Minutes from the Sept 10, 2007
Meeting of Martin
Drive Neighborhood Association
Due to inclement weather, we met
in the basement. Twenty-three hearty souls came in the rain to hear the
city's position on the rebuilding of Highland
Blvd. bridge. Mr.
Sam Medhin, project engineer and Mr. Craig Liberto, structural design engineer, presented a drawing of
the proposed replacement of the oldest bridge in Milwaukee built in 1909. Our concerns
seem to fall into the traffic engineering department category. Questions
were asked about the proposed bike lane as well as the width of the
walkway. The four foot median will remain. The total width of 46
feet will have 12' auto traffic lanes. The work will begin after Labor
Day, 2008. The gentlemen from the city listened to the neighbors'
concerns.
Alderman M. Murphy came to
listen and respond to the neighbors concerns about the speed of traffic on Highland Blvd.
particularly near the Martin Drive
intersection. There have been 15 accidents in the past 4 years due to the
speed of drivers. Most have resulted in damage
to parked cars, hitting the iron bridge, and the parking lot on the south east
corner of Martin Drive.
Alderman Murphy will request a traffic engineer attend our October 8th
meeting. Neighbors seem to be hoping for timed and flashing lights
controlling the speed. The suggestion of traffic lights that would work
during the high peak traffic could then be turned into flashing lights for the remainder of the day. Whatever the end
decision, drivers need to be alerted to the need to slow down. Most
accidents seem to occur after working hours.
Alderman Murphy will submit a
service request form to the traffic dept. to determine what needs to be done to
eliminate the accident problems on Highland
and Martin Drive.
Michael also encouraged us to contact our State representatives and senators to
push them to get the budget settled. Any more time will be disastrous for
the school systems and the cities of Wisconsin
trying to take care of business.
Lois N. encouraged neighbors to
participate in a market basket of produce. If enough MDN neighbors
contact her, the school on State
Street could be the pick-up location. This
possibility has great beneficial results due to using the healthy products.
Jennifer V. will continue to
plan Halloween. Will connect with Pat M.
Al made a motion for the
Neighborhood to use Washington
Park Senior
Center for 3 meetings a
year plus the annual one. Dan Syl. seconded the motion. The Steering
Committee will choose months due to fee being paid by grant money.
Ada
informed us that the newsletter is in the final stage before printing.
The following people volunteered to pass it out. Highland/Vliet - Ada, 42nd - Al & Betty, 43rd -
Pat, 44th - Franz, 45th - Tom, 46th - Lynne, Martin Drive - Raymond.
Good news from the neighbors is
two new restaurants on Vliet. One at 60th
called the Meritage uses food from Growing
Power. The new pizza place under the coffee cup is described as having
very good food and really cute décor.
Meeting adjourned after much was
discussed at 8:20. Next meeting will be October 8th at the usual meeting
place on 45th.
Submitted by
Maggie B. 9/15/07