Glenn Hanon
April 26, 2010 at 03:52 PM · Posted under Glenn Hanon
On Tuesday April 20 th I sat down with then Mayor, Maury Sullivan and asked him to reflect on his past six years as the Mayor of Oconomowoc. The Mayor reflected on a number of his accomplishments, most notably he feels he is leaving the office with a city that is in good shape from a fiscal perspective and from a staffing function. According to the Mayor, when he first took office the city was spending $100,000-$135,000 on street repairs. This past year the city allocated over $3M for street repairs.
When asked what stands out most to the Mayor as an accomplishment he listed the road upgrades while conceding that there is much work to be done there. The new growth in development within the city which he quotes from State reports that the city has benefited from $559 million in new construction within the city over the past six years. Other projects have been stalled due to financing, most notably the Rockwell project in the downtown area and the Pabst Farms development. City finances are the Mayor’s third area of accomplishment. “During this last six years there has been a relatively low increase in levy, this last year there was no increase. The levy for the city is the fifth lowest of 190 cities in Wisconsin.” said Mayor Sullivan.
Prior to his election as the Mayor of Oconomowoc, Sullivan was the Town Chairman for the Town of Summit, soon to be the Village of Summit. During those litigious years the City and Town were at odds over a border agreement. This past December roughly 4500 acres merged into the city as part of the 10 year border agreement between the two municipalities. Over 32 lawsuits were filed as a result of the announcement of the Target Distribution Center. “I felt that quite frankly this was foolishness and I advocated with the Town Board to negotiate and they had tried litigating, but that had mixed limited success and started negotiating with the boundary agreement in 1999.” We no longer have litigation…I wasn’t thinking of this as an accomplishment while I was Mayor. Clearly Sullivan’s involvement as Town Chairman and his 3 term tenure as Mayor of Oconomowoc has had an impact on the relations between Summit and Oconomowoc.
When I asked the Mayor to look forward as he leaves office, he sees that most of the issues that the city will face are issues related to development, growth in the city and the hot topic of impact fees. When I asked Sullivan about the impact fees, he stated, “I think they will not be changed, because the impact of having residents pay for development impact fees would be so substantial that I don’t think that the taxpayers would agree to that.” The bigger issues facing Oconomowoc are the downtown areas and the Pabst Farms Development. A good deal of concern about the future of the Pabst development is still on many minds in the community while DDR continues to bring forth plans for the new mall, most have realized that the plans once promised to the city with high end retailers such as Nordstroms will not materialize.
The biggest hurdle for the new mayor is a balancing what Pabst would like to develop with the public’s perception of what they were promised. The demographics don’t tend to support the higher end retailers for our area and of course the recession has not helped the plans for the new mall. Optimistic and upbeat about the future of the city the former mayor has no plans to drift into the sunset. Sullivan would not rule out a run for this office or any other office at the moment. For now he plans on enjoying time off with his wife Ann in our great city.
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Glenn Hanon
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April 12, 2010 at 08:49 PM · Posted under Glenn Hanon
On Tuesday April 6th the votes in the City of Oconomowoc decided it was time for a change at the top. 3 term incumbent Maury Sullivan was replaced by Jim Daley. Recently Jim spoke with me about his vision for the City of Oconomowoc. The turnout for the election was higher than other “off year” elections with 27% of the residents casting their votes.
Q: Were you surprised by the turnout this past Tuesday?
Mayor-Elect Daley: You know our campaign thought we had a very strong message. The need to focus on our downtown and allow responsible development and responsible growth in our community –these are issues that are important to Oconomowoc. We were very optimistic going into the election but the turnout and the margin of victory were at levels that exceeded our expectations. I think it shows how strong the message was.
Q: What is your first priority when you take office?
A: Mayor-Elect Daley: The first priority is to stop the bleeding from the commercial and retail level from the downtown. Both the downtown areas and the Pabst Farm Development need the community’s attention to move forward and build support. We need to be business friendly but also protect the community’s interests at the same time. The downtown revitalization has to be the #1 priority and I think to do that what we need to do initially is to work on fees, the bureaucracy and the red tape that makes it less desirable for business to come to Oconomowoc. I want our city hall message or mantra to be Oconomowoc is open for business. We are here, we are aggressive and we want investment dollars and businesses in our community to serve our citizens. With the economy being how it is, all communities are in an extremely competitive status of trying to draw quality business into their environments and Oconomowoc right now is making itself very uncompetitive. The proof of that is there for anyone to see if you drive in downtown.
Q: What are your thoughts on the Fowler Lake Revitalization Project?
A: Mayor-Elect Daley: From my understanding of the project, it was the result of a lot of compromise from a lot of different parties and I want to dig deeper into this to make sure that 
it’s not the “left-overs” of compromise. I don’t question that the Fowler Lake waterfront needs to be addressed. My concern for a project this big is that it has to be done right and I don’t think this can be a fast track item. This is the kind of project when we are talking about pristine lake frontage we should really be looking at this long term in a forward planning manner. I don’t want to address Fowler Lake for what is good for tomorrow, rather what’s good for the next generations. It is an immensely expensive project which I think its time has come but it needs to be done right. I think there are some issues with the current proposal that need to be refined before we move forward
Q: The high speed rail stop in Oconomowoc has garnered much attention. Rep Joel Kleefisch recently introduced legislation regarding the high speed rail. What are your thoughts on this issue?
A: Mayor-Elect Daley: First of all I don’t think the high speed rail is an affordability issue as much as it is a priority issue–should we be spending our money on this as a community? Every dollar we spend supporting one project is a dollar that we are taking away from supporting another one, unless we are interested in doing things like raising taxes, which I am opposed to. When we look at the high speed rail, The Kleefisch bill is a very legitimate bill. I don’t think his intention is to straight up kill it (high speed rail). What Kleefisch is saying in his legislation is that we have a lot of questions that we would like answered before we can support this as a state. I think he is right in that. What I said in the campaign is that this is an issue of ridership, and my understanding is that there is not a dependable study that has been done to date that is going to show what the ridership is going to be plus I think there are a lot of issues that could potentially decrease the ridership. The number one issue is where the Madison terminal is located. My understanding is that right now it is slated for the Dane county airport and I think out of the people that I have spoken to there is absolutely zero interest in traveling to the Dane County Airport. Now if that was a downtown Madison or accessible downtown stop I think that would increase the likelihood of people in our community willing to jump on the train, go to Madison for, say a Badger game or walk down State Street. When we are looking at the Dane county airport stop that strands the rider from the rest of the Madison community and the rider has to either grab a cab or a bus– it is just those additional layers of inconvenience that will affect ridership in an extremely negative manner.
Mayor Elect Daley will be sworn into office at the April 20th Common Council meeting at 7:30pm located in the City Hall.
Posted by: Glenn Hanon
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April 07, 2010 at 09:36 PM · Posted under Glenn Hanon
Yesterday voters in Oconomowoc gave a clear signal that they want a change at City Hall. According to the official results at the City of Oconomowoc Jim Daley received 1809 votes while the incumbent Maury Sullivan received 908. Sullivan the three term incumbent was upset by a relative unknown in the realm of city politics. Watch this post for my interview with the new mayor and his vision for the City of Oconomowoc.
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April 06, 2010 at 08:40 PM · Posted under Glenn Hanon
If you love horses, like horses or have thought about having an interest in horses, then you may want to head to Madison for the Midwest Horse Fair April 16-18th at the Alliant Energy Center.
Click Here for directions
For all of the latest information on clinics, events and speakers this website has all the latest information.
Barnes PRCA (Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association) will present the rodeo portion of the entertainment. If you are interested in seeing barrel racing, bareback riding, bull riding, roping and various other rodeo events, then this is worth the trip to Madison! The gates open each day at 7am. The rodeo event tickets are only available through TicketMaster, and you can order by phone at 800-745-3000 or you can purchase tickets in person at the Ticket Office. The premium tickets are all sold out, however the general admission tickets are $5. The rodeo will be held on the 16th so now would be a good time to get those tickets!
Posted by:Glenn Hanon
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April 03, 2010 at 01:21 PM · Posted under Glenn Hanon
New rules on lead based paint removal take effect this coming April. If you are a homeowner and your home was built prior to 1978 then remodeling your home replacing windows, scraping old windows etc will need the services of an expert. The Federal Government has enacted tougher more stringent lead based paint rules that now affect us all. The regulation will affect millions of single family homes across the United States. The EPA banned lead in paint in 1978 and it is estimated that more than 38 million homes have some type of lead paint on or in their home. In the past you could strip the paint yourself, but now with the new guidelines you will need to have a professional EPA accredited firms to remove lead paint. The new rule takes effect on April 22 of this year. When you sell your home you are required to fill out a Real Estate Condition Report (RECR). Currently the RECR does not have any questions on it that ask if you removed the lead paint from your home. It asks if you are aware of any lead paint on your property. All Real Estate transactions require that a Lead Paint Addendum be attached if the home was constructed prior to 1978. I would imagine that the RECR will be changed shortly to ask the seller of an older home if they have done any lead removal on the property. As with all new rules there were be lots of confusion. For more information on Lead Based Paint and the potential problems you can visit the EPA site for lead at http://www.epa.gov/lead/
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April 02, 2010 at 06:51 PM · Posted under Glenn Hanon
We have these good friends who have a knack for knowing all the quaint and sometimes quirky places to eat in the Metro Milwaukee area. April 1st proved to be a delightful day, weather wise, so we tripped over to The Rochester Deli in Waukesha off Broadway. I am always on the hunt for a good Reuben and I was not disappointed here. Because it was literally 80 degrees at 6pm, so we decided to sit outside and enjoy the delish food! I finished the Reuben which was accompanied by a great side dish of fresh coleslaw, I meandered back inside to check out the cakes, cookies and various other sweets. I had my eye on this almond cookie that was dipped in chocolate. I love almond and if you do too then this is the best almond cookie I have tasted in a long time. The Rochester Deli advertises itself as the Home of the Best Reuben and I would have to concur. This little gem is right here in our backyard and is my new fav place for Reuben’s!
Posted by:Glenn Hanon
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April 02, 2010 at 01:04 PM · Posted under Glenn Hanon
It is amazing what paint, rearranging furniture and a few new accessories can do for a room. Case in point: a new home that I listed in Oconomowoc on Waterstone Circle. The layout of this home is fantastic and it sits on a 2 plus acre lot with a guest house. A few added touches in the right areas and some new colors on the walls and voila the room has a whole new feel.
Living Room
In this picture the formal living room is a bit dated with the red accent wall (before photo on left). A fresh coat of paint on this wall and some current artwork and a few new pieces in the large room completely transform the space (After photo on right). The same happened in this very large dining room. Notice the heavy color above the chair rail. A softer color new lamps on the table and leather covered chairs around the handsome table give this room new character and appeal.
Dining Room
In the family area off the kitchen we simply changed the color on one wall and swapped out the blue furniture for something a little more hip and current. Each of these rooms already had great character; we just removed the items that detracted and added furniture and accents that showcase the great benefits of each room. I have used the services of Casa LaBella Ltd for these redo’s and have mentioned them here on my blog posts before. For more information of their services you can reach them at www.casalabellaltd.com.
Kitchen
For more information on this sharp home, click here to get the latest info on this terrific offering at only $475,000!
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