The Best of Patch: February

As the year comes to a close, we all tend to look back at what exactly we've accomplished over the past 365 days.

We were still newbies in Shorewood, but Patch heeded the call in Shorewood in the month of February, as the village and the state erupted over the proposal of the budget repair bill or Act 10.

Here’s a recap of the news that made headlines in February.

• See the entire Shorewood Year in Review series.

After Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker introduced Assembly Bill 11, known as Act 10 or the budget repair bill on Feb. 15, which curtailed most collective bargaining rights for public workers, it triggered a massive reaction in the state.

Shorewood was not unique in that fact, as residents and teachers took to the streets to demonstrate and local officials drafted responses to the bill.

Here's some of the local coverage of the huge reaction in our little square mile village — in no particular order.

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Shorewood resident Kristopher Rowe, the leader of a failed effort to recall state Sen. Alberta Darling said he was stunned over the response he got to an organizational meeting on Feb. 28. He expected about 40 but saw 140 turn out.

On the heels of Gov. Scott Walker introducing the budget repair bill, and Darling's support of the measure, residents followed Rowe's message to start an effort and gather more than 20,000 petition signatures to spark a recall election of the Republican lawmaker.

It wasn't a new idea; he had pitched the concept previously. Nevertheless, Whitefish Bay trustees hear the call of Shorewood Police Chief David Banaszynski on Feb. 22 to consolidate the two communities' police forces. 

Banaszynski said the consolidation could save each community about $70,000 annually. Neither department has moved forward with anything at this point.

Roundy's plans are still unclear, but village officials revealed Feb. 15 there was something in the works in the form of extension or redevelopment of Shorewood's Pick 'n Save grocery store.

No charges were filed in a bizarre case in which Shorewood police say a 19-year-old Illinois woman falsely accused a 33-year-old Milwaukee man of rape, and then recruited five of her friends to beat him up with a baseball bat and pipe wrench. The article was published Feb. 11.

School officials approved a April 5, 2011 referendum question asking voters to allow them to borrow up to $13.6 million to help the district meet its long-term financial obligations.

The vote that came Feb. 8, asked voters to allow officials to borrow to pay for health benefits for retirees and to refinance its Wisconsin Retirement System debt.

Owner Byung Kuk Yun said Feb. 8 contractors would be on site soon to begin the early stages of rebuilding the property that used to house the Brit Inn, after it was burned to the ground.

Yun had been trying to rebuild since May 2009, when the former British-style bar at on Oakland Avenue burned to the ground, in a fire later ruled arson. But problem after problem kept delaying those efforts. Yun had to remove asbestos on the site and had to hire a contractor to get rid of a large oil drum buried underneath the property.

After nearly two years of negotiations, the teachers union and Shorewood School District have reached agreement on a new contract Feb. 23.

The two-year deal, which called for a 3.1 percent hike in total compensation expired on June 30, 2011 and marked the last collective bargaining agreement the Shorewood Education Association would strike with the district, as it was on the heals of the budget repair bill.

In a sharp contrast from other meetings on Shorewood's flooding problems, some residents thanked and even applauded village officials Feb. 8 after hearing details of the then proposed $71.5 million plan to address the problematic sewer system.

Shorewood would eventually scale back and further vet the approach.