Leaking terraces and a new role for Shannon

 News from the city:

The Brown Bank project is underway, with higher ed partners, Best Buy, the YMCA, Jockey, and the city collaborating on a remodel of the old building into KELA, the Kenosha Emerging Leaders Academy. KELA is the "second stop" on the education pipeline from our new Uptown Children's Library (birth through 5th grade) to KELA (6th grade to age 24), to the Kenosha Innovation Neighborhood (high tech business incubator space.) KELA is projected to open in spring 2023.

At Monday's Common Council meeting, the Mayor will be asking Council to schedule a special public referendum (vote) on exceeding levy limits for public safety expenses. The state caps the amount of property tax increase a city can collect annually.  A city can override this restriction by majority citizen vote. That decision comes with a penalty- the city loses it's "shared revenue" payment, 1:1. For instance, if the city exceeds the limit by 1 million dollars, the state deducts 1 million dollars from the city's shared revenue payment. For more information, and to gain a serious appreciation for the complexity of this issue, the Wisconsin Department of Revenue provides this Q and A. If the Council agrees to schedule a referendum, KPL can expect to host one extra election this year.

Happening @ KPL

Thanks go out to Shannon for agreeing to pass Adult Programs to Community Programs and Partnerships to free up her time to concentrate on space planning for SW. Last October, we were provided with a very large plan to overhaul our public spaces. We've been waiting for other large projects such as our total website redesign to be complete to free up time for the space plan. And we've been waiting for the new flooring at SW to be available so we can make the overhaul of Main Street part of the space project. Shannon is particularly good at project management, and we are delighted that she has agreed to lead a very collaborative project that will invite all staff to contribute their expertise. Get ready to have fun and design a space that our community and staff will love. More information coming soon!

The terrace at Simmons is leaking worse than ever into the maintenance area below, so we will be conducting some investigation that includes architects and construction companies. Expect to see trucks in our parking lots. We'll probably need to redirect staff entry at some point, too. The replacement of the air conditioning unit at Simmons is set for September and construction will last six weeks. Always working on that beautiful old building!

The Board Finance Committee voted Monday night to recommend to the full Board in May that we use some of our fund balance to expedite some facilities projects. On the list is a new bookmobile, new flooring, furniture for our space plan projects, and new signage. If the full Board agrees to the expenditures, we will start with leveling the floor in the SW children's area which has become a tripping hazard and replacing the flooring in that area. 

This week's Bright Spot Award nomination comes from Brandi:

"I'd like to nominate Aaron for a bright spot award! He has done such a beautiful job creating new graphics and images for our website. That warm welcoming feeling people get when they first visit the site is because he so thoughtfully fine-tuned a million details! In what has been a very busy season for our team, Aaron has really stood out with his can-do attitude, calm demeanor, and flexibility!"

Have a great rest of the week, everyone!