Connecting the dots between sidewalk shoveling and TIF money developments
Recently the Oshkosh Common Council made changes to the city’s snow removal ordinance, making it mandatory for snow to be removed from sidewalks by the property owner within 24 hours after each snowfall or ice storm ends. As the city looks to tweak some of its ordinances, this may be one that had been looked at for awhile, but what I suspect brought it to a head was this particularly harsh winter, where people just don’t seem to be paying as close attention as they should, or may have in the past, to clearing their walks. Having a bad ice storm which left a thick layer of ice on many walks and subsequent shortages of ice melt at many retail stores in the city further complicated matters. In several cases, the city has cleared the walks for negligent property owners and billed them for that service.
The Oshkosh Northwestern recently ran an editorial in which it suggested the publishing of those property owners’ names who don’t pay their bills, or shovel their walks or mow their grass – forcing the city to do it for them – much like the state does with delinquent tax payers. It earlier had run an article naming a few of the more frequent offenders of the old, more ambiguous snow shoveling policy – those being Discovery Properties, Pine Investments owned by Sally Struensee and Schwab Properties. This is especially offensive because these are bigger property management companies which undoubtedly have maintenance staff to handle other maintenance issues. So why is this one being ignored? I understand many landlords have it written in their leases that their tenants are responsible for shoveling – and often mowing the lawn, too – but common sense should tell any landlord that if their tenant doesn’t do it, they then have an obligation – both morally and legally – to do so. They are, after all, the property owners. And they can always charge or fine their tenant for not doing it, something I suspect will become even more commonplace with the city’s revised policy now in place.
When I read the article about the biggest offenders of the snow shoveling policy, and saw that Discovery Properties topped the list, a familiar chord struck me. According to the article, one of the partners in Discovery is Mike Goudreau. Unless there is another Mike Goudreau in the city of Oshkosh, I believe this is the same man who happens to be part of Oshkosh River Development LLC, the local development team working to put together a multi-million dollar plan for the Marion Road Redevelopment Area, and part of the group who recently successfully got TIF money approved for a Shopko store on the city’s northside. Why does this strike a familiar chord with me? Because the city is once again looking to do business with someone who has failed to take care of some of the most basic of issues at other properties he owns, much like it did business for years with Ben Ganther of Ganther Construction, who, along with his business partners, failed to pay their property taxes on time – and at least one property was in a TIF district, no less.
If this is, in fact, the same Mike Goudreau, I would suggest the following: Some of our more questioning common council members may want to address this with him and/or his partners in Oshkosh River Development when they next come before the council. And if the developers eventually put a plan together and move forward with it, I do hope the property – whatever it may be – will be maintained better, in a more timely manner and without the city having to intervene, than some of Mr. Goudreau’s sidewalks have been both this winter and last.
The Oshkosh Northwestern recently ran an editorial in which it suggested the publishing of those property owners’ names who don’t pay their bills, or shovel their walks or mow their grass – forcing the city to do it for them – much like the state does with delinquent tax payers. It earlier had run an article naming a few of the more frequent offenders of the old, more ambiguous snow shoveling policy – those being Discovery Properties, Pine Investments owned by Sally Struensee and Schwab Properties. This is especially offensive because these are bigger property management companies which undoubtedly have maintenance staff to handle other maintenance issues. So why is this one being ignored? I understand many landlords have it written in their leases that their tenants are responsible for shoveling – and often mowing the lawn, too – but common sense should tell any landlord that if their tenant doesn’t do it, they then have an obligation – both morally and legally – to do so. They are, after all, the property owners. And they can always charge or fine their tenant for not doing it, something I suspect will become even more commonplace with the city’s revised policy now in place.
When I read the article about the biggest offenders of the snow shoveling policy, and saw that Discovery Properties topped the list, a familiar chord struck me. According to the article, one of the partners in Discovery is Mike Goudreau. Unless there is another Mike Goudreau in the city of Oshkosh, I believe this is the same man who happens to be part of Oshkosh River Development LLC, the local development team working to put together a multi-million dollar plan for the Marion Road Redevelopment Area, and part of the group who recently successfully got TIF money approved for a Shopko store on the city’s northside. Why does this strike a familiar chord with me? Because the city is once again looking to do business with someone who has failed to take care of some of the most basic of issues at other properties he owns, much like it did business for years with Ben Ganther of Ganther Construction, who, along with his business partners, failed to pay their property taxes on time – and at least one property was in a TIF district, no less.
If this is, in fact, the same Mike Goudreau, I would suggest the following: Some of our more questioning common council members may want to address this with him and/or his partners in Oshkosh River Development when they next come before the council. And if the developers eventually put a plan together and move forward with it, I do hope the property – whatever it may be – will be maintained better, in a more timely manner and without the city having to intervene, than some of Mr. Goudreau’s sidewalks have been both this winter and last.
posted by Cheryl Hentz at 11:35 PM
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