I really need to start paying attention to the local shat more. Fortunately, CNI, the publisher of the Oak Creek Pictorial (at least until it is fully-subsumed into the Journal Sentinel Inc. umbrella). has launched OakCreekNOW.com (side note, do NOT look for me to be a community voice; I’m “just a bit” too salty.)
A few short years after getting us to bend over for a massive high school expansion and a new elementary school (and about 10 years after building a shiny new West Middle School), guess who’s coming back for more? The freshly-launched OakCreekNOW.com, featuring stories from the Oak Creek Pictorial, reports that, in preparation for a November 7 $28.5 million dollar referendum for building a shiny new replacement for Oak Creek East Middle School (originally built in 1956 and expanded in 1970), the Oak Creek-Franklin Joint School District will be spending $1.44 million for a 36-acre plot of land on East Oakwood Road. Why 36 acres? Allegedly, it’s so that they could put yet another elementary school on the site. Never mind that just down the road is their shiny new elementary school. Never mind that Meadowview is just up the road (oh, that’s right, Meadowview is more than 15 years old, so it will be deemed in need of replacement in the near future).
To throw insult onto injury, they also approved a $30,000/6 acre land purchase adjacent to the existing East Middle School. Why? So that they can build a second high school. Never mind that they just spent $30+ million to expand and remodel the current high school on the promise that they wouldn’t build a second one.
As for the city budget, I don’t have the numbers yet. The Common Council will meet in committee Monday to discuss it, and then will take it up in open session in their November 8th meeting. Guess I’ll be going to the monthly meet-the-mayor deal on Saturday to see if I can’t get my grubby little fingers on the budget.
