April 1, 2008
My Plan for Improving the Village

Whitefish Bay is a great place to live.  We all enjoy the Village’s small town atmosphere with its quality, affordable homes, safe neighborhoods, and superior schools.  Convenient shopping and professional services are located near by.  And we’re just minutes away from a major city with all it has to offer.

But we can improve the Village and make it more enjoyable to its residents and visitors.

This column provides a few thoughts about things that the Village can and should do better, as well as some ideas to improve our sense of community.

1. We need to properly maintain the Village Infrastructure
Properly maintaining our streets, water mains, sewers, street lights and other aspects of the Village’s infrastructure doesn’t mean we need to spend more – it means that we need to efficiently maintain what we have, to anticipate needs before they develop, to establish effective plans for improving the infrastructure we rely upon.

2. We need to do a better job overseeing Village construction projects
We need to properly oversee contractors working in our community. To illustrate the point, consider the 2007 construction project to replace the sanitary and storm sewers and water mains along East Courtland Place. Fugitive dust was not controlled and safety barricades were not uniformly employed, and the work did not initially meet the specifications.  We can achieve better performance, but it requires appropriate oversight.

3. We need to improve the decision-making process
We have been wringing our hands about what to do about Silver Spring since Bayshore Town Center was first proposed. Meanwhile, Bayshore Town Center is now complete while we are still talking to consultants about what to do about our shopping district.  We need to improve the decision-making process in the Village – making decisions and implementing appropriate action in a timely manner.

4. Fiscal restraint
The Whitefish Bay board has done a good job of controlling the increase in property taxes devoted toward Village services.  We need to continue this fiscal restraint, while providing the services expected by Whitefish Bay residents.  By benchmarking our services to that of the best communities in the Midwest, we can increase the efficiency of operations and help hold down costs. 

5. Building a better sense of community
One of the things that attracted us all to the Village is the community atmosphere. Some communities have reinforced that community feeling by the creation of volunteer-run neighborhood associations. Active neighborhood associations can become a critical part of the social foundation of the Village and can make neighborhoods more enjoyable places to live. They can also provide the eyes and ears of the community for the Village Board and allow the Village staff to better measure the quality of the services they provide.