Hello Neighbors,
Thursday night we held the Fall meeting for the Arboretum Neighborhood Association. It was a lively discussion had with various members of City of Madison departments and the UW Arboretum as we examined resident concerns related to the town’s attachment to the city on October 31st. Here is a long summary of the conversations had:
Water CO-OP
Gary Davis from our neighborhood water co-op board presented a brief history of how the neighborhood well and the co-op came to be. A reminder that with the city attachment we are not being switched to city water at this time and the well and co-op will continue as it always has, and will continue to charge the same rates. Gary raised the important consideration though of the ultimate future of our unique arrangement in that much of the water line infrastructure is obviously aging and runs through many private properties at this point making it a unique and costly challenge to update the water lines and continue in to the future. For now the city is not interested in taking over the co-op as is nor improving it. These discussions of future planning will need to continue on as we evolve as a community and the co-op board welcomes any feedback and new members at all times. The best way to reach the neighborhood co-op board is by emailing Gary at: gdavis@wisc.edu
District 13 Alderman Tag Evers
With the city attachment this area becomes part of District 13 with Tag Evers as our representative. My summary statement is basically “if you have a question or concern regarding our area regardless of topic, reach out to Tag and he will get you connected to an answer!” Tag clarified that no reassignment to a polling place for voting has been determined just yet. The old polling place that is/was the Town Hall will become owned by City of Fitchburg and it’s future is unknown at this time. Residents that have been regularly voting particularly in the last year or two do not have to re register to vote. Your registration will automatically be transferred to our new polling location once that is identified. As soon as any of us hear anything to that end we will send out an update. You can also always reference voting information here:
Ways to contact Tag Evers: district13@cityofmadison.com
608-424-2580
or via his blog at https://cityofmadison.com/council/district13/blog/ where you will find a great deal of information about the many initiatives he is working on.
If you would like to start getting to know the District 13 constituency there is a big gathering this Sunday the 11th at Brittingham Park from 12-5. The third annual “Good Neighbor Gathering.”
City of Madison Streets Division
Charlie Romines, Streets Division Superintendent, led us through a Q&A session regarding changes in parking regulations, garbage and recycling, plowing, and a few other odds and ends. Where to begin…
REFUSE COLLECTION
Throughout the week of October 17th all residents will be delivered a 90 gallon garbage can and recycling bin (on wheels). PLEASE DO NOT USE THESE UNTIL THE WEEK OF OCTOBER 24TH as the city does not take over the trash pick up until October 31st and the town will not work with these bins for their final collection on the 25th. With that said our trash collection day will move to Mondays instead of Tuesdays starting October 31st. A schedule of collections including brush/yard waste/large items can be found at: http://www.cityofmadison.com/streets
You will also find the link to create a work order for the collection of a larger item (couch, recliner, etc) on that site or go directly here: https://elam.cityofmadison.com/CitizenAccess/COMLicensesPermits.aspx
If you feel that you will require an additional garbage bin you can contact the Streets Division to purchase one. They have a “contact us” section on the above listed website.
For those concerned about mobility issues and being able to wheel their garbage can to the curb the city has a roll out assist program. Details about this program and how to qualify/apply can be found here: https://www.cityofmadison.com/streets/programs/automatedDisabled.cfm
PARKING
I am attaching the proposed parking map from the city. Following our discussion it was agreed that the inner streets (those marked with dark blue lines) linking Carver and Martin would NOT switch to no parking anytime but to no parking on Mondays for trash collection and in the winter months enforce alternate side parking in the evenings for plowing. We also agreed to keep Carver and Martin the same in terms of no parking anytime. The city confirmed that those folks that utilize gravel “parking pads” ie parking parallel with the street but off of the street by about 3 to 5 feet on a gravel patch in their “yard,” will be allowed to continue to do so on roads designated as no parking. Overall the city is open to feedback and negotiating other changes.
PLOWING
The city confirmed that Martin and Carver as well as Balden will be treated as priority clearing routes given that the school buses and city buses drive along them. The remainder of the streets in our area will be plowed whenever there is a 3 inch accumulation or more of snow. There was some discussion about requesting that our area become a no salt or at least minimal salt area and sand be the major material applied to address slippery spots. This is in consideration to our very close proximity to waterways and wetlands. It is well known now the damage that salt run off does to these areas. If people are very interested in this option please let us know. There was also strong encouragement to have residents give feedback and basically “teach” this new crew of snow plow drivers where we prefer to have plowed snow piled up in consideration of poor drainage concerns. Many streets in our area are used to the town directing as much snow piles as possible into the medians and generally away from fronts of yards. The city is willing to do the same but again will need some practical guidance once plowing season hits. As a reminder we are going from a crew of the same 3 to 5 snow plow drivers every year to a crew of 150 so it may take awhile until there is a practice perfected.
City of Madison Parks Department
Eric Knepp, Superintendent of the Park’s department, led a Q & A session to address concerns over the future of Schmidt Park along Carver and Fraust Park behind the old Town Hall building. The plan for Fraust Park is slightly tentative as the city of Fitchburg has claim to that area but the city is for lack of a better word buying them out and is in negotiations presently. In regards to both parks the city is EXTREMELY welcoming of planning collaboration. I personally stayed and talked with Eric for over an hour after the meeting along with several other neighbors and there is a very receptive audience there. Roughly speaking their hope is to keep both areas a “park” with some design changes, some wetland restoration, and multi recreational use improvements. Meeting with landscape architects and playground companies etc will ideally begin in January/February and myself will attempt to keenly follow this and try to keep us all informed. In the short term the city will take over basic mowing and maintenance Oct. 31st as still needed for the fall with likely some changes in care starting with the next growing season.
ASH TREES. This seems somewhat important for the immediate. Emerald ash borer disease is a well known plague upon Wisconsin Ash trees. If you have been professionally treating your Ash trees along the roadways we need to have documentation of this. The City generally removes all untreated Ash trees along roadways due to the safety hazard they now create by becoming very brittle and falling over from the Emerald Ash borer infestation. If you have a healthy treated Ash tree in your yard that you want to keep, you need to advocate for it.
MULCH PILE. There was also discussion about what to do with the mulch pile at the end of Schmidt Park leading into Balden. Apparently the Arboretum technically owns this piece of land and will likely stop allowing it to be a dumping area and restore it to woodland. There is also some thought about maybe making it a very small parking spot for folks using the hiking trails like the other parking area just down the way where Martin curves. This is all to be determined but in short it won’t remain a dumping area as this was somewhat an unspoken agreement with the Town that will come to an end. As a reminder for folks that are in need of mulch it is free to you at the city trash and recycling drop off sites. Find more information here: https://www.cityofmadison.com/streets/yardWaste/brushprocessing.cfm
Well if you have read this far you earn a star! The ANA will be meeting again in the winter with city departments likely to “check in” as to how everything has been going thus far. More details to be determined.
Be Well.
Alison Stawicki, ANA Secretary
Arboretum Neighborhood Association 
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