March 14, 2007
Dear Friend and Neighbor,
The Name Change Although nobody voiced any particular concerns or disappointments and we received a lot
of congratulations at the March 13 forum, I did want to clarify an important point that I think has not been
clear up to this point. The Goodman brothers did not ask for the Center to be named
after them. The request came from the Center. When the Center representative approached
them, they were invited to make the donation and that the Center name would change.
The Goodmans were humbled and honored. They did months and months of due diligence on
the Center to make sure that we were a sound investment and then accepted our offer.
The Board then voted to make it official. The original offer and the acceptance by the
Board were made because we felt that this was the best thing for the future of the agency
and seems an appropriate gesture of gratitude for such a generous gift.
The topic of a name change had been a regular part of meetings long before
this opportunity- we were advised by many that we should seriously look at a name
change as we moved to the new facility.
- We are not on Atwood anymore, the reach and scope of this facility, the programming, and resources will go well beyond the Atwood neighborhood – bike path users included
- As we work with Worthington Park, Eken Park and Emerson East neighborhoods to welcome them to the new facility, we want to remove any feeling that we are inviting them to a facility that belongs to another community. There is no longer a geographic connection it is everybody’s community center.
- The facility will carry a significant increase in operating burden. We have to be prepared to fundraise and additional $200,000 to $400,000 annually. This is a 100% increase of over current efforts. With its bigger scope and reach, we have the opportunity to widen our donor and volunteer base, a less geographic name will help with this. And in this regard, what could be a better name than two of Madison’s most respected members who have done so much for our city. Their name and the knowledge that they invest in quality and that they really do their research before making a donation is really a seal of approval.
The Storm Sewer The new storm sewer will go in the
fall. They have a DNR permit and a UP Railroad permit pending approval. The plan is to
replace existing 24 inch pipe with a really big one- those giant cement things that you can
practically walk thru. The pipe will go thru the northern edge of Wirth ct Park, heading to the
Dixon green way and Starkweather creek. This is where the water currently goes, just in an
undersized pipe that backs up and floods. Basically I learned last night that 80 acres of
our neighborhood all drain into that 24 inch pipe. This has historically cause lots of
flooding problems in huge rains.
Two other great things are coming out of this. One is that the Dixon Greenway will be turned
primarily into a large rain garden so that the water can be reabsorbed and filtered before
it reaches Starkweather creek. This is huge for that poor little creek.
The other benefit is that this allows them to build the infrastructure for the new
Starkweather creek bike path. That piece was thin “missing link” how to get across
the Dixon Greenway when the path would be underwater most of the year. The redesign
allows them to include the raised bike path.
Traffic Calming I have requested copies of the three traffic calming
proposals as PDFs and I will get them out to the list so that people can look at them and
give us their feedback. Basically they are looking at either a bump out in the street
at the corner of the Ironworks building to create visibility and slow traffic down,
or a round about right before the bike path. They are also looking at adding a speed hump
on Waubesa between Lafollette and St Paul. The Center is also requesting that parking
be returned to Waubesa on the west side of the street. This will also help slow traffic
down on Waubesa.
There were some questions about how all the traffic calming is affecting Corry St- more traffic
from Milwaukee to Lafollette and then a fast cut over to Waubesa to get to Atwood. It is
possible that the traffic calming- bump out, land dividers or round about will help minimize
this problem- or move the problem entirely onto Corry. The City staff assured the community
that they would have a series of meetings about traffic calming before anything happens.
Project Update We will see things happening on the
site this spring. The siding should be coming off in the next week or so. Site remediation
will start shortly thereafter. Actual work on the historic building will start in May.
The gym sometime later in the summer. The entire project slated to be completed by summer
2008.
On May 7, our project will be before the planning commission. Our hurdle is that we are
requesting a parking variance of less than 50% of the required stalls for a development
of this size. We are confident that we will get support for this from our community,
but it is still a hurdle.
The green building update is that just with our basic design decisions, if we were to pursue
LEED certification, we would be at a high silver LEED. But we are adding additional green
and sustainable design features such as a gray water system, solar hot water, rain gardens,
and mechanical engineering and plumbing decisions that would elevate us to a LEED Gold.
The Center is looking to use the Green Globe certification process rather than LEED.
Green Globe is the Canadian and European green building system.
On the fundraising front, the Center has raised more than $6,500,000 between tax credits
and donations to date, We have another $3,000,000 of the funding pieces in place between
the City pledge, the historic tax credits and the sale of the 3 ACC buildings. This totals
approx $9,000,000 of our financial puzzle, leaving about $2,500,000 left to raise. Although
it is doable, it is still a lot of money. Our public kick off is May 19th and this is the
point where the Center will begin to ask our community to contribute to the project.
We welcome comments, questions, or feedback you may have on any of these topics.
Sincerely,
Becky Steinhoff
Executive Director
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