November Office Hours, Pumpkin Collection, Memorial High School Input Session, Census 2020 and Winter

Information on November's Open Office Hours, pumpkin collection, The Future of Memorial High School: Community Input Session, Census 2020 and winter.

In November, I will be holding open office hours twice including this Thursday!

If you have a question, concern or topic of interest that you would like to discuss, but the times above don't work for you, you can e-mail me.

As leaf and yard waste collection continues, here's a release from the Streets division on pumpkins. 

Pumpkins are in everything this time of year.  They're in lattes, cookies, cereal – even dog treats and deodorant! But did you know you could spice up your yard waste piles with pumpkins, too?  You can!

Put your pumpkins on your leaves and yard waste pile for Streets Division crews to collect. Pumpkins contain valuable nutrients and they're better composted along with other yard waste rather than sent to the landfill with your trash.

When placing your pumpkins, decorative gourds, corn stalks, or other natural decorations out for yard waste collection, please set them on top of your leaf pile or leaf bags. Be sure to remove any non-compostable items like wire, tea candles, or electric lights.

When placing leaves and other yard waste to the curb for collection, pile that material on the terrace or at the street edge.  If you choose to bag your yard waste in compostable paper bags or plastic bags, be sure to leave them open at the top so crews can identify what is inside.  And never put your leaves and yard waste piles directly in the street. 

City of Madison residents may also bring their pumpkins and other yard waste material to one of the Streets Division's drop-off sites. The sites are located at 1501 W. Badger Rd., 4602 Sycamore Ave, and 402 South Point Rd.   The sites are presently open from 8:30am to 4:30pm seven days a week and until 8:00pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  These hours will remain in effect until 4:30pm on Sunday, December 8.

If you are a home composter, you can spice up your backyard compost bin with pumpkins, too.  Pumpkins are a great source of nitrogen, and a good way to offset carbon from fallen leaves.

Residents can learn more about curbside yard waste collection on the Streets Division's yard waste website, www.cityofmadison.com/yardwaste. 

While visiting the site, residents can use the Pickup Schedule map to learn when to place their material out for pickup. Collection time estimates are available by calling our hotline at 608-267-2088. Residents can get additional information about yard waste by contacting the Streets Division offices, too.  Residents west of S. Park Street should call the west side office at 608-266-4681, and residents east of S. Park Street, including the isthmus, you should call 608-246-4532.

The Madison School Board is considering putting two referenda on the ballot in 2020 and are holding community input sessions to get feedback.

One of the referendums would be for facilities that would seek to accomplish three major things:

1. Significant renovations that would transform learning environments in their four main high schools.
2. Moving their Capital High Westside students out of an over-capacity leased strip mall site and their Capital High Eastside students out of borrowed space inside Lapham Elementary School and into a permanent home in a school building the district owns, Hoyt School.
3. Exploring the possibility of building a new elementary school in the Rimrock area to give underserved students and families a much-needed school in their neighborhood.

The other is an operating referendum, which would provide a variety of student programming in arts, music, science/technology, athletics, and more; invest in the district's strategic equity projects that are aligned to the MMSD Strategic Framework; adhere to the local class size policy; and attract and retain high-quality teachers.

On Thursday, November 7th, Memorial High School will host a family and community input session. At this meeting, you can talk with school district officials and architects about the proposed projects and offer your input. The meeting will have pizza and there is childcare available for ages 4+ for those who request it as well as transportation. Details for this are on MMSD's Facebook event.

To see what other projects would be included in a facilities referendum, and to learn more about a potential operating referendum, visit mmsd.org/future-ready. MMSD will be adding additional information to this page as it becomes available.

The district also has a Referenda Survey you can fill out: mmsd.org/referenda-2020-survey

The 2020 Census is coming in March.  The census is a count of all people living in the United States mandated by the constitution to occur every 10 years.  2020 is the first time that households will receive a letter invitation to reply online.  People will also be able to reply via smartphone, phone, or paper form.  The census usually takes 10 minutes or less to fill out for a household.  Non-responding households will be visited by Census Bureau personnel starting in May to answer census questions in person. 

The census count affects state and federal funding for our community over the next decade.  Distribution of $675 billion of annual federal funding is tied to data gathered in the census.  That means that every person not counted could lead to a loss of $2,000 per year for affordable housing, childcare, health care, education, transit, roads, and more.  Madison needs a complete and accurate count of everyone living in the city in order to receive our fair share of federal funding.  Documented or undocumented people, infants, children, teens, UW students – if you and your family live in Madison, make sure you are counted in Madison.  

The census is also important for representation – the population count is used to draw boundaries for aldermanic districts, county board districts, state assembly and senate districts, and federal house of representatives districts.  An undercount in a certain area can lead to underrepresentation for the next 10 years. 

Responses to the 2020 Census are confidential – Census Bureau staff are prohibited by law from sharing personal information with law enforcement, governmental agencies, landlords, credit agencies, or anyone else outside of the Bureau.  The 2020 Census will not ask about citizenship or immigration status. 

The City is actively publicizing the importance of the 2020 Census through a variety of channels, but we need your help – we hope you can reach out to your neighbors and friends to make sure everyone is aware of the 2020 Census and its importance.  Visit www.cityofmadison.com/2020Census to find out more about what the City is doing and learn about 2020 Census events and updates, or visit www.2020census.gov for more from the Census Bureau.  The City of Madison wants to ensure all residents are counted - help shape our future by completing the Census next year!

Winter seems to have snuck up pretty quickly with forecasters predicting another snow storm this evening! I wanted to reminder blog subscribers that I don't plan on providing regular snow updates. The City has some fantastic resources, including an e-mail list you can subscribe to. I recommend checking them out.

Stay Informed

• Call the Winter Parking Hotline: (608) 261-9111
• Winter Text Alerts
• Declared Snow Emergency Email Updates
• Snow Plow Email Updates
• Sidewalk Snow Removal Email Alerts
• RSS Feeds
• Winter Facebook
• Winter Twitter

As always, if there is anything I can do to help, feel free to reach out: district19@cityofmadison.com

-Keith F