Wise words

From Freeman's Pete Kennedy:



"As the mayor, Lombardi used to tell aldermen, “We can agree to disagree, we can debate. We will have a vote and we will leave these council chambers respecting each other.

“That all has fallen apart.”

Now other things might start falling apart. Attracting businesses and development is hard enough during booms. The economy isn’t booming, and this water thing doesn’t make us look too hot.

“People bumping heads is not attractive,” Lombardi said.

So now what?

Pursue the Lake Michigan water, Lombardi said. She has no doubt it is the best option, and that tapping the lake will become more urgent as the federal government enacts even more stringent water rules.

“We have to have an additional source as we get into the future,” Lombardi said. “Why would we not want to get this process started to see if Lake Michigan will even be an approved source?”


Mayor Scrima, are you listening?


"So what should happen? Scrima should listen to the experts who investigated this matter, starting in about 1985 or 1990, Lombardi said.

One of those experts is the much maligned Dan Duchniak, general manager of the Waukesha Water Utility. Duchniak is smart, competent and professional, Lombardi said.

“Dan has great respect in his water profession,” Lombardi said. “Waukesha is extremely fortunate to have him here. It boggles my mind when we have an educated professional making that recommendation” and Scrima won’t listen, she said.

Duchniak wasn’t hired to blindly pursue Lake Michigan water, Lombardi said. Members of the Waukesha Water Utility Commission and aldermen had never predetermined that Lake Michigan water was the way to go, either. Instead, they pursued a variety of options and dismissed them one by one based on much study. Eventually, Lake Michigan water stood alone.

And now, years later, many of these same “ideas” have resurfaced. If pursued, they’ll eventually be dismissed again, though a lot of precious time will have been wasted along the way. "