Meet & Greets, Budget Info, Rain Gardens & Adopt a Median, plus City Meetings and Event Highlights Week of May 10th

Hello Friends & Neighbors,

I will be hosting 2 "pop-up" opportunities to meet me in person, share neighborhood/city concerns, or just chat and get to know one another. Please wear a mask and bring a yard chair if you'd like; I will have santizer available. 

Opportunity #1: Friday May 14, 2021 4-6pm @Orlando Bell Park (2274 S Thompson Drive) 

Optional (Not Hosted by Me): I will be attending the Elvehjem Neighborhood Association's Annual Meeting Saturday May 15, 2021 10am @Our Saviors Lutheran Church (1201 Droster Rd) where I will be introducing myself, sharing policy priorities, socializing and answering questions. 

Opportunity #2: Sunday May 16, 2021 1-3:30pm @Acewood Park (1402 Acewood Blvd)

Please email me (district16@cityofmadison.com) if you would prefer to meet via Zoom. As the warmer weather continues, I will have additional opportunities that will be posted here and on my Facebook page (Alder Jael Currie, District 16). 

City budget timeline

The City's budget webpage has been updated to show the 2022 budget timeline. You can find a timeline of the process for both the Capital and Operating Budgets. You can also find information from previous budgets, public hearing dates (yet to be announced), and links to watch meetings online. This page will be updated throughout the process, so please check back often!

Grow Your Green Thumb This Season: Learn about resources to get involved with Rain Gardens and Adopt-A-Median 

The City of Madison Engineering Division invites everyone to help support the stormwater infrastructure system by digging into a couple of programs that beautify the community and get residents involved: Rodger Bannerman Rain Garden Program and Adopt-a-Median program.

Rodger Bannerman Rain Garden Program
City residents are encouraged to plant rain gardens wherever possible and appropriate. The Rodger Bannerman Rain Garden Program focuses on supporting private property owners who would like to build a rain garden in the terrace of their property associate with a street construction project, but the program also is a collection of rain garden resources.

What is a rain garden? Design plans, plant lists and more
Terrace Rain Garden Program
1,000 Rain Garden Initiative
Rain garden specification for commercial sites
Green Infrastructure Study
USGS Rain Garden Study
Everyday Engineering Podcast Episode: Rain, Rain Go in My Garden 
Guide: Build your Rain Garden for $100 or less PDF 

A rain garden is a garden of native shrubs, perennials, and flowers planted in a shallow depression, which, sometimes, is built on a natural slope.
Rain gardens are often designed to capture and infiltrate water into the ground. A rain garden is a great option for stormwater management as it temporarily holds and soaks in rainwater runoff that flows from roofs, driveways, patios or lawns.

Adopt-a-Median Program

The Adopt-A-Median program is a program for Madison community members to take care and maintain existing traffic calming circles and medians across the City. There are 650 medians in the City. Of the 650, 225 of them are residential street medians. There are 65 adopted, and the remaining 160 are either available for adoption, maintained by a neighborhood association or anonymous volunteer.

Median Eligibility
Not all medians are eligible for adoption in this program. Before working on any median, please review the criteria of eligibility. Medians must:
Be located in a residential 25 mile per hour or less speeds limit area
Have an existing planting bed within city limits
Be available for adoption, not adopted yet

Eligible Adopters
The Adopt-a-Median adopters are from all backgrounds. Anyone can apply to the program. City staff will help adopters through the process. Some examples of past adopters include: neighborhood associations, groups or businesses and volunteers.

Apply to be a part of the Adopt-a-Median program today!
Adopt-a-Median Application

Contact: Hannah Mohelnitzky, Public Information Officer, City of Madison Engineering Division, 608-669-3560, hmohelnitzky@cityofmadison.com

City of Madison Meeting and Event Highlights for the Week of May 10, 2021

20 is Plenty

In District 16, the proposed changes affect the following:

Cottage Grove Road-Acewood 

Improvement: Add continental crosswalks and prioritize LED lighting update.

Why: Continental crosswalks are more visible & increase yield compliance. Lighting to increase yield compliance after dark. Lowering the speed limit increases safety and matches the land use. 

Cottage Grove Road - Drexel Ave to Flora Lane

Improvement: Lower speed on Cottage Grove Rd from 30 to 25 mph from Drexel Ave to Hwy 51, lower speed on Cottage Grove Rd from 35 to 30 mph from Hwy 51 to Flora Ln, and add driver speed feedback boards.

Why: Lowering the speed limit increases safety and matches the land use. Driver speed feedback boards to reinforce speed limits. 

The Transportation Commission will discuss the 20 is Plenty phase one plan at its meeting on Wednesday. If you'd like to attend and share feedback, please see the meeting details, agenda, and link for registering for public comment below

• Meeting Details
• Meeting Agenda
• Register for Public Comment

Report on Recent Gun Violence

The Public Safety Review Committee will receive a report on recent gun violence from MPD at its meeting on Wednesday. If you'd like to attend and share feedback, please see the meeting details, agenda, and link for registering for public comment below

• Meeting Details
• Meeting Agenda
• Register for Public Comment

For additional information about additional meetings scheduled for this week, please consult the City Meeting Schedule online here.

Events, activities, seminars, etc.

• May is Historic Preservation Month.  All month, City Engineering will focus on one of the oldest surviving synagogue buildings in the nation, Gates of Heaven.  Throughout May, Engineering will focus on different parts of the Gates of Heaven restoration work on their Facebook and Twitter pages.  Expect to discover things you've never seen before!  Read the press release here.
• Madison Public Library, The Wisconsin Book Festival and the All of Us Research Program at UW-Madison , are offering two free, virtual events focused on women's physical and mental health as it relates to pregnancy and motherhood. The events will cover similar content, but an English-speaking panel will lead the discussion at the first event, and a Spanish-speaking panel will do so the following day. Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond: A Conversation with Community Women about Motherhood will take place on May 12, 6pm-7pm.  El embarazo, Nacimiento, y más allá: Una Conversación con Madres de nuestra comunidad will take place on May 13, 6pm-7pm.  Learn more about these events here.

Announcements, press releases, press conferences, etc.

• On May 3, Mayor Rhodes-Conway announced that local donors have contributed over $300,000 to Madison's Guaranteed Income Pilot. Alder Currie will be serving as a member of the Madison Guaranteed Income Program Advisory Task Force. Read more here.
• On May 3, Public Health Madison & Dane County released an update to Emergency Order #16 , which went into effect on May 5, 2021 at 12:01am.  A provision for restaurants and taverns was inadvertently omitted.  Read more here.
• The 2021 spring yard waste collection is complete.  You should not place yard waste at the curb.  Read more about what you should do with yard waste now that curbside collection is over.
• On May 4, the Madison Common Council passed a resolution recognizing May 5 as Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Awareness Day.  The Madison Municipal Building, 215 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., will be lit red the week of May 5 to bring awareness to this issue and to honor the victims and their families throughout the country.  Read more here.
• The Streets Division announces a new schedule for large item collection.  Beginning June 1, when residents need large item pickup, they will need to schedule the collection via a work order system that can be accessed on the Streets Division's website. Residents will also use the work order system to pay recycling fees that are necessary for certain items, like appliances or televisions. Read more here.
• On May 6, 2021, the Madison Public Library Board voted to reopen Madison Public Libraries beginning May 24.  Expanded services will include in-person library browsing, self-pickup holds and checkout, and access to basic desk services in person.  Read more here.  Click here to see current availability of library services.