Ald. Bohl Wants Your Views

On Sustainable Boulevards

Milwaukee's boulevard system is a valuable quality of life asset to the city and provides enjoyment for the benefit of residents and visitors alike. But the upkeep can be expensive, and the Department of Public Works (DPW) is looking at what might be done to preserve the environmental and aesthetic value of boulevards while reducing the costs of maintenance.

The DPW, with help from individual citizens, landscape design professionals and environmentalists, has developed a longterm alternative for Milwaukee's boulevards, and Ald. Bohl has invited a representative of the Environmental Services Division to his town hall meetings on April 4 and 11 to explain the Sustainable Boulevards Plan. It is his hope to garner constituent feedback to the proposed plan at those meetings.

Key elements of the Sustainable Boulevards Plan include:

• Installing Milwaukee signature landscape beds at key "Gateway" locations.
• To remove flower and shrub beds from street segments that connect key intersections.
• To enhance planting beds at key intersections through the use of a mix of annuals,perennials, shrubs, native plants, decorative edging and automated irrigation systems.
• To introduce rain garden elements into boulevard segments.
• To plant large growing shade trees on connecting street segments where beds have been eliminated, as funding becomes available.

The Department of Public Works said the Sustainable Boulevard Plan would result in significant long term operational savings to the city.