August 8, 2000

On August first, the Watertown Common Council approved yet another rather selfish resolution regarding the State Highway 26 bypass corridor which is under consideration by the WisDOT.

The City's Common Council members all voted in favor of a resolution sponsored by Mayor Fred Smith to endorse bypasses for Janesville, Milton, Jefferson, Watertown and, of course, all the apparently second class township communities that happen to lie within that 48 mile stretch of highway corridor. The City of Watertown has decided that it somehow has the explicit right to speak on behalf of all the communities involved and that Watertown s decision will be presented to the WisDOT prior to an August 17 state public hearing. More specifically, the City s resolution presumes that all the communities involved are to have bypasses built through or around them. The aldermen were led to believe that, since this new endorsement does not specify a route, apparently they (the aldermen) should pretend that they do not remember that the City has been trying to ram through their one and only exclusive west side recommendation for more than a year now. And, also, that adding this new resolution is only a repeat of their 8-1 endorsement from May 2, 2000.

I sat in on this latest city meeting and listened as nine aldermen within the small confines of their council chamber world voted to endorse bypasses for everyone in the surrounding municipalities. They passed a judgment on their neighbors fate without so much as debate over the validity of such a resolution.

The City, to date, has not had one single official meeting with the Town of Watertown and yet the alderman, without benefit of such negotiations have decided to speak on the Township s behalf in the form of this resolution. I and several other area residents present at this meeting did have an opportunity to offer comment before the meeting came to order and before it concluded but were not included in the specific discussion, and the Daily Times, once again, failed to report the specific comments that did not favor the Mayor s objectives. I will explain my deleted comments fully to you now.

My own request to postpone the endorsement vote was mentioned in the following day s newspaper article but none of the comments explaining why the endorsement vote should have been postponed was reported. The reason the vote should have been postponed was because it was, first of all, premature as the Council has not met with the Township of Watertown in order to make a sound informed judgment on the need for a community wide bypass plan and, also, the public at large has a right to provide input at the next State sponsored public hearing which is scheduled for the 17th of August. This present endorsement vote came before benefit of that public hearing and was not intended to show consensus with the outlying municipalities. It was intended to suppress public opposition. The general public was not given fair notice of the Mayor s intent to place this resolution vote on the August 1 Council agenda nor were any non-city community leaders invited to take part in this "generic" decision. Even the Common Council members themselves were not fully informed of the intent of this referendum.

I did have a prior arranged meeting with Mayor Smith and coincidentally met on the morning after the August first Council meeting and vote. We discussed at lenght the City s unwillingness to meet on an official basis with the Town of Watertown, and, at my urging, he has agreed to correct this problem and initiate a series of ongoing official meetings with the township to encourage legitimate public participation in the decision making process. Also, Town Chair, Richard Gimler, had already informed me prior to my appointment with Fred Smith that he and the Watertown Township Board is and has been more than willing to meet with the Mayor and the Common Council members on an official basis and eagerly awaits Mayor Smith s invitation to immediately begin long overdue open negotiations.

As I expressed to the Common Council during the public comment session before and near the end of the Council meeting and again to Mayor Smith the following morning, this new vote on Aug. first only serves to increase the divide between the City and the Town, and it is now up to him (the Mayor), on behalf of the City, to initiate this first of many contacts. It was, after all, the City that originally requested bypass studies from the WisDOT without informing the Town first of its intentions. It is up to the City to make things right now and invite the Town to formal debates, and he has agreed to do this.

I can only hope that the Mayor's pledge to me of cooperation is sincere as I expectantly await Town Chair, Richard Gimler's, confirmation of the Mayor s initiative to contact and invite the Watertown Town Board to the official negotiation table.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11.1

(Signed)

A. James Ortega