Oct. 21, 2019 10:15p
In his annual budget address to the city council Monday night, Racine Mayor Cory Mason rolled out a series of plans and proposals designed to help tenants and keep properties from becoming blighted. His initiative is called "RENTS"---an acronym for Rental Empowerment and Neighborhood Tenant Services. It's an outgrowth of rountable discussions that Mason held earlier this year. The measures include requiring rental and commercial property owners to register with the city so contacts can be easier to come by in case of emergencies or problems. Also, Mason plans to create an easily searchable database so people can see whether properties have been cited for code violations. Another measure would allow tenants to submit rent to a city-controlled escrow account in the event a landlord is cited for code violations and refuses to address them.
-0-
The Mt. Pleasant Village Plan Commission will review plans Wednesday for the fourth building to go up in Foxconn's village campus. The nine-story spherical-shaped structure is expected to house a network operations center. The plans were originally on last month's agenda but were pulled because Foxconn reportedly want to review additional design options. The Commission instead reviewed and approved plans for a 261,000 sq. ft. facility that's expected to manufacture, at least initially, server racks for in-house use. A million sq. ft. manufacturing facility is already under construction. A multi-purpose building was finished earlier this year.
-0-
The Kenosha City Council has apparently given preliminary approval to a settlement with a former I-T contractor that sued the city for $2 million, alleging breach of contract. The council met in closed session for nearly an hour Monday night. City Attorney Ed Antaramian said afterward that the attorney representing the city in the matter will now draft specific language that needs to be signed by the mayor and the contractor, Racine-based ComSys. The company sued after the city hired away a ComSys manager and formed an in-house I-T service. The suit alleged improper behavior on the part of then City Administrator Frank Pacetti and the I-T manager.
-0-
At it's regularly-scheduled meeting Tuesday night, the Kenosha School Board is expected to review enrollment numbers for the year. The district this fall experienced its largest one-year enrollment decrease ever, dropping 453 students to just under 21,000. The district blames a sagging birth rate. The data, however, shows that the number of special education students remained stable. The news in Racine Unified isn't any better. RUSD this year saw a 2.9% decrease, blamed in part on the birth rate and the number of students moving into other districts or enrolling in private schools. Racine Unified is in the process of coming up with a comprehensive plan to increase what's now being called "market share." It includes increasing the attractiveness of programs and facilities.
-0-