Blue Notes
After 31 Years, a Warm Goodbye to John Jankowski
Even when his basement was flooded, John wanted to reduce storm's impact on others.
"Uh oh. The cat just came out of the basement and it's wet.” I'll never forget those words or the person who said them in July 2010. His name is John Jankowski, a dedicated MMSD employee of 31 years. John uttered this statement in the middle of the night as we were on the phone together trying to manage the deep tunnel response to a now infamous storm that caused widespread flooding. This phone call was like so many others we've shared over the nine years since I became Executive Director of MMSD. That's right; every major storm that's hit the Milwaukee area – no matter what time of day, whether it's a holiday and the relatives are over (like Christmas Day, 2009), or even if we had one hour of sleep and had to be at the office the entire …
