On Tuesday, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz meets with Al Schumacher whose fame index has gone from zero to 100 this winter thanks to a record snowfall. Schumacher is Madison's streets superintendent, otherwise known as the guy everyone talks to about plowing. If the forecasters are correct, Schumacher will sit down with the mayor after spending much of Monday and Tuesday overseeing yet another huge effort to keep the city's streets passable.
Many were critical of Schumacher's decision to keep the plows off the streets in the early stages of the season's first snowfall. The result was badly rutted streets and many city residents trapped in their driveways for up to two days. Since then, of course, even the grumpiest city critics have had to admit that the repeated dumpings we've received this winter would test any municipality in the country, if not the world. Once you start flirting with 100 inches of snow in a season -- and we're only one good March blizzard away -- it's hard just to keep pace, yet that's what Schumacher's crew has accomplished.
The city probably can't afford to give the guy anything other than his standard raise this year, maybe they could send Schumacher on one of these sister city trips to someplace really, really warm.
MAYOR CIESLEWICZ WEEKLY SCHEDULE
Monday, February 25, 2008
8:00 a.m. Madison Police Department accelerated academy swearing in ceremony (CCB GR-27)
9:00 a.m. Capital Area Regional Planning Commission (CARPC) Budget and Personnel Panel meeting (CCB 421)
10:00 a.m. Policy staff meeting
11:00 a.m. Plan Commission agenda review
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
9:00 a.m. Major Projects Work Group meeting (MMB LL-130) 10:30 a.m. Mayor's Management Team meeting 11:30 a.m. YWCA Madison Circle of Women luncheon (Alliant Energy Center) 2:00 p.m. Al Schumacher quarterly meeting 3:30 p.m. Anne Sayers, Brad Murphy, and Ray Harmon 4:15 p.m. David Hart, Dasha Kelly, Evy Gildrie-Voyles, and Mario Mendoza 6:30 p.m. Common Council meeting (CCB 201)
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 through Friday, February 29, 2008
Washington, D.C., meetings with congressional representatives
Saturday, March 1, 2008
10:45 a.m. Madison Reads Leopold (UW Arboretum)
