To the editor: A response on opioid discussion and concerns about Sheboygan Area School District's Urban Middle School plan

Correction: The letter "Concerns about traffic, tax issues related to SASD’s proposed Urban plan" has been updated from an earlier version to correctly reflect the estimated tax base loss of constructing Urban Middle School on residentially zoned property on Mill Road.

Here are this week's letters to the editor of the Sheboygan Press. See our letters policy below for details about how to share your views.

A response on opioid discussion

This note is a response to Robert Ries’s June 2 opinion piece titled “Let’s not omit facts in opioid discussion,” commenting on my opinion from May 12 doubting the sincerity of Sen. Tammy Baldwin’s ad on drug addiction.

Mr. Ries contends that U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, a Republican from Minocqua, was involved in the Tomah VA drug problem: “Tom Tiffany, a Republican from Minocqua, was informed about the opioid problem before Tammy Baldwin.” After re-reviewing more than 20 news articles covering 2009 to 2018 and contacting Mr. Tiffany’s office, I don’t find any evidence that Mr. Tiffany was involved at all. His name was not even mentioned.

More importantly, Mr. Ries did not address my main contention that Ms. Baldwin seemed less than sincere in handling the VA problem and in-patient overdose death of Marine Jason Simcakowski. She ignored the opiate overprescribing problem at the Tomah VA and sat on the VA Inspector General’s report for six months before a whistleblower forced the issue. Nor did he address the $90,000 that was paid to a political fixer to hush up the scandal.

I suspect that Mr. Ries is conflating Rep. Tiffany with another western Wisconsin U.S. representative, now retired, Ron Kind, a Democrat from La Crosse who WAS involved. See article the article from the Stevens Point Journal dated Jan. 14, 2015, titled “Lawmaker alarmed by VA complaints, but knew for years.”

A retraction and apology to Mr. Tiffany might go a long way in setting the record straight.

I wholeheartedly agree with your comment, Mr. Ries, “let’s not omit facts in opioid discussion.”

Steven Birkholz, M.D.

Kohler

Concerns about traffic, tax issues related to SASD’s proposed Urban plan

I encourage everyone to read the Traffic Impact Analysis posted on Sheboygan Area School District’s web page. There are alarming statistics regarding the increased traffic that will be generated if a new school is constructed on Mill Road.

Page 2 of this document under subheading B3. Site Generated Traffic indicates, “On a typical weekday, the proposed middle school is expected to generate approximately 1,890 new vehicular trips (945 entering/945 exiting) under full build conditions.” Full capacity is 650 students. Current attendance figures are 595.

In an attempt to accommodate additional traffic, lights would be installed at the intersection of 21st Street/Mill Road and Eisner Avenue as well as the intersection of Mill Road and State 42. Additional turn lanes would also be required. SASD believes the signals alone would add up to $800,000 to the build cost. Those funds would be taken from the allowance built into the current budget, which already has or will come out of your pocket.

SASD is scheduled to close July 31 on its nearly million-dollar offer to purchase residentially zoned property on Mill Road. Many citizens are not aware that if this occurs the city will experience a significant future tax base loss. An earlier Proposed City Subdivision plan indicated that property would hold 80 new homes. At today’s average prices of $400,000 per home, that would result in a tax base loss of approximately $32 million to the city every year. There are many developers begging the city for single-family residential land parcels.

Melody Kuether

Sheboygan

More letters to the editor: Click here to read more letters to the editor of the Sheboygan Press

Our letters policy

Letters to the editor are published in the order in which they are received and letter-writers are limited to having one letter published per month. Letters can be emailed to news@sheboyganpress.com and Editor Brandon Reid at breid@gannett.com. Letters must meet specific guidelines, including being no more than 250 words and be from local authors or on topics of local interest. All submissions must include the name of the person who wrote the letter, their city of residence and a contact phone number. Letters are edited as needed for style, grammar, length, fairness, accuracy and libel.

This article originally appeared on Sheboygan Press: Sheboygan letters on opioid discussion and Urban Middle School plan