Hoyt Park pool plan gets final OK from city

12:10 p.m. | Things are going swimmingly for the Friends of Hoyt Park and Pool as the Common Council on Tuesday approved the group's request to operate a pool, bathhouse and concession at the park.

The vote of support was nearly unanimous. Alderman Dennis McBride had to refrain from voting because he sits on the Friends' board.

The group has raised $7.7 million in funds from private donors and Milwaukee County to build a community pool with features like eight lap lanes, a zero-depth entry and a water slide. A community campaign is expected to get under way soon to raise another $500,000 for amenities like diving boards and tot water play equipment.

Construction could begin this spring and the Friends are hoping for a Memorial Day 2011 opening.

New medical building seeks financing help from rare Tosa bond sale

9:15 a.m. | The developer of a three-story medical office building under construction in Wauwatosa is seeking financing help through an unusual city bond issue.

The city Redevelopment Authority this week granted preliminary approval to an $18 million conduit bond sale for the 60,000-square-foot building, at 2999 N. Mayfair Road.

The bond issue is not a city loan to building developer Mayfair Medical Properties LLC, said Nancy Welch, Wauwtosa's director of community development.

Mayfair Medical would be responsible for repaying the debt. However, the city's role as a conduit means the bonds would be tax-exempt, allowing Mayfair Medical to pay a lower interest rate to investors who buy the bonds.

The bond sale will require final approval from the Redevelopment Authority board after a public hearing, Welch said. That hearing has not yet been scheduled. It marks the first such bond issue by Wauwatosa since 1998, she said. However, Milwaukee and other cities are routinely involved in such bond sales.

Sushi bar to open on Mayfair Road

8:50 a.m. | A sushi restaurant is planning to open on Mayfair Road in mid-April.

Ginza Sushi Bar is set to occupy a 2,000-square-foot space in 1 Mayfair Place, 2727 Mayfair Road. It will be owned by Fang Ping Xiao, who's already known to Wauwatosa diners as the owner No. 1 Chinese Restaurant on 61st Street and North Avenue.

In addition to raw fish dishes, the bar will serve cocktails. The Common Council on March 2 approved issuing Xiao licenses to sell beer and liquor at the business.

St. Pat's Day to bring extra police patrols

March 16, 2010 6:06 p.m. | Call a taxi, designate a driver, walk or take a bus. Those are safe methods of transportation from bars, restaurants and parties after celebrating St. Patrick's Day on Wednesday.

"We want people not to drink and drive," Wauwatosa police Lt. Tim Sharpee said. "There's got to a better way to get home."

For those people who are considering imbibing on St. Patrick's Day and getting behind the wheel, the Southeast Wisconsin Drunk Driving Task Force will have 119 squad cars stationed around the Milwaukee metropolitan area looking for impaired drivers.

Wauwatosa participates in that task force and will target areas around popular St. Pat's hangouts and high-traffic thoroughfares in the city. Using funds from grants to crack down on speeding, aggressive driving and drunken driving, more than a dozen officers will patrol the streets from 7 a.m. Wednesday to 3 a.m. Thursday.

Wauwatosa police also encourage people who see a drunken driver on the road to call the station for assistance.

Leff's employee arrested after brawl at bar

March 16, 2010 12:32 p.m. | An employee of Leff's Lucky Town was arrested for disorderly conduct after police say she instigated a fight that left two people battered at the bar early Sunday morning.

She was fired immediately following the incident, bar owner Chris Leffler said.

We do not tolerate this activity in Leff's," he said.

According to Wauwatosa police:

A 29-year-old woman, an off-duty employee, got angry when she was bumped by a female patron at 12:21 a.m. March 14. They women exchanged words, then the patron was pulled from her bar stool by the employee's boyfriend and dragged across the floor.

Two arrested for multiple thefts at Mayfair

March 16, 2010 8:50 a.m. | Two people - one an employee and one a patron - were arrested for repeated thefts at stores in Mayfair Mall in separate incidents over the past week.

According to Wauwatosa police:

The first arrest came March 8 at Abercrombie & Fitch, when a 20-year-old Milwaukee man who worked for there set off the theft alarm when he left for the night. He had a bag with two pairs of jeans and a leather jacket, which still had the security tag on it. Since store policy stipulates all employee purchases had to be rung up by a manager, his boss was suspicious.

It soon was determined that he had taken 67 items, valued at $3,437, since Dec. 1. He told officers that he had been selling the items to friends for cash to help his out-of-work parents make ends meet.

In an unrelated incident, a 33-year-old Milwaukee woman was arrested for retail theft after she tried to return dresses she had just pulled from the sales floor at Macy's at 3:25 p.m. Wednesday.

Man robbed at knifepoint outside his home

March 16, 2010 7:54 a.m. | A young man was robbed at knifepoint in front of his home Wednesday evening.

According to Wauwatosa police:

As the 21-year-old victim was pulling into the driveway in the 600 block of Elm Spring Avenue about 10 p.m., he saw a man walking on the sidewalk.

He opened the door to the back seat and leaned in to collect some belongings. When he stood up, he realized the man was directly behind him displaying a pocket knife.

The robber grabbed the man's grocery bag, tore it and items fell on the ground. Then he poked the tip of the knife into the victim's side and demanded money.

Two charged in beating of Tosa cross country runners

March 15, 2010 2:30 p.m. | The two Brookfield men suspected of attacking four Wauwatosa West High School cross country runners last fall have been charged with disorderly conduct.

Charges were filed last week in Waukesha County Circuit Court against David Jameson and Jonathan Bibb, both 18-year-old Brookfield residents. The two are accused of beating four Wauwatosa West students Oct. 21 while the athletes were on a routine practice run through Brookfield's Lamplighter Park.

The charges, brought by Assistant Waukesha District Attorney Kevin Osborne, are considered a class B misdemeanor and carry a maximum penalty of $1,000, 90 days in jail or both.

Charges against a third suspect, who is 16, were filed in Children's Court last week by Waukesha County District Attorney Ted Szczupakiewicz, but a request for information had not been processed as of NOW's press deadline.

According to the criminal complaint against Jameson and Bibb and Brookfield police reports:

Wauwatosa schedules meeting on Waukesha's Lake Michigan water plan

March 15, 2010 11:04 a.m. | Waukesha officials will discuss a pending application to buy Lake Michigan water and discharge treated wastewater to Underwood Creek at a public information meeting scheduled from 5 to 7 p.m. March 22 in the Firefly Room at the Wauwatosa Public Library, 7635 W. North Ave.

Waukesha has proposed distributing about 10.9 million gallons of lake water a day to meet the average daily demand of customers after 2035. The city is seeking lake water as a substitute for radium-contaminated water pumped out of the city's deep sandstone wells.

A Great Lakes protection compact requires a community that diverts water out of the lake's drainage basin to return most of it back to the lake as treated wastewater.

The city's draft application recommends discharging Waukesha's treated wastewater to Underwood Creek at W. Blue Mound Road. The creek flows through Wauwatosa to its confluence with the Menomonee River.

Waukesha's wastewater would not degrade the stream's water quality or spur algae growth, according to a consultant hired by the city.

Trojans' season ends in regional final

March 13, 2010 8:59 p.m. | For the 10th consecutive season, the Wauwatosa West girls basketball team's season has ended short of the sectional.

And for the second straight season, the Divine Savior Holy Angels Dashers extended the Trojans' streak.

DSHA's Kelly Brandenburg scored 15 points to lead her team to a 46-38 victory over West (17-7) in a regional final at DSHA on Saturday.

The Dashers (17-7) broke the game open with a 15-0 run from the end of the second quarter into the third, a run that snapped an 18-18 tie. DSHA never led by fewer than seven points the rest of the way.

The Trojans struggled to get into an offensive flow. Through three quarters, they had 16 turnovers compared to 20 shot attempts.

Republican Party hosts Tosa candidate forum

March 11, 2010 3:58 p.m. | Candidates running for seats on the Wauwatosa Common Council will present their views about city issues during a debate at 7 p.m. March 24 at the Wauwatosa Women's Club, 1626 N. Wauwatosa Ave.

Candidates from the contested races in districts 1, 2, 3 and 8 will answer questions posed by the local branch of the Republican Party of Milwaukee County.

The public is invited to attend.

Ann Phillips wins honor for Ronald McDonald House 'secret garden'

March 11, 2010 3:56 p.m. | Wauwatosa resident Ann Phillips has been chosen as the International Society of Arboriculture Gold Leaf Award recipient for her work in the garden of the local Ronald McDonald House.

She has led a group of fellow Master Gardeners in creating and maintaining "the secret garden," a place of comfort and solitude for families dealing with a seriously ill child. Plantings, a gazebo, wishing pond and pathways are some of the amenities of the private, walled garden.

She will receive the award April 12 at the Ronald McDonald House on Watertown Plank Road.

Help us choose the All-Suburban teams and you could win Bucks tickets

March 11, 2010 7:21 a.m. | Want to weigh in on who you think are the best boys and girls basketball players in the suburban area?

Now's your chance, as we're asking high school hoops fans to help us select the annual NOW Newspapers All-Suburban boys and girls basketball teams, and the Players of the Year.

We've nominated the top players in the area to fill 10 spots on each honors team and we're asking you to pick the players that you think are the best in the NOW Newspapers coverage area.

When the fan voting is over, your votes - along with the votes of our sports staff - will determine the makeup of our All-Suburban Teams. And one lucky person will win a pair of lower-level tickets to a Milwaukee Bucks game just for voting!

Vote for the boys team

Brookfield man charged with sexual assault of Falls teen

March 10, 2010 6:22 p.m. | A 48-year-old Brookfield man has been charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl he met at a Menomonee Falls gas station.

According to a copy of a criminal complaint, Sunil K. Singh talked the Menomonee Falls girl into getting into a car Saturday before getting her drunk, groping her and driving to an apartment building in the 11000 block of W. Meinecke Ave. in Wauwatosa.

According to the complaint, Singh threatened to kill the girl before dragging her by the wrist into the basement of the building, where he beat her and forced her into sex.

The girl managed to escape to a nearby apartment, where a resident called police.

Singh admitted to police that he provided the girl with alcohol, had sex with her and slapped her several times to keep her from crying.

Wauwatosa East vs. Oak Creek girls basketball photos now online

March 09, 2010 9:56 p.m. | We've just posted a photo gallery from tonight's first-round girls basketball tournament game between host Oak Creek, a fifth seed, and 12th-seeded Wauwatosa East.

Oak Creek posted a 53-29 victory over the Red Raiders to move to the second round. The Knights will play at No. 4 King at 5 p.m. on Saturday.

See NOW photojournalist Peter Zuzga's photo gallery.