Four people have died from cold-related causes in the last three months in Milwaukee County, according to the medical examiner’s office, as homeless shelters and others brace for a weekend of brutal below-zero temperatures.

Temperatures are expected to be between 15 to 25 below zero with windchill from Sunday to Wednesday, raising concerns for advocates for people without housing and those who must find ways to stay warm.

“People go wherever they can to stay warm,” said Darlene Roots, who has lived in a tent in an encampment near King Park for roughly the last year, after being evicted from her apartment.

Roots has a homeless shelter to stay at during the upcoming cold, beginning at 7 p.m., but must be elsewhere in the afternoon, she said. During that time, she’ll find ways to stay warm back at her tent.

Roots intends to use hand warmers, blankets and potentially burn hand sanitizer to keep warm, she said.

The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office said four people have died from hypothermia or complications from hypothermia so far this winter.

An 82-year-old man was found dead in his home by police with temperatures between 26 to 50 degrees in late November. The home’s thermostat and many light switches were not working, according to medical examiner reports.

Three others, who were all homeless, died in December, including a 69-year-old found dead outdoors in a chair behind a business on Dec. 2, when temperatures ranged between 14 to 32 degrees.

Eleven days later, a 64-year-old woman was found outside on a sidewalk unresponsive and later died at the hospital. Temperatures ranged between 4 to 32 degrees that day, according to National Weather Service records.

That same day, a Milwaukee firefighter found a 56-year-old man dead in a vacant house.

“It’s a profound grief, especially under circumstances like that,” said Pat Vanderburgh, president at Milwaukee Rescue Mission, a homeless shelter. “First thought that people have is, ‘That didn’t have to happen.’”

The Milwaukee Rescue Mission operates an overflow shelter for men and another for single women or single women with children.

“If we’re at capacity, we will try to make room,” Vanderburgh said.

As the executive director of the homelessness organization Repairers of the Breach, James West has seen the daily struggles of people who experience homelessness: cold weather, limited shelter resources, among others.

Although there are resources for people experiencing homelessness, West said there should always be improvements, and community support is essential.

“It’s horrible,” he said of people dying in the cold. “The only way we can continue to do this is if the community decides to take care of the community.”

The Milwaukee Health Department advises people looking for shelter to call 211 or visit the website www.impactinc.org/impact-211/.

Where are the warming shelters in Milwaukee?

Here’s where you can find the warming centers in Milwaukee. Note that some centers are only open to certain groups, such as single men or single women.

• Guest House of Milwaukee, at 1216 N. 13th St. Open to single men.
• Unity Lutheran Church, at 1025 E. Oklahoma Ave. Open to singles and families.
• Tippecanoe Church, at 125 W. Saveland Ave. Does not accept walk-ins.
• Repairers of the Breach, at 1335 W. Vliet St. Open to singles.
• Milwaukee Rescue Mission Joy House, at 830 N. 19th St. Open to single woman and families.
• Milwaukee Rescue Mission Safe Harbor, at 830 N. 19th St. Open to single men after 10 p.m
• St. Benedict the Moor Parish, at 930 W. State St. Open to singles.

Eva Wen is a reporter at the Journal Sentinel. She can be reached at qwen@gannett.com

David Clarey is a public safety reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He can be reached at dclarey@gannett.com.

Milwaukee’s mayor nominated a leader of the city’s oldest civic group to the citizen oversight board for the police and fire departments this week.

Mayor Cavalier Johnson nominated Krissie Fung to the city’s Fire and Police Commission on Wednesday, a press release announced. Fung, the associate director of the civic organization the Milwaukee Turners, would fill the last open seat on the nine-person committee.

“I’m honored by the nomination and looking forward to getting to work, if confirmed,” Fung said on Friday.

Fung’s appointment, which would fill an opening left by Fred Crouther, requires Milwaukee Common Council approval.

Fung is also a board member of the Japanese American Citizen League of Wisconsin and has worked as an election inspector in Waukesha, New Berlin and Milwaukee, according to the release. Fung’s work with the Turner’s has involved the Zero Youth Corrections, a program that funds groups working on advocacy and policy issues that prevent the impact of the criminal and legal system on young people.

Before the common council’s decision, the city is holding a community meeting for the public to offer input on Fung’s nomination.

Residents interested in providing input can attend a Jan. 28 community meeting at Mitchell Street Library, 906 W. Historic Mitchell St., from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Virtual attendance is available as well, along with the option to email questions to fpc@milwaukee.gov.

The Fire and Police Commission is one of the oldest police oversight boards in the country and handles things like recruitment for the two departments and employee discipline appeals hearings. However, in 2023 its power to develop policies for the departments was stripped due to a state funding law, Wisconsin Act 12.

David Clarey is a public safety reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He can be reached at dclarey@gannett.com.

Summertime in Milwaukee will never be the same.

For the last 54 years, Bob Uecker’s voice let Milwaukeeans know that another long, cold winter had come to an end, that spring had finally arrived and with it, Milwaukee Brewers baseball and another summer of sunshine and warmer weather.

Uecker provided the soundtrack for those months, bringing Brewers games to fans as they made their way to summer cottages, enjoyed days on the lake or just relaxing in their own backyards.

This summer, though, will be different after Uecker passed away Thursday at the age of 90, following a brief and private battle with cancer.

“He’s really the heart of Milwaukee baseball,” Brewers owner Mark Attanasio said.

That might be an understatement because in many ways, Uecker epitomizes Milwaukee baseball.

Long before he called his first Brewers came in 1971, the Milwaukee native was a standout prep baseball player for Boys Tech High School. After graduating in 1956, he became the first local player signed by the hometown Milwaukee Braves, who brought him to the big leagues in 1961.

Uecker would spend six seasons in the majors and was part of a St. Louis Cardinals team that won the World Series in 1964. After closing out the 1967 season in Atlanta, where the Braves moved following the 1965 season, Uecker retired and started his broadcast career with WSB-TV.

Milwaukee, though, was always home and Uecker return to the city where he became a scout for the fledgling Brewers franchise, which Bud Selig had brought to town after a one-year run as an expansion team in Seattle.

While scouting wasn’t Uecker’s forte, Selig knew where his friend would shine and sent him up to the broadcast booth where he joined Merle Harmon and Tom Collins, a spot he’d never relinquish.

Along the way, Uecker’s natural gift for entertaining and comedy led to more than 100 appearances on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, who gave Uecker the nickname “Mr. Baseball,” syndicated shows like “Bob Uecker’s Wacky World of Sports,” a starring role in the ABC sitcom “Mr. Belvedere” and starring roles in classic films like “Major League.”

Oh, and enshrinement in baseball’s Hall of Fame.

But no matter where Uecker’s fame led him, he never strayed too far from his hometown and never considered giving up his “real job” with the Brewers, so much so that up until recently, he never worked under a contract.

“Every year we asked,” said president of business operations Rick Schlesinger. “And every year he said, ‘No, a handshake is good enough for me.’”

Uecker called some of the franchise’s greatest moments, including it’s first — and to this date, only — trip to the World Series in 1982 but was also behind the mic during a lot of forgettable years, during which his humor kept fans tuning in every night.

When the franchise’s fortunes started to turn for the better, Uecker was still there helping teach a new generation of players what it meant to play in Milwaukee and brining their successes to a new generation of fans.

“He had the unique ability to relate to all of us,” former Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun said. “He’d lived the game through our eyes. He understood how challenging a season could be at different times. And so to be able to go to him just to talk about life more so than baseball, was something that I think we all looked forward to. The season can get challenging. It can feel stressful at times. I think he was just a source of consistency and calm for all of us, and we valued his opinion, right? He just always had a unique ability to say the right thing, to give good advice, to make you laugh, to not take things as seriously and to just bring joy to our lives.”

The Brewers never made it back to the World Series before Uecker passed away and it will be somewhat bittersweet if they get there without him making the call, but time marches on and as different as it will be, so will the Brewers, who are planning ways to honor their franchise icon this season.

“Bob Uecker is not replaceable,” Attanasio said. “He was a true man of the people, without saying he was a man of people.”