Eisenga: Council inaction could delay Commerce Center project - An eggxample

I always try to buy the best eggs (within reason) I can find but never REALLY understood what was hype and what actually meant something on labels.   I feel better now that when I buy Phils Eggs from HyVee which are Certified Humane and Cage Free I understand what it means.

I think I have only had chicken eggs in my life.   Emu?  Remember when Emu's were the next BIG thing.

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I am LOVING the 60 Minutes piece last night about growing old.  Drinking alcohol, gaining weight and having sex will make you live longer - YEA BABY!!

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This whole racist problem with the LA Clippers is going to get more interesting  From what I have heard the owner is going to fight to keep his team or at least keep it in the family Trust.  But then listening to sports talk shows Charles Barkley says it's not going to be a problem at all.   

He guaranteed that if any person associated with Donald Sterling or any person in his family controls the team, no black player will play for the Clippers, guaranteed. And he doubts any white player will play.  Period.  

When asked if this was creating stress among players and so forth he said, "not at all". No one will play for that team. It's not even a talking point, not going to happen. It's already a done deal. 


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Had a unique event at my bird feeder yesterday - a hairy woodpecker AND a red-headed woodpecker at the same time on the suet.  No camera was available.  

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City Council Tuesday at 6:30.    Here is the agenda for the next meeting.  Of note are items #2, #3 and #4 which concern changing city wide zoning to allow, in a nut shell more strip malls and the possibility of Pay Day Loan companies plus a grocery/hardware store. I'm pro grocery/hardware store, not so much strip malls and pay day loans companies.  Sadly they seem to be linked together and our problem is to unlink them in a timely manner.  That area will become a strip mall, that stone was cast a few years ago and it's not going to change and we just have to deal with it.  
 
Council Agenda    

If you are one of the 10 people reading the news or getting emails you might know about this.  I would not have known but luckily Mr. Eisenga emailed me Saturday night informing me that this news article was out there. 

Eisenga: Council inaction could delay Commerce Center project  

I must correct him on one thing. When he says " “The city council's plan commission has approved this project and the requested permits and zoning changes twice. But the new city council appears to be balking on this, and I'm not quite sure why." 

Well, that is not actually the entire truth.

On March 18th staff received a letter from Ruekert-Mielke, Wisconsin’s oldest Municipal Engineering firm.  This letter was presented to Council with this wording "Prior to Conditional Use approval being issued, the following comments will need to be addressed or additional information needs to be provided per the following letter".  

They were not addressed as there were still 22 outstanding problems. 

MOST were just paper work but a few were BIG problems that we are working on.  When the developer built the very first commercial (not industrial) store, the ShopKo, it was built in the wrong place and not compliant with current zoning laws and it has opened up a HUGE can of worms with ramifications that could really hurt the future business climate of Columbus . . . unless, in a worst case scenario, you like strip malls with Pay Day Loans, funeral homes and fraternal organizations. 

We can not just change zoning for one zone without it effecting all future zones and Council is trying VERY hard to find a work around. 

But, of course the developer blames the city council with a media blitz. 

On a personal note - When I got Mr. Eisengas email late Saturday night I read the article and then was thinking to myself  "how does this make me feel" since I have never been in this situation before. 

Oddly - ENERGIZED!!   It's really a fascinating problem for both sides and the exact reason I wanted to be on the Council.

Stay tuned, go to or watch the Council.  City Council is like watching a baseball game.  Lots of boredom intermixed with some pretty exciting stuff.  

Rod 
  

Quagmire of problems

While I was tying this I have been keeping an eye on the fed jobs report.  The results?  America CRUSHED expectations! 

Unemployment fell to 6.3% - lowest in 5 years
payrolls added 288,0000 - 70,000 more then expected
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Brewers suck - I don't think they will win another game this month.  At least Gomez robbed yet another home run.  OH - I live and die by the Brewers :-) 
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Below is The Cloud Index which tracks Cloud technologies.

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I visit my dentist for the last time today. Ive been goign to him since the late 70's and he is retiring. THE NERVE!!  Now I need to find another dentist that is MUCH closer to Columbus. 

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I've been working on a magazine cover for an upcoming issue.   Here are the rejects so far.

The first one is of Madison which is of course a reject since this is a rural magazine.  You can get this mag at our library, it's a good read.  Lots of interesting articles about rural Wisconsin and the Columbus area. 

this was a wrap around cover.

This one was more fall like and I have better fall images.

I knew this one would not make the cut as maybe it was . . . gawdy and there were other problems but I was fun making it.

I can't show the one that is the leading candidate as it's a surprise.

LocalEben is a magazine published 6 times a year and is created in Beaver Dam. I urge all writers that have something to say to contact them.  A mag by the people for the people.

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Every other Friday (almost) is always a day of anticipation as "we" get our council packets late Friday afternoon. We then get to read 60-80 pages of problems over the weekend that need to be fixed or taken care of at the next council meeting.  As City Council members we can only react to what is on the agenda and don't control what gets put ON the agenda. We can suggest, but ultimately it's the Mayor and City Admin that control what actually is put on each agenda.  

And BTW - do NOT listen to rumors that are flying around.  I've heard some pretty outlandish, false and outright lies. Instead, go to or watch the city council meetings before making judgements.  I'm enjoying trying to wade through the many sided issues that seem to have no right or wrong answer.

When I was an IT guy my greatest joy on the job was fixing problems and trying to come up with viable solutions.  
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Have a great weekend and remember, if it gets bright outside, it's the sun!    

Rule 5, Aquatic Center changes, Brewer pitching SUCKS!

Injuries finally caught up to the Brewers and when Garcia the Brewers starting pitcher hurt his thumb batting in the 3rd inning the overworked bullpen (due to close games not ineffectiveness) took over with dire results.

The interesting thing about the bullpen is a young dude by the name of Wei-Chung Wang a 21 year old lefty from Taiwan.  He has made the jump from rookie ball to the Majors in a weird way. 

He was drafted by Pittsburgh in 2012 but then they discovered he would need Tommy John surgery so they voided his contract to create a new contract. This created a rules quirk (loop hole) that made Wang a Rule 5 candidate after only 1 year in the Majors.

The Rule 5 draft aims to prevent teams from stockpiling too many young players on their minor league affiliate teams when other teams would be willing to have them play in the majors.

It seems the Brewers were REALLY interested in the young guy and decided to take him in the special Rule 5 draft.  Here is the thing, he MUST be on the major league roster the entire year. The plan is to have him with the Brewers all year and NEXT year send him down to the minors where he can develop.  So they need to give him enough work so he does not go stale knowing he is not really ready to play in the Majors.  From what I have heard and read the guy has all the qualities and a great fastball, just not the experience.

It will be interesting to watch this this year as they try to get him work in games such as yesterdays blow out where he got 3 innings in.  For HIM, it's not the results that count, just the experience. 

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Big changes are being put in front of the City Council in regards to the Aquatic Center.  I believe they are trying to separate the Aquatic Center from Parks and Recreation by putting Pool Manager Loren Glasbrenner in charge as a seasonal employee permanently with no need to interview other candidates.

One of the problems I see immediately is that the Aquatic Center will open up 2 or 3 weeks later then normal.

Stay tuned for more information on this and if you have questions please talk to or email your, or any, aldermen.

District 1
rroyem@columbuswi.us  - Rick Royan
aadams@columbuswi.us - Aaron Adams

District 2
rmelotte@columbuswi.us - Me
dbomkamp@columbuswi.us - Dave Bomcamp

District Michael
mclark@columbuswi.us - Michael Clark     
mthom@columbuswi.us - Michael Thom

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RAIN?  You think we have had a lot of rain?

Check out these rain totals in Southern southeastern Alabama and western Florida.

Town / Tuesday / Wednesday

Silverhill            1.80 20.00 
Foley                  1.83 18.93
Orange Beach     2.01 18.52 
Milton                1.48 18.91 
Pensacola           1.86 17.70 

That is a whole lotta rain.
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I'm hoping more people will pay attention to City Council happenings and what their government is doing.  The latest Council meeting can be seen here.  The more people getting involved with the city the better place the city will be. 

Columbus City Council 4/15/14