The Brookfield Scene

Andrew Smerz, fire chief, recently discussed the Town of Brookfield's fire department.  It provides emergency services for town residents 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  Five people are on duty at all times.  Three people serve on the fire engine and two firefighter paramedics provide emergency medical services.

The vast majority of calls (85%) are for Emergency Medical Services which range in scope from car accidents to cardiac or respiratory events.  Although the town's population is only slightly older than the city's, many calls are from the town's senior apartments, assisted living and long-term care facilities.

Other fire department responses are for alarms sounding, structure fires or mutual aid requests.  (In the first five months of 2008, the town had three structure fires.)  Local fire departments provide mutual aid - that is, provide manpower and equipment in large events.  Recent examples include the town's Silver Spur Restaurant fire and a fire in Genesee.  During the fire in Genesee, the town's firefighters staffed the Town of Waukesha's firehouse.

Smerz described his department as having a very good relationship with the city's fire department and that they work cooperatively together. The town and city, New Berlin, Pewaukee and City of Waukesha all provide mutual aid to one another when needed.

All 911 calls are handled by the Waukesha County Communications Dispatch center.  Although the town has only about 6,000 residents, the town's footprint spans from Greenfield Avenue to Lisbon.   These form eight geographic zones for dispatch purposes.  Smerz has been pleased with the central dispatch.

On June 12^th, the town took its water tower to Pleasant Hill School.  On Friday, the town's fire engines will be in the 4^th of July Parade at Marx Park. And, there will be an Open House on October 5 during Fire Prevention Week.  This hands-on event includes a tour of the fire department, the apparatus and equipment, and firefighters will show how they remove (extricate) someone from an automobile involved in a collision. What else? The Flight for Life helicopter will be landing at the town's fire department and provide tours of the helicopter.

Smerz recommends that a person who ‘feels something is physically wrong' should call 911.  "You are not inconveniencing anyone.  We are here - and ready - all the time."

You have a chance to visit some beautiful ones on Thursday, July 17.  The full-day tours are being sponsored by Master Gardeners of Southeast Wisconsin.  You can choose from one of six tours of gardens rarely accessible to the public.  

Choose from one:

Lake Country Inspiration

Visit estate gardens and learn from their designer.

High Ho, West of Town We Go

Enjoy eighteen theme gardens on a 20-acre estate and visit the gardens of noted botanists.

Surprises A'Waiting

Learn how mini-habitats can be created and how art can be integrated into the garden.

What's Your Pleasure...Large or Small?  Native or Non?  Shade or Sun Loving?

Visit gardens of contrasting sizes and plant choices.  

Old Fashioned Gardens, New Fashioned Plants

Savor the diversity that gardeners can create.

Architecture Plus Gardens

Visit the ‘Wingspread' estate designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and a three-acre woodland garden.

Space is limited.  Make your reservation by July 7, 2008.  All tours depart from the Wyndam Milwaukee Airport Conference Center at 7:30 am.  Tours are priced at $50 and include lunch and coach transportation.

Visit http://sewmg.encompus.com/ or call Norine at 414-281-4434 for more information.

The Department of Transportation began its improvements to traffic flow on Bluemound Road in early June.  The work will be done in three one-mile segments and each segment will take about a month to complete.

The first phase is between Moorland and Calhoun Roads.  Over the summer, work will progress westward (in one-mile increments) to Barker Road.

Since early June, the following work has been accomplished between Moorland and Calhoun Roads.  Temporary utility poles were installed and stop lights strung across the intersections. Orange barrels have been distributed along the roadway.  Barricades have been erected at many medians. The white diagonal lines that designated bus and right turns have been painted over.  Drivers may now drive in the right lane.  That is good, because drivers can no longer use the left lane.

As we enter week two:  Concrete medians are being removed.  Any trees and/or shrubs in the medians are being bulldozed.  Alas, I believe the trees and shrubs being sacrificed were once part of "streetscaping"  partially funded by taxpayers. Perhaps a reader can clarify.

Because there is construction on Calhoun Road and on Bluemound Road delays are compounded.  The difficulty entering/exiting V Richards Plaza is no doubt adversely impacting the businesses located there.

Perhaps the construction is really part of traffic calming for the 70,000 cars that travel east/west along Bluemound Road each day. 

Min Kanavas was known to many in the Brookfield and Elm Grove areas.  Min and her husband made Brookfield their home in the 1950s – about the time it became a city.  Her four boys grew up there.  One became (and is) a state Senator.

Min was devoted to her family and the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church.  She tremendously enjoyed contributing her time and skills to many activities.  She had boundless energy and was an enthusiastic volunteer for the Elmbrook Historical Society.  If you don’t remember Min for her community activities, you may have known her as the floral designer at Reinder’s (Elm Grove).

The Dousman Stagecoach Inn and the Elmbrook Historical Society will host the unveiling of a painting by area artist Scott Hefti, who works with Brookfield-based North Shore Bank to create one-of-a-kind watercolors depicting the communities in which it operates.

Hefti's colorful Brookfield painting features the historic inn along with its neighbor, North Shore Bank's corporate headquarters. The bank is donating the artwork to the Historical Society to celebrate the bank's 85th birthday and a unique bit of shared history.  For 138 years, the inn stood at what is now the intersection of Bluemound and Moorland roads.

When North Shore Bank's new headquarters was built on that site in 1981, the Elmbrook Historical Society moved the inn a little way up the road.  Hefti's painting, with the historic and modern buildings and the preserved green space that lies between them, celebrates the past and present of the Brookfield community.

Hefti, along with representatives of the bank and the Historical Society, will unveil the donated painting during a special reception from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, June 11, at the inn, 1075 N. Pilgrim Parkway.  Guided tours are offered at 5:45 and 6:15 pm.

The public is welcome to attend and talk with the artist and Historical Society representatives about this new piece of art celebrating two Brookfield institutions.  Reserve your spot now - just contact Brenna Kriviskey Sadler at (414) 276-6237.

The Elmbrook Historical Society also hosts public guided tours at the Stagecoach Inn on the first and third Sundays from 1 to 4 pm. from May through October.  In celebration of Father's Day, June 15, admission is free for all fathers.