The Waukesha Water Utility will present a draft application for a new Lake Michigan water supply to the Common Council and the public at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 28, city officials said Tuesday.

The meeting will be held at City Hall, 201 Delafield St., in the Common Council Chambers.

The utility is pursuing Lake Michigan as a new source of drinking water for the city as water drawn from its deep aquifers contain radium concentrations that exceed federal safety standards, which have been unsuccessfully disputed by the city.

The utility wants to purchase water from Milwaukee Water Works, but also will consider getting  lake water from Racine or Oak Creek if a deal cannot be struck with Milwaukee.

The council must grant final approval to a proposal that now calls for building a large pipeline that connects Waukesha to Milwaukee water pipes and to build another pipeline that returns an equal amount of treated water back to the lake through the Underwood Creek tributary in Wauwatosa.

Here’s a source for  more information about the Waukesha Water Utility’s plans.

The Plan Commission will consider a proposal to open an affordable housing site with 10-units above a potential homeless shelter.

The commission meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at City Hall. Here’s the Journal Sentinel report

The 24-year-old Waukesha man who suffered a head wound at Fletcher’s Arms gun range on E. Main St. has died from his injury, police reported today.

Police Capt. Mark Stigler said that an investigation into the late Friday shooting continues, although foul play and accidental causes have been ruled out.

Police are not officially calling it a suicide but are awaiting a ruling from the county medical examiner on the cause of death.

This in from Waukesha Police Capt. Mark Stigler:

At 6:44 p.m. Friday, Waukesha police responded to the report of a shooting  on the range at Fletcher Arms, 1441 E. Main St., Waukesha.

Police found a 24-year-old man inside the premise with a gun shot wound.  Waukesha Fire responded, rendered aid and transported him to the hospital in critical condition.

Stigler said the man remained in critical condition this morning.

Detectives were called in to assist in the investigation.  The incident does not appear to be criminal in nature and therefore there were no arrests.

Carroll University students, staff and faculty pledged a total of $11,596 to the 2009 United Way in Waukesha County campaign, an increase of 36 percent over the amount raised in 2008. The number of donors to the 2009 campaign increased nearly 6 percent, and the amount of the average gift increased by just over 10 percent.

Ryan T. Corcoran, a systems administrator in Carroll’s Information Technology Services Department and a Waukesha resident, organized and ran the on-campus fund-raising campaign. Ashley Frazier, a senior from Rockford, Ill., and president of the Student Senate, and Christine Gravelle, student affairs coordinator, organized the students’ campaign.

The total amount raised includes $2,325 donated by students who gave the value of hundreds of meals included in their yearly meal plans. Chartwells, Carroll’s on-campus food service provider, then converted the value of those meals to cash and included that amount in the total.

Carroll’s campaign also included a United Way Day on Nov. 16, when United Way staff and members of Carroll’s Student Senate staff distributed United Way information, and collection points for loose change and cash were designated at various places around campus.

Waukesha Clerk/Treasurer Tom Neill reports that five candidates have filed the necessary amount of petition signatures to be on the ballot for the spring mayoral race. The filing deadline was end of business today.

They are:

Bill Beglinger

Darryl Enriquez

Larry Nelson

Randy Radish

Jeff Scrima

The primary race among the five will be Feb. 16. The general election between the remaining two will be April 6.

Bobanna’s Pizza Place, 1403 Summit Ave., was robbed of its cash by a hooded gunman Saturday night, according to Waukesha police.

Police were told that shortly before 7 p.m. a man with a black handgun took cash from the register and fled on foot east of Summit Ave, toward Moreland Blvd., police say. None of the employees were injured, police say.

The suspect was wearing a dark hoodie, was 5’8” tall, medium build and had a buzz haircut. He carried a dark duffle bag.

Police suspect a get-away car – a bronze Chevy sedan with several passengers – may have been involved. The gunman was still at large this morning, police say.

A suspected chimney fire heavily damaged a single-family home in the 100 block of  Hyde Park Ave. early this morning.

No dollar amount for damages had been set as of this afternoon.

When firefighters arrived shortly after 3 a.m., heavy smoke and flames were billowing from the windows, a police report says.

All building occupants were outside when firefighters arrived, the report says.

Christmas is over, but the holiday charitable work of Interfaith Senior Programs will resonate into the coming year.

The Waukesha-based agency has fulfilled its goal of giving self-sufficiency items to low income and isolated seniors and adults with disabilities, says Interfaith Executive Director Kathy Gale.

Agency volunteers, 71 in all, distributed 351 bags of much-needed goods earlier this month to the needy in Big Bend, Brookfield, Butler/Elm Grove, Delafield/Dousman/Nashotah, Eagle, Hartland, Lannon/Menomonee Falls/Sussex, Muskego/Mukwonago, New Berlin, North Prairie/Wales, Oconomowoc, Pewaukee and Waukesha.

Interfaith volunteer presents gift basket

Volunteers not only brought holiday cheer to the recipients, but some casually asked about the health and living conditions to see if assistance was needed from other agencies, such as transportation and medical checkups.

Waukesha contained the lion’s share the needy with 178 bags distributed here.

Each bag contained merchandise and gift cards with a total value of $137, Gale said.

Some of the large donors  included Roundy’s, which contributed $5,000 in Pick ‘n Save grocery cards; Kwik Trip, which donated loaves of bread and bottles of water; UPS, which prepared routes and maps to those who received bags; GE Healthcare for energy-efficient light bulbs; the Forest County Potawatomi Foundation, which provided a $5,000 grant.

The present-day Interfaith is an agency that merged in 2007 with RSVP to form an efficient, single agency where volunteer seniors can lend a hand to the needy throughout Waukesha County.

Gale said the merger showed to donors that charitable groups are willing to combine resources, including staff, to provide improved services.

“It gave us credibility in the donor community,” Gale said of the merger.