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Community Corner

WFB Storm Water Facility at 4700 Bartlett Dr.

4700 Bartlett Drive Storm Water Facility Undersized Flood Protection

 

Your Storm Water Utility Bill Tax Dollars Don’t Give Total Flood Protection:

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The 4700 Bartlett Storm Water Facility that will be constructed this summer will not have the maximum amount of land available for construction the largest possible underground facility to prevent future flooding for residents on Cramer, Oakland, Hampton north of Bartlett, Bartlett Drive, Bartlett Avenue, & north and west of Bartlett Avenue. The facility is being built at a cost to all taxpayers, including 2010 flood victims, that pay the Village’s new storm water utility bill tax, and they expect the maximum storm water facility capacity will be built into every new facility based on total land available. If the Village is not going to use all of the available land to maximize storm facility capacity, then they should not be built.

 

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The Village of WFB asked local residents to choose a street design for improvements to 4700 Bartlett Drive, coinciding with the construction and installation of the Bartlett Storm Water Facility in the spring of 2014. The residents of 4700 Bartlett Drive unanimously chose Street Design Layout Number 3, the “Bartlett Circle” option, for safety and maximizing the size and capacity of the 4700 Bartlett Storm Water Facility, which will be taking on storm water from Oakland, Hampton, and Bartlett Avenue where we hadn't in the past.

 

The facility will hold excess storm water from 4 sources: 1) Bartlett Drive, 2) Bartlett Avenue, 3) Oakland Avenue, and 4) Hampton Road at the north end of the facility. The Oakland street flood water is what caused basement backups on Cramer in 2010. The current plan has an estimated capacity if 115,000 cubic feet or 860,000 gallons. The system will drain the field from a single pipe at a controlled rate. But if the north end of Bartlett Drive is turned into grass, that could increase the 4700 Bartlett Storm Water Facility protection by almost 25% more. When I pointed out the potential Storm Water Protection to Assistant Village Engineer Aaron Jahncke on Tuesday March 25th, I said this is a big increase in protection, and Aaron replied, "No it’s huge."

 

The Village President and Board members have all promised that they will stand for fiscal responsibility and storm water improvements. But they are missed an opportunity to publically exhibit transparency and increase storm water protection utilizing both funds made available by Milwaukee County for turning pavement into grass green space at the same time. It took a resident on 4700 Oakland, then Bartlett to call MMSD to inquire about the Storm Water Facility noticed on the 4700 Bartlett Street design options on the Villages website, contained a tiny storm water cross section in the lower left corner key on each street design. My question is how can the Village actually use both MMSD funds totaling almost 100K without publicly acknowledging the 4700 Bartlett Storm Water Facility in order to fill out the MMSD’s paperwork indicating that the funds will be used for a Storm Water Facility?

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