I have some things I added to your list. But yeah, and we asked people to send in their
questions. Let me see if anybody sent it in yet. Ooh, I think we have some. Let me just
check here. Yep, we got some. All right. Anyway, let's do with the three new alders entering the
yeah, including one that I think lives two blocks from here on victory Avenue. Yeah, and I believe
that's older to mark. Yeah, he lives right here. Yeah, absolutely. He works for the school district
right in front of the orange barrels. Yeah. Go ahead. So yeah, um, so our awkward to mark is a
new alder, Allison Weiss is a new alder and Brittany Hodges is a new alder. All three of them
beat incumbents. Um, so it was, uh, bookseptomorph was something coming. Um, all three of them beat
incumbent. Oh, beat incumbent. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, no, no worries. Power went out. And then
and there were two incumbents who ran again, and they both, um, well, are three incumbents who ran
again, though, they'll all return and David Mack and Sam Pete and oh, flickering and Marlowe
Harmon for returning to the council. Sorry, can't tell over the radio, but lights are flickering
here in the studio. So I think it's because the generator went off. All right. Let's hope that
keeps us going. Big one on real power now. I don't know. But congratulations to those new alders and,
um, look forward to serving with them. Congratulations to the returning alders who won their election,
and so it would be good to serve them. So how much time does it actually take out of your life
to be an alder? It's not a full time job. It's not a full time job, but it is, I mean, I think
they could pay like $6,000 a year. It's a, if you actually broke it down by the hours they put
on and gave them an hourly wage, I think it would be like less than a dollar an hour. So they all
serve on radio. Yeah. Right. They all serve on two or three, you know, committees. And so,
you know, council meets twice a month, but then the committees meet three or four times a month
that they're on. So that's just sort of the night meetings that you have to go to. But then there's
a constituent calls that you get or the projects that you might want to work on. Like I'm working with
Walgreens Mac right now on putting in a new playground at Lakeview Park. Yes. We talked about it. He was
in here yesterday. Yeah. It's a project that he's excited about and taking on. And so, you know,
that's in his initiative working with with me and our administration to make that happen.
He doesn't have to do that, but it's something he cares about in his neighborhood. So he's putting
time into it, right? So, you know, if all there's wanted to, they could spend 40 hours a week on
and that work. Most of them have jobs and other things going on that make it difficult. But they
all put the time in. I mean, it's a lot of work. And then, you know, there's constituents who call
and say, what about this? What about this? We get calling. They'll catch you in the supermarkt
and grab you and say, Hey, come and come here. I gotta tell you about a pothole. I got in front of my
house. Absolutely. My neighbor is no easy. And, you know, it's that kind of stuff. And so,
I wouldn't want that. I just, I just couldn't deal with that. People drive and be and say, Hey,
why didn't you fix this? It's a public facing position. There's no doubt about it. Yeah. But yeah,
so that's that is the gig. And so, you know, they have to learn the budget process and how that
all comes into play this fall. But it's a good, it's a great way to keep serving community, though.
So it's great to have the returning elders come back and we're excited to welcome the new ones
that will begin serving. So that begins a new and they were sworn in just last Tuesday. Yeah.
So, so David Mac posted the pictures online. No more may. Yeah. Now, my wife is big on this. Yeah,
I just got a brand new lawnmower the other day. I still can't test it out because it's raining.
Right. And there's a patch in our backyard with tons of those little things on the lawn,
the bees love. I figured what they call them, but they love them. Yeah. So we mow around that. Yeah.
And we leave it for them in the backyard front yard. They'll have to go to the backyard. They're
not leaving in the front yard in the backyard. And I see the bees there all the time. So we leave it
and as May goes on, we get to a little bit smaller. Sure. Then June comes. It's gone. Yeah. But
it's important for the bees. It is. So people don't realize I didn't realize this sort of
came to my attention that you need bees and butterflies and what are called the pollinators
to make our food, right? It's a really important thing. And with the changing environment that's
out there, there's fever and fewer spaces to do that. So there's been a move of foot
across many cities in this country, including ours, to do something called no momei,
which is basically like, hey, if you didn't mow your lawn in May, it would let those other
plants that pollinators need an opportunity to pollinate those plants and survive and thrive.
So we look to do that. The challenges we also have people who have abandoned properties and tall
weeds and grass who don't keep up with their properties. And under the ordinance, once your lawn
gets more than four inches long, you get a ticket for noncompliance with keeping the yard up.
So for the month of May, the way it works, you go down to City Hall, you fill out a form,
we give you a free yard sign that you can plop in the front yard there and you won't get ticketed
for the month of May to be able to do that. It's a great education opportunity with kids about
pollinators and what's going on. But Don, you said something that's sort of interesting too.
And a couple of people learned this the first year they did no momei. We've had a really wet
spring, right? So if you don't mow at all until June 1st, you might find yourself with more
than your lawn mower can handle. So if people want to do it for two weeks or in your case,
do part of the yard and not all of the yard, there's still benefits to be had after those pollinators
to be able to do that. But if you want your yard to get longer than four inches and don't want to
be identified as an identified or as a blight of property, the way to do that is come down to City Hall,
get one of those yard signs, let people in City Hall know, hey, this is a no momei yard and you
plop the yard sign right in the front yard, no charge for it. It's just a way for us to create space
for those pollinators and it helps out with the stormwater utility as well. And you have to do
what the honeybees need this kind of stuff. You do. You do. This is how the circle of life is.
Again, bees don't just make honey, right? They pollinate all the way to the food to be able to do
that. So if we don't have pollinators, it actually has a pretty severe impact on the food supply
here in the country. So it seems like a small thing, but it's a way to act locally but still have a
big impact across the country. And before people, they didn't have to worry about it. That's right.
They just went ahead and I noticed the bees right now sitting in my porch yesterday with my
neighbor and the bees around already. Yeah. And I felt like they got back yard back yard.
There's plenty back there. There's nothing for you here on the porch. Nothing. So that's good.
No momei. And again, you don't have to do the whole back here. Just a circle. Leave something
back there. That's pretty good. And you don't have to do that for the whole month of May too.
If you want to do it for two weeks or three years, get to a place where it's like, oh my gosh,
the rest is getting really long. I think this, you know, you can cut it early. I think some people
are like, if they do it, that means they're not allowed to cut for the whole month of May.
Like if you want to do it for, you know, a certain period of time to tell, you know,
you think you're long working handle it, that's fine too. We just want to give people this base
to do that. And again, it's a great education, an opportunity to talk about pollinators and
and for people to participate in a really positive program. Before I go, I knew Longmore the other day.
I was thinking of black topping the entire backyard in front yard. I didn't have to worry about it.
Do what they do in Arizona. They just put gravel in the front yard. We're talking to
Racine Mayor Corey Mason. And we got some questions from some listeners. Let's see what they say
here. Sure. Talking about No more May as we were. Somebody said, Mo April, but not May,
thought there was a $25 fee. And so when we first launched it, there was a fee associated with it.
We dropped the fee. We just really want to encourage people to participate in it. It's pretty
nominal to print the signs and alert the enforcement division, not to enforce when they've got the
list to do that. So there is no fee if people want to participate. It's a really good question.
The first year there was, but we've found a way with a source of funds to pay for it without
having to charge residents of fees. So if you want to participate in it, you do need to sign up.
I mean, do you need to go get that yard sign down at City Hall in the clerk's office,
but there's no fee to participate. Okay. Good for the mayor. What is going on with the building
sign? Racine Street and 16th Street. The buildings are on both sides of 6th Street right on
the root river. Thank you from Pat. You know what the question is? Racine Street and 16th Street.
It says on Racine Street and 6th Street. And 6th Street. Oh, yeah. So those are in tax foreclosure
right now. There's a proposal for the city has voted to acquire those properties from the county.
And it's in the county boards court right now. We're hoping they will facilitate the transfer
of that land to the city for redevelopment at some point, but it's the old, you know,
it was once a Western publishing building. Then it was the real school for a time. Then it was
gospel lighthouse. There was a developer that was supposed to do something with it when Foxconn
was here. And then it fell into disrepair. And it's the building. If you go over the bridge,
there's big empty windows there there. And buildings probably going to need to be demolished.
We would do it, but it's an important redevelopment corridor right there on the river. So we're
hoping to have a successful partnership with the county in that regard. Anything going on with
the why? The why I'm sure you're building the lake have any why's like several why sites in the
downtown. Yeah, I know. But yeah, we're trying to mass out like what it would how much
development you could do on that space. And so we're hoping to have a request for qualified
proposals later this summer on what it would look like. We're still looking at the the grade and
the slope and gets a little bit tricky when you get close to the lakefront. So we got to make
sure we've got everything figured out with the DNR before we post it, but it's an exciting site.
It's an exciting site. Drive in movie theater. I mean, you know, it'll be greater. It was still
dig though. Yeah, I mean, it's sort of a, you know, when our kids were really little, we took them
to the one that was still down in Kenosha. I had the biggest one by me. Yeah, you told about the
keynote drive. Yeah, yeah, I've been down keynote and it's long gone, right? I mean, I sort of feel
like, wow, that was sort of a bygone thing. We got to share with the kids while I was still there.
The drive in movie theater by me was called the Johnny Old Weather. This is New York. I'm long
and it had room for 2,500 cars was the biggest in America at the time. They had an indoor theater
in the center of the driving with over 1,500 seats. So if it rained, you'd know inside. The picture
inside was always shown 25 minutes after the outdoor movie. So it gave you time to get in smart
and you wouldn't miss a scene smart. And they also had a rooftop theater on top of the indoor
theater. You can sit on the roof. They had about two 300 seats up there so you can just sit there
under the stars and watch the movie on the big drive and screen. Wow, that's amazing. Yeah,
they don't they don't make them like that anymore. They don't make them at all now. People just
look at their phones, right? I couldn't even drive through it. Just look at it on my phone.
Isn't that sad? I still love the movies and theaters. Okay, let's talk about the
some pump problem, some pump program. So if you've particularly if you've experienced some flooding
in the last, we have a lot of houses that have floor drains that go right into the sanitary system
and then overwhelm the wastewater facility. There's something called infiltration and inflow.
It's a fancy engineer term. But the bottom line is we need to get that out of that system. And so
we have to get our wastewater utility into better compliance with reducing infiltration and
inflow. And it turns out at the one of the best ways and most cost effective way to do that is
to install a some pump into people's basement. So if you've been experiencing flooding in your
basement and you don't have a some pump and you think that would be helpful, we have a grant
program. So it's free of charge to city residents if they want to participate in that. If they're
interested, they can call the city clerk's office or the department of customer service and we'd
be happy to walk you through the application process and get you a some pump installed in your
basement free of charge. And it really helps keep pollution not a lake Michigan at the same time.
So it helps prevent flooding in the basements and improves water quality for Lake Michigan.
Well, then we're out here. We had such a heavy rain one day. The interstate was under water,
right? 43 and there were cars below the water. And you see the bubbling up a boiling gas.
And my house in the neighbor was the lowest house. So, of course, the water pool. So my
some pump on that morning couldn't keep up with it. Sure. The water was coming into the basement.
I ran out the binards. As soon as they opened at seven o'clock, I ran right to the some pump area,
beat everywhere because I knew where it was. Right. I got another some pump ran home, stuck it
in the hole with the other one, ran the cable, ran the hose out. I said to my daughter, bring it
out to the street. Yeah. Yeah. And I just cut the window, the screen on the window. Yeah. And
that it's scary when it's coming in and you can do it. And I had two some pumps running. That's
great. You barely keep up with it. That's great. Yeah. But some people have most houses in
Racine have no some pump. And so again, it's a great way to keep that that basement flooding out
of the wastewater system helps protect Lake Michigan and helps keep your basement dry. So,
again, it's a it's part of the utility fees that you already pay. So if that's something that's
of interest to people and you live in the city of Racine and you like to have an opportunity
that we'd be happy to help you out with that. Let's talk about the elections. We're always hearing
they're rigged. They're not safe. Are they safe in Racine? They are. They are. They are free
and fair. You know, Clark's office does a really good job of making sure that we do it. And,
you know, we do allow poll observers to come in and watch it. We often get people who come in
from out of town or from out of state who will, you know, they've heard that there's all these
things that miss happening and they they go into the the poll areas and they watch it and, you know,
a lot of them walk away and say that there's nothing going on here. They're just they're just
coming to the ballot. There's nothing on towards here. I think that there is a dangerous thing
that's happening in our democracy right now where people don't like how, you know, if your team
didn't win, there's this belief that well, it must have been rigged or something must have gone
to miss. It was a, you know, we're celebrating America's 250th birthday with the longest existing
constitutional democracy in the world right now. The way democracies flourish is you have to accept
the results of the people's decision, right? And sometimes it doesn't go your way.
But for democracy to persist and for us to believe in the rule of law and democracy,
you have to sometimes accept that sometimes my preferred candidate wins and sometimes they don't.
And so it's really important to accept the results of that and not buy into this must have been
rigged sort of thing. It's really important that people participate in their democracy and one
of the things that we hope to do in this, you know, 250th year is to to re-inspire people who
to participate in that way. But part of that is by assuring them that it is free and it is fair
and your vote will count and that nothing's being rigged and, you know, there's not
anything going on. You know, we just had a trial a couple weeks ago, this hairy wait trial who'd
stolen my ballot a couple years ago. I mean, he's convicted of doing it because he was so convinced
that there was election conspiracy happening to prove his point. He stole my ballot and Robin
Voss's ballot to prove that he could. And, you know, the jury found him guilty. He's like,
look, you can't do that. And, you know, you, you thinking there's a conspiracy somewhere else
isn't validated by you committing the very crime that you imagine is happening in some other places.
So it's really important that we take a deep breath in our democracy and like, look, I know it can
get competitive and it's a really divided time in American politics right now. But if you love
America and you love democracy, part of it is acknowledging that when voters choose somebody else,
you have to accept that and know that it's not forever. There's always another election coming up,
you know, the next year or two years. Not in North Korea. That's right. That's right. It's not
Russia. Yeah. So it's a really important question. And I think the caller, the the emailer for asking
the question, but they are freed. They are fair. And people need to participate.
Spate. Now, the listener question, festival parks contracts have not been renewed. What is the
city's intention here? Yeah, we're still ongoing there. So we're excited to see the activity that's
going on there. But I know the attorney's office and the city administration's office are
working with them now and we're hoping to have a resolution. Do it soon. Is that 5K events?
All right. And finally, this is mine. Okay. The roads. The roads. Could you be more specific?
The condition of the roads. Okay. There are potholes everywhere. And it's not just potholes.
Even on Main Street, I'm going down by downtown and there's like many craters. And when you hit
them head on, boom, you're going to bust a tire and axle or something. Now, I noticed on Main Street
from going to South Main Street from downtown, they're patch cold patching it all. Right.
Right. And I hope they continue to do that. They will. So just to give people a sense of where we
are and why it might seem particularly pothole written in right now, you may recall we had a lot
of snow this year and a lot of salt. So oftentimes when potholes happen is when you're doing a lot
of that snowplowing on ice, that's when some of that pavement will pop up. So as we melt
and get out of snow season, spring is the time when you fill those potholes. But if you have
specific ones that you think people should know about, please call our department of customer
service and make us aware of it. I know the crews are going out right now. Like you mentioned,
they're doing South Main Street now. I know they're out there filling those holes in wherever
they can. So, but sometimes we don't know about them. So if people have one they're particularly
concerned about, please give City Hall a call so we know. You know, it really feels good when you
hit a stretch of really nice road when you're traveling. And there's one on North Main Street.
It's I think it's north of the bridge, but it's like a two or three block area. It's just
it's brand new. It's like fresh road. Yeah, I love traveling. Well, just north of the zoo to
Melvin. And that's that's brand new in that section too. So yeah, you get that brand new spice.
It's like, ah.
It's been bubble. Well, you know, you need these roads to last for 20 to 25 years. Now it's the
first year they're in better shape than the second year. But you know, I'll tell you about
our engineering department. They score every road on a scale of one to 100 and then once it gets
below a certain score. That's when we know it's time to reconstruct the road. But we try to extend
the life of those roads by doing the pothole patches and filling the seals wherever we can.
And it's a better investment for taxpayers. And, ah, but it's it's always a challenge to keep
ahead of it, especially if you're coming off a winter with a lot of snow and ice. So the state
street bridge was up the other day. Yes. Because I had a way to add it. So it's working again or
yeah. So that's the bridge there will need. So Wisconsin DOT has come in and said, look,
the bridge needs some repairs, some structural repairs. So in the years ahead,
they're doing the planning for it now. But in 2027, 2028, there's some repairs that they're
going to need to do the bridge structurally to make sure it can handle the way when people cross.
Which why don't you make sure I lost weight. So I'm a lot less 35 pounds. I'm doing my
work. You're perfect. You're safe. Thank you mayor for now, man. Glad to be here. And we're
off to the state of the schools address that the superintendent's giving for RUSD. You just want
to give a shout out to receive unified schools and all the work that they're doing. As I've said
many times, the strength of our city is tied to the strength of our public schools. And so I'm
excited to hear what superintendent Gaiski is going to tell us this morning. Very good. Thank
you mayor. Thank you for seeing Mayor Corey Mason in every month. We'll talk to you next month
again. Looking forward to it.
