Madison Media Digest: Services, City Life, Environment

Here’s what we were reading while wondering just what the heck that was flying overhead:

Services

By many accounts, the Madison Police Department’s neighborhood resource officer program has been a success, but it is imperiled at a time when MPD wants to expand it. Dane County Executive Joe Parisi wants to remake the oversight structure at the 911 call center. The current call center board opposes these efforts.  Chris Rickert says there’s plenty of blame to go around in the collapse of funding for a new homeless center, which will become a crisis as the temperatures drop.  

City Life

Brenda Konkel starts her break down of the city budget proposal. The State Journal Editorial Board thinks the city is doing well despite limits on the budget imposed by the state. The city's historic landmarks ordinance will be rewritten, with the Common Council scheduled to vote on the proposed ordinance later this month. Rhythm and Booms is in trouble, as efforts to raise money to support the event have been unsuccessful. The Capital Times profiled founders of the Builder Boys program, which offers a range of activities for elementary-school aged boys. New food carts are planned to debut in the city in 2015, and include a coffee cart, two new Mexican food carts, and an organic popsicles cart.

Environment

Hooray, winter in Madison will be slightly-less-awful this year. The Cap Times reports that about 800 people have signed a petition opposing recent changes to the Wisconsin Environmental Protection Act--changes that have altered the process for investigating environmental impacts.