The Whitewater Common Council proposed yet another increased fine this Tuesday in effort to save protect city landmarks that have been defiled in a slew vandalism.

Councilman and Landmarks Commission representative, Jimmy Schulgit, is the man responsible for bringing this proposed ordinance to the council. He proposed this ordinance in lew of the council’s Sep. 4 meeting that proposed harsher fines for numerous criminal activities, including damage to property.

The 24 landmarks in Whitewater include both publicly and privately owned properties with the city owning nearly half of them.

The nature of the ordinance and the lexicon used during the meeting targeted drunken bar-goers to be the likely perpetrators. This came at a bit of a surprise as Schulgit himself is a student at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

The heart of the discussion centered around the severity of fines in accordance to two main points

• Is the landmark publicly owned?
• Is the landmark signed as one?

“When people are in a state where they’re looking to commit vandalism, they are not looking for a landmark sign,” Schulgit told the council.

Those opposing the proposed ordinance, most notably Councilwoman Stephanie G. Vander Pas, noted that the ambiguity of the fines in relation to landmark signage and who owns them as reasons for such opposition.

The visible rift between parties on the issue made the council attempt to change the verbiage of the ordinance, but ultimately decided to table it along with the other proposed hikes in fines from the Sep. 4 meeting. The council stated that this and the other fines needed to be part of a larger discussion for a later date.

Proposed 2019 city budget

In other business, City Manager Cameron Clapper gave the first look at the proposed budget for 2019 that calls for spending roughly $350,00 more next year than in 2018.

While the budget proposal is still subject to change the Common Council is estimating spending $9,658.650 in 2019 in comparison to $9,314,148 in 2018.

Slightly less than half (48%) of the estimated general fund budget is expected to come from intergovernmental revenue, with the majority of that money coming from the state. Additionally, about 41% of revenue will come from property taxes within the city with the remaining revenue coming from fees and fines.

The largest chunk of the city’s proposed expenditures will go to public safety, which includes the salaries of police officers and the fire department, which is nothing out of the ordinary. However, this number is envisioned to go up by roughly $300,000 in accord to 2018.

The city has many major projects to tackle in 2019 with the given budget but the Finance Committee was able to narrow four of them as “core issues,” Clapper said.

These core issues include the Milwaukee Street reconstruction, the Old Mill Dam repairs, the self-contained breathing apparatus and the Ann Street water main replacement.

Beyond the core issues, other main points of spending in the upcoming budget included expanding the public library, exploration and initiation of lake rehabilitation, improving and expanding housing options and attracting a grocery store to the city.

The Finance Committee will meet for multiple meetings on Thursday nights on Oct. 4, 11 and 18 to review, change and develop the budget further. Following these meetings, the complete budget will be brought in front of the Common Council on Nov. 8. Following this meeting the vote for approval is scheduled for Nov. 20.

In other action, the Common Council touched on other, more minor issues

• The council voted unanimously to OK the replacement of the faulty roof in the wastewater treatment facility
• The council had a proclamation for CROP Walk, a program that for decades has raised money and food for hungry children in Whitewater and abroad.
• The council voted to ban the sale and possession of electronic smoking devices to minors.
• The council voted unanimously ban parking on W Church Street.
• The council gave updates on the Franklin Street construction stating that the curbs and gutters have been installed.