Shocking Meeting?

So, I went to a city council meeting last night and collegiality broke out! That was really quite enjoyable. The proposed domestic partner health insurance was the main controversial issue on the agenda, but it seems to have the conditional support of at least 4 alders and the mayor. Not sure where Alder Kugle is on it. Alder Wiswell indicated his support and Alder McKeever is a co-sponsor. Mayor Kahl and Alder Thomas would prefer that it be dealt with during the budget deliberations, but support the policy. Alder Suslick was sphinx-like in his silence.

The Winnequah Road/Monona Drive north-end stop sign is back on the agenda as Public Safety has recommended that the stop sign be replaced with a yield sign, which would seem to put us right back where we started. I'm not too keen on the idea of taking the stop signs down just a few months after they went up - without a compelling reason and I haven't heard one yet.

The Mayor is pushing us to sign on to a loose coalition of Beltline property owners and municipalities to push for putting the proposed 345 kv ATC power line underground. The initial voluntary dues, if you will, are $5000. Consider me a skeptic. The coalition seems willing to concede to the Beltline route, but push for putting it underground. First, I have high respect for the professionalism of the PSC staff and I think they will get the necessary data into the record. Second, putting the power line underground through the wetlands would be enormously expensive and almost certainly would be more environmentally damaging to the wetlands. I'm not really sure our interests align with this coalition.