Politics & Government

The Week Ahead: Fire Station Block Plan Set for Public Hearing

Meeting Tuesday will take input on limited retail center proposal for former Fire Station No. 3; School Board continues reworking employee policies in light of state law changes.

The Brookfield Plan Commission convenes Monday for its monthly meeting at 6:30 p.m. in Council Chambers at City Hall.

On the agenda, among other things, is a request from Neumann Companies Inc. to schedule a public hearing on combining parcels in Kinsey's Garvendale, Brookfield oldest subdivision, to allow for a private school.

Also on the docket is a request for an up-to 150-foot wireless communications tower and associated building at 19295 W. North Ave. and an amendment to the building and zoning code to allow residential greenhouses.

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Fire station tract plans gets public vetting

Tuesday night will be a busy one at City Hall, beginning with a public hearing starting at 6:30 p.m. in the East Activity Room on rezoning the former Fire Station No. 3 city block at at the northeast corner of Moorland Road and Hackberry Lane to allow for, most likely, a a single-story retail center with parking.

The recommendation comes with a robust list of caveats:

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  • No fast food restaurants with drive-thru.
  • No taverns, bars, theaters, dance halls or other amusement places.
  • Other restaurant and food service establishments are permitted to have a drive-thru lane.
  • Outdoor dining associated with food service must be located facing Moorland Road.
  • No automobile repair shops, service stations, storage garages or auto sales.
  • No free standing signs, without a principal building in place, or no billboards.
  • Minimum 25-foot landscaped buffer along east side of block (screening neighborhood)

The Water and Sewer Board meets next, at 7 p.m. with a far forward-looking item on its agenda: Approval of an agreement with Donohue & Associates for developing a 2035 Facilities Plan for the Fox River Water Pollution Control Center.

Following that, the Board of Public works meets at 7:30 p.m., with a discussion and possible action on a draft pedestrian crosswalk policy as a featured item. That could advance to the next meeting of the full Common Council for approval.

Elmbrook counts heads, considers hiring and firing policies

The Elmbrook School Board meets at 6 p.m. Tuesday and will hear and be asked to accept the second semester opening headcount for students enrolled in the district.

The count of students present on the second Friday in January – Jan. 11 – to be forwarded to the state Department of Public Instruction is pegged at 6,425 students. While there were reductions this year in non-resident enrollment, resident enrollment climbed slightly since the September count, from 6,248 to 6,296.

The largest increase, of 30 pupils, comes at the beginning in Early Childhood programs, promising a new crop of Elmbrook students for the future. The largest decrease in enrollment since fall was 12 fewer 10th-graders.

The board will also hear a first reading of a proposed policy change prompted by the provisions of Act 10 legislation significantly reducing teachers union collective bargaining powers as pertaining to dismissal.

The new policy and provisions lay out changes basically doing away with language having to do with bargaining agreements and substituting basic provisions that firing must comply with state law and/or any individual teacher or adminstrator contracts.

The changes would also add that "student needs" and teacher or administrator certifications could be taken into account in any "reduction in force" procedure.

Along the same lines, the board's Personnel Committee will present a report on its discussions toward further actions to bring personnel policies in line with the new order of things in the wake of Act 10.

The committee has been reviewing:

  • The employee evaluation process for teachers, principals and directors;
  • Salary and compensation planning for employee groups;
  • Remaining 4000 series policies and the employee handbook; and
  • Possible 2012-13 negotiations with Elmbrook Education Association

The committee will also give a heads-up on its thinking toward "strategic teacher compensation planning as it relates to hiring this spring."


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