Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 71. Sunrise is 5:19 and sunset 8:25 for 15h 06m 45s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 51.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1860, two cars were drawn over the line known as the “River & Lake Shore Street Railway for the first time.” Four horses pulled the cars. The car track was laid in early May from East Water Street, north to Division Street. George H. Walker, Lemuel W. Weeks, Col. W.S. Johnson, and F.S. Blodgett were prominent among the builders of this street railway. A company was organized to sell $50,000 in stock subscriptions to pay for the service.

On this day in 1922, the Lincoln Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C..

Readers will recall a story from early May about how the Mount Pleasant village president dumped waste from a private pond on public land to avoid cost. See Another Fine Public Servant (Mount Pleasant Edition). There’s an update from Mount Pleasant, as a resident of that village has now filed an ethics complaint against village president over pond muck dumping:

A Mount Pleasant resident has filed a complaint with the Wisconsin Ethics Commission against Village President Dave DeGroot over the dumping of muck from his neighborhood pond on a village-owned property. 

….

Last fall, residents began seeing trucks dumping “black sludge” into the park. One neighbor, Kevin Rannow, followed the trucks back to their source, a pond in DeGroot’s subdivision, and traced a posted Department of Natural Resources permit to the village president. 

DeGroot and the homeowners’ association in his neighborhood have been working to “revitalize” the pond near their homes and acquired the DNR permit to fill a small bit of wetland. The approval from the DNR notes that the homeowners association is “responsible for obtaining any other permit or approval that may be required before starting your project. These include but are limited to local zoning ordinances, shoreland zoning, floodplain zoning, DNR construction site stormwater (for land disturbances greater than an acre), and requirements by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.” 

The contractor hired to complete the project began hauling the waste from the pond to the village property. The pond waste includes a small amount of harmful chemicals, including DDE — a substance that is formed when the banned pesticide DDT breaks down in the environment. 

Village staff learned about the dumping and issued a cease and desist order against the contractor. The contractor appealed the decision to the village’s zoning board of appeals, which consists entirely of members appointed by DeGroot. At an appeal hearing, with no input allowed from the public, DeGroot testified in favor of overturning the decision to block the dumping. 

This ilk uses government preferentially & selfishly as a personal tool to advance their interests. They are proud private men when that status suits them but willing manipulators of public institutions when that status profits them.

Gas leak blows out first floor of Ohio building:

Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be rainy in the morning, partly sunny in the afternoon, with a high of 72. Sunrise is 5:39 and sunset 8:03 for 14h 24m 10s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 0.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Common Council meets at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1864, the Army of the Potomac, under General Ulysses S. Grant, breaks off from the Battle of the Wilderness and continues south, presenting a threat to Lee’s army and the Confederate capital city of Richmond.

Henry Redman reports Mount Pleasant village president dumps waste from private pond on public land to avoid cost:

The village president of Mount Pleasant is facing public criticism for using a village-owned property slated to become a public  park as a dumping ground for the waste created by his homeowners association’s dredging of a pond in his neighborhood.

Residents who live near the property say the president, Dave DeGroot, has used his position to skirt permitting rules for dumping and to help him and his neighbors avoid a hefty price tag to haul the waste elsewhere. 

….

Neighbors of the village property say that if they had tons of muck to dispose of, they wouldn’t have the ability to dump it all on village-owned land. 

“Clearly it’s a cost factor,” Kathy Deverney, who also lives near the property, tells the Examiner. “Mr. DeGroot said, ‘Hey I know where we can dump it.’ If in fact they didn’t pay anything, can any association that has a pond that needs to be dredged can get a permit and go dump it on that land for free? Yeah, that’s irritating. He clearly took advantage of the system, undermined the people who work for him.” 

How many times, in towns across Wisconsin, has one heard repulsive self-dealers declare themselves public servants? How many times, in towns across Wisconsin, has one heard repulsive self-dealers reward themselves with participation trophies for their service (as though they were soldiers)? A better description: old-timers disclaiming conflicts of interest while advancing conflicted interests.

Whitewater has had, and still has, a few men like this.

From World Cats Black:

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