Thoughts from the Common Council President Greg Helding-Street Lights & Woowoos
I received this email from Greg Helding dated today at 8:05 a.m. I thought I would share it with the readers and also my response on the items he listed. I do appreciate input from our leaders and at least we know that some are actually paying attention to the tax paying residents of Racine. It seems that the residents are getting attention on Jerome Blvd (Not sure why he thought I was spear heading anything. All I did was a community service and spread the word about the rally that Channel 12 was kind enough to notify viewers of)
Beth,
I noticed that streetlights is a hot topic. I wanted to point out a few things for your consideration:
I know that Alderman Shields is suddenly the champion for streetlights. During the budget process, the decision to reduce the number of streetlights was made by the entire council, unanimously. Alderman Shields voted for the budget in committee and voted for final adoption, along with every other alderman. Furthermore, he made no attempts to amend the budget to save any streetlights at all. For him to go the other way now and say they can be saved is disingenuous. If, as you say, there are always was to keep the lights on, I suggest you ask Alderman Shields what they are. If he has some good ideas, he was keeping them under wraps during the budget process.
We did receive federal funds to upgrade streetlights. There are two kinds of streetlights in town. Some are owned by the city and some are owned by the electric company and leased by the city. The federal money, which has all been spent – mostly with RUUD electric, has upgraded most of the city owned street lights to LED and reduced our electric bill for those lights by quite a bit. With regard to the company-owned lights, we either lease one or not. I think We energies should upgrade them to LED lights and pass the savings on to the customer. However, I don’t run the company. The only way to reduce the costs of the company-owned lights is to reduce their numbers. So, when a block has 10 and most other blocks have 5 or less, taking 2 from them makes sense and is a good way to reduce costs.
I have noticed comments on your site about “woo woos” and “thugs,” which could be construed as racist and comments like “INDEED – The CITY OF RACINE IS GOING DARK IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE. Flee while you can,” which is plainly racist. I would suggest that this does not help your cause, especially when you are trying to enlist the help of an african american alderman.
Regards,
Gregory T. Helding
Alderman of the 11th District
President of the Common Council
Vice-Chairman – Committee on Public Safety and Licensing
City of Racine, WI
My response to him this morning
It might be if that area isn’t being hit with crime.. Are you aware that on Jerome Blvd. there was an attempted burglary/home invasion on that very block and the person inside was a pregnant mom that was 8 months pregnant? There was a robbery just a few blocks away and the victim was with police at the end of Jerome by Christiano’s. I didn’t enlist the help of anyone for the street lights. I was made aware of the meeting Jerome by Channel 12 news. I as a resident agree, this is a serious situation in my eyes and needs to be addressed. I would contact the taxpaying residents on Jerome to get their input. I wouldn’t say that Mike is the champion of the street lights but he seems to be doing more than 98% of the alderman in this city. Actually I don’t think you know what a woo woo is.. It’s a hair extension! And thug isn’t racist at all just like a goon.. It’s geared towards a CRIMINAL… Doesn’t matter what race, creed, economic background, wanna break the law, you are a goon and a thug. It’s a shame that the city leaders didn’t push further with the street lights and WE Energies to have them upgraded. Like the residents stated at that meeting, they are willing to work with the city.. Are you the city willing to work with them? If you could point out the article where you think you read a racist comment please let me know and I will review it. Thanks and I’ll be letting everyone know your thoughts about this. Thanks again for your input!
Beth
27 Responses to Thoughts from the Common Council President Greg Helding-Street Lights & Woowoos
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OK Alderman Helding – now that we’ve got that out of the way – let’s see if you and John will respond – or if you will run and hide, or try to find something “Racist” here:
The 2012 budget for Racine is $196,076,991
Salaries and Fringes are budgeted at 73% of the budget, or $143,136,203.43
The streetlight savings are touted as $80,000 – or a MERE .04% of the 2012 budget. That’s POINT ZERO FOUR.
SEE THE PROBLEM? It’s the approx. 150 positions that make more than $100K/ year salaries and benefits AND all the other employees who are overpaid for the tax base of Racine.
Ready to get real and address the real problem – the spending? IT IS YOU and JOHN WHO ARE DRIVING BUSINESSES AND CITIZENS OUT!
Here is what you will NEED to do – as a start. Cut City Employee pay, at all levels by 33% – it’s a start. Defined Pensions must be eliminated – they get 401K’s. Health insurance is for the EMPLOYEE only – additional can be purchased for other family members – at COST.
The CIty Assessor needs to assess properties to reality – and the mill rate needs to be DECREASED dramatically.
Here’s the goal – a weaning off of the spending and anti-business climate in the City of Racine. in 2012 you had $196M to play with. In 2013 you get $150M to play with. Better get to work and start planning now. It’s going to be painful, welcome to reality.
acutepain
01/29/2012 at 1:23 pm
Here you go Alderman Helding, time to get educated – and for anyone else interested – want to see the history of THUG and GOONS used by Newspapers? Simply go to the Milwaukee Journal /Sentinel archives and then search by word, do one search with THUG, the other with GOONS, and learn something! LINK: http://www.jsonline.com/historicarchive/search/
NOW what do you have to say? Being IGNORANT is curable.
Here are some DEFINITIONS FOR DARK:
dark·ness
[dahrk-nis] Show IPA
noun
1.
the state or quality of being dark: The room was in total darkness.
2.
absence or deficiency of light: the darkness of night.
3.
wickedness or evil: Satan, the prince of darkness.
4.
obscurity; concealment: The darkness of the metaphor destroyed its effectiveness.
5.
lack of knowledge or enlightenment: heathen darkness
UMMM… all FIVE (5) define RACINE, IN MY EYES – and NOT a SINGLE DEFINITION IS RACIST!
YOU FLEE EVIL!
What is WRONG with you, Mr. Helding?
acutepain
01/29/2012 at 2:34 pm
Here is another CLUE for you – Hwy 20 exit from I-94 is EXIT 333. It’s true! 333 is half of 666! 666 is associated with evil, hell and Satan. THEREFORE – Racine is HELL, 666, and HWY 20, exit 333 is the HIGHWAY TO HELL.
DO YOU UNDERSTAND?
LOOK AT ENICAR in a mirror -and what do you see?
LOOK AT GGODMULS in a mirror – and what do you see?
UNISEXCAR is an ANAGRAM! What does it spell?
I AM AN ACUTE PAIN! With PRIDE!
acutepain
01/29/2012 at 2:47 pm
Leave it to the President of our Common Council to throw in a slur in his email to RU. I’m surprised he isn’t showboating for the TV cameras like he did after Alderman Fair was arrested. There’s the real Greg Helding for you: putting on an ego-driven performance. He is a heartbeat away from Dickert’s job, and just as in love with himself as our lying mayor is with himself. No ethics, no backbone, no nothing except pander, pander, pander to whomever is in charge in order to brown-nose your way to the top. What a disgusting specimen of a Racine pol.
OrbsCorbs
01/29/2012 at 6:54 pm
High school. That’s what I think of when I think about Racine’s City Hall. They act like they’re still in high school. The cliques, the insecure egos striving for attention, the game-playing and role-playing, the bullying, the brown-nosing, the putting on of airs, the constant jockeying for position in the pecking order, all that childish crap I thought I left behind decades ago is alive and well in Racine’s City Hall. Indeed, a lot of them are high school pals. It’s just sad and it shames me
OrbsCorbs
01/29/2012 at 7:30 pm
block helding from the website. he just seems to come here to dig up dirt.
he’s a crook just like all those other good ole boys
jas
01/29/2012 at 7:38 pm
Hopefully I don’t lose my woowoo alerts because of this. I am soooo close to having dreads. I wonder if he wants them all to himself.
J.Spam
01/29/2012 at 8:56 pm
Just don’t sue him for calling the terms used here as racist. We don’t need anymore legal bills from the city. By the way why is it he is the only one that construes these terms as racist? Hmmm
J.Spam
01/29/2012 at 9:05 pm
By the way, I don’t like blue people!
J.Spam
01/29/2012 at 9:46 pm
If there is anything I have learned in life, Is those that accuse others of various things are usually the ones that commit them in a most decisive manor. Just catch them in a non public setting and there real feelings are let out.
papabear
01/30/2012 at 6:12 am
Thanks Ald Helding for speaking up..It’s good to hear from you on issues. We have disagreed before..and worked together on things we agree on. Bashing him or any other Alderman or Mayor who comes on a local blog to respond will only discourage them for engaging us. If you want to change, grow, shrink, or otherwise alter policy you have to either work those who hold the offices, or elect alternatives. At The moment Ald. Helding is in seat where he can really drive and improve the taxpayers situation, and he’s not afraid to make bold moves. We should have allowed Act 10 savings to go into place..and reminding the Mayor and Alderman responsible for that decision is valid. The Mayor blaming Scott Walker is not valid. but in either case we have 1.5 years left on the contracts and we have to make the best with what we can. Maybe we shouldn’t have installed as many lights originally, and we are correcting the problem.. The folks who live there can buy light bulbs for their porches, and some could buy yard post lights as well. Why does everyone think someone else should pay for their lighting? WE-energies owns the lights and is collecting them for reuse. If the folks on Jerome wanna pass the hat around and buy one back from WE i’d have no problem with that!
Downtown Brown
02/06/2012 at 7:08 pm
I have a problem when he tries to put race into a streetlight problem and then talking about another aldermen when so far Mike is the only one I see doing anything. I told Greg the exact same thing. Now would be a good time for him to be a leader and work on solutions for these problems.
racineuncovered
02/06/2012 at 7:38 pm