Street Talk

Submitted by
Name: Three things

Comments:
The commissioner or mayor or whoever needs to get that shelter cleaned up. That’s disgusting .

Thevenow hasn’t flipped.

Kevin Kellems, the mayor and Tony Steinhardt sure seem to be on the take to me. I agree with the skunk man. Something stinks around here when it comes to the luxury flood plain apartments

Added: September 24, 2025 04:59:11 PM

Submitted by
Name: Confused
From: Madison

Comments:
I think Councilman Thevenow is wrong that most people favor responsible development. Has he not listened to Bob Canida? People want green space. Is Patrick flip flopping?

Admin reply: @confused: that’s what is happening. I hate to say it but I knew he would. It was just a matter of time. I genuinely don’t want to be mean about it but his message was consistently no one in his district and “100s of people” don’t want it. Now he’s submitted proposed amendments. I hope people keep their eyes open to this as much as they have the others.

Added: September 24, 2025 08:48:10 AM

Submitted by
Name: Fred Shimfessel
From: Madison

Comments:
So the Mayor and his City Council Hi-Jack the community. Then they lecture the rest of the city about there behavior the past few months. That’s a new one for Madison,In.

Takes some kind of brass to change people’s lives and then scold them for objecting to the process.

Added: September 24, 2025 11:46:58 AM

Submitted by
Name: Questions

Comments:
wtf is wrong with Krebs? I heard she sounded like some old bitty lecturing bad kids . The talking down and arrogance were just foolish on her part. Acting like a bulldog chewing on a bone didn’t come across good. So why that?

What exactly made Bob go off again ?

Did Schafer actually tell the crowd his survey wasn’t a good survey and then make excuses and tell everyone it basically didn’t matter?

Why does it matter if things are permitted or conditional?

I have a ton more but my biggest one is what makes any city council think people are going to forgive and forget how they’ve acted. These people are being arseholes to basically an entire town just because people disagree?

Added: September 24, 2025 08:40:43 AM

Submitted by
Name: Oh for goodness sake

Comments:
Lisa Ferguson who once ran for city council - stood up to chastise someone - then the crowd and then escalated to chastising the entire community. She yelled a little, seemed to get tearful and then lectured and yelled some more. She seemed most upset that Madison’s dirty laundry had been aired publicly and”had gone viral”. Frankly I got a little lost and like others stopped listening around the time she began yelling.

Josh Schafer summarized his amendment which addressed set backs. Councilman Thevenow explained the majority of people aren’t against development but are in favor of responsible development. He stated he plans to submit some additional amendments. Patrick’s amendments will address set backs, dumpster, corner lot visibility, evacuation plans for flood, conditional use rather than permitted use, height restrictions to include height from ground level rather than above flood plain (that adds 10 feet), noise restrictions, landscaping , lighting restrictions to protect adjacent property owners, etc etc. he asked for a committee be appointed to discuss amendments and that those meetings be open to the public.

Mayor wanted to explain that he has a committee that has been working on new ordinance guidelines. The mayor explained he- himself will appoint the committee to review the amendments. Another ditty about agree to disagree - but again- if the “high rise” is built - it will be a lasting monument to how city council disregarded public input and even hostility against the district and building. So there won’t be any agreeing to disagree - there will be lots of hurt and anger that grew from deception, betrayal and flat out lack of consideration for the feelings and thoughts of others. No one is going to agree to be disrespected and dismissed.

Warren Auxier spoke during the public comment section and explained to the council how the readi grant application was filled with inaccurate and misleading information. Some will say fraud . Mr Auxier said he didn’t know if they were maybe “incompetent”. The mayor wanted everyone to know that all the processes for Readi have been followed - he never addressed the fact the grant application has numerous “suspicious” content, misleading comments etc. I decided against addressing local economic development persons bailing out animal abusers to further personal gains and promote local “housing”. What a mess. Have a good night tjh

Added: September 23, 2025 07:40:00 PM

Submitted by
Name: City council

Comments:
One person passionately in favor and one maybe in favor but against the process. One person who thinks managed growth is a good thing. One person is afraid no one is living downtown and thinks we need to think about houses (but no mention of jobs or overwhelming city debt) Everybody else is absolutely against the luxury - flood plain- housing - subsidized by poor and middle class for the wealthy- which opens doors for unrestricted development along the riverfront without any consideration by the zoning board - lots of safety issues related to fire and flood- disruption of festival and recreational areas- misrepresentation by city officials- disruption of historic appearance - a last minute amendment (tonight) but not shared with the public- failure to make multi level housing a conditional use- —-obviously citizens feel like they aren’t being heard or at least as if city council doesn’t care what they say. Excuses about agreeing to disagree were tossed out.

So let’s be honest- sometimes it’s important to disagree and to be angry and to stand up and fight. It’s important not to “move on”. Things will not go back to the way they were. Certain city council have become and will remain despised villains - a man I admired referred to the mayor and city councils behavior as “disgusting”. He spoke politely tonight against the district - pleaded for the council not to betray their family and friends and the citizens of this community.

All that aside - we have an amendment presented to council but concealed from the public “because council hadn’t had time to consider it”.

Added: September 23, 2025 06:52:32 PM

Submitted by
Name: City council meeting

Comments:
Here we sit being lectured about being polite and how well city council listen. Followed by Kevin Kellems who wanted to explain that the READI grant program is legit and the original grant ranked 10th. He explained that no local tax dollars are involved in Readi grants . He failed to acknowledge that local tax payers also pay state taxes. In other words your local dollars that were funneled to the state are being returned to subsidize local luxury housing. He mentioned how it’s common practice that grants are submitted and scored often amended and “updated”. While he didn’t say bait and switch, in this case proposing a 35 million dollar low income housing project with 5-6 million dollar taxpayer investment was revised just a few short weeks later and switched to fewer apartments for wealthy “professionals” BUT- most importantly what Mr. Kellems failed to honestly disclose is that the 35 million dollar project dropped to 12 million total investment with near at or above 50% of the project funded by taxpayers either through their state or local taxes. In fairness to Kellems he offered me a copy of his statement. I politely declined.

Next up - the mayor had an “outburst” (brief tantrum) following a citizen expressing concerns officials may be accepting financial incentives because it just doesn’t make sense to pursue the project. More later Tjh

Added: September 23, 2025 06:10:19 PM

Submitted by
Name: June Bug Alley Oops to Ozzie
From: Madison

Comments:
This is history repeating itself. In the 70's, you had Mayor Dr. Rucker and his city attorney John Eckert playing the same inside baseball games as the current Mayor. Democrat Dr. Rucker and John Eckert thought they were so untouchable they threw there support behind Republican Bob Pruett for a State Legislature seat. The result was Pruett getting elected over Chad Lewis grandfather Jim Lewis. They even had the Democrat Chairman Dr. Sloan supporting Pruett. Yes, they had shady real estate dealings as well. This launched a young upstart Mayor by name of Markt Lytle to later defeat Dr. Rucker in a tough tough primary that split the Democrat Party for years. Now you got Courtney, Steinhardt, and Kellems playing the same inside baseball games. They may not be supporting Democrat candidates but they are thumbing there nose at the people in the same fashion while making shady real estate deals that makes people think about what is real going on down at City Hall. The same old snakes playing the same old games.

Added: September 22, 2025 11:50:00 PM

Submitted by
Name: Need info
From: Madison
E-mail: Contact

Comments:
With the new vehicle tax that the citizens of Madison have been hit with but not the tourist. My question is are the many municipal vehicles that our CIVIL SERVANTS get to drive and gas paid for exempt from the tax??? Of course that doesn't include our Deputy Mayor who registers his vehicles in a different county. Civil Servants are now Self Servants!!!

Added: September 22, 2025 07:31:51 PM

Submitted by
Name: Dirty boys

Comments:
They don’t get any dirtier than Kellems, Steinhardt and Courtney. Those three are a disgrace to Madison. The commissioners need to take a hard look at Kellems. Rumor has it he makes a fool of himself at the readi meetings .

Added: September 22, 2025 03:21:01 PM