Mid-September came on quickly, as did the common council meeting, hosted on Tuesday Sept. 19, which was held at the Whitewater Municipal Building. This meeting was to discuss future plans for the city, obligations with police funding and plans to start a boat tour on Lake Cravath. The community of Whitewater has a large foundation due to the large space of the town, therefore these meetings are not only lengthy, but also are necessary twice a month, each month. 

To begin their discussion, City Manager John Weidl stated that the city of Whitewater needs to replace their decorative street lights due to a traffic signal being knocked over. Of these signs that were discussed, they decided that this will include no parking signs and working on zoning signs. Along with their housekeeping details, plans also went through with PARC were met and reviewed with their plans on building a Dollar Tree in Whitewater. This Dollar Tree will be available in the coming months; and will be placed near the KwikTrip.

“Three conditional use permits are being issued. Fraternity house at 1036 W Main St, an auto repair shop at 648 S. Janesville St and a first floor residential at 885 S. Janesville St,” said Weidl, on the orders of businesses that have come in recently, these are all within the same area, therefore would need to be decided on together. In addition, council members were also issued on the Bird scooter rates and data bases. Birds are used on UW-Whitewater’s campus for students to get to and from class faster. There are problems with the Birds. They need to charge, and are always left everywhere within the one mile radius of the campus. 

“As of Sept. 19, there were over 20,462 Bird riders,” Caitlin Goodspeed, senior accountant, said at the meeting.

This is not only the campus of Whitewater, but also other citizens. They decided that these will run until midnight, and will be put away in November. This is not only for the resources used, but also because of safety reasons as temperatures drop. She has also worked with all the school districts in Whitewater to provide how to be safe on a Bird and encourages riders how to put it away properly. 

Chief Meyers spoke to the common council about the importance of unobligated times for officers and showed members data points and solutions. First he spoke about the mutual Aid request data which consists of how much the police station is requesting assistance from another law enforcement agency.

“On average, mutual aid request data shows about 252.8 times, and in 2022, it rose to 342 and 2023, on pace at 342,” said Meyers, on the data that was provided. His two solutions to these problems are leverage technology, which includes propio, drones and automated license plates to increase efficiency. The other one is to increase staffing for less police burnouts. 

At the end of the meeting, Michelle Dejuardin GE of control on the lakes explained two goals. One was how she wants to increase the population of Whitewater’s lakes and chemical treatment in the waters. By increasing people to go to lakes, she told the members that there should be lake tours for the public. There will be two boats at this time and will start at Cravath. 

“It was kind of evident that it was important to get a little bit more education out there. It will also get people out on the water as well,” said Michelle on this topic. For chemical treatments, they contacted a drone company to help, more information will be at the next meeting. 

The next common council meeting will be on Oct. 2 at 312 W. Whitewater St. vimeo.com this is the link to the meeting, and to find out more information, visit whitewater-wi.gov.