City Council Meeting - 08/21/07

Well, this is going to be a little heavier on the information than my usual postings......


For starters, who should be seen entering city hall to attend the meeting but the LOCAL WALMART MANAGER, with two burly types in tow.... as if walmart was going to resort to mafia-type "strong arm" tactics.

###

THEN, just after roll call (lol), Alderman Mann Decided to try more "person agenda pushing....

Mann: "Mister Mayor, I also would like you to, for the next regularly scheduled council meeting, I would like you add - as my request - was that, we, add to the next common council agenda an item regarding the composition or the make up of the city plan commission. I won't go into any much history other than to say that, that ah, I requested and we looked at it, and it didn't make the agenda tonight so I just wanted to make sure it was on next time. And, my basis for this is, ah, common council code, ah, 2.02 peren 3, ah c - 'agen,' ok, 'the agenda, once adopted shall be the order of the business, and any new business may be introduced as part of the agenda for the next meeting of the common council.'

Mayor Voegele: "Surely we'll consider that, Mister Mann."

( long 3 second pause...) Mann: "CONSIDER it??????... Ok..... I hope you'd do more than that..."

Myaor Voegele: "We will consider it."

ROFL! In the past, he's tried telling the mayor what to do, AND even tried snooping over the mayor's shoulder when the Mayor was reading something - does this guy EVER know when to quit??? (By the way, it WAS noticed that Alderman Mann has apparently been moved from just to the right of the Mayor, to over near the left end of the "horse-shoe". :)) )

###

During the public comments for item #13 - Large retail ordinance, a number of people spoke. the most notable were Tom Wagner (who made the threat that if Walmart is not allowed to expand, they COULD sue the city), and a LAWYER FROM MILWAUKEE REPRESENTING WALMART!

(I was going to post - word for word - their statements, but the vhs tape used to record the meeting screwed up partway through Tomczak's statement and continued most of the way through Wagner's. Rest assured that the meeting WILL be retapred, and this post edited to include those statements AS SOON AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE.)

It should be noted that Walmart's milwaukee attourney Debbie Tomczak has so far traveled up here from milwaukee AT LEAST TWICE(that is known at this time) for the express purpose of speaking in favor of walmart expanding in Sturgeon Bay - the other documented time was for the common council meeting on August 7th, 2007.


In the end, the city council approved the changes to the "Big Box" Ordinance - changes which INCLUDED REMOVING ANY SIZE CAP.

Alderman Vandertie, hower, DID bring up an interesting point concerning walmart's expansion: That in addition to the Economic & fiscal impact studies, they will ALSO need to apply for anexation.

THE FIGHT IS FAR FROM OVER, MY FRIENDS! "THE FAT LADY HAS YET TO SING" - so there is still hope.



And a new nationwide(& hopefully WORLDWIDE in the future) group is in the process of being formed.... caling themselves the "Sons Of Liberty" with the goal of drawing together ALL seperate local groups under one united banner to fight against such evil and greed as represented my Walmart, Gannett, and others. WE MUST TAKE OUR COUNTRY BACK IF IT IS TO EXIST!

How useful is our local fire dept????

As of about an hour & a half ago, Sturgeon bay fire dept responded to a report of heavy smoke at the holiday motel - right at the east end of the downtown bridge.



ARIAL PHOTO FROM 1992, SHOWING LOCATION IN QUESTION



Get this, they have 2 pumpers, 1 mini pumper, 1 tanker, 1 ladder truck, and 1 rescue truck from the city.... AS WELL AS 1 pumper, 1 mini pumper, and 1 rescue from the southern door fire dept...... And they have only started (as of this writing) to try and put it out!!!!! Even then, there are only 3 people actively fighting the fire - the rest are just standing around WATCHING!!!
WHAT.... THE..... F***!?!?!?!?!?! When did the fire dept turn wimps??? And WHY are the citizens paying for all these firefighters when they're not doing anything???

This personally makes me SERIOUSLY wonder about the usefulness of having a mostly part-time fire dept. It was as if most of them only responded so that they could claim another paycheck....

I was there, and managed to get 20 photos from different angles - as soon as I get the film developed, I'll post all of them over at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sturgeonbaygroup/

Anyone else that was there, you're welcome to come over and add your 2 cents worth.

Will also add a link here to any news articles as they become availible.


UPDATE===UPDATE===UPDATE===UPDATE===UPDATE===UPDATE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THE PHOTOS ARE NOW UPLOADED AT THE "STURGEONBAYGROUP" ON YAHOO. (Gee, I never realized before that getting them put direct to picture cd could be so much cheaper versus getting prints - $3.10 vs about $7.00 for prints)


Door County Daily News:
http://www.doorcountydailynews.com/news/local_news.htm

Major Structure Fire Devastates Holiday Motel
By Nick Freimuth DoorCountyDailyNews.com
August 6, 2007

Traffic was redirected through Sturgeon Bay for three hours yesterday after a fire destroyed the attic and second level of the Holiday Motel. Sturgeon Bay Fire Chief Tim Herlache said no one was injured and the fire was put out before it swept through the rooms on the upper level. Herlache said because of smoke and water damage most of the motel will need to be gutted.
Manager Anna Sacks said the first thing on her mind when she heard there was a fire was the safety of those staying at the Holiday. The community support was beyond belief, according to Sacks.

Fire Chief Herlache said the emergency call came in at 11:19 a.m. The call reported that smoke was coming from the roof. When the department arrived there were no flames poking through the structure. Herlache talked about the department’s reaction to the smoke.

Firefighters used 5,000 gallons of water to extinguish the blaze. Herlache said the American Red Cross went above and beyond again. He also thanked Stone Harbor for hosting the displaced Holiday Motel residents.
The Southern Door County Fire Department and Door County Emergency Services provided mutual aid at the scene. Southern Door sent three rigs and 15 firefighters and 25 responded from the Sturgeon Bay department......

the Door County Advocate article:
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070805/ADV01/70805020/2011/adv

Fire damages Holiday Motel

By Chuck Carlson
cecarlso@doorcountyadvocate.com

A fire, which may have started in a second-floor bathroom and spread to the attic, damaged the Holiday Motel on N. Second Avenue in downtown Sturgeon Bay, Sunday morning.


Thick, brown smoke poured from the attic on both sides of the motel around 11:15 a.m. and grew thicker over the next hour, blanketing much of downtown Sturgeon Bay in a haze.

The hotel was full at the time, according to owner Pat mAcdonald, and several people had to be awakened and told to get out of the motel.

No one was injured.

More than 30 firefighters, including many brought in off-duty, responded from the Sturgeon Bay Fire Department with support from Southern Door.....

I posted a comment on the Advocate story at: http://forums.greenbaypressgazette.com/viewtopic.php?t=14626

.... And it apparently pissed off one of the local firefighters, who in an attempted post on the "sturgoenbaygroup" resorted to name calling and retorted:

if dont have anything else to do besides criticize someone
else, how about you strap on all that gear and try it yourself. I bet
you couldnt last a minute with one of those guys in a fire. Sounds
like you know a lot about this department, maybe you dont know all the
facts. Do you think it is possible in your little mind to understand
what actually takes place at a fire.

I guess that's to be expected from such people - and he didn't even try to explain their reasons for standing around shooting the breeze instead of fighting the fire....



If anyone reading this feels like trying to drag an explaination out of him, the email he used was gonzales1269@yahoo.com - although he DOES have a charter internet account, his IP# being 68.191.191.62

Walmart... STILL pushing

CRIST ON A FIRE ENGINE!!!! No matter HOW MANY TIMES they're told we don't WANT one, walmart is STILL preasuring the city to let them build a f***ing supercenter!

NOW they've resorted to their usual tricks of whining to the county board & recruiting gullible citizens into supporting then in their efforts!

184,000 square feet - and that's just the building! Build + parking lot/retaining pods will cover an area bordered by a cemetary, the house behind Econo foods, 14th ave., and egg harbor road! What they want to build is larger than the area taken up by cherry point mall! Don't believe me? See for yourself in the images below!

Current walmart (blue"WM"), Econo Foods to left, Cherry point mall at lower left corner.

And of course, roughly 1/4 of the size of their actual supercenter building will be devoted to GROCERIES! With how predatory & bullyish walmart is, how long do you think places like Pick n Save & Econo Foods will last before walmart drives them out? And what happens to the employees of those two stores when they close? No doubt all of them will wind up having to apply at walmart.... most will likely be hired. BUT - there will be some who aren't.... Where will THEY go, when walmart starts running OTHER STORES out of business???

WHEN wil you people REALIZE that walmart is not God - they're not even your friend! They are just using you to get what they want, which is.........

TOTAL BUSINESS DOMINATION!

Think I'm wrong? Then how do you explain their attempt to start their own bank? Or their "walk-in clinics"? Or their decision to carry groceries? Or any of the other little schemes they've pulled or trying to pull?

Walmart has their own realty division, their own air service, and did you know they even have their own version of the cold wat era KGB - in charge of "DEALING" with any employees and/or stores (here in the US) that should consider unionization?

If you people would just open your eyes and pull you finger out of your ears and LISTEN you would come to realize real fast that your favorite store is LYING TO YOU!