Maple & Main

Stimulus, Round Two.

Posted by Curt Otto on Feb. 23, 2009

Stimulus is back!

Once again our government is going to pump the United States full of money it doesn’t have in hopes of staving off an economic collapse.

Brilliant!

But this time, instead of giving us the money directly, like in the form of a check I can bring to Las Vegas and throw down on the craps table, our fearless leaders are pouring the money into communities throughout the country so they can address various citywide improvement projects.

If you would like to know exactly what the suggested projects are, you can see them here.

I’m sure each one of these projects is important in its own special way.

However, if it just so happens that at the end of the day Waukesha finds itself with a little left over stimulus, I have some city projects on my mind that I believe need attention.

For starters, as you all know, I have always had a special place in my heart for the “Welcome to Waukesha” sign.

There used to be more than one- positioned at the gateways of our city- proudly welcoming visitors to Waukesha as only painted plywood and two by fours could.

Over time, many of the signs have disappeared; with exception to the one on Highway F near Frame Park.

This particular sign has seen better days however. Some of it is missing, perhaps broken off by a rouge sparrow or a light summer breeze. What is left is in a state of disrepair.

I think it's a great spot for some stimulus.

What I am purposing is something along the lines of this…

 

And if it lit up at night, that would be great. I took the liberty of trimming the base in lannon stone to capture some of the history of Waukesha as well.

For our next stimulus project, it would be nice if we could fix the clock tower that stands majestically along our beautiful river walk across from Waukesha State Bank.

At first I thought the city was getting cultural on us, displaying a different time on each face, perhaps of Paris on the East face, New York on the west, Milan on the south and so on. But that is not the case.

For months now, the clocks on three sides of the tower have simply been wrong. The fourth clock is altogether missing; replaced for some odd reason by a smiley face.

No one is smiling about it anymore. And no one knows what time it is either.

Could we get some stimulus here please?

And finally, if we find ourselves with a few pennies left over, may I suggest a giant dome over the city that would stay heated in the winter. This would eliminate the need to salt and plow, thus saving us millions of dollars every year- which leaves us with money to spend on heating the dome. The city council can argue over whether to keep the mean winter temperature at 68 or 70 degrees.

72 would be nice.

And so concludes my input on our city wide economic stimulus. Feel free to add your own ideas as well.

After all, we seem to have bundles of money burning holes in our pockets here.