Eyesores – the old SuperAmerica (SA)
This place should just be tore down. It is a terrible eyesore. Being right downtown makes it that much worse. I have been in Two Angels restaurant more than once hearing people complain about it. I’m sure by now the underground tanks would have to be updated before ever being used again. I don’t imagine this would be cheap. And if not being used as a gas station, the tanks would probably have to be pulled out of the ground as a safety measure. Before you know it, the taxpayers will be paying the bill for demolition. How sad is that!?
This city needs a “master plan” to bring it into the new millenium. The Chamber of Commerce is a joke in that it is an entitty in name only. City government is not considering the long term needs of the community.
Good ideas are often shot down in favor of the status quo. Antigo needs to break it’s cycle of comfort living and look to the future to attract professional people along with investors to provide a higher standard of living.
People balk at a tax increase, but a simple sales tax that goes directly to funding a master plan, I believe, would be pallatable to the people.
If as much time and effort were spent to invest in Antigo instead of where we can buy our next 12 pack, Antigo would be a shining beacon in the northwoods of Wisconsin.
Its easy to say that a “simple” tax increase is pallatable if you are independantly wealthy. The rest of “beer drinking po’ folK” are to busy trying to stomach the insane increase in property assesments and taxes throughout the past 5 years. This year my property assesment increased by $12,000. If the city had the $12,000 in cash, they could have the whole house.
Not sure if it’s true, but I heard a rumor that the gas tanks contain lead…so the ground itself is contaminated. They really can’t do much with it if that’s the case.
You wanna talk about eyesores look at the Antigo Hotel…The police frequent there quite often. I’ve seen them doing raid for drugs there all the time …have ya ever been in there? I went in there once to see what it was like it was filthy the owner was outside swearing up and down at a tenant while kids were outside across the way playing no respect for others
i think the owner should be cited for such acts and cited as well for as many times our police officers have to waist there time going there
you should post a blog about slum lords Rick&Judy Now are 2 of the biggest in town they wont fix nothing if the do they rig it up they have drunks/drug addicts shovel snow for rent at Antigo Hotel but yet they have everybody in there back pocket its a shame when White Trash get a lil fortune
you know, I propably would stomach a tax increase to make a “master plan” for Antigo, but it would have to come with some kind of, I don’t know, more involvement from citizens. I’ve seen too many BS projects wasting our money, with no regard to how and why this will help improve the community.
We seem to have a big town mentality with a small town budget.
But then again, why should we continue to pay for the misdirection of our leaders. The city needs to bring in “big business”, not another retail store that no one can afford to shop at or another gas station convience store. Good jobs with good pay..the rest would fall into place.
This town is dying and I am afraid that unless something changes and changes soon, we will soon be a ghost town.
EXACTLY! I would also be willing to pay, but not for another huge mistake! I often wonder “what are they thinking?” Antigo is failing because, as ALEXIS says: we have no big business here anymore and it seems that no one is actively pursuing any either! Cut some deals people! Do whatever it takes to get new business and the rest will take care of itself. As for the small business, they are not well supported, because there is NO PLACE to park, no sufficient advertising to tourists passing through and no easy access to get to them, even if you wanted to! It seems like the goal of the Antigo “powers that be” is to get tourists through town as quickly as possible. What is obvious to make them slow down? Stop? Get out? 45 is nothing but broken down boring buildings that are either empty or not worth turning your head for. Then, bam you are on the north side and what is there? More broken down empty building and whoopee … a WalMart and a Fleet farm … keep driving! Look how hard it has been for those two women to get the roller skating rink going! That would be great for Antigo’s kids and bring in lots of business from the surrounding areas too. They can’t even get a decent rate on buildings that have been sitting empty for years!
What do y’all think of the new playground on 6th & Field Streets?? Yes, it is very nice looking, but these little unsupervised brats in this town will have it broken & defaced in no time. The problem has never been no place for the kids to play……or nothing to do. Kids now days have wayyyyy more than they need. Good, well-behaved children will FIND something to do, playground or no playground…But the many unsupervised “little darlings” whose parents don’t care where they are or what they’re doing & run wild will be the ones to frequent the new playground & subsequently destroy it, board by board. When you have a police scanner, you hear alot that does not make the paper & things you never knew even happen. You’d be amazed at the vandalism & mayhem perpetrated by youngsters in Antigo & I’m not talking just teens. We have numerous play areas in town. The City Park, Lake Park, Mendlik Park, Deleglise & 2nd(?) Avenue, all the schools have playground equipment & I’m sure there are ones that elude me right now.
I wish the money that was donated for this playground would have been donated to some place or organization that ,in my opinion,would have used it more wisely. Like the animal shelter. They are constantly in need of kitty litter, animal food,bleach, clothes soap, softener ,printer paper,etc.
What about the old junk yard behind KFC? Hill Hannie used to own it(he’s deceased) but it has sat unused for many years now. Who owns it now & why hasn’t something been done to clean that mess up?? It looks like a ghetto.
That mess has been cleaned upin the last couple of years, as has Karl’s Quality Auto. The problem with the old junkyard you are referring to is that it is in the county, not city limits. Therefore it is not subject to the city ordinances regarding keeping it clean. The county has much more lenient rules regarding junk. It likely would have been ok in the city as it was fenced in.
On a side note, it looks like Mike’s Service Center has been cleaned up a little bit. Not enough yet, but its a start.
How can it be under the jurisdiction of the county?? It’s right behind KFC on North Ave(?) Thats IN the city!
It might be because of how long it’s been there. If it’s been there 40-50 years, that land used to be county. But as it got developed the new buildings were on “city” land. Possibly some never switched to city land? I have no idea if I’m right or not, just a guess.
there are many areas within the city limits that are not in the City, such as Dewan’s, Pomp’s, Blackjack. The limits of Antigo are not square and have been affected over the years by annexation. The easiest way to tell (in most cases) is to look for the blue address signs in front of houses that designate they are in the Town of Antigo, not the City of Antigo. The strangest one is on Ackley Street between the old folks home and Mepp’s. One house in the County completely surrounded by the City. I’m glad I don’t have to figure out which is which on a daily basis. What a mess!
The milk, orange juice, and lunch meat still in the old Super America freezers/coolers must be fairly ripe by now.. If you look in the windows the coolers were still stocked.
I have heard that the city recieved a stimulas from the government of around a 1,000,000$ and they are using it to build a very expensive trail along crap creek. Im sure it will get very little use.(whats to see) There are no fish in there. And when they stock it they let them all out in the spring when they open the dam. Im sure they have good intentions ,but instead of giving the money to duffeks and some out of town companys to have it built,Maybe they should use it to get rid of the old super america and the tanks before it ends up in our gtound water. Or maybe dril some new wells(the water does suck in this town) This is what the money is intended for It seems the wealthy who are running this town need to get their prioritys strait. They wast money on stupid stuff and then want to raise our taxes to do what should have been done years ago.
Nice to see all these wonderful comments being made to the Mayor and council members at the monthly meetings held so that people can speak their opinions in an open forum. Trust me, they laugh at blogs because of the inaccurrate information that is perpetuated in them. Show up at the meetings and make a difference. Saying nothing gets you nowhere, so does not voting. City government has a limit to what they can and cannot do with your tax dollars. They cannot “bring” big businesses or factories, they can only give tax breaks to those who want to start a business or factory here. Get educated on how government really works, they step up and change what you don’t like.
Funny, I quit going to meetings when they would no longer let you speak without prior approval.
It’s kinda hard to talk about unsetteling issues when they won’t let you open your mouth.
Did I hear something recently that the prior approval requirement for speaking has been deemed illegal???????? How ironic.
You are mistaken Alexis or you are speaking of the county meetings. Council meetings you do have to sign in and state if you comments regard something on the agenda or not. That has been in the council rules for over 10 years but was not enforced until Mike Matousek became mayor. No one approves or disapproves of the topic, you get to speak and have 5 minutes to do so. This allows EVERYONE a chance to be heard and not just a chosen few. If you stopped coming to meetings because they would not let you speak without prior approval I am not sure what meetings you were going to. Even a committee meeting which has an open forum for speaking has a “other topics” section where the public can bring a topic forward for discussion and referral to an agenda. I will grant you that it can be a hard process to get your voice heard sometimes and frustrating to say the least, but my frustration comes in with the lack of action on topics that can be solved but aren’t. Everyone has an idea how to fix a problem right until they find out the trust cost to the taxpayer, then it all falls apart. Tilting at windmills I guess.
Show up at meetings and get better information. There are going to be a lot of choices regarding the refacing of the downtown area coming soon! Such as layout of parking and things. 5th ave will be completely reconstructed in summer of 2013, with the complete design done and in place by Aug. 2012 (after the Hwy 64 bypass is completed)