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| Helping Neighbors Access Food Today is the day that the federal government stopped funding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. Congress established the program in 1964 and, before today, it has never failed to fund it. Nearly 65,000 people in Dane County rely on SNAP benefits to supplement their grocery budgets. Without this assistance, people will be struggling to feed their families and themselves, including our neighbors right here in Middleton. I urge all readers to do what they can to help our neighbors get through this difficult time. Please join the city, the Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District, Middleton Chamber of Commerce, and Downtown Middleton Business Association in a community-wide food drive to help our neighbors in need by stocking the shelves of WayForward Resources. If you or someone you know relies on SNAP benefits, WayForward does have food available now. To make sure food is available tomorrow, though, and in the days ahead, our community needs to come together in a big way. The food pantry is located at 3502 Parmenter Street. They’ll have expanded donation hours this coming week on Tuesday-Thursday to make it easier for people to donate. In addition, starting on November 3, the Police Department on Donna Drive will have WayForward bins inside for residents to drop off donations of non-perishable food and personal care products like diapers. Harbor Athletic Club already has a bin in its entrance, so if you’re headed to the gym today, consider bringing a few items to donate. Other area businesses like Longtable Beer Café are also working on ways to help collect donations of food and money to meet the need. Read about the community food drive on WayForward’s website. They’ll be updating this page to add information as it becomes available. Many thanks to all the people and businesses and organizations who are coming together to support our community! If you’d like more information on the SNAP program and why funds are temporarily unavailable, I recommend watching this segment from a recent episode of the PBS Newshour or reading this article on the Newshour’s website. Construction Projects There is so much happening on the construction front that I’m just focusing on quick facts to update everyone on projects affecting the following roads, in alphabetical order: High Road: – I appreciate all the residents who contacted me about the horrible state of disrepair in which the contractor left High Road last weekend. The utility work for the Pheasant Crossing Development is now done and the paving contractor has repaved the road to make it safer to drive on again. The path has also been repaved. – The protruding curbs at the new intersection with High Road are still concerning. While the paving improved the situation, these curbs appear to be further into the drive lane than they should be. City Engineer Luke Melotik is aware of the problem and looking into options to fix it. – Because the utility work is done, the ongoing road closures will end. – Looking ahead, residents will have the opportunity this winter to attend a public meeting about the future design of High Road when the city reconstructs it in 2027. At our meeting on October 21, Council awarded the bid to Vierbicher to work on the design. Lynn Street: – The Public Works Committee approved an amendment to city ordinances to add a stop sign on Lynn Street where it intersects with Graber Road. The sign is necessary now that Graber Road extends into Pheasant Crossing. The ordinance change has to go through the License and Ordinance Committee before it gets to the Common Council for approval, so it’ll be a while yet before the sign is installed. – Now that Parmenter is open again, the temporary “no parking” order will no longer be in effect. The city will soon be removing the “no parking” signs in this area and on Spring Hill Drive. Parmenter Street: – The reconstruction project is finally done! Road closure signs will be removed as soon as possible. – The new road has bike lanes, a sidewalk on the west side of the street, and a multipurpose path on the east side of the street. – Unfortunately, Nonn’s didn’t grant an easement to the city, so the multipurpose path is interrupted at that location. Pheasant Branch Road: – The city finally installed “Wildlife Crossing” signs! – Area residents may also have noticed a police car stationed near Whittlesey Road and in other locations to catch people speeding down the hill heading north. – The speed monitor has run out of juice so it hasn’t been working. Since cars really pick up speed traveling down the hill headed north, I’ve asked for the monitor to be moved to that location until snow forces it to be brought inside for the winter. – Prepare to see trucks traveling on Pheasant Branch due to the work going on to improve the Middleton Hills SE Basin across from Middleton Glen. The work is expected to continue all month. Spring Hill Drive: – As with Lynn Street, the temporary “no parking” order is no longer in effect and signs will be removed soon. – Like the Middleton Hills SE basin, the Spring Hill Basin north of Spring Hill Drive is being improved. This month, residents can expect to see a lot of work going on in that area, with trucks and other equipment likely staged on High Road. Whittlesey Road: – Whittlesey Road has been a detour route during the closure of Parmenter Street for the reconstruction project. Now that Parmenter is open again, the detour is no longer necessary and the signs will be removed. If anyone has questions about the items above, please don’t hesitate to contact me. Check-in on Community Campus Council discussed the Community Campus project at our meeting on October 21. As a reminder, this is a years-long project to replace or improve three city facilities in our downtown: City Hall, the Senior Center, and Middleton Public Library. In preparation for the Council meeting, City Administrator Bryan Gadow asked us to consider questions on three topics: the project price range, our timeframe for making a decision, and communications strategies. In reverse order, here are the key points from our discussion. Communications: An updated Community Campus Project webpage is available on the city’s website. You’ll find background information, FAQs, and other items. There also is a list of public meeting dates for anyone who would like to learn more about the project, why it’s necessary, and what the potential impact might be on property taxes. I plan to attend at least one meeting in each building. Here is the full schedule as it now stands: – Wednesday, November 19 at 5:30 pm – Middleton Public Library – Monday, December 8 at 5:30 pm – Middleton City Hall – Wednesday, January 7, 2026, at 10:00 am – Middleton Senior Center – Wednesday, February 25, 2026, at 5:30 pm- Middleton Public Library – Wednesday, March 11, 2026, at 10 am – Middleton Senior Center – Wednesday, April 8, 2026, at 5:30 pm – Middleton City Hall It’s possible one or more of these meetings will include an optional tour of the building so that attendees can see the conditions that are making new or improved facilities a priority for Council. Decision timeframe: There was general support for making a decision on the project in November 2026. Some members favored holding an advisory referendum, while others leaned toward spending the months leading up to November of next year talking with constituents and getting their feedback through conversations rather than an up or down vote. If we do hold a referendum, we need to have a very good backup plan in case the referendum fails because all three buildings really do need improvement or outright replacement. Price range: It was easier to rule out a low end for a price range than to settle on a maximum price. Alder Randall Crow (District 8) emphasized the purpose of the project, which is to meet the needs of our current residents and our growing population. “If we spend $50 million and don’t meet our needs,” he said, “then we’ve spent too much.” Alder Todd Kalish (District 4) noted that setting a lower limit would cause project bidders to bid above that. We wound up voting down two motions to set a range. My rationale for voting “no” was that it’s still too early in the process for Council to make an informed decision on possible costs. Affordable Housing Update The Workforce Housing Committee (WHC) and Community Development Authority (CDA) held a joint meeting on October 20 at which we checked in on our progress with developing the city’s Affordable Housing Action Plan. The Planning staff are currently writing a draft that merges the work products of our Strategy and Finance Subcommittee, which I serve on, and the Outreach and Education Subcommittee. The subcommittees will review the draft at our meetings in November, and then we’ll hold another joint meeting of the WHC and CDA in December to get ready for presenting the draft report to Council in January. Our schedule includes public engagement meetings in February and March with a final plan going to Council for approval in April. As a refresher for readers, the new plan will recommend options for using the final year of tax increment from Tax Incremental District (TID) 3 to support affordable housing in Middleton. This is a feature of state law that helps communities generate revenue for affordable housing without using property taxes. According to the latest estimate from Finance Director Bill Burns, the final tax increment from TID 3 will be between $10.3 and $10.8 million. This is a significant amount of funding and opens up a lot of possibilities for the city. In other housing news, on October 23, I joined some of the members of the WHC to tour Oak Ridge Senior Housing on Lisa Lane. Developed by JT Klein, Oak Ridge is a 62+ independent-living facility that has apartments with 1, 2, and 3 bedrooms available at market rates as well as at reduced rates for households earning 30% to 60% of the area median income, or AMI. Senior housing is so much in demand that only two apartments of the 83 were available for us to tour, and one of those was already under lease. Located near Middleton’s major bus line, these apartments help make not just housing affordable but living as well. I especially liked that there’s a diversity of the tenants in the building. The 3-bedroom units, for example, were originally included in the design to accommodate “grandfamilies” — families in which grandparents are raising their grandchildren. In related news, just as the city is ramping up its work on affordable housing, the county executive has recommended cutting 1.5 staff positions that assist municipalities in implementing the county’s Regional Housing Strategy, or RHS. That will leave just one person on staff to manage the 58 actions in the RHS for which the county is the “lead implementation partner.” On October 24, I emailed the county board as a whole with a separate message to County Supervisor Lisa Jackson, who represents Middleton, asking for the 1.5 positions to be retained. I haven’t received a response yet but I hope to get one before the County Board votes on the budget at their meeting on November 4. Budget Advances to the Hearing Stage At our meetings in October, the Finance and Personnel Committee continued to review and made amendments to the mayor’s Executive Budget. On the revenue side, Finance Director Bill Burns reported that Middleton would received an additional $112,623 in General Transportation Aid from the state. In addition, earlier in the summer, we had talked about closing an expected budget gap either with a recycling charge or with a wheel tax. A new bill in the Assembly would affect our ability to charge a wheel tax, so I suggested adding the recycling charge instead. Several of our peer cities charge fees to recoup the cost of recycling services. The proposed charge for Middleton would be $52.50 per household per year and would be added to the tax bill. For comparison, Fitchburg, Sun Prairie, and Verona charge $232, $177.84, and $212, respectively. The additional revenue from a recycling charge makes it possible to restore to the Police Department’s budget a full-time training position and two part-time Community Service Officers that the mayor had recommending cutting. I consider public safety to be a need, and these three positions were the top priorities for Chief Thompson. I also requested that we use some of the additional revenue to restore to the budget the Conservancy Lands Technician requested by the Conservancy Lands Committee. Given Middleton’s emphasis on conservation and the value we place on our conservancies, it’s hard to believe we don’t have a single person on staff dedicated to conservancy lands. The new position, if approved, would help us make sure the recently adopted Conservancy Lands Plan and master plans like the new one for Graber Pond Conservancy are implemented. Our Parks & Recreation Department requested an increase in hours for the existing staff position that is tasked with publicizing our recreational programming. One new responsibility for this staff person will be to build relationships with potential sponsors of Rec Department activities. More hours for this position will help our residents learn about program offerings and ultimately will generate revenue to offset the cost. I advocated for increasing Airport Enterprise Fund revenues by raising our per gallon “fuel flowage” tax to match the average for large general aviation airports in Wisconsin. We currently charge 10 cents per gallon for 100LL and JetA fuel, whereas the state averages are 19 cents and 12 cents, respectively. I suggested not charging any tax on unleaded fuel to incentivize its use. Turning to the Capital Budget, here are the highlights of our discussion on October 21: – I advocated for restoring the Strategic City Climate Action Roadmap to the list of projects to be funded in 2026. As I reported last month, this project is the city’s counterpart to what the school district commissioned to help guide its investments in going carbon-neutral. The $200,000 expense can be covered by unspent funds for a 2025 sustainability-related project and funding available from our Sustainability Matching Fund. – I asked for Graber Pond restoration to get an additional $20,000 to supplement the $20,000 budgeted. The funding would bring the total closer to the amount recommended in the new master plan ($41,300). In response to my request, Kiley Scherer, director of Parks & Recreation, reported that $20,000 in carryover funds from 2025 were already planned to be earmarked for Graber Pond in 2026, bringing next year’s total to $40,000. – Alder Lorman requested we add the pruning block back into the budget. This will benefit the maintenance of our street trees, so I supported restoring this project. – Mayor Kuhn requested restoring the $25,000 Traffic Safety Screening Study she had previously cut and reducing the amount recommended for Pedestrian Safety Improvements from $100,000 to $75,000. I supported the change and will look for a way to keep the full $100,000 for safety improvements in the budget. – Alder Crow advocated for keeping the Library’s automated materials handling sorter in the budget. This equipment collects returned books and other items and sorts them for reshelving. The estimated pricetag is $350,000. We have removed it from capital budgets in previous years because of the high cost and also the uncertain fate of the library building. Recognizing that this piece of equipment is essential and is very old — the oldest of its kind in the state — we agreed to set aside as much funding as possible so we’ll be able to replace the device if it breaks in 2026 or bring on more staff to sort materials manually. – Each year we contribute to the city’s Vehicle Replacement Fund. I asked that the vehicle requested by our Tourism Department be a hybrid. The committee also expressed a preference for always getting electric vehicles for local use, when feasible, and always getting hybrids for travel beyond the local area. Such an approach would help us achieve our goals for using clean energy for city operations. Council will hold a public hearing on the proposed budget, as amended, at our meeting on November 4 and will vote on the final budget two weeks later on November 18. I hope interested readers will consider making a public comment at the November 4 hearing or else submitting comments through writing in advance. As always, please contact me if you have questions or comments about the budget or would like to discuss it with me. Conservancy Lands The Conservancy Lands Committee approved the Graber Pond Conservancy Master Plan and forwarded it to Council for review and approval. It isn’t on our November 4 agenda, but I hope it will make it to the agenda for November 18. On November 19, I’ll be meeting with the Watershed Committee of the Friends of Pheasant Branch Conservancy, city staff, and Evelyn Williams, the author of the 2025 Conservancy Lands Plan, to discuss an addendum Evelyn is preparing for that plan. Specifically, Evelyn will explain what we can do with the 14 acres of conservancy land that the city recently received as a donation. This land is adjacent to the Pheasant Branch Ridge Greenway north of Whittlesey Road and will likely be added to that conservancy. Evelyn told the Conservancy Lands Committee on October 22 that she had walked the 14-acre parcel and found a lot of invasive plant species, including reed canary grass, cattails, cottonwood, box elder, honeysuckle, and buckthorn. With the land being upstream of the Pheasant Branch Conservancy, restoration could be a priority to avoid dumping a lot of invasives into Pheasant Branch. She cautioned, though, that restoration would take a lot of work. I’m confident we’ll be able to recruit a significant number of volunteers to help with restoration of this parcel. Plus, with the wetland being a place to receive and hold stormwater, thereby preventing flooding, I anticipate that restoration of this area will be a priority for this city. Finally, many thanks to District 6 resident Paul Ludden for keeping people updated on the progress of the eagle pair that are building their new nest in Pheasant Branch Conservancy. Paul said there is a spot that affords a good if distant view of the nest. The picture below is from Paul. I love that the eagles will be more snug and sheltered from wind in this new spot. Read more about the eagles on the Friends of Pheasant Branch Conservancy website.  Thank you! Thank you for reading “E-News on 6.” If you’d like to read past editions, an archive is available here. Feel free to email me or call/text me at 608.630.7500 if you need help with a city matter, want to relay your thoughts on an issue, or have questions about city decisions and my votes. I try to respond within two business days, but sometimes it takes longer. I’m not active on social media, so the best way to reach out to me about anything official is by phone or using my district email. If you find this newsletter helpful, I hope you’ll share it with friends, family, and neighbors who live anywhere in Middleton. Just please make sure to ask them not to unsubscribe you and not to report this email as spam. Thanks! Not receiving this free e-newsletter directly? Sign up here. Important Stuff to Know I produce this newsletter all on my own, at my own initiative, to help District 6 residents stay informed. This is not an official city publication, I don’t speak for the city, and producing this newsletter isn’t one of my official responsibilities as a member of the Common Council. If you’d like to reproduce or create new content from this material, please ask me first and make sure to cite the source. Image credit: The Eagles of Pheasant Branch Conservancy: Paul Ludden |