On Monday, November 7, lane closures at the intersection of University Avenue and Parmenter Street will lead to some traffic disruption and cause delays on both streets. It is recommended to avoid the area that day. According to Middleton Public Works Director Shawn Stauske, the reason for the closures is water service work that is going to be done related to St. Bernard's Church.
City budget: Counting on the IRA
The City of Middleton's Finance Committee has wrapped up its discussions about the 2023 budget and made its recommendations to the Common Council, but that does not mean that the last word has been spoken. Apart from the fact that any council member could unwrap the budget package and try to make changes to it (there are precedents), much depends on the outcome of next Tuesday's referendum. The Finance Committee's recommendation for the general fund assumes that the referendum will pass, and if it doesn't some painful decisions will have to be made - and traditionally the Middleton Common Council is not very good at making any kind of difficult decision. Its modus operandi has usually been to kick the can down the road, muddle through with short-term patches, and hope that the problem will go away on its own or that the difficult choices can be put off until someone else has to make them.
At its November 1 meeting, the Finance Committee however had one discussion that looked like a novel combination of the old modus operandi and some new, albeit embryonic and short-lived, common sense. At issue was the capital borrowing budget, which the committee had managed to keep at the self-imposed cap of $4.75 million (this includes a one-time $1.5 million item for the reconstruction of trails and bridges in the Pheasant Branch Creek Corridor) after $136,000 of leftover 2022 capital projects funds were allocated to the 2023 budget.