A proposed parking lot swap between the City of Port Washington and developer Daniel Ewig is on hold — at least temporarily — while an environmental report on one of the lots is sent to the Department of Natural Resources for review.

    The Common Council on Tuesday agreed to ask Ewig for a 60-day extension to complete the land swap so the DNR can review the report by Konicek Environmental Consulting.

    The swap of Ewig’s property — the former M&I Bank drive-through and parking area between Washington and Pier streets west of Franklin Street — for the city-owned parking lot across Washington Street was to have been completed by Feb. 1.

    Konicek Environmental did five soil borings on Ewig’s property, which years ago was home to an auto repair facility.

    “It appears the levels of chemical compounds in the soils are under the limits” set by the DNR, City Administrator Mark Grams said. “But we don’t know that for sure.”

    By having the DNR review the report, the city hopes to learn what if any remediation is necessary, how long it will take, the potential cost and funding sources, City Attorney Eric Eberhardt said.

    After receiving the DNR’s report, which is expected to take three to four weeks, the city will have 15 days to decide if it wants to proceed with the land swap, he added.

    Eberhardt said he spoke to Ewig’s attorney about the situation, and he indicated the extension would be approved.

    Ald. Mike Ehrlich, an architect working for Ewig on the project, abstained from the vote.

    The proposed land swap would provide Ewig with a parking lot next to the Boerner Mercantile Building, which he is renovating, while providing the city with a slightly larger parking lot that could be used by downtown workers as well as tourists.

    No money will change hands as part of the swap, but both properties will be upgraded to create more attractive and user-friendly parking, officials said.

    The city will be responsible for removing the former bank building, but officials said the structure has salvage value that will help offset the cost.

    The property exchange agreement calls for the city to raze the building by Dec. 21, 2014, and use the lot for parking for 10 years.
 
    Ewig is also required to use the former city lot as a parking lot, according to the agreement.

Sheriff waives rule for one-year service on jail staff in effort to fill seven unexpected department vacancies

    Sheriff Maury Straub on Tuesday said he is waiving one of the requirements for patrol officers as he struggles to fill seven unexpected vacancies, most of which resulted from the county’s decision to cut jailor’s benefits.

    Straub told the Public Safety Committee that he is not requiring deputies to serve in the jail for a year before being promoted to patrol duties.

    “That’s due to necessity,” Straub said.  

    Two of the nine vacancies left to be filled are in the patrol division, but only one eligible jailor applied for the job, Straub said.

    “I would have thought we would have many more people who wanted to get out of the jail,” he told the committee.

    The reasons deputies don’t want to move to the patrol division are many, Straub said. For instance, jailors working the day shift may not want to become patrol officers because they will likely be assigned to third-shift duties.

    By allowing all jailors to apply for the vacant positions in the patrol division, the pool of potential officers increases significantly, Straub said.

    “We have some very good, young deputies in the jail,” he said.

    If he still has trouble filling the positions, Straub said, he will have to look at other alternatives, perhaps hiring patrol officers from outside the department and eliminating the requirement they start their job in the jail.

    “I have a job to do,” he said. “The people of this county expect me to provide public safety. I have to find the people to do that.”

    Hiring two patrol officers won’t solve the department’s vacancy problem, Straub noted. That’s because these two positions are being filled from within the department, leaving two more vacancies in the jail staff.

    The Public Safety Committee on Tuesday approved an eligibility list  of a dozen candidates to fill the vacancies.

    While it may seem like the list will be adequate for the department to hire people to fill the nine vacancies, that’s not necessarily the case, Undersheriff Jim Johnson said.

    The department’s last eligibility list had 15 candidates, only four of whom were hired by the department, he said.

    Others on the list may have been hired by other departments before the county offered them a job, he said, or they may have failed the background check or the required psychiatric, medical and drug screenings.

    Straub said he may ask the committee to advertise and conduct testing for another eligibility list so he can fill vacancies as quickly as possible if the department exhausts the new list.

    Straub said the number of vacancies in the sheriff’s department is “unprecedented.”

    “We’ve never had this many positions to hire and train,” he said. “It’s going to take us a long time to get through this process.”

    At the end of last year, seven deputies unexpectedly quit or retired — a decision officials said is a direct result of changes in their fringe benefits approved by the County Board.

    The county significantly increased the health insurance deductible for deputies and made changes to their medication plan.

    The county also decided not to classify workers in the jail as protected staff members. This not only changes the age at which they can retire, it also limits how much the county will pay for their retirement benefits.

    For non-protected workers, the county   will pay only 12% to the state for their retirements benefits, with the employee contributing half that amount.

    For employees classified as protected, the retirement contribution is 19% and the county pays the entire amount.

    To cover the vacancies in the department, officers are working overtime during every shift at a cost of at least $1,000 a day, Straub said.

    It could take six months to fill all the vacancies, he said, noting that even after deputies are hired, they must undergo 14 weeks of training before they can begin working.

    “It’s going to take us a long time to get through this process,” Straub said. “We’re looking forward to months and months of extended shifts.”

Discovery of headwear prompts search that reveals fate of Cedarburg resident missing since Dec. 27

    The discovery of a knit cap led to the recovery of the body of a 24-year-old Cedarburg man who had been missing since Dec. 27.

     The Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Department said water recovery teams found the body of Robert Steinbrecker in Cedar Creek under the bridge on Highland Drive in
Cedarburg on Friday, Jan. 11.

    Lieutenant Rod Galbraith said a resident reported finding a green-and-gold Green Bay Packers cap that matched the description of the one Steinbrecker was wearing when he was last seen.

    Cedarburg, Grafton and Thiensville fire departments responded to the area where the hat was found, approximately a half mile south from where Steinbrecker was last seen.

    “Right now there’s no indications that there’s foul play, but we’re not done with the investigation,” Galbraith said.

    The Ozaukee County medical examiner said the cause of death was drowning, but officials are waiting for toxicology results to return, which could take several months.

    “One of the things we’re focusing on now is where might Robert have traveled when the witnesses reported he was last seen and why he ended up where he did. Those are some things we’re hoping to come up with some answers to, but I’m not sure we’re ever going to know all the answers,” Galbraith said.

    Steinbrecker, a graduate of Cedarburg High School, had been visiting with friends while home for the holidays when they left Maxwell’s Tavern in the early morning hours of Dec. 27. He was last seen running north on the ice on Cedar Creek around 2 a.m.

    Galbraith said weather conditions, including the ice on the creek, caused difficulties during the search.

    “I was thankful we had the warm up and the rain and it melted the snow on his hat. If we hadn’t found his hat, who knows how long it would have taken to find him,” Galbraith said.

    “Our department, the Cedarburg and other fire departments were doing what we could to find him as soon as possible for closure for his family and to better our investigation.”

    Fire and rescue crews from Cedarburg, Grafton and Thiensville, along with the Cedarburg Police Department and the Great Lakes Search and Rescue K-9 unit, assisted the sheriff’s department in the search.