2010 Towns Winners
Town of Cedarburg - Creation of the Cedarburg Little League Program
The Town of Cedarburg youth has had access to baseball through a local baseball club and through the recreation department. Girls had access to a softball club program through the recreation department. Unfortunately, these programs were not able to meet the needs of all who were interested in playing. Each year, many children were left out due to limited roster space and field availability.
The Town of Cedarburg created a financially self-supporting youth baseball/softball recreation program to ensure resident needs would be met in a cost-effective manner. To make this happen, the Town chartered with Little League International, which is the world's largest youth sports program, to offer additional youth baseball/softball opportunities allowing more children to play baseball and softball. Additionally, the new program provided significant financial beneift to participants and taxpayers.
Town of Shelby - Collaboration of Fire Protection Services
The Town of Shelby has provided fire protection services to the majority of the Town of Greenfield for many years. Greenfield is far enough away from Shelby that longer than acceptable response times were occurring. Additionally, new home construction in Greenfield has initiated the need for updgraded fire and first responder services. The towns have developed a plan that is beneficial and cost effective for both municipalities. Shelby will continue to provide fire protection services to Greenfield, rather than Greenfield operating its own department. In addition, Greenfield built two truck bays to house Shelby fire equipment and first responders in the Town of Greenfield. Therefore, one department, with two stations, was created instead of each municipality running its own department.
2010 Municipal Winners
Under 10,000 population
City of Sparta - Adoption of a New Urban Forestry Strategic Management Plan
The City of Sparta adopted a new Urban Forestry Strategic Management Plan to address the threat of the ash borer. This is a very proactive policy to remove all boulevard ash trees in the city. The trees make up over 50% of the boulevard trees. Sparta is using in-house labor during the winter months, when the crew would usually be slow, to remove and replace the trees over a timeframe of several years. This use of in-house labor will save Sparta over a million dollars.
Over 10,000 population
City of Menasha - Collaboration for Senior Center Services
The City of Menasha began a collaborative effort with the Neenah-Menasha YMCA to be able to continue offering senior center services. The YMCA was willing to integrate the operations of the senior center in with their older adult program and supervise the Menasha Senior Center. This effort expanded the programs provided and allowed seniors to have a choice in programming. Additionally, there was significant financial savings for the taxpayers of Menasha.
