'. Or perhaps they could block off two lanes in each direction taking us back to the days of Carters Diner - a great place for teens to buy their beer on their way out to the Bluemound Drive In!

I'd vote for either! Either fix will solve the traffic problem on Bluemound Rd.

An update from the city.

My last blog mentioned the city didn’t respond to my initial request on 12/14. Alderman Scott Berg followed through and I did hear from Administration Director, Dean Marquardt, on 1/10.

We sincerely apologize for the delayed response. The City of Brookfield has not reviewed the Wisconsin Department of Transportation report, which is the culmination of over a year of development and study resulting in the recommendations. You may have already contacted the DOT on this matter, if not that would be an excellent resource for your questions. The per event or response costs are not tracked by public safety in the City of Brookfield and are not staffed to conduct studies requested by outside entities. Complex studies of this nature are generally through the direction of the Common Council.

I’m glad the Town of Brookfield was able to provide its information. In 2006, there were 231 accidents on the town’s portion of Bluemound Road (roughly 1 ½ miles). The town estimates the total cost of police and EMS personnel responding at about $60,000.

Brookfield is well-noted for Bluemound Road. The connotation is not positive. About 45,000 vehicles travel on a three-mile stretch of Bluemound Road each day. (The stretch is between Moorland and Barker Roads.) The highway experiences about 1.5 traffic accidents each day.

The city of Brookfield, in its quest for greater tax base, has created a nightmare. We can expect more traffic on Bluemound when the new restaurants and food stores open at Brookfield Square. Even more traffic will be generated when VK develops its 70 acre property at Calhoun.

Wisconsin’s DOT’s proposal to make Bluemound Road safer is admirable. The state’s proposal is to reduce the number of left-turn medians on the three mile stretch of road and to create frontage roads along Bluemound Road. These two steps would (a) keep traffic flowing and (b) divert traffic from the highway.

Turning left across three lanes of traffic is dangerous. The accident data isn’t available yet, but that’s probably not the predominate reason for the accidents. There is just too much traffic on the highway.

I suspect drivers take this stretch of Bluemound Road because they (a) want to be on the road (to get to a business or home) or they (b) have to be on the road (because Moorland and Barker Roads are the only exits on I94).

Bluemound Road could become safer if the long-talked-about Calhoun Road interchange were built. This, too, would divert traffic from Bluemound Road.

By the way, I requested information about Bluemound Road from the town of Brookfield, the city of Brookfield and the state DOT. The town and state responded promptly.

I’m still waiting to hear from the city.