WFB Trustee Meeting 12/7

A few bullet points from the Dec. 7th Whitefish Bay Trustee meeting:

* We recommended approval of floating $5.7m in sewerage system bonds, and $5.6m in general bonds.  From memory, the rates were around 2.9%.

* We were presented with a report on various possibilities for changes to WFB's garbage collection.   We examined some analysis on the possibility of discontinuing "walk up" collection to each home, and possibly change and require all garbage be placed on the sidewalk for curb-side pickup.

Potentially, this would save collection time and possibly create a route consolidation and a savings of $60,000/year.  That savings figure might have been high, due to the fact that somewhere between 20-50% of all residents already place their garbage on the sidewalk.

About half the folks on my block put their garbage out on the sidewalk for pickup.  Just an FYI, that's not required.   The collectors will retrieve your trash up at your house.  The same thing goes for recycling, a fact I did not know.   We've forgotten to roll our carts out before, were skipped, and mistakenly thought we'd have to suffer for a month with an overflowing cart of recycling.    If you don't pull your recycling to the sidewalk, and they miss you, call up the DPW and tell them they missed your house.

In a straw poll, most Trustees didn't think this service reduction should be pursued for a variety of reasons, from the math not working, to continuing a service that many find valuable.   As I wrote last month, Trustees dismissed my attempt to snip the budget of $77k that wouldn't have cut any service to Villagers.  Cutting an actual service would be quite odd indeed.

* Finally, a resident delivered a presentation concerning prohibiting early-morning snow-plowing on parking lots, as the plowing of the Holy Family lots disturbed his family's sleep.  While all were sympathetic to this issue, the broader impact to the many schools and businesses in WFB was a serious concern.   As a side note, the DPW currently plows regular streets in the Village at any time they deem necessary.