The Daily Reporter articles from October 2007

The Daily Reporter archives from October 2007

Habitat for Humanity to extend Dane County influence.
October 1, 2007... Byline: Paul Snyder The Dane County chapter of Habitat for Humanity celebrated its 20th anniversary Thursday highlighted by a $1-million gift from HFH Board of Directors President Bill DeAtley and his wife, Jan DeAtley, for new development...

Dane County executive refuses to disobey budget law despite state woes.
October 1, 2007... Byline: Paul Snyder Kathleen Falk knew Friday she wouldn't have a relaxing weekend. The Dane County executive presents her 2008 county budget to the County Board Monday and with a few definite plan items, a lot of math remains to be...

Milwaukee to cut into 163-year road deficit.
October 1, 2007... Byline: Sean Ryan Milwaukee Comptroller W. Martin "Wally" Morics prefaced his speech about city infrastructure by quoting Marley's ghost from "A Christmas Carol," on the subject of comfort. "'I have none to offer,'" Morics said,...

Unsettled state budget in Wisonsin hurts.
October 1, 2007... Byline: Sean Ryan After all the excitement over the budget at Thursday's meeting, Milwaukee County supervisors approved a new apprenticeship initiative and a $5-million partnership to fix Johnsons Park. The main goal of the...

Interview with Terrance McGowan: Business manager for Wisconsin's Operating Engineers Local 139.(Interview)
October 1, 2007... Byline: Paul Snyder Terrance McGowan has been business manager for Wisconsin's Operating Engineers Local 139 since 2004, a period with several record-sized infrastructure construction projects, including the Oak Creek Elm Road power plant,...

Bridging the Gap: Rebuilding AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department.
October 2, 2007... Byline: Joe Grundle Despite the settling of some disagreements that have ripped apart the national construction unions, the basic trades and mechanical trades still face one large impediment to the rebuilding of the once mighty and unified...

Report triggers calls for more minority contractors in Milwaukee.
October 2, 2007... Byline: Sean Ryan A report that minority-owned companies received roughly 7 percent of Milwaukee construction contracts in 2005 has spawned calls for the city to adopt race-based contracting goals. Spokesmen from the National...

Wisconsin Department of Transportation revisiting Highway 2.
October 2, 2007... Byline: Joe Grundle The Wisconsin Department of Transportation is repaving a section of Highway 2 for the second time in five years. Ashland-based asphalt contractor Northwoods Paving Co. could begin work on a 5.8-mile stretch of...

With touch of sadness, Milwaukee's Mitchell Street moves forward.
October 2, 2007... Byline: Sean Ryan The fruits of a more than five-year effort to bring some new development and money into Milwaukee's Mitchell Street all fell from the tree last week. Mayor Tom Barrett dropped in on Friday to approve a $3.1 million...

Credit union teaching at Hamilton High in Milwaukee.
October 3, 2007... Byline: Sean Ryan An Educators Credit Union in Hamilton High School is helping students learn painlessly to manage money instead of through life's mistakes. "Financial training is so important to kids because, as parents, that's one...

State of Wisconsin budget unclear, so Dane County road projects cloudy.
October 3, 2007... Byline: Paul Snyder For the moment, Dane County has plenty of plans for 2008 road-improvement projects, but not enough guaranteed cash. Dane County, like other local governments in Wisconsin, is stalled while waiting for word about its...

Architect for Wis. Institutes for Discovery in Madison says growing out of campus, no great loss.
October 3, 2007... Byline: Paul Snyder When the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery grows out of the center of the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, it'll do so on the remains of seven smaller buildings. That, according to one of the project's...

Woman contractor in Milwaukee wants to retain Emerging Business Enterprise advantages.
October 3, 2007... Byline: Sean Ryan Cheryl Honeck, president of J.F. Cook Co. Inc., said she was surprised to see that women-owned firms received just as many Milwaukee contracts as minority-owned companies in 2005. She said she expected the news in the...

Ladysmith is getting better.
October 3, 2007... Byline: Joe Grundle Ladysmith is getting close, but it still hasn't reached full recovery. A tornado devastated the city in September 2002, and while it's taken more than five years to get to this point, City Administrator Alan...

Even experts disagree about benefits in Wisconsin.
October 4, 2007... Byline: Sean Ryan As the use of tax incremental financing continues to grow, the question is arising as to whether it's being used to foster real economic growth, or simply to shuffle employers around Wisconsin. Should municipalities...

Judge upholds We Energies, federal regulators deal.
October 4, 2007... Milwaukee (AP) -- A judge overruled environmental groups' objections and upheld a deal between We Energies and the federal government to reduce power plant pollution. The deal was in limbo since environmental groups filed suit in 2003,...

Evansville turning Main Street back into brick road.
October 4, 2007... Byline: Paul Snyder What's old is new again in Evansville. Bricks that have been covered by asphalt for more than 40 years have found their way back to the surface, and Main Street will once again be a red brick road in the downtown...

Beloit to spend $2.28 million to give police elbow room.
October 4, 2007... Byline: Paul Snyder Beloit Police Chief John Wilson says he, his officers, his staff members and even the bad guys need more room. "If we bring a prisoner in, we have no interview room, no booking room, none of that," he said. "We're...

You can take your offer and ...
October 4, 2007... Byline: Scott Bauer Seattle (AP) -- The little old lady who lives in a little old house is stubborn in a very BIG way. Edith Macefield, 86, refused a $1 million offer from a developer to move out of her 108-year-old farmhouse to make...

Pabst Farms mall in Oconomowoc setback looms, but optimism still high.
October 5, 2007... Byline: Joe Grundle and Sean Ryan A huge upscale mall proposed for Pabst Farms is not necessarily dead even if mall builder General Growth Properties Inc. pulls its 1 million-square-foot project. The city of Oconomowoc approved General...

State of Wisconsin prosecuting Middleton contractor.
October 5, 2007... Byline: Paul Snyder Asphalt Services LLC, Middleton, once again is in trouble with the state. Alleged violations by the company include misrepresentation of terms and service, substituting products used in conducting its services,...

Andrew Bandy expected to plead guilty to revised charges.
October 5, 2007... Byline: Sean Ryan One year after indicting Andrew Bandy for defrauding banks in a scheme to embezzle money from Mallory Properties, U.S. attorneys this week filed revised charges against him. Bandy pleaded guilty to the charges in...

Pabst Blue Ribbon sign in Milwaukee rebuilt for Brewery Project.
October 5, 2007... Byline: Sean Ryan One of Dennis Bauer's first labors of love at Poblocki Sign Co. has been faceless for the past decade. Its owners didn't even warn him before they cut the faces off. One day about 10 years ago, when driving to work...

Emerging Business Enterprises report: 'We've made some real strong progress'.
October 5, 2007... Byline: Sean Ryan There's certainly been progress. In 2005, Emerging Business Enterprises received 72 percent of all construction subcontracts, or $21 million, plus another $4.3 million in prime contracts, according to an August study...

Two Wisconsin counties to hold workshops on sustainable development.
October 5, 2007... Byline: Joe Grundle If northern Wisconsin is to maintain its reputation as the great outdoors, future development needs stricter regulations. So thinks Rick Schneider, director of environmental services for the Northwest Regional...

Outside Milwaukee, minority contractors scarce.
October 5, 2007... Byline: Paul Snyder The Associated General Contractors of Wisconsin has been working with the Department of Administration for three years to try to get more minority businesses involved in the state's construction industry. More...

Something new under the sun: cheaper solar technology attracts more homeowners.
October 5, 2007... Byline: Jim Carlton When Bill and Margaret Oliver decided to take the plunge into solar energy earlier this year, the retired Long Beach, Calif., couple searched for months to find someone who could install 35 newfangled solar panels atop...

Dane County demands contractors play fair.
October 8, 2007... Byline: Paul Snyder Best value contracting is a fancy title for compelling some contractors to stop cheating. And in Dane County, it soon will be the law. Scott Vaughn, executive director of the Building and Construction Trades...

Green Bay utility seeks to go green.
October 8, 2007... Byline: Joe Grundle Green Bay-based electric utility Wisconsin Public Service Corp. promotes energy efficiency to its customers, but its own branch in Rhinelander does not provide a good model. For that reason and others, WPS hopes to...

Kerry Americas building ambitious project in Beloit.
October 8, 2007... Byline: Paul Snyder Nothing about building Kerry Americas' new $60 million, four-building campus in Beloit is going to be easy. There's a stream on site that the Department of Natural resources wants moved. There are more than 100...

Developer to use green-building techniques for Milwaukee's Kane Commons.
October 8, 2007... Byline: Sean Ryan Julilly Kohler is holding onto old-fashioned ideals. She wants to settle in one community instead of moving around the country. She wants to have morning coffee with her neighbors in a public garden. She's building...

At Sauk City-based Ramaker & Associates Inc., employees are the boss.
October 9, 2007... Byline: Paul Snyder Terry Ramaker mulled over his retirement options for a few years. He had 70 hard working employees to think about and he didn't want to plunge their lives into uncertainty. "I was always concerned about what would...

Tax backers in Wisconsin dig in.
October 9, 2007... Byline: Paul Snyder With the state's Budget Conference Committee ready to chew over transportation numbers, industry officials and associations are once again speaking out about the state's needs. They all want the same thing, of...

Heavy metal to heavy reading proposed in Cedarburg.
October 9, 2007... Byline: Sean Ryan For the cleanup of the former Mercury Marine property in Cedarburg, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is favoring a plan that could clear the way for a library to be built there. The property has housed a...

Wisconsin consruction firms announce staffing changes, promotions: October 9, 2007.
October 9, 2007... Byline: Daily Reporter Staff Camosy Incorporated Camosy Incorporated named John Bosman Business Development Manager. Bosman was formerly a principal at SRBL Architects in Deerfield, Ill. Bosman will be responsible for developing...

Scrambling contractors in Wisconsin tackle remodeling.
October 9, 2007... Byline: Joe Grundle For builders and subcontractors in Wisconsin, an increase in the number of remodeling projects has helped offset the sting of the drop-off in new home construction. As customers realize the growing inventory of new...

Home builders in Wisconsin battling grim market.
October 9, 2007... Byline: Joe Grundle and Sean Ryan While Wisconsin builders have not felt the nationwide housing slump as severely as coastal and Sunbelt states, the blow is still palpable. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Wisconsin...

Gilda's Club rising in Middleton.
October 10, 2007... Byline: Paul Snyder The whole point of Gilda's Club is to create a place where cancer patients can be themselves and lose their feelings of isolation, says Marcia Whittington. Now, the Madison area will have such a place. Ground...

Franklin's hope: Growth, but with a firm hand.
October 10, 2007... Byline: Sean Ryan Think of it as a gigantic blank slate. The land in southwestern Franklin has no sewer or water infrastructure, it's all farmland, and it's owned by farmers, not developers with plans for shoppes and towne centres....

Life Safety Code planned for Winnebago Mental Health Institute in Oshkosh.
October 10, 2007... Byline: Paul Snyder Some builders might not even think of suicide-proofing their work. Of course, it may be that they're not working on buildings that will accommodate people with serious mental problems, says Gregory Bares. ...

Spending in millions for Fort McCoy makeover in Monroe County.
October 10, 2007... Byline: Joe Grundle The numbers are eye-popping. Fort McCoy, a U.S. Army base in Monroe County, last month let contracts worth a staggering $224 million combined for four building projects. And that doesn't include the tip of the...

Milwaukee County Grounds flood-control project contract $14M over budget.
October 10, 2007... Byline: Sean Ryan The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District is stepping back to consider its options after a contract on the Milwaukee County Grounds flood-control project came in $14 million over budget estimates. One of those...

Wisconsin's Hunzinger Construction Co. celebrates 100-year anniversary.
October 11, 2007... Byline: Sean Ryan It was the early 1900s, and superintendent Shorty Robinson had just left Iowa to build a new life as a contractor in Wisconsin with the duo of Frank and Fred Hunzinger. Shorty's boy, Harold, was in the hospital...

Overture Center's shaky finances worry Madison.
October 11, 2007... Byline: Paul Snyder Zach Brandon had a premonition things would end up here. The Madison alderman was just as wary as Mayor Dave Cieslewicz in 2005 when the city bought into the Overture Center's refinancing plan: a trust fund to help...

Fresh hands build new homes, new outlook in Madison.
October 11, 2007... Byline: Paul Snyder To Rhothmen Erickson, the thought of spending a hot summer renovating a building was less than appealing. But change for the better is the principle behind Operation Fresh Start in Madison, and Erickson's reluctance...

Johnson Controls shooting for platinum green building status with Glendale campus.
October 11, 2007... Byline: Sean Ryan Johnson Controls is trying to show off with its Glendale campus redevelopment. It is building solar panels that will be visible from the freeway so commuters know the company is drawing energy from the sun. It wants...

Tracks pierce heart of Madison's park.
October 12, 2007... Byline: Paul Snyder To get Madison's Central Park on track, Bill Barker has to get the tracks off the park. Good thing he's a glass-half-full kind of guy. The chairman of Madison's Central Park Design & Implementation Task Force...

Waukesha County wavering on interchange.
October 12, 2007... Byline: Joe Grundle Waukesha County Supervisor Bonnie Morris has seen what an upscale regional mall can do for a community, but fellow board members are not as convinced the concept will ever take shape at Pabst Farms. When national...

University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh stymied by state's lack of budget.
October 12, 2007... Byline: Joe Grundle More than $62 million worth of building projects at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh hang in the balance while state budget talks show little progress. All four budget versions released to date -- by Gov. Jim...

Big Foot Union High School teachers want building to house animals for ag sciences classes.
October 12, 2007... Byline: Jim Stasiowksi Lisa Konkel is having trouble with the name of the construction project she so ardently wishes to make come true. So far, Konkel, an agricultural sciences teacher at Big Foot Union High School in Walworth, has...

Developer to transform polluted industrial site in Appleton into mix of condos and retail.
October 15, 2007... Byline: Joe Grundle Mark Geall searched the country before finding what he was looking for in his old backyard. Geall, a principal of Denver-based Tanesay Development, wanted to transform a polluted industrial site into a mix of...

Milwaukee's 30th Street Corridor challenge: rebuilding and educating.
October 15, 2007... Byline: Sean Ryan Redeveloping 10 or 15 housing lots seems less dramatic than bringing workers to thousands of square feet of manufacturing space, but they're both essential to the 30th Street Industrial Corridor's future. Jobs are...

As she leaves, Wisconsin Department of Commerce Secretary Burke recalls development victories.
October 15, 2007... Byline: Joe Grundle Mary Burke is proud of the business expansion that occurred throughout the state on her watch as Department of Commerce secretary. Burke, who is resigning from her post after leading the state's economic development...

Arts and sciences: Milwaukee School of Engineering's Grohmann Museum.
October 15, 2007... Byline: Sean Ryan The artwork in the Milwaukee School of Engineering's Grohmann Museum tickles both sides of the brain. It all portrays various human labors from across the ages, from the construction of the Tower of Babel to the oil...

Janesville's riverfront land purchase fulfilling a long-ago vision.
October 15, 2007... Byline: Paul Snyder After almost 90 years, Janesville finally is starting to look the way John Nolen envisioned it could. The famed landscape architect, who was integral in planning a state park system for Wisconsin, was called in to...

Parking breeds more parking space at Dane County Airport.
October 15, 2007... Byline: Paul Snyder The work never seems to stop at Dane County Regional Airport. "One of the executives over there mentioned last week how he's worked at the airport for 17 years, and that it seems like there hasn't been a year there...

Adding eating room on University of Wisconsin-Platteville plate.
October 16, 2007... Byline: Paul Snyder Just because students can eat in a crowded university cafeteria doesn't mean they should have to, says Peter Maternowski. The state Building Commission will vote Wednesday on whether to approve a $4 million...

Cringing on State Street in Milwaukee.
October 16, 2007... Byline: Paul Snyder Craig Butenhoff couldn't stand the thought of another summer of State Street construction work. The owner of Jazzman, a men's clothing store at 340 State St., also owned Soulman, a shoe store at 560 State St. With...

Organization in Milwaukee raising funds to build a garden at the beach.
October 16, 2007... Byline: Sean Ryan The Friends of Bradford Beach embarked Monday on a $650,000 fund-raising effort, this time to build a water garden intended to bring more visitors to the Milwaukee lakefront. Such fund-raising efforts are becoming...

National study places people in construction near the bottom in frequency of lingering depression.
October 16, 2007... Byline: Jim Stasiowksi Statistically, Tom Thayer should not have been depressed Monday, and sure enough, he wasn't. "I don't have time to be depressed," Thayer, president/CEO of Tri-North Builders in Madison, said mid-morning on a...

21 projects vying for Milwaukee's Housing Trust Fund.
October 16, 2007... Byline: Sean Ryan Chuck Burdick, associate project manager for Sherman Associates, explained the importance of Milwaukee's Housing Trust Fund in stark terms. "We wouldn't be able to do this project without their support," he said of...

Mike Hoeft, Pewaukee carpenter, dies after fall from roof.
October 17, 2007... Byline: Joe Grundle Mike Hoeft was Pewaukee's own Saint Joseph. So dubbed was he by his wife Edie for all the pro bono carpenter work he did, as well as for being an all-around giving person. "I truly thought of him as Saint Joseph...

City of Milwaukee to require prime contractors to pay subs swiftly.
October 17, 2007... Byline: Sean Ryan To aid its emerging business enterprise companies, Milwaukee will require that all prime contractors it hires pay their subs within 10 days of being paid by the city. That move is one of the changes Mayor Tom Barrett...

Too few dollars for Milwaukee's Large Impact Developments program.
October 17, 2007... Byline: Sean Ryan When companies request $2.2 million from a grant program that has less than $1 million in its coffers, somebody's going to lose out. That's what happened this year for Milwaukee's Large Impact Developments, or LID,...

Engineer from Shanghai says sky is so big in Madison.
October 17, 2007... Byline: Paul Snyder Although her job is to investigate construction, Jin Weihong has fallen for Madison's lack of big buildings. The 36-year-old engineer from Shanghai has been in Wisconsin since Aug. 18, and while she's seen New York...

Mixing business with pleasure in Wisconsin.
October 17, 2007... Byline: Joe Grundle Larry Meyer runs a construction company and hunts deer. When it comes to mixing that business and that pleasure, he finds lots of company within his own company. "More of my employees are hunters than are not,"...

Oregon-based Gorman & Co. answers Beloit's call.
October 18, 2007... Byline: Paul Snyder Gary Gorman says that bricks and sticks don't usually stir up a lot of passion in a lot of people. But Beloit's Fairbanks Flats isn't a usual set of buildings. "There were tears," said the president of...

Milwaukee's unemployment ranks high.
October 18, 2007... Byline: Sean Ryan As Milwaukee's unemployment problem grows, so does the number of groups proposing solutions. And they're telling city officials that construction jobs on public infrastructure projects are the answer. But those...

Wisconsin's electrician bill enjoys smooth ride.
October 18, 2007... Byline: Paul Snyder It's not too often that a committee hearing on a bill lasts an hour and a half and draws nothing but positive testimony. But such is the strength of an Assembly bill -- authored by Rep. Al Ott, R-Forest Junction --...

OSHA News Briefs.
October 18, 2007... OSHA forms safety and health alliance with Wisconsin home builders Milwaukee -- Reducing injuries and work-site hazards, and enhancing safety and health for construction employees in five Wisconsin counties are the goals of a new alliance...

Village of Jackson backs off broadband requirement.
October 18, 2007... Byline: Joe Grundle Government can't force people to use high-speed Internet service, no matter how popular it might be. Facing a lawsuit based on that claim, the village of Jackson agreed to pay for its own broadband installations,...

Milwaukee strengthens corridor redevelopment.
October 18, 2007... Byline: Sean Ryan The flood of resources into Milwaukee's 30th Street Industrial Corridor continued this week. The city's redevelopment plans for the former industrial center cover all aspects of development: job training, housing...

Critics: Miwaukee mayor's emerging business enterprise improvements fall short.
October 19, 2007... Byline: Sean Ryan While Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett talks about improving the city's emerging business enterprise program, local organizers talk about replacing it. They want a program with participation requirements based on race or...

U of Wisconsin-La Crosse Stadium project irks hotel owner.
October 19, 2007... Byline: Joe Grundle A proposal to use a room-tax increase to pay for a new stadium at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse has at least one local hotel owner pacing the halls. Dragan Miljkovic, owner of Econo Lodge and America's Best...

Wisconsin budget fight threatens J.P. Cullen job.
October 19, 2007... Byline: Paul Snyder J.P. Cullen & Sons Inc. will find itself out of a job if the state doesn't sign a budget soon. The Brookfield-based builder was the low bidder among general contractors for the $11.13 million first phase of the...

Guns or hammers?
October 19, 2007... Byline: Joe Grundle When it comes to mixing that business and that pleasure, he finds lots of company within his own company. More of my employees are hunters than are not, said Meyer, president of Larry Meyer Construction Co. of...

In Wisconsin, construction season collides with hunting season.
October 19, 2007... Byline: Joe Grundle When it comes to mixing that business and that pleasure, he finds lots of company within his own company. "More of my employees are hunters than are not," said Meyer, president of Larry Meyer Construction Co. of...

Planning vs. developing goes to Wisconsin Supreme Court.
October 22, 2007... Byline: Joe Grundle Ken Harwood is torn by an issue that is going exactly where he didn't want it to go: the Wisconsin Supreme Court. As a residential developer with Madison-based Park Towne Development Corp, he knows how thin profit...

Milwaukee-based C.G. Schmidt Construction beats both national and state safety ratings.
October 22, 2007... Byline: Sean Ryan Statistically, it's safer to work for C.G. Schmidt Construction than it is to sell cars, sporting goods or appliances in a store. The contractor had an injury and illness rate of 1.44 per 100 workers in 2006, beating...

Long dirty and ignored, Milwaukee's Kinnickinnic River poised for makeover.
October 22, 2007... Byline: Sean Ryan On the rare occasion that people peer into the shallows of Milwaukee's Kinnickinnic River, they are more likely to see shopping carts than fish, or live fish, anyway. But numerous government entities and a gang of...

Wisconsin unions hear tough talk from one of their own.
October 22, 2007... Byline: Paul Snyder Madison - When a business goes from 85 percent success to 13 percent, there is no way to ignore failure. But that is the business model describing construction unions across the nation in the last 40 years, and Mark...

Helbach: State of Wisconsin needs to recruit minorities, small builders.
October 22, 2007... Byline: Paul Snyder To David Helbach, making Wisconsin's construction industry better is a matter of making it more accessible to builders across the state. The Department of Administration's new administrator of the Division of State...

New University of Wisconsin-Madison's Jewish-student center to occupy site of old.
October 22, 2007... Byline: Paul Snyder When he tears down the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Hillel center on Langdon Street, Steve Klaven will be destroying part of his own history. At the university in the 1970s, Klaven was one of many Jewish...

Youth training in Wisconsin gets grant but no guarantees.
October 23, 2007... Byline: Sean Ryan CAP Services Inc. just received the federal money it needs to keep its welding and construction training program for at-risk youth alive, for now. The $412,687 grant it received from the YouthBuild program will allow...