Thank You New Berlin City Council...We are STILL "A little Bit Country...."

Last night we got to see democracy at work....we got to see that every voice matters....that if you want a voice in city government....step up to the microphone...it matters.

A couple members of the city council....the department of public works.....spent tens of thousands of the tax payers hard earned money hiring outside engineering firms to conceive a variety of designs...the sidewalks went across the back of the lots of a number of homes...ours included....we don't want the additional six foot intrusion....and none of the neighbors did either. The council members who wanted the sidewalks romanticized them calling them sidepaths...bike paths....side ways...everything but what they are...sidewalks that need to be maintained, repaired, replaced, swept and shoveled...if not at the taxpayers' expense.....then at some point, when budgets get tight....as they are already...then the taxpayers who had adjacent property would most probably be expected to maintain them.....we just said NO....we had buttons printed, we printed brochures, we circulated petitions, we e-mailed the council, we encouraged neighbors to attend public works and council meetings....we networked....we just said no....THANK YOU ...Aldermen - Ament, Harenda, Hopkins and Wysocki...the people spoke and you listened....you know citizens most affected didn't want side walks, paths, ways....to pay for additional equipment and labor...or buy more of our own equipment and furnish the labor...

There were people who wanted us to believe the decision had been made...it was all part of a master plan and we were powerless to change it.....It wasn't true....We didn't want to fight city hall...we just wanted them to listen...and happily they did !

Don't complain about what you cannot change....work to change it !