The Brewery Credit Union celebrated its Grand Reopening on August 18. Members, friends, and local luminaries enjoyed a ribbon cutting and refreshments at the new space, which includes a renovated lobby, a bathroom, and new offices for buyers and sellers of homes. Brewery Credit Union can be found at 1351 N. King Dr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . SEWRPC (South East Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission), the agency responsible for recommending an estimated $6.5 plus billion of freeway expansion in southeast Wisconsin, is up for review. The Federal Highway Administration is hosting a public hearing on the organization’s recertification as a Metropolitan Planning Organization, a status that several local groups have said they will challenge based on SEWRPC’s flawed public input process, among other reasons. The meeting will be held Sept. 28 at the Downtown Transit Center, 900 E. Michigan, probably around 6 p.m. (check out the “Hood Happenings” section of www.storyhill.net for updates as more information becomes available). The FHWA will take public testimony about the quality of SEWRPC’s work, and it will also accept written testimony prior to the meeting. According to a recent newsletter from CASH, a coalition of numerous neighborhood and environmental groups who oppose the expansion plans, “the SEWRPC public participation process for the freeway expansion study was a bit of a joke — there was a representative from the road-building lobby on the advisory committee overseeing the study, but no transit advocates or representatives from the communities and neighborhoods that would be most affected by freeway reconstruction or expansion. SEWRPC hired public relations firms to win support for its expansion plan before it was even completed. The agency made no effort to contact affected neighborhoods, and did not translate any study documentation into Spanish until after the public comment period was closed. Contact SEWRPC by visiting its web site at www.sewrpc.org. Aldermen are accepting nominations for new youth council representatives from each district. Young people in high school in the 3rd and 6th districts are eligible to be members; the selection process will begin this fall. See page 2 for phone numbers to contact your alderman or check www.milwaukee.gov for contact info. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Riverwest Investment Cooperative (RIC) held its annual board meeting at the RIC house (2543 N. Holton St.) on August 23. Residents socialized and learned about RIC and its members. Members also voted in the new board of officers and presented the President’s Report and the Treasurer’s audit. See page 6 for more info. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Put on your old jeans and take some time to make the neighborhood spic and span at the Riverwest Fall Neighborhood Clean-Up on September 11, 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Check in at the YMCA CDC office (604 E. Center St.) for free bags and gloves. Dumpsters will be available throughout the neighborhood. Call Jim Wilson at 414/263-1380 for more information. Don Senzig, computer whiz and longtime husband of Dorothy Dean, has died. Visitation was held at the Schmidt & Bartelt Funeral home. The Funeral Mass was at St. Louis Catholic Church in Caledonia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Riverwest Currents sends good wishes to Margee Foulke, one of our dedicated door-to-door carriers. Foulke was delivering the Currents on August 4 when she was attacked by two pit bulls and badly bitten in the hand in a duplex backyard on the 2900 block of N. Weil St. Foulke immediately went to the hospital, where she got seven stitches. The next morning, Foulke asked for more papers to finish her route! She reported the incident to the police, the duplex landlord, the tenant, the Health Department, and the alderman. According to police, the dogs couldn’t be found and the tenant said he was watching them for a friend. Foulke, who is recovering, says: “Residents need to take responsibility for their pets [and] make sure that their animals are under control at all times.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sandy Kasza, who operated Diamonds & Rust on Oakland Ave. from 1976-1985, recently landed in Riverwest. Sandra’s Hair & Skin Salon is at 2639 N. Booth St. Sandra has nearly 40 years of experience cutting, styling, perming, and coloring hair for men and women, including some stints at the Pfister Hotel and in Florida and London. She says Beauty on Booth is “an upscale experience in a low-key environment.” Extra treats include a non-invasive light therapy skin treatment that reduces wrinkles, lines, and blemishes, and coming in October: a waterbed floatation massage. Call her at 414/265-4717 to make an appointment and ask about the half off specials for new clients and students. Missed a Common Council meeting or want to see how our representatives voted on a particular issue? Now, in addition to watching City Channel 25, you can see city meetings online. To view meetings at www.milwaukee.gov, users need an Internet connection (either dial-up or high speed) and player software, which can be downloaded for free. Meetings are archived from April 20, 2004. Residents can also view meetings at all Milwaukee city libraries… So if you want to see that July 16 Utilities and Licensing meeting where Jewel Osco was approved for a liquor license, now you can hear both sides of the issue for yourself. Report any known city government fraud, waste, or abuse anonymously on the new City Audit Hotline webpage. A link at www.milwaukee.gov allows you to report illegal acts like theft and kickbacks, misuse and abuse of city property, and misconduct or incompetence of city employees. Staff can also be reached at hotline@milwaukee.gov. Developers of the Gordon Knoll Condos (above) failed to make good on their promise more than two months ago to landscape the weed-choked front yard of their property at 1220 E. Locust St… and developers of the RiverCrest Condos along Commerce St. just south of Jewel Osco have succesfully managed to obliterate most of the green, leafy view of the riverside foliage in that area. Big box store, meet boxy condos… Andy Busalacchi’s condos are coming along nicely on Burleigh… and in non-condo news (we hope), the Johnson Controls property slated for development on the north end of the neighborhood, which the RNA has supported as a single-family or duplex neighborhood-appropriate development, is at a standstill. According to Ald. Mike D’Amato, he is sticking up for neighbors’ wishes. But Johnson Controls insists the brownfield remediation required would make single family housing unprofitable. “There’s a lot of pressure to do multi-family housing,” D’Amato said. “We’re holding out for quality.”