According to a statement released Tuesday morning, Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele has proposed abandoning the pay to park program he included in the 2018 county budget.
Background on the proposal, which drew swift opposition from the public, can be found here.
Because the budget was passed by the County Board, eliminating the plan requires a financial hole to be plugged and according to the statement, Abele suggests filling the $1.6 million gap with a "one-time draw from the County’s contingency 'rainy day' fund."
"We added a requirement for the administration to hold public hearing," said 14th District County Supervisor Jason Haas, who is chair of the County Board's Parks, Energy and Environment committee. "In my time on the County Board, I've never seen such a deep and broad public objection to anything like the pay to park proposal."
Abele said he considered two other possible solutions, too, including cutting $1.6 million in expenses, which the statement said would have meant closing the Domes, Boerner Botanical Gardens, Wehr Nature Center and County-run Community Centers; and increasing, by $5, the Vehicle Registration Fee.
"We asked for public input in order to better understand how people feel about this new dedicated revenue stream to support the parks system," Abele said in the statement. "I said from the beginning that charging for parking in the parks is not something that I would ever want to do, but we felt it was preferable to yet more cuts to our already strained parks system.
"Given the outpouring of feedback we’ve received, I am pleased that we will be able to avoid charging visitors from paying to park their vehicles this year. But we should be very clear that this is a short-term solution to a long-term problem."
Asked if he thinks the board will support the move to withdraw the plan, Haas said, "Abele's new proposal is to cut all funding to the Domes, Wehr Nature Center, Boerner Botanical Gardens, King Community Center, Kosciusko Community Center and our par-3 golf courses. That is not something the County Board would approve of.
"This highlights the need for dedicated (parks) funding."
If pay to park vanishes, the funding shortfall must be addressed again in discussions for next year's budget.
"Our parks make Milwaukee County a truly remarkable community, and it’s essential that we all work together to ensure they are protected for our children and generations to come. If confirmed, I plan to work closely with the County Board to find solutions to this intractable problem," said Jim Sullivan, interim director of Milwaukee County Parks, in the statement.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
