Curmudgeon's Corner

Village Buzz - June 23rd...

Posted by Al Campbell on June 23, 2009

Germantown, Quality of Life, Village Buzz, Wisconsin

I received an e-mail from a regular reader late last week concerning the first two subjects that follow:

When will the new Kwik Trip open?

I called the Kwik Trip corporate offices in La Crosse and learned that the Germantown Kwik Trip is now scheduled to open on July 2nd.

The people with whom I interacted at the corporate location were wonderful.  I don't know if this speaks to La Crosse or Kwik Trip or both, but the experience was what I would hope for in every such call, but about which I'm too often disappointed.

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What is happening with the County Q & the Lannon Road construction?

I talked with Jon Edgren who heads the Washington County Highway Department about both projects.  My take-away from that conversation is this:

• County Q between Pilgrim Road and Highway 41-45 is a joint project involving Menomonee Falls/Waukesha County and Washington County.  Mr. Edgren indicated that he stays in regular contact with the other group and is still unable to predict when this will occur other than to indicate that he suspects this rolls into 2010.
• Lannon Road between Hwy 175 and County Q has been undergoing significant changes as anyone driving that route has noticed.  Power poles have been moved and trees have been removed.  This project was part of the "dust-up" (my term) between Washington County, Germantown and SEWRPC.  It also involves the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) that has been enacted in Washington, D.C.  It appears, now, that Washington County will be taking bids in the December 2009/ January 2010 time frame for construction in 2010.  I suspect that  SEWRPC has gotten to people in Madison and that this stalled out the expected funding.  Then, ARRA was passed and a new pool of money was made available.  The ARRA money is supposed to be awarded more quickly than regular construction funds since it is intended to "stimulate" our economy.  As Mr. Edgren indicated, "time will tell" about how much more quickly this funding source will move.

Religious posting on Village Signage?

A couple of comments were posted to my blog item yesterday.  One commenter asked why the village had permitted a church posting on the sign along Mequon Road near the Village Hall and Library, and the other accused the commenter of being "anti-religion".

Both my spouse and I noticed this posting and I wondered why it would be permitted, as well.  I am a regular church-goer and consider myself a Christian, so I'm not anti-religion.  I did, however, question the wisdom of featuring one church and its message.  This doesn't bother me so much from a separation of church and state perspective as it does from a "where will it end?" perspective.

How does anyone decide which requests to honor and which to decline, and then what happens when someone looking for a fight uses such a declination to go after the village.

It seems to me that there should be no such postings on village signage simply because the signage will likely become overwhelmed with such requests, interfering with community activity postings.

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The Curmudgeon Blog today is titled "Body Language".