Continuing our February "Transportation" theme, we are scheduled to have a speaker on light rail transit for our next program. A lot has been said about the possibility and maybe we'll hear some of the specifics. From what our most recent speaker said, the roads are going to need help.

At our last meeting, ROSS ROYSTER was our Interim TailTwister again, and he outdid himself this time. Each member could either contribute a bit of news or information about themselves, or pay a fine. In the process, we learned a lot, some of it quite interesting, and ROSS still seemed to come out all right on fines. DAN STOUDT said the Rose Day Committee will meet in the Edgewater Bar next Tuesday at 11 AM, before he leaves for Florida. DALE MUELLER said he was in his 49th year as a Realtor. President LINDA let us know she was actually going to miss a meeting in 3 weeks because she was going to Las Vegas. GEORGE ALBRIGHT said it was his last day of work - he's retiring from DNR! ED NEESE noted that he's been retired for 15 years - your Editor swears he hasn't changed a bit. PHIL STOWITTS said the last two years of retirement were enough for him and he's gone back to work as a Cadillac-Hummer salesman at Bergstrom. ALEX WONG wished everyone a Happy New Year, because the Chinese New Year is next week, beginning the "Year of the Rooster." (OK, we cleaned that one up a little.) TOM STEVENS rose to the occasion by wishing ALEX a Happy New Year -in Chinese! JOHN JENSON impersonated JERRY MILLER, and no one would have been able to tell except for his accent. MELISSA ABBOTT had some great news - she's staying! She's now working with David Grams & Assoc., Attorneys. JERRY MILLER announced new menu items, pork and barbeque, at North American Rotisserie. And MELISSA NOVINSKI topped ‘em all with the revelation that their 3-year-old son had just discovered that there is a difference between boys and girls. All of that should have netted the TT a big haul!

President LINDA opened the meeting, Pres. LINDA directed the song (we sounded pretty good, with the Editor listening, not singing) and Pres. LINDA gave the invocation. In the process we learned that "Bishop" BOB BOHN has been hospitalized at Mayo's. No details - we hope he's all right. We also learned that new member RALPH JOHNSON has been battling pneumonia. Get better soon! We have also heard, via the Internet, that SCOTT GROVER's mother passed away a day or two ago. Our sympathy is extended to SCOTT - keep all three of our Lion friends in your thoughts and prayers.

President LINDA announced that, at the last moment, the company promoting the Monopoly-type board game that we were attempting to sponsor as a fundraiser awarded it to someone else. Bummer. We had a great committee ready to go, but maybe we can come up with something else to employ those talents.

JIM BRADLEY introduced our speaker, Mike Slaveny, of Vandewalle Assoc., who brought Makela Mangrich with him to help with the presentation. They showed us the planning process that has gone on for roads in Dane County. We've never heard a program with so much information well presented in so little time, but a couple of things stood out. One, Mike said "you can't outbuild growth." Some of our traffic situations, like the Beltline, are as good as they will get, and solutions lie in "demand management." That means finding alternatives to cars, diffusing the traffic over more routes, and using such things as flex hours to spread the vehicles out. Two, we saw the immense detail that goes in to planning things like the North Mendota corridor, where preservation of green space and rural atmosphere must be balanced with factors such as centers of employment and homes for the people who come here seeking our "quality of life." Your Editor was reminded of Pogo's famous saying, "we have met the enemy, and he is us!" He also pointed out that the options for North Mendota decrease as time passes and more development occurs, and yet there is no funding available to begin such a project now. They have planned out 50 years, all of the jurisdictions in the area have participated, there have been 27 public meetings, and it is projected that over the next 40 years the population of 50,000 in the affected area will double, to 100,000. All those people will have houses, and cars, and the faster the area grows the more traffic it produces. Even flooding in Lake Mendota will be affected - it is five times easier for water to enter Lake Mendota than to leave thru the Yahara River, and when Mendota floods, the other lakes in the chain also flood in succession, 3-5 days later.

He also highlighted the problem of the Verona Road - Beltline Interchange, the busiest in the area. It is presently an Urban Interchange, meaning stop lights. About the only way to allow it to handle more traffic is to convert it to a Freeway Interchange, at which cars, even those making left and right turns, do not have to stop. Obviously, this would require major reconstruction, and frontage roads, crossovers, and neighborhood access all have to be included, and to do this, the main road may have to go into a giant trench. Shades of Boston's "Big Dig!" If it is built, it will not be until about 2012-2015.