Post 10 in a series. Trane Presents an Energy-Savings Contract from John Adams on Vimeo. Recap: On 11.5.13, city officials in Whitewater met privately with three construction or engineering vendors (Trane, Black & Veatch, Donohue) and at least one major waste-hauler to discuss importing waste from other cities into Whitewater for a digester energy project.…
City
City, Government Spending, Health, Open Government, WGTB, WHEN GREEN TURNS BROWN
Whitewater’s Common Council Votes to Fund a Vendor Study
by JOHN ADAMS •
Post 9 in a series. Whitewater’s Common Council Votes to Fund a Vendor Study from John Adams on Vimeo. In this post, I’ll look at the Council’s decision to pay Trane at least $70,000, and up to approximately $150,000, so that Trane could fund its own feasibility study of a digester energy project for Whitewater.…
Blogging, City, Local Government, Politics
Measuring the Strength of a Position
by JOHN ADAMS •
A good way to measure the strength of a position (considering its quality of being strong, its merit, and its desirability) is to ask: would one trade that position for another one? If the answer is that one would trade, then there’s something better in an alternative by way of greater heft, reason, or enjoyability. …
Business, City, Government Spending, Health, Local Government, Marketing, Planning, WGTB, WHEN GREEN TURNS BROWN
First Vendor Presentation of 1.21.14 to Whitewater’s Common Council
by JOHN ADAMS •
Post 8 in a series. First Vendor Presentation of 1.21.14 to Whitewater Common Council from John Adams on Vimeo. In this post, I’ll look at the first vendor presentation on the digester proposal to Whitewater’s Common Council. (Every question in this series has a unique number, assigned chronologically based on when it was asked. All…
Business, City, Government Spending, Health, Local Government, Waste Digesters, WGTB, WHEN GREEN TURNS BROWN
Fifteen Months Later, at the School Board
by JOHN ADAMS •
Post 7 in a series. 3.16.15 Wastewater & Waste Importation Presentation to Whitewater Unified School District from John Adams on Vimeo. Jump ahead almost fifteen months, from 12.3.13 to 3.16.15, and City Manager Clapper and Wastewater Superintendent Reel are at the Whitewater Unified School District. Months later, and millions in spending requests, but still lots…
City, Health, Waste Digesters, WGTB, WHEN GREEN TURNS BROWN
Question Bin
by JOHN ADAMS •
Post 6 in a series. A list of questions, updated as new ones arise, from When Green Turns Brown. Find this post, and you’ll have found all the questions from the entire series as they’re added . (Every question in this series has a unique number, assigned consecutively based on when it was asked. All…
City, Health, Local Government, Waste Digesters, WGTB, WHEN GREEN TURNS BROWN
Parsing a Presentation (12.3.13)
by JOHN ADAMS •
Post 5 in a series. What happens when one looks closely, line by line, and sentence by sentence, at a municipal presentation? Last week, I gave an overview of a 12.3.13 presentation on a plan to use Whitewater’s digester to import waste from other cities into Whitewater. Today, I’ll go through that presentation closely, and…
City, Corporate Welfare, Economy, Free Markets, Government Spending, Local Government, Marketing, Poverty, University, WEDC, Wisconsin
Wisconsin on Pace for Most Layoff Notifications Since WEDC Created
by JOHN ADAMS •
WKOW 27: Madison, WI Breaking News, Weather and Sports Now I thought, as it’s what I have heard again, again, and again, that the WEDC was the Laser-Focused Semi-Private Job Creator of Wisconsin™. How odd, then, to read that since the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation’s inception, Wisconsin is on pace for more job layoffs than…
City, Government Spending, Health, Waste Digesters, WGTB, WHEN GREEN TURNS BROWN
Looking at the 12.3.13 Digester Presentation
by JOHN ADAMS •
Post 4 in a series. 12.3.13 Whitewater WI Common Council Digester Importation Discussion from John Adams on Vimeo. I promised last week a look at the December 3, 2013 digester presentation, from Whitewater’s Wastewater Superintendent Tim Reel, and City Manager Cameron Clapper. In that presentation (not so long ago, only about a year-and a-half) and…
City, Culture, Local Government, School District, University
The Last Inside Accounts
by JOHN ADAMS •
America has a continent, Wisconsin a vast expanse, and Whitewater nine beautiful square miles. For Whitewater’s waning top-tier notables, however, there’s no more area than an arm’s length among a few dozen men and women. When even one of them steps aside for the bathroom, the remaining universe for the others shrinks by a percent…
City, Government Spending, Local Government, Marketing, School District
Kidney-Selling as a Threat to the City’s Future
by JOHN ADAMS •
In a city where some have had an unfortunate tendency to favor marketing over actual accomplishments, and where ‘Whitewater Advocacy’ often amounts to the laughable exaggerations of a few insiders, loss of funding poses a double risk. First, communities across the state have to make do with less, and Whitewater (with a public campus) will…
Beautiful Whitewater, City, New Whitewater
So What Do You Think of Whitewater?
by JOHN ADAMS •
People, including some from far from our city, often ask me what I think of Whitewater. I think Whitewater is beautiful, and that despite present challenges she has a bright future. Sometimes people say they might like a warmer place in winter, or a bigger place all year. They say this sincerely, and their wishes…
City, Marketing, Press
The Meaning of Whitewater’s Not-Always-Mentioned Demographics
by JOHN ADAMS •
Our signs say that Whitewater, the city proper, has a population of around fifteen thousand. We do. What they don’t say, and what we know but don’t always mention, is that a significant portion of that population is attending the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. So much, when looking at data from the ACS Demographic and Housing…
City, Elections, Local Government, School District
The April 7th Election Results
by JOHN ADAMS •
A quick summary of results across the state and near Whitewater suggests that while voters may be concerned, or even worried, they’re not angry. If voters were angry, more incumbents would have been defeated. That didn’t happen. The same state that re-elected Gov. Walker last year re-elected Justice Bradley last night. Those two have little…