landscapes brightened Thursday for ...

landscapes brightened Thursday for keeping a $17 billion transportation plan alive as Milwaukee shire supervisors voted to continue studying it and top Waukesha shire officials said they would bring a revised resolution upon the plan back for another vote

The Milwaukee shire Board voted 18-6 to back further reflection of building a light rail method and adding bus and car-pool lanes to I-94 and then to submit the plan to a countywide advisory referendum after details are worked without during that study.

Milwaukee shire Executive F. Thomas Ament immediately signed the board resolution, setting the stage for Waukesha shire and Gov. Tommy Thompson to act forward whether the plan should continue to be studied. The subject of attention process, known as preliminary engineering, is rely uponed to cost $5 million to $20 million and take 11/2 to 2 years to finish. Waukesha shire Executive Dan Finley said he and Waukesha shire Board Chairman James Dwyer would submit to the Waukesha shire Board a new resolution onward the transportation plan that would make no mention of light rail. The Waukesha shire Board had passed a resolution nearly identical to the Milwaukee shire one. But Finley vetoed it last week, and the board sustained his veto Tuesday. If Waukesha shire adopts a similar resolution without endorsing continued studious mood of the $330 million light rail a whole a possibility raised by way of Finley the study could continue, Ament and state consultant Kenneth Graham said. That's because light rail would be built solitary in Milwaukee County, not in Waukesha shire How the project would be paid for remains to be worked public during the study, Milwaukee County's resolution said. Finley said his resolution would cogitate the view that any light rail body should be built and operated simply with federal and Milwaukee shire money. Thompson shares that view. Ament and Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist believe light rail should be built with the same mix of state and federal standard of value as freeways and operated with the same mix of state, federal and local coin as bus systems. The Milwaukee shire resolution says financing should be worked on the outside during the study. Norquist backs the resolution yet doesn't want taxes raised to pay for any part of the delineate said his policy chief, James Rowen. The mayor believes the state Department of Transportation should use existing gas tax wealth and cut "their long list of road expansions," Rowen said. Any referendum should include a question upon whether voters support a tax increase to pay for the exhibit Rowen said. The Milwaukee shire resolution doesn't specify the wording of the referendum questions. Supporters said the wording will be worked on the outside later. Finley praised the referendum provisions added Thursday, saying, "Clearly, a referendum is a major victory for the clan of Milwaukee County. We should all applaud the board for its wisdom (in including it)." In contrast, Milwaukee shire Supervisor Anthony Czaja said the provision to give the voter a say by the and of the referendum "highlights Finley's arrogance upon this issue. He's made it clear he wants to build Finley's Freeway right by means of the heart of Milwaukee County" without asking what Milwaukee shire residents think. Czaja, chairman of his board's Transportation, Public Works and Transit Committee, was referring to Finley's support for widening I-94 with bus and car-pool lanes between Waukesha and downtown Milwaukee. Those lanes which Czaja also supports are controversial in Milwaukee and West Allis, where they would claim hearthstones businesses and cemetery space. The special lanes would account for $250 million of the $132 billion take away from of rebuilding I-94, said Graham, vice president of HNTB Corp. Ament, Norquist and others had warned that sustaining Finley's veto could lead to a impel to drop special lanes from the plan, and Supervisor T Anthony Zielinski drafted an amendment to do just that. still at the urging of board leaders, he withdrew the amendment without a ballot Norquist believes more study "would make it tougher for (special) lanes to be imposed upon Milwaukee County" by showing "just in what manner destructive (special) lanes will be for Milwaukee County" Rowen said. Milwaukee shire Supervisor Richard Nyklewicz Jr., a light rail opposite said he sponsored the referendum to give the public a voice. He said the shire couldn't afford a $330 million light rail body and the state shouldn't bother studying it. Nyklewicz also backed a propel by Supervisor Thomas Bailey to sculpture light rail out of the plan. That amendment failed, 16-8 Voter have be derived out against light rail in advisory referendum in Waukesha shire Bayside, Franklin, Greenfield, West Allis and Whitefish Bay. Greenfield voter also oppos special lanes forward I-94, while Waukesha County voter supported freeway expansion yet not expansion of buses and car plashs But light rail backer deprive Henken, executive director of the Alliance for futurity Transit, praised the referendum call. Henken said a consecrated by a vow on all aspects of the plan the two light rail and special lanes was appropriate after engineering and financing details are worked disclosed He and other light rail supporters have criticized earlier voices as premature. Aside from the referendum Milwaukee shire supervisors adopted only pair changes to the original joint resolution: single seeking Thompson's support for the plan and single specifying that minority- and women-own businesses win 25% of preliminary engineering work. They refuseed Czaja's call to wound the study period to three to six month now Finley said, "They took grades toward a much firmer plan than what was originally contained in the resolution. While I may not agree with all the constituents they agreed to, it is a pace toward that final decision." Finley had said he vetoed the Waukesha shire resolution because it called for continued thought without a final decision. The Milwaukee shire resolution still calls for continued reflection before a final decision. Milwaukee shire Board Chairman Karen Ordinans strained that point as she urg the board to indicate the "courage to stand up to those who have waged a campaign of misinformation and inflammatory rhetoric to characterize this resolution as a de facto referendum forward light rail or special lanes." Ordinans made it clear she was referring to conservative radio talk indicate hosts who produced hundreds of calls to supervisors by way of telling their listeners the board was about to decide forward light rail and by claiming a consecrated by a vow for the resolution was a ballot for light rail. "This resolution has at no time been about approving the construction of light rail or special lanes," Ordinans said. "It is about gathering the detailed information that is necessary to make an informed decision" and keeping $241 million in federal cash earmarked for the plan. Voting for the Milwaukee shire resolution were Czaja, Ordinans and Supervisors Sheila Aldrich, Elizabeth Coggs-Jone Dorothy Dean, Lynne DeBruin, Daniel Diliberti, Terrance Herron, lee-side Holloway, David Jasenski, Robert Krug LeAnn Launstein, Michael Mayo, James McGuigan, Penny Podell Roger Quindel, Linda Ryan and David Zepecki. Oppos were Bailey, Nyklewicz, Zielinski and Supervisors Mark Borkowski, Richard Bussler and Lori Lutzka. Supervisor James White was absent.

Copyright 1997

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