Questions about the Oak Leaf Trail Bridge and Village Capitol Drive Entrance

I have been admiring our new eastbound Capitol Drive entrance to the Village and noticed some issues that I feel need to be addressed, beginning with the bicycle and pedestrian bridge.

The gate posts on the bridge along with the village boundary marker are capped with beautiful copper. With copper scrap prices hovering somewhere around $3 a pound, how long do we expect those caps to last?

I also noticed that the trail is marked with signage restricting motorized vehicles and on the north side of Capitol the trail entrance/exit has a physical barrier. I know that prior to the project the trail was patrolled by the Village Police in squad cars from Estabrook Park south across the old railroad bridge. If motorized vehicles are prohibited, does that include police squads? I actually checked out the bridge and it looks just barely wide enough to get a full sized squad across. Which brings up this question — is it time to equip the Village Police with a couple of ATVs to patrol the Oak Leaf Trail and Atwater Beach? If we are attempting to minimize the environmental impact in both areas and still provide the same flexibility, service and security that we have come to expect, I think it is time for the ATV patrols. Although bicycles would work on the trail, they can’t be used on the beach.

While we’re on the Village Police, we “Westees” have been discussing that maybe it’s time the village got its own K-9 unit. From our understanding, when we need one we have to call a K-9 unit in from one of the surrounding jurisdictions or the Sheriff’s Department. If we look at the types of crimes that are perpetrated in the village, it’s primarily breaking and entering along with burglaries. Trained police dogs are particularly effective in tracking down and detaining suspects during the commission of break-ins and active burglaries. They can go places where regular patrol officers cannot and are able to ferret out hiding suspects when they are successfully eluding searching police officers. If we do get a K-9 unit, we should insist that the K-9 officer live close to the village and not in Cedarburg, Delafield or Greenfield.

Just to let everyone know, I haven’t, as yet, taken up the invitation to go in and sit down with the Chief and Deputy Chief, but I will soon. The “Westees” and I may have come up with a solution to some of the issues I brought up in my past blog. Instead of the Deputy Chief specifically patrolling for illegal signage, bicyclist infractions and misplaced rummage sales, the village employs CSOs (Community Service Officers) who are patrolling already for parking violations. The CSOs that I have met are pleasant and do a great deal for the village and expanding their duties to include illegal signage, errant bicyclists and rummage sale infractions; just makes good sense.

I have a particular bone to pick with drivers in the village who think stop signs are designed to roll through and keep on going or make that right turn without stopping. We all should be driving defensively, but we don’t need wing nuts running stop signs, especially with all the kids that will be on the streets with school ending. The warm weather will bring out kids on bikes, scooters, skateboards or just running free being kids. Let’s keep our speed down and be alert for the village’s most precious citizens.

One final thing; those of us who are around our neighborhoods during the day need to be watching out for our neighbors who are either away at work or on vacation. We know who belongs on our blocks and who doesn’t. The patrol officers welcome help in spotting suspicious activity.