County
Board calls on WisDOT to resume weed control
Also
on this page:
City
seats on SEWRPC committee go unfilled.
WisDOT
may turn to volunteers for invasive
plant control.
New
budget leaves road builders fat,
happy. |
Nov.
21, 2005 -- The Milwaukee County Board has unanimously
adopted a resolution calling on the Wisconsin Department
of Transportation to resume invasive weed control along
state-maintained rights of way.
The
resolution was spsonored by Supervisor Lynne DeBruin.
The
state last year ended invasive weed control efforts, even
for weeds it is required by law to remove. WisDOT cited
fiscal constraints at the time of its decision. It did
not, however, seek additional funding for invasive weed
control in the new state budget.
The
directive to let invasives bloom was renewed on June 1
of this year, just as Wisconsin kicked off its first ever
Invasive Species Awareness Month.
The
county budgeted more than $202,000 for invasive weed control
this year, DeBruin said.
DeBruin
"The
Milwaukee County Parks Division and various friends groups
are making efforts to minimize the spread and growth of
invasive weeds in Milwaukee County," the resolution
said. "However, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation
is negating this progress by not controlling the invasive
weeds growing along state trunk highways."
The
county has several parks that border state highways, DeBruin
said. Invasive species already are a threat, and WisDOT's
decision "is just compounding a problem that already
exists."
Highway
rights of way are "just perfect turf" for invasives,
she said.
The
state's decision to end efforts to control invasive species
"just points up the hypocrisy of what the state can
do," DeBruin said in an interview. "There is
not a municipality or county that is allowed to not follow
state law because they can't afford to do it."
Invasives
pose a significant threat to the state's economy and environment,
experts say. Millions of dollars are spent annually in
Wisconsin to control them, according to the Wisconsin
Council on Invasive Species.
City
seats on SEWRPC transportation advisory committee not
filled
Sept.
19, 2005 -- Mayor Tom Barrett never did fill
those city
seats on a key Southeastern Wisconsin Regional
Planning Commission transportation advisory committee
after all.
A
Barrett aide said in June -- a year after SEWRPC notified
Team Barrett of the vacancies -- that three people were
being named to the committee, which is developing recommendations
for transportation enhancements for the region through
the year 2035.
Those appointments didn't get made. Instead, the three
wound
up appointed to a SEWRPC committee that deals with the
distribution of federal funds allocated to the Milwaukee
area, according to SEWRPC Executive Director Philip Evenson.
The
seats on the transportation advisory committee remained
vacant as of Sunday, some 15 months after Barrett was
first invited to fill them.
The
committee has made its preliminary recommendations, and
public meetings are being held to get input on them.
So
how did three people who were supposed to be appointed
to one committee end up on another?Stay tuned. The webteam
was unsuccessful in attempts by e-mail and telephone last
week to contact city lobbyist Sharon Cook to get an answer
to that very question.
WisDOT
may turn to volunteers for invasive plant control
Agency didn't seek funding for task
Sept.
19, 2005 -- The Wisconsin Department of Transportation
may grant volunteers the uncoveted privilege of controllinginvasive
plants along more than 11,000 miles of state highway
rights-of-way.
The department,
which is getting a $64 million increase in its major
highway budget for the 2005-07 biennium, "is currently
looking into whether to issue permits to volunteer organizations
that wish to help control these noxious weeds on the
state highway rights of way," WisDOT Secretary
Frank Busalacchi said in a letter.
The state
uses a similar "adopt-a-highway" approach
for litter control. About 75% of highways have been
adopted, according to WisDOT. That means that more than
2,500 miles of state highway have not been.
Busalacchi
did not say whether the department is considering allowing
volunteers to use herbicides along highways, or whether
the volunteers would be expected to pull invasives along
the 11,000 miles.
WisDOT management
last year ordered its staff to end efforts to control
invasive plants, and that order was renewed this summer.
Invasives pose a significant threat to the state's economy
and environment, experts say. Millions of dollars are
spent annually in Wisconsin to control them, according
to the Wisconsin Council on Invasive Species.
Busalacchi,
in his letter to Citizens Allied for Sane Highways*,
said the department ended invasives control efforts
because of "dramatic funding reductions" in
the department's 2003-05 maintenance budget.
WisDOT, however,
did not seek restoration of the funding in its 2005-07
budget request, or when department officials appeared
before the Joint Finance Committee in July to ask for
a budget transfer to beef up its maintenance account.
A department
spokeswoman said earlier the 2005-07 budget did not
include money for invasives control.
Busalacchi,
though, said that "the department will continue
to evaluate this issue when prioritizing activities
for the new 2005-07 budget and will consider restoring
noxious weed spraying if sufficient funding is available."
*Full
disclosure: storyhill.net editor Gretchen Schuldt is co-chair
of Citizens Allied for Sane Highways.
New
budget leaves road builders fat, happy
Aug.
22, 2005 -- Road builders will be able to afford
bigger campaign contributions, under the new 2005-07 state
budget.
The
Legislature and the governor differed on how to pay for
more big roads, but the result is the same: the the major
highway program gets a 2% inflationary funding boost from
2004-'05 levels in each year of the biennium, plus an
extra $50 million in the second year, according to the
Legislative Fiscal Bureau.
Some
$244 million will be pumped into the program in 2005-'06
and $299 million in 2006-07.
Gov.
Jim Doyle's vetoes mean that the state will rely more
on borrowing to finance transportation than the Republicans
in the Legislature would like.
The
Legislature would have used borrowing to fund 50%, or
$122 million, of the total provided to the program in
2005-06, and 41%, or $123 million, of the program in 2006-07.
Doyle
used his very broad veto power to increase borrowing to
cover 62%, or $151 million, of program costs in 2005-06
and 49%, or $147 million, in 2006-07.
Doyle
also used his veto to reduce a proposed increase in aid
granted to the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Department for
freeway patrol. The Legislature upped the patrol aid by
$250,000 a year, but Doyle knocked that back to $50,000.
He also directed Department of Transportation Secretary
Frank Busalacchi to get from the Sheriff's Department
a report explaining just how it spends the $1 million
a year it now gets for freeway patrols.
Doyle,
according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, wants to "ensure
that the monies are used to maximize highway safety."
