The Journal Sentinel’s Don Behm reports on current cost estimates to bring Lake Michigan water to Waukesha and returning the same amount, as required by federal law, back to the lake.

The city has been working on such a plan for years in an effort to stop using its radium contaminated deep wells for drinking water.

Bad news for the Waukesha Water Utility. The pump in well 10 on the northeast side is broken again, leaving water officials perplexed about what to do.

To replace it for the second time in less than a year will be costly, officials say. Let’s hope it is under warranty.

There’s a meeting about the Lake Michigan plan tonight in the Common Council chambers.

An earlier post says that nine aldermanic districts are up for election in the April election.

Its’ only fair to say that the County Board supervisors who represent Waukesha are also up for re-election. They are Duane Paulson, Steve Wimmer, Kathleen Cummings and Jean Tortomasi.

Cummings is also up for re-election as an alderman. She may be staging a dual campaign.

The Wisconsin State Journal did a piece on Steinhafels.

The Carroll University Homecoming 2009 parade will take a little different route through downtown Waukesha Saturday.

The parade will begin at 3 p.m.

The lineup will be on on Martin St., head west on South to Barstow streets, turn south onto Barstow and go to to Wisconsin Ave. The parade will proceed east to East Ave.

The route usually goes past Cutler Park on Wisconsin Ave., but the route was changed this year to accommodate a wedding being held at the Rotunda on Saturday afternoon. Spectators usually watch the parade from the park.

The parade will turn from Wisconsin Ave. onto East Ave. and head south to Circle Drive on the campus. It then goes west onto College Ave., turning north onto Barstow. The parade will end at Barstow and Cook streets, just north of Carroll’s Schneider Stadium.

Barstow will be closed from 2:30 to 7 p.m. from just north of Schneider Stadium to just south of Cook St.

The Pioneers football team will take on the Blueboys of Illinois College at 5 p.m. at Schneider Stadium. A halftime ceremony will recognize members of the 1976 championship football team and their head coach, Steve Miller, who will gather for a reunion at Homecoming.

Football game tickets at the gate are $5 for adults and $3 for seniors and children 12 and under.

Other Homecoming activities include:

• A tailgate party in the parking lot on the east side of Barstow St. just north of the railroad right of way. The Toys, a local band, will perform there from 2:30 to 5 p.m.

• Pioneers men’s and women’s soccer games against Illinois College at Schneider Stadium. The women play at 10 a.m.; the men play at 12:30 p.m. Admission is free.

• An all-alumni Homecoming dance at 8:30 p.m. Friday, featuring live music by El Rey and the Nightbeats, in the Stackner Ballroom of the Carroll University Campus Center.

For more information about Homecoming, go to www.carrollu.edu and click on the Homecoming button, or contact the Office of Alumni Relations at alumni@carrollu.edu or   262.524.7237.

Police are investigating a report of a robbery in which gang members – one armed with a shotgun, all wearing yellow -  robbed a man in his apartment in the 100 block of S. Grand Ave.  shortly before 11 p.m. Thursday

Taken were a TV, movies, a Wii, an X-Box, jewelry, clothes, money and cigarettes, the initial police report says.

A four-month-old child also was in the residence at the time.

No shots were fired, the report says.

Police set up a protective perimeter near the campus for a short while, but no suspects were taken into custody.

Although the mayor’s race likely will be the big ticket item on the April ballot, eight aldermen are up for re-election and a ninth seat will be for grabs because the incumbent is leaving Waukesha.

Dist. 15 Ald. Carrol Waldenberger, who works for the state, is transferring to Eau Claire. Dist. 15 is the Waukesha Memorial Hospital area.

Others are Dist. 14  Ald. Joan Francoeur, Dist. 12 Ald. Charles Lichtie, Dist, 11 Ald. Randy Radish, Dist. 9 Ald. Kathleen Cummings, Dist. 8 Ald. Emanuele Vitale, Dist. 5 Ald. Paul Ybara, Dist. 4 Ald. Joe Pieper and Dist. 1 Ald. Terry Thieme.

District locations

Word is that challengers are being sought to take on many of the eight  incumbents. The Common Council has 15 aldermen. The other six are not up for re-election. Aldermen serve three-year terms.

La Casa de Esperanza, Inc. and The Scholastic Fund for Students of  Hispanic Descent will host a community performance by Sones de México, Latin Grammy Nominee for Best Folk Album, at its upcoming Hispanic Heritage Month celebration.

The event will be Friday from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at La Casa de Esperanza, 410 Arcadian Ave. The cost is $20 per person.

The evening event will honor Pedro Rodriguez, Maria San Miguel and Lupe Marchan, three individuals who have made significant contributions benefiting the Latino community in the greater Waukesha area.

A special student performance will be held from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. on Friday. Tickets for this performance are $10 per person for student groups, with complimentary tickets for teachers and chaperons.

Sones de México, a Grammy-nominated performing arts group from Chicago, consists of accomplished musicians and educators that specialize in Son, a rich and lively Mexican music tradition. Their ensemble features over 25 folk instruments, which is accompanied by vocal arrangements and native dance demonstrations.

All proceeds from this event will be donated to the Scholastic Fund for Students of Hispanic Descent. The event is open to the public. To make reservations, call (262) 832-1507 or (414) 322-9650.

The Common Council Tuesday approved immediate ambulance rate increases for residents and non-residents and a second round of rate hikes that take affect July 1 of next year.

Here’s the new residential fee structure:

For basic service, the rate increase immediately from the current $375 per ride to $475 and to $593 by July.

For advanced life service that involves basic first aid and IV drugs, the cost goes immediately from $500 to $600 and to $712 in July.

For more advanced life care involving treatment for such life-threatening ailments as cardiac arrest, the rate climbs from $650 to $750 and ultimately to $845.

For non-residents, the costs for basic service climbs from $610 to $800, from $700 to $900 for ALS and from $850 to $975 for more advance life services, all in July.

A consultant for the city told councilmen that the rates, which had not been raised since 2005 were well below national average for municipal ambulance services.

The consultant said public and private insurance plans would pay for higher costing ambulance runs and the city should capture that revenue.

City Administrator Lori Luther said $150,000 was included in the projected budget for 2010 as new revenue brought in by higher ambulance rates.

Some aldermen argued that just because insurance may pick up the newer costs, it doesn’t mean the city should raise the rates.

A gassed Common Council deliberated, argued and yawned late into the evening, trying to decide a salary increase for the mayor.

It set the salary at $79,100 annually, which should be achieved by 2013.

At issue was whether the mayor’s salary, frozen since 2005,  should be increased from $70,100 annually to $81,413 by 2013.

That proposed salary increase was not going to fly, forcing Ald. Joan Francoeur, a main advocate for the raise, to propose that the salary be frozen for 2010, be increased to $73,100 in 2011, $76,100 in 2012 and $79,100 by 2013.

The debate boiled down to the question of how could the mayor’s position receive a raise especially since city employees will be asked to take a pay freeze in 2010.

Supporters of the raise said it was a fairness issue, based on trying to correct a salary freeze imposed by a previous Common Council only on the mayor’s office and not the 550 other city employees.

The council meeting closed with Mayor Larry Nelson announcing that Wal-Mart officials were planning a groundbreaking for the much awaited Super Wal-Mart at West Ave. and the bypass.

It will be noon Monday, Oct. 19, at the site.