Per person, Franklin leads county in liquor licenses

In this case, the headline is more accurate than the story.

Tom Kertscher says in today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,

Where in Milwaukee County is it the easiest to find alcohol?

Believe it or not, it might be fun-lovin' Franklin.

I don't believe it, because it's based on Franklin having the most package store liquor licenses per capita, as the headline writer says. The accompanying chart ranks licensees per capita and says this measures "concentration".

Package stores licensees per square mile would probably tell more. If we compare a few municipalities on licensees per square mile we find:

Frankln 18/34.7 = .5 licensees per square mile
Wauwatosa 24/13.2 = 1.8 licensees per square mile
West Allis 27/11.4 = 2.4 licensees per square mile
Milwaukee 294/96.9 = 3 licensees per square mile

So with six times as many licensees per square mile, you'll probably find your booze easier in Milwaukee than in Franklin. Not that Franklin isn't fun-lovin'.

Repo man

Because money market accounts pay around a half per cent interest, Franklin seeks investment alternative to boost return.

Franklin Finance Director Cal Patterson said Wednesday that he is recommending the Small Business Administration repurchase agreement, or SBA repo, because it has a higher interest rate and is guaranteed by the federal government.

The anticipated interest rate is 1.65%. I assume the City is seeking minimal risk and usually a higher rate reflects higher risk of some kind.

Franklin, Wisconsin RFD

David Luhrssen in the the Shepherd Express reviews Franklin, by Doug Schmidt, from the Arcadia Images of America series. His review focuses on Franklin's transition from a farm community through incorporation and suburbanization. The book

doesn't explore why the farmers of Franklin were determined to remain outside Milwaukee's city limits.

Milwaukee was successful in annexing the Town of Granville in northwest Milwaukee County. If one could today take those farmers through Franklin and the former Granville, I doubt they'd regret thwarting annexation by incorporating.

Moving parishes

St. James Church is reportedly considering relocating to a site about a mile from my home. You might recall it hopes that its current site on South 27th Street (Highway 241) is in an area of commercial development. They were hoping it might be sold for enough to cover most or all the cost of buying and building at a new location. I had thought the current real estate market might have put that plan on hold, but it looks like it might be going ahead.

Since Franklin has long been the one of the state's fastest growing communities, I've wondered why no parish was started nearer the center of town. I've heard there was a parish building site nearby that was eventually sold. The published statistics for parishes serving Franklin, including St. James, indicated they have not grown with the community. It's possible, I suppose, that St. James will look at a move as an opportunity to grow.

(via Sprawled Out)

Teachers find new ways to utilize hand-held players

John Neville reports in Franklin Now, March 4, 2009, on how iPods are being used in the Franklin Public Schools. For example,

Chad Kafka, a technology support teacher for the Franklin School District, said teachers at Forest Park [Middle School] build lesson plans around iPod use. He said students have used iPOds for video clips, audio books, podcasts and interviews (with a microphone attachment).

Census figures show Milwaukee population is steady

Bill Glauber and Grant Smitt report in today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,

...Milwaukee's population bleeding from its 1960s heyday has stopped.

Milwaukee's population was 741,324 in 1960 and is estimated at 602,191 now.

The accompanying graphic on Population gains and losses in Wisconsin says that here in suburban Franklin the population has increased by an estimated 5,516 or 18.7% between 2000 and 2007.

Mayoral race springs from the past

John Neville reports in Franklin Now, January 10, 2007. The subhead "Candidates cite taxes, development as issues" means the substantive issues. On the side, Mayor Taylor filed a challenge to some of the signatures on Alderman Ryan's nomination papers. Alderman Ryan shortly thereafter filed a challenge to some of Mayor Taylor's.

(via Sprawled Out)

Mr. Neville also reports that down the ballot Three Common Council seats up for election but only "Two races are contested".

Finally Neville reports that Four in running for two vacant spots on School Board. The District is a bigger operation than the City, but its elections usually draw less attention.

Look Where We are Headed...

That's the caption of a picture postcard from the Franklin Public Schools showing a two lane road with no sidewalks, curbs, gutters, or street lights, running through land waiting to be developed into new subdivisions.

Key two-way races set for spring

Larry Sandler's report in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel includes this.

The mayor's race in Franklin is likely to be heated as former Ald. Basil Ryan, who was ousted in a recall in 2003, attempts to unseat incumbent Tom Taylor.

Two of three aldermanic elections are contested.

District 3: Alan R. Hammelman (inc.), Kristen Wilhelm
District 4: Pete Kosovich (inc.), Steve F. Taylor
District 6: Ken Skowronski (inc.)

A Child who changes everything

St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church (WELS) here in Franklin sent a postcard invitation to Christmas services.

Victory of the Lamb Lutheran Church (WELS) sent another card, titled "Discover Christmas Eve", an invition to the Christmas Eve Candlelight Service.

They're bulk mail, so not a personal invitation.

Be Heard! Final Results

Tanya Ruder of the Franklin Public Schools lists the four questions discussed at the school districts recent listening sessions on the unsuccessful school construction financing referendum, and 57 responses. The responses, even though numbered, are listed "in no particular order". The last response listed might, for all we know, have been the most commonly given. The responses are not even grouped to indicate the question to which each responded. Seems pointless, except perhaps to mark off "citizen input" on someone's checklist.

Running Out of Time?

Victory of the Lamb Lutheran Church here in Franklin sent a Christmas card with an invitation to parents to drop off the kids on Saturday afternoon while shopping.

Even in the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, clergy don't have last names anymore. Here's Pastor Ben's blog.

Tri-county Baptist Church

This local church hung a Christmas Card on my door. It's not a religious card, but attached is an invitation to their December 9th music program and December 15th outdoor live nativity, citation of Romans 3:10, Romans 6:23a, John 3:16, and Romans 10:13 in answer to "Do you know for sure if you died today you would go to Heaven?" and finally an invitation to their (worship) services.

I assume I shouldn't interpret their "outdoor live nativity" and "depicting Jesus birth" literally.

Franklin Historical Society

Now on-line, including a brief history and photos of some preserved historic buildings.

Be Heard!

Reacting to the recent defeat of a school capital spending referendum, the Franklin Public Schools have scheduled three community meetings, December 3rd at Robinwood Elementary School, December 4th at Forest Park Middle School, and December 6th at Franklin High School.

(While the mailed notice lists all three dates in a sidebar, as of this writing the district's website sidebar calendar did not list the December 6th event.)

The meetings will be conducted in a variation of the pseudo-participatory listening session format.

Community members are encouraged to attend the Be Heard! meeting ... to share their feedback on the past referendum. Small groups will be formed to share ideas and thoughts on what needs to be done differently and/or what needs improvement. Once the groups have shared their ideas, a larger group discussion will take place. We look forward to seeing you.

It's a great system for filtering out pointed questions and minority views.

Mother Teresa found spiritual adviser in Franklin holy man

Tom Heinen reported in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Father Michael van der Peet contacts with Mother Teresa during her dark decades of the soul. Fr. van der Peet is a member of the Priests of the Sacred Heart, and now serves as the spiritual director at his order's seminary here in Franklin.

Besides the seminary, their Franklin facility includes a monastery. A few miles away in Franklin there's also a Xaverian Missionary Fathers monastery.

The headline writer's "holy man" conjures up pictures of pilgrims flocking to the Root River. If you visit Franklin, or pass through, it won't seem all that unusual. Still, there can't be that many other suburbs with two monasteries.

Vietnamese Catholic community finds new home in Franklin

Cheri Perkins Mantz reports in our Catholic Herald that a local Vietnamese Catholic community, which had been served at St. Anthony Church on Milwaukee's near south side, is switching to St. Martin Church here in Franklin.

"Much of the Vietnamese community lives in the area — Franklin, Oak Creek, Muskego, Racine, Greenfield — so it’s logical," he [Fr. Francis Tran] said. "The group is very active in the church and at St. Anthony, they were limited by the facility size. (Here) we have the church, basement, school, narthex and 10 acres of land."

That will leave St. Anthony with only English and Spanish Masses.

Weekly newspaper chain moves into Milwaukee County

The Business Journal of Milwaukee reported

A new weekly newspaper, the Franklin Citizen, made its debut May 18, in part trying to take advantage of the shrinking presence of Community Newspapers Inc.

The Franklin CNI paper had been consolidated with papers for several other southern suburbs. The amount of Franklin coverage seemed disproportionately small, considering its population. Around the same time they did launch web sites for each suburb, ours being Franklin Now.

The Franklin Citizen is published by Southern Lakes Newspapers, Burlington, which publishes 15 weekly publications in Walworth, Racine and Kenosha counties.

No online version yet.

Two print weeklies for one suburb is something of a luxury these days. We'll see if it lasts.

Best Places to Live: Top 100:90. Franklin (Milwaukee County), Wis.

Brad Nelson at Money Magazine.

It's easy to see why businesses love Franklin. With easy access to four major highways and an international airport, along with plenty of tax breaks, Franklin, located 11 miles south of Milwaukee, has attracted a number of major companies. Harley-Davidson has a distribution center there, and Northwestern Mutual has built a sprawling campus. From 1990 to 2006, the city's population has skyrocketed 51% to 33,000. The city faces the challenges of managing all that growth.

(via Franklin Now)

P.S. At Sprawled Out, John Michlig notes who's number one this year and asks

Middleton is where the great Middleton Hills traditional neighborhood development is located - coincidence?

Judging by the Middleton Hills home page, I'd say yes.

Middleton Hills is located in the City of Middleton, eight miles from the State Capital in Madison, Wisconsin.

At least when a developer in Franklin uses a spelling like "Shoppes" it's intentional.