• Milwaukee is introducing new flood prevention measures after experiencing historic rainfall.
• The city will require residents to bag leaves for pickup instead of raking them into the street.
• A set monthly street sweeping schedule will be implemented on streets that allow parking on both sides.
• The new leaf policy will start in the fall, but the street sweeping changes could take up to three years to fully implement.

After a month of historic rainfall in Milwaukee, the city’s Department of Public Works is introducing two measures aimed at assisting in flood prevention.

The city will transition to bagged leaf pickup in the fall and will implement a set monthly street sweeping schedule on the city’s “exception streets” that allow parking on both sides.

The new leaf bagging policy changes Milwaukee’s current leaf collection policy of asking residents to rake leaves into the street for pick-up.

Leaders from the Department of Public Works discussed the measures and fielded questions from council members at the city’s Public Works Committee meeting April 29. Many of the questions were related to concerns over flooding across the city, and what more could be done to stop it.

Several council members voiced frustrations shared by residents in their districts who have repeatedly experienced flooding that impacts their homes and workplaces.

“When we add up all of this pain and suffering, there is a major impact to the city of Milwaukee,” said Ald. Marina Dimitrijevic, who represents the 14th Distrtict.

Milwaukee City Engineer Kevin Muhs said city leaders are still working out logistics for the changing protocols for leaf pick-up and street sweeping, but wanted to give residents a heads-up that the new measures will be coming.

The new leaf pick-up will start in the fall, while the change in street sweeping schedule will likely take at least a year to fully implement – and potentially as long as three years – as it will require paying for and installing new signage across 25% of the city, Department of Public Works Commissioner Jerrel Kruschke said.

The street sweeping change will be a gradual roll-out, impacting some streets before others, Department of Public Works spokesperson Tiffany Shepherd said. Vehicles that illegally park during the monthly street sweeping on the “exception streets” will be ticketed and towed.

The announcement of the new measures come after a record-breaking April rainfall for Milwaukee. From April 1-28, Milwaukee logged 9.39 inches of rain surpassing its April record – from NOAA data available since 2000 – of 7.38 inches, set in 2013.

April storms caused about 2.7 billion gallons of sewer water to flow into local waterways and Lake Michigan – a part of Milwaukee’s Deep Tunnel system that prevents backups in resident basements, Kruschke said.

The changes to leaf pick-up and street sweeping aim to reduce a contributing factor to flooding, since leaf debris can clog sewer drains and catch basins.

Kruschke said that during 2025-26 leaf pick-up, the city collected 13,569 tons of leaves – about 1,500 tons more than the previous year. However, he said, DPW crews were not able to access leaves in many areas of the city where vehicles are permitted to park on both sides of the street.

He pushed back against the notion that the city isn’t doing enough for leaf clean-up and other types of flood prevention.

“Our staff has been working around the clock, 12-hour days, pretty much nonstop, basically since October,” Kruschke said.

“Mother Nature has not been our friend in April, period,” he said.

In addition to rolling out changes to leaf pick-up and street sweeping, the Department of Public Works is partnering with the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District on projects throughout the Milwaukee area, and continues to seek opportunities to improve stormwater management, Muhs said.

“We’ve not just been sitting around. … Obviously, the Deep Tunnel is the most siginificant initial investment in managing water drain routes in the city’s history, but that type of work is continuing to happen,” Muhs said.

Milwaukee’s intense rain leads to 2.7 billion gallons of sewage released

Kevin Shafer, MMSD executive director, said among those projects is the construction of a 30-million gallon stormwater basin at North 35th Street and West Capitol Drive that, along with two other basins completed in 2018, will slowly drain water from major storms into Lincoln Creek. Another project underway, in partnership with Milwaukee County, is carving a basin in Jackson Park to store floodwater before it moves into the Kinnickinnic River.

Each project costs $40 million to $50 million, Shaker said. MMSD began accelerating them after the city’s August 2025 record-breaking rainfall.

“We’re going to need them six, seven years from now,” he said.

Still, Shafer acknowledged that Milwaukee’s recent severe rainfall totals from April 2026 and August 2025 are more than the city’s infrastructure has been able to handle.

“We’ve got great partnershps throughout the communities, but 15 inches of rain, 7 inches of rain – there’s no system in the country that can handle that much rainfall,” he said.

Contact Kelli Arseneau at (920) 213-3721 or karseneau@gannett.com. Follow her on X at @ArseneauKelli.

• The Milwaukee School Board approved a phased cost-of-living raise for Milwaukee Public Schools staff.
• Staff will receive a 1.5% wage increase in July and another 1.13% increase in January, totaling 2.63%.
• The teachers union had pushed for the full 2.63% raise to be implemented in July.
• The union has filed a complaint, arguing the district has not bargained in good faith.

Milwaukee Public Schools teachers and other staff will receive cost‑of‑living raises next school year under a plan the Milwaukee School Board approved April 28, but not on the timeline the teachers union had pushed.

Following about two and a half hours in closed session, the board voted 7-1 to implement a 1.5% wage increase for staff starting in July and another 1.13% increase in January. Board member Mimi Reza voted against the plan, while Katherine Vannoy recused herself.

The cumulative 2.63% raise matches the rate of inflation and is the maximum amount the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association can bargain for under state law. The union and the district had negotiated the raises for over two months but failed to reach an agreement.

Superintendent Brenda Cassellius has said delaying a portion of the wage increases would save MPS money as it faces a $46 million budget deficit. The inflationary raises for MTEA-represented employees are estimated to cost about $10.6 million.

“Tonight’s Board vote shows we value our employees and their commitment to our students while also building a budget that will help us restore the district’s fiscal standing,” Cassellius said in a statement. “There were no easy decisions here, however we are ultimately bringing employees to a full 2.63% increase by January while maintaining our obligation to present a balanced budget to the Board next month.”

The district previously presented two other options to the union, including plans that would have delayed raises until January for some or all employees. The plan that board members approved gives workers the largest wage increase among the three options, said Robert Sanders, a city attorney who served as bargaining counsel for MPS.

The union’s sole ask, however, was to receive the full 2.63% hike to base wages by July 1. Union members had demanded MPS officials accept the MTEA’s offer in various protests throughout April.

The union presented no other options, Sanders told the board. He said the district then sought mediation, and the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission declared the parties at an impasse. The district put forth the phased raises as its final offer, which the union rejected.

“The district appreciates MTEA’s engagement throughout this process,” Sanders said. “While MTEA did not provide a counter proposal, the views and concerns MTEA shared informed the district’s decision to identify (this) option as its best and final offer.”

School boards may unilaterally implement a final wage offer after a mediator declares an impasse, though the move is risky because it could potentially violate labor law for failure to bargain in good faith, according to information from the Wisconsin Association of School Boards.

The teachers union already filed a complaint with the state’s employment relations commission on April 24, arguing the district mishandled the negotiations and misrepresented the savings associated with its proposals to the public.

“It is our hope that through this Prohibited Practices complaint to and in mediation with WERC, MPS will be compelled to bargain in good faith with MTEA and to be honest with our community,” MTEA President Ingrid Walker-Henry said in a statement April 27.

Walker-Henry previously said MPS staff have regularly received raises to match cost-of-living inflation over the last seven years, and such increases are necessary to stabilize retention and recruitment. Union leaders have said the MTEA’s preferred proposal would cost about $2.2 million more than the district’s plan.

The latest inflationary raises apply to all employees represented by the union, including teachers, paraprofessionals, school nurses, social workers and interpreters, among others. The district said it also intends to ask the board to extend the increases to employees who are not represented by MTEA, similar to how MPS has handled raises in past years.

Kayla Huynh covers K-12 education, teachers and solutions for the Journal Sentinel. Contact: khuynh@gannett.com. Follow her on X: @_kaylahuynh.

Kayla’s reporting is supported by Herb Kohl Philanthropies and reader contributions to the Journal Sentinel Community-Funded Journalism Project. Journal Sentinel editors maintain full editorial control over all content. To support this work, visit jsonline.com/support. Checks can be addressed to Local Media Foundation (memo: “JS Community Journalism”) and mailed to P.O. Box 85015, Chicago, IL 60689.

Three Milwaukee teenagers are charged with felony murder in the Walker’s Point fatal shooting of a 35-year-old man April 14.

Milwaukee prosecutors issued charges of murder and attempted armed robbery in the killing of David Krause, which prosecutors and family said followed the man’s celebration of the city’s 414 Day celebration and asking the youth for a ride during the day’s heavy storms.

Milwaukee police said those arrested include a 16-year-old boy, a 14-year-old boy, a 15-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl. The girl was released without any charges being immediately filed, according to a children’s court official, while the other three are charged.

A Milwaukee County Court Commissioner ruled each of the three charged teens will remain in custody ahead of their next court proceedings.

Krause’s mother, Diane Krause, described her son’s killing as a “monstrous act” and a “senseless crime” during an April 28 court hearing for one of the teenagers.

Krause had been celebrating 414 Day when he was dropped off at a Walker’s Point gas station and later asked a group of teens for a ride during the day’s heavy rains, according to his mother and a juvenile petition, the charging document, filed against one of the teenagers.