Mowing grass on public lands sparks debates in Franklin
Franklin residents do enjoy hopping on or using their lawnmowers. So much so, it seems, that a few residents have sparked controversies with their mowing over the past few weeks.
Patriotism was running high with a Franklin man the other week when he made the individual decision to take action with his lawnmower in neighboring Muskego. After seeing a news report on TV, Jordan Wenzel, Sr. decided something needed to be done with a Civil War cemetery that is maintained by the City of Muskego's Parks and Recreation Department. So, lawnmower with him, he mowed "approximately 3/4 the vegetation there" per the JSOnline news story covering the consequences of this decision. The consequences being the City of Muskego Police Department fining him $500 for violating a city regulation regarding the cutting of trees and plants.
Mr. Wenzel isn't the only Franklinite doing controversial mowing of grass.
Several weeks back, the City of Franklin decided to take action near Pleasant View Elementary School against residents who have been mowing trails on public lands directly to the east of the school (see photo on left taken by Tim Burch as part of the naming campaign for the trail). Despite a recently constructed trail that connects Pleasant View to the Victory Creek subdivision to the south, residents have continued to mow separate paths on the public lands in what they argue as accommodating other needs - such as Franklin Cross Country teams, dog mushers, birdwatchers and other groups who utilize non-asphalt trail networks for more natural (or health) reasons.
Both Wenzel and the residents involved with the natural trails are fighting their cases. Wenzel is getting a growing number of supporters on Facebook for his upcoming court case, and is rumored to have a prominent Milwaukee-area attorney defending him. As for the residents carving out natural trails near Pleasant View, there's a meeting tonight to discuss the future of this situation. For some history, a few years back Alderwoman Kristen Wilhelm brought the trails forward for discussion and naming. The popular name - chosen by the community (mostly the people who utilize them) - was Birchbender. The name combines the primary two individuals responsible for the mowing - Tim Burch and Mike Fassbender. Sad and unfortunate, however, that the legislation got stalled in the Council chambers after then-Alderwoman Janet Evans strongly objected over the name, citing the name Birchbender as being an evil/devilish character or item in a video game. FT points out that Alderwoman Evans must not have used Google very well - for when Googling "birchbender" today - the main thing that pops up isn't anything evil, but rather Birch Bender pancake mix. "Our gluten free pancakes are so good, you won't even miss the wheat!" is their motto.
Perhaps Evans views gluten-free pancakes as devilish deeds, but that's pure speculation and FT digresses.
On Facebook, both cases were/are rather hot topics. Oddly enough, the Birchbender situation received far more flack from people than what Wenzel did, despite the situations being very similar - both cases involve private individuals going on public lands and mowing without permission from their respective cities. The only difference is Wenzel mowed a Civil War-era cemetery that was clearly marked with a warning to the public not to cut or mow the area, whereas the Birchbender trail is purely for nature or sport/athletics with no notice posted until recently.
It remains to be seen how both situations get resolved, but at the end of the day one thing should be made very clear - private citizens shouldn't be mowing public lands without permission from the public governmental body responsible for those lands.