Helbachs Coffee closes August 31
Helbachs coffee shop in downtown Middleton is closing after August 31. The coffee shop, which occupies a large space in Middleton Center 1 at the corner of Parmenter Street and Hubbard Avenue, had recently acquired some notoriety because of its politically motivated stance against face masks. A sign posted briefly on the door a few weeks ago declaring Helbachs to be a mask-free zone led to protests against Helbachs by mostly left-wing activists (July 18 protest pictured), and to fines against Helbachs by County public-health officials, as well as to the start of the process to revoke the coffee shop's food and drink license (this process has since been suspended). In return, Casey Helbach, one of the owners, filed a lawsuit against public-health officials and others, accusing them of violating his First Amendment right to free speech. A GoFundMe effort to help pay for the lawsuit began on July 22 with the stated goal of raising $50,000. As of August 22, 280 people have donated just under $14,600.
In a rambling statement announcing the decision to close, Helbachs blamed the public health officials' actions as having prompted the landlord (T. Wall Enterprises) to not renew the coffee shop's lease. Or, the somewhat tortuous explanation could also try to mask the fact that the landlord might simply have acted for purely financial reasons.
Workforce Housing changes student eligibility rules
On August 17, Middleton's Workforce Housing Committee voted to soften the City's blanket ban on post-secondary students as tenants in affordable housing units, and its onerous working conditions, by adopting the federal standards on university students in workforce housing, which are more nuanced (and realistic, especially concerning graduate students) than the overly broad and simplistic old Middleton rules.
WHC members challenge mayor's appointment decision
Before the Workforce Housing Committee (WHC) meeting on August 17 was called to order, some of its members openly expressed their dismay at mayor Gurdip Brar's refusal to reappoint Kurt Paulsen to the committee.
Kurt Paulsen is professor of urban planning at UW-Madison and a nationally renowned expert on affordable housing. He served on the Workforce Housing Committee (Taskforce as it was then) from 2014 to 2019, and was its chairman from 2015 to 2019. Since 2017, he has also been a member of the Plan Commission. In 2019, Gurdip Brar made him choose between Workforce Housing and the Plan Commission, giving one of his arbitrary and inconsistent rules (that no person shall serve on more than one committee) as a reason.
Gurdip Brar routinely invents these rules to serve his political needs, to reward loyalists and to punish critics. A case in point is the fact that it was that same Gurdip Brar who appointed Kurt Paulsen to the Plan Commission in the first place in 2017, even though the latter was already serving on Workforce Housing!
While this was not the first (or last) time that Gurdip Brar's erratic behavior did damage to the city's interests, it was the first time on August 17 that, to my recollection at least, members of a committee openly criticized the mayor for a specific appointment (or lack thereof), and asked for somebody to be reinstated.
Kurt Paulsen has been participating in all WHC meetings anyway, as an informal advisor so to speak, although as a non-member he of course can't vote.
It was WHC member Mike Slavish (who, by the way, is also a member of the Plan Commission), who first wondered if Kurt Paulsen could be reappointed to WHC. His suggestion was supported by alderwoman Susan West (district 6) as well as alderwoman Katy Nelson (district 3) who said it seemed "ridiculous to have this expert with us, and not have him on the committee". City Administrator Mike Davis agreed with an "Amen to that".
Although, according to the City's website, one seat on WHC is currently vacant, the chances of Gurdip Brar reappointing Kurt Paulsen to fill it are probably slim. Not only is one of the mayor's mottos 'might makes right', but Kurt Paulsen has the added disadvantage that he ran against Gurdip Brar for mayor, and is known to be highly critical of him. And this is where another of the mayor's mottos comes into play: 'In defeat, malice; in victory, revenge.'
Ménage à trois
On Thursday, August 20, the Middleton City Council, the Middleton Town Board and the Springfield Town Board held a (virtual) joint meeting for the first time in the history of the three municipalities.
In what Middleton mayor Gurdip Brar described as a "listening session", Cynthia Richson and Jim Pulvermacher, who chair the boards of Middleton and Springfield respectively, aired their grievances while the city's elected officials, including the mayor even, kept largely quiet.
The agenda officially listed three broad topics of discussion, namely Middleton Municipal Airport/Morey Field, stormwater issues and planning, and traffic issues and concerns, but, not surprisingly, most of the complaints from the towns were about the airport.
Both chairpersons made it very clear that they are against any expansion of airport operations, let alone a runway extension. In fact, Cynthia Richson seems to think that there is already too much air traffic now. They also repeated their demand for the towns to have two voting members on the City's Airport Commission, to be appointed by the town boards (the Middleton Common Council rejected this demand unanimously in June).
Both chairpersons also let it be known that the City needs to give in on the airport if it wants the towns' cooperation on other issues. While Cynthia Richson only hinted in that direction (the Town of Middleton and the City of Middleton are currently in a state of phony war about the Town blocking development prospects for the Erdman Park project in an unstated but obvious attempt to push the City towards concession regarding the airport), Jim Pulvermacher was blunt: If the City wants any cooperation from the Town of Springfield in matters of stormwater management, then it needs to agree to the Town's demands about the airport. He also called for the current inter-governmental agreement between the City of Middleton and Town of Springfield to be updated, presumably to make it more favorable to his town.
While the City has the legal power to develop the airport any way it sees fit, steamrolling over the towns' concerns would be highly unwise, and could in the long run damage the city's interests in other areas.
For now the three municipalities have agreed to hold regular, maybe monthly, follow-up meetings.