Support Bay View
John Manke is an active former Bay View resident who is involved in numerous neighborhood organizations, including the Bay View Historical Society, the Humboldt Park Fourth of July Association and the Shore Shore Farmers Market. He believes Bay View has a fine tradition in its past that we do not want to lose in the future.
A letter to Mayor Tom Barrett
Humboldt Park 4th of July Association - Celebrating 99 Years
2009 Theme: "America - A Land of Beauty"
To: Tom Barrett, Mayor of City of Milwaukee
Re: City of Milwaukee Budget 2009 allowance for 4th of July celebrations
The new City of Milwaukee Budget of $105,000, down $25,000 is just another "quality of life" eroded from the citizens and friends of Milwaukee ! Don't take away the youth Talent Shows, electrical hookups and Commission coordinating effort per Commission letter received February, 2009. We park organizations received the devastating news far too late to make an major impact on our politicians !
Celebration of Independence Day should not be measured in dollar and cents. We are hundreds of unpaid park volunteers who put forth many dedicated hours and take pride planning July 4th celebrations. We believe we are providing a safe and fun filled day of activities and events for all, family, neighbors, all cultures or persuasion and visitors to our fine city.
City of Milwaukee 4th of July Commission and Department of City Development are our voice to the City of Milwaukee and hopefully expressed it in September 2008. Yes Alder persons vote on the budget, but the voice of the DCD and the City of Milwaukee 4th of July Commission needs to reach out to them early !
Most park organizations have e-mails on file with the DCD, so there is no cost to update us timely except the few parks without. The DCD and the Commission are responsible to us, not the reverse, to keep us in the loop and informed.
This year Humboldt Park 4th of July Association will celebrate our 100th 4th of July celebration ! We presented the new assigned reduced 2009 budget to our membership this week. Allowance was reduced from $3,900 to $2,800, which is a reduction of $1,100. (28% cut). This exceeds the 20% reduction from the City of Milwaukee Budget cut. Where is the fairness? Why was our Park singled out so severely compared to other parks? Humboldt Park Association is extremely disappointed in the "Commission's" decision for our park allowance. Yes we do speak with other park officers and know for a fact our park received less (greater than 25%) decrease in our park's allowance alone... far exceeding the Talent Show allocation of last year !
Due to the reduction in the park allowance, our Association is forced to reduce ice cream and keep our flag count low. Our reduced allowance makes it extremely difficult to maintain the level of activities to fill the day the community expects to celebrate Independence Day. The Talent Show elimination of support after nearly 40 years is a travesty considering that the Mayor's children participated last year. Without Talent Show rules and regulations, but primarily support from the Commission, we can not take on the liablility and cost extracted from our park allowance.
Please restore the 4th of July budget back to the 2008 level ! We request this letter be shared with the persons in power to make change and placed on file with July 4th records for annual review.
Sincerely,
Humboldt Park 4th of July Association
CC: Department of City Development
President, City of Milwaukee 4th of July Commission
Common Council President and all Alder persons
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