The Daily Reporter articles from September 2004

The Daily Reporter archives from September 2004

OSHA expands partnership program.
September 1, 2004... Byline: Sean Ryan The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has proposed creating a Voluntary Protection Program rulebook specifically for the construction industry. For years, OSHA's VPPs in construction have regulated...

Commentary: Southeastern Wisconsin air free of ozone again.
September 1, 2004... Byline: Donald Croysdale The our-air-is-dirty zealots have been noticeably quiet this summer. Perhaps they have been spending their time trying to reconcile how the Metropolitan Milwaukee Sewerage District could dump 4.6 billion gallons of...

Milwaukee County considers leasing or selling Park East land.
September 2, 2004... Byline: Sean Ryan Milwaukee County is wrestling with what to do with its 16 acres of Park East land. During Wednesday's meeting of the County Board Committee to Redevelop the Park East, two major questions emerged: Should the county...

Operating Engineers union elects new leader.
September 3, 2004... Byline: Jeremy Harrell Winning by a 12-point margin, Terry McGowan defeated a three-term incumbent and will next week take the helm of the statewide Operating Engineers union. About half of the 9,000-member union cast ballots...

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health reorganization under way.
September 7, 2004... Byline: Jeremy Harrell National safety experts are fearing that an organizational change at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will hamper safety research and accident prevention. In May, CDC Director Julie...

Privately funded affordable houses planned.
September 8, 2004... Byline: Sean Ryan This week, the nonprofit People's Action Redevelopment Coalition is starting the first of many planned Milwaukee affordable housing developments that will use about 80 percent minority contractors. "It's all...

Vinton Construction wins national award.
September 8, 2004... Byline: Jeremy Harrell For the third year in a row, Vinton Construction Co., Manitowoc, has taken home a national concrete pavement award. The National Concrete Pavement Association has honored Vinton's work on the 2003 reconstruction...

Commentary: Job growth and health insurance costs.
September 8, 2004... Byline: Donald Croysdale Last Friday, there was a surprise in the job growth report - it came in as expected. The narrower payroll survey showed 144,000 net new jobs, along with a 60,000 revision upward in the past two months' reports. The...

Madison mayor proposes $142M in projects.
September 9, 2004... Byline: Jeremy Harrell Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz on Tuesday unveiled a 2005 capital budget proposal that combines nuts-and-bolts public works projects with more ambitious economic development plans. In putting together the $142...

Commentary: Low-impact development workshop set.
September 9, 2004... Byline: Matt Moroney One of the biggest challenges residential developers face in designing a subdivision is balancing the needs, requirements and desires of the primary stakeholders - homeowners and municipalities - while being...

Milwaukee School of Engineering's Kern Center nears completion.
September 10, 2004... Byline: Sean Ryan Hunzinger Construction Co. has a few loose ends to tie up in the Kern Center athletic complex before it hands it over to the Milwaukee School of Engineering on Oct. 1. As of Thursday, one of the concrete stairways was...

Laborers union's new headquarters opens.
September 13, 2004... Byline: Jeremy Harrell Looking at the state Laborers union's new headquarters outside Madison, it's hard to believe that 15 years ago the union's training facility consisted of a job trailer. Now it's a spotless 50,000-square-foot...

Commentary: Constructive Comments September 13, 2004.
September 13, 2004... Byline: Dick Snow One only has to turn to a home-made study of the results of recent union negotiations in the greater Milwaukee area to find more than one good reason high school graduates might want to pursue a career in the construction...

Milwaukee sets legislative agenda.
September 14, 2004... Byline: Sean Ryan The city of Milwaukee's 2005-2006 legislative agenda is heavy with orders to lobby the state to either hold or increase state shared revenue as well as transportation and school funding in its next biennial budget. ...

Milwaukee Metro Sewerage District, audit draft in synch.
September 15, 2004... Byline: Sean Ryan The draft recommendations from Mayor Tom Barrett's Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District Audit Committee match ideas the district and the Wisconsin Underground Contractors Association have been chewing on for years....

Civil War Museum under way.
September 15, 2004... Byline: Jeremy Harrell Think of the big geographic names in U.S. Civil War history, and a handful quickly come to mind: Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Bull Run, Antietam. But Kenosha? "That's the first question we asked," said Joseph Huberty,...

Commentary: Health care vs. health insurance.
September 15, 2004... Byline: Donald Croysdale Perhaps concern about health insurance costs is finally reaching a critical level. Public-sector employees, who for decades have been getting pretty much a free ride, are starting to pay attention. To the surprise...

Milwaukee considers expanding Riverwalk.
September 16, 2004... Byline: Sean Ryan The Milwaukee Common Council will vote Tuesday on a $8.6 million tax incremental financing district that would build infrastructure and extend the Riverwalk around two Milwaukee River condominium developments. After...

Gov. Doyle: Big capital budget cuts 'wrong'.
September 17, 2004... Byline: Jeremy Harrell Gov. Jim Doyle said Thursday he would model the state's next two-year building budget on its previous version, which combined new construction with an emphasis on maintenance and repairs. The governor, speaking...

High-speed rail line on track.
September 17, 2004... Byline: Sean Ryan The Department of Transportation is saying the only missing piece in a Milwaukee-to-Madison high-speed rail line is Congressional approval for federal funding. The plan, more than four years old, is to build or...

WI Dept. of Justice releases draft of charges against Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District.
September 20, 2004... Byline: Sean Ryan The state Department of Justice released a draft of the charges it plans to levy against the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District and its serviced communities, hoping to spur a discussion of solutions. "We are...

WI Division of State Facilities reports finds most state jobs on time, within budget.
September 20, 2004... Byline: Jeremy Harrell In the last year, the state building program, consulting designers and private contractors have met or exceeded most cost and schedule goals. On Wednesday, the Division of State Facilities released a report...

Milwaukee City Hall getting facelift.
September 21, 2004... Byline: Sean Ryan The Milwaukee City Hall renovation project won't return the structure to its original 1896 condition so much as smooth out the wrinkles in its 108-year-old skin. "How many times in your lifetime do you get an...

New commissioner of Dept. of City Development named.
September 21, 2004... Byline: Candace Doyle Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett on Monday named Richard "Rocky" Marcoux the next commissioner of the Department of City Development, a move applauded by the local construction industry. Marcoux is currently the...

Gov. Doyle addresses Wisconisn Transportation Builders Assn. conference.
September 22, 2004... Byline: Jeremy Harrell Congress' delay in passing a six-year transportation bill has left the state Department of Transportation budget for the next two years in a holding pattern. In his second speech to the construction industry in...

Interview with Milwaukee Housing Authority's new director of development.
September 22, 2004... Byline: Sean Ryan On Monday, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett appointed Richard "Rocky" Marcoux, Milwaukee Housing Authority director of development, to be the new Department of City Development commissioner. While in the Housing Authority,...

Commentary: Understanding your contract.
September 22, 2004... Byline: Donald Croysdale Contractors don't need to be reminded of the massive amount of paperwork that bogs down construction projects. Like it or not, we are nowhere near a paperless society, though an increasing flow of the paper trail...

GE Healthcare project begins.
September 23, 2004... Byline: Sean Ryan GE Healthcare broke ground for its $87 million information technology and ultrasound headquarters in the Milwaukee County Research Park, which it is developing through a partnership with Irgens Development Partners LLC....

Value of WisDOT contracts to rise.
September 23, 2004... Byline: Jeremy Harrell Following an all-time high in 2004, the value of state Department of Transportation contracts in 2005 will rise, a top transportation official said Tuesday. The agency has yet to fully establish the funding level...

Commentary: Remodeling tour reflects national trends.
September 23, 2004... Byline: Matt Moroney For those who are thinking about remodeling their home, the Metropolitan Builders Associations 20th Annual Fall Remodelors Tour offers a unique opportunity to visit a variety of projects in the same weekend, talk with...

Milwaukee mayor proposes increase in budget of Dept. of City Development.
September 24, 2004... Byline: Sean Ryan Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett's proposed 2005 budget of $1.1 billion would cut spending on public road and building construction projects while boosting funding for economic development and sewer maintenance. "I...

WI Dept. of Workforce Development proposes changes to state's prevailing-wage law.
September 24, 2004... Byline: Jeremy Harrell A state legislator is preparing to apply the brakes to a proposed change to the state's prevailing-wage law. State Rep. Stephen Nass, R-Palmyra, whose Labor Committee gets to review the proposed change before it...

Commentary: No pain, no gain.
September 24, 2004... Byline: Randy Crump In May, I had lunch with 1997 Mr. Wisconsin, Doug Holland, the brother of African-American contractor Mark Holland, of Holland Construction. Doug grew up portly, but now at 44 years old, he sports a 28-inch waist,...

Bradley Tech working to beat last year's graduation rate.
September 27, 2004... Byline: Sean Ryan Less than a month into Bradley Tech's third school year, Principal Ed Kovochich is breaking in the new crop of students and working to beat last year's 64 percent graduation rate. On Friday, Kovochich spends the first...

Commentary: Price of construction going up?
September 27, 2004... Byline: Dick Snow New wage chart? Cost of materials? Insurance hikes? No. Not really. But all of you estimators out there better think about factoring in your bids the proposed increase in hunting and fishing licenses by the state of...

Wisc. building officials developing criteria for project-bidding waivers.
September 28, 2004... Byline: Jeremy Harrell State building officials and the contractors and designers who work with them are moving ahead on developing dependable criteria for project-bidding waivers. Last week, the Division of State Facilities held a...

Court rules in favor of KBS Construction.
September 29, 2004... Byline: Sean Ryan Monday's ruling in the legal dispute between the developers of Cathedral Place and its general contractor, KBS Construction, favored the builder, sending both to binding arbitration to settle contract payment disputes....

Commentary: How much can a president effect the economy?
September 29, 2004... Byline: Donald Croysdale As memory serves, it takes roughly 15 miles for an ocean liner to change directions. So imagine how long it takes to change the direction of America's $11.5 trillion economy. With a series of presidential debates...