By Peter Abbott, chair, County Grounds Coalition
member, Grassroots Tosa Steering Committee
The victory for the Save the County Grounds campaign at last Tuesday night’s Common Council Community Affairs Committee meeting was an important step. But it was just that — a step — on that proverbial journey of a thousand miles.
We have to remember that the parkland developers want to carve out of County Grounds Park is still owned by Milwaukee County, so we still have to mobilize to keep the county from caving into the developers’ plans.
So the next step in our journey is to show up in force at the County Board Parks Committee meeting at 9 a.m. this Tuesday in Room 201 of the County Courthouse, 901 N 9th St., when the committee will hear an important environmental impact report on the developers plans for the County Grounds, plus a 60-page stack of online commentary from the Wauwatosa City website, nearly all of which opposes any development on the County Grounds.
We need to make the county sit up and take notice, just the way we made the city respond last Tuesday. Only our constant presence at meetings, our yard signs posted all over the community and the many emails, letters, phone calls and district meetings with alders made our city officials back off.
We know from the past behavior of developers and their allies in city and county government that we need to be vigilant. We need to keep this issue at the top of the agenda for all our elected officials, so let’s:
Keep our yard signs up for as long as it takes to win. If you need more signs, please contact us. Get as many signs up as you can.
Contact Wauwatosa’s County Supervisors Luigi Schmidt and Eddie Cullen. Tell them we want them to take the lead in opposing any attempt by County Executive Chris Abele to sell this land.
Continue to contact city officials. Keep the pressure on the mayor and the alders who support the developers’ proposals or who are wavering. Thank the alders who’ve taken the lead in representing the will of Wauwatosa’s citizens.
Go to our website, CountyGroundsCoalition.org, sign our petition and download your own copy for your friends, family and neighbors to sign.
Your overwhelming support has brought us this far. But only your continued action will force the city and county to take us seriously, until we finally save this sacred land from those who want to turn it into a profit-making venture.
