If I recall, the school district boundaries are coming up for state review around 2012 or so. Also, around that time the Hwy 26 expansion is going to limit Milton school bus access for Janesville's east side routes, therefore at that time the cost would not be feasible to continue school bus routes to Janesville; this was already forthcoming due to the high cost of fuel. The state school board is conducting ongoing discussions to redraw the boundaries, placing all of the east side residents of Janesville in the Janesville School District. The Janesville School District will benefit greatly from the increase in tax revenue and Milton will not expand or build a new high school.

Sorry, not a meeting tonight, but last night.

I live in this green area in question between Milton and Janesville. My address is in Harmony Township, my children go to Milton HS, and I hope I never see the annexation of Milton into Janesville. I say this because I have heard Mr. Cantrell personally say one of his goals is to annex Milton into the City of Janesville during the Comprehensive Planning meetings at Marshall Middle School.
The groundwater recharge area for this region begins at the end of my driveway and extends for roughly 3 square miles towards Milton, and is paved over by HWY 26; the area to the north of the HWY has been purchased by COJ with plans to develop new neighborhoods.
I will not rest while COJ pushes to develop everything except the existing infrastructure of the city. I will not rest until the recharge area is made the border of growth for COJ, and I will work with anyone who is interested in maintaining a green corridor between COJ and Milton.
I encourage anyone with a voice who feels the same to attend the meeting tonight to show support against COJ forcing Milton into a corner on this issue.

how about making the farmers live in town, tear down their farmhouses and return that land to the natural state? If I have to drive to work every day then why shouldn't they?

RockEvironmentalNetwork -- So is Julie writing on this blog or is someone representing the Network writing it? Just curious.

localmatters, I logged in as RockEnvironmentalNetwork, instead of a generic login, to provide full disclosure.

I wonder how much the business lobbying group, forward janesville, has to do with this. Many of their members make money from construction jobs like a school.

Can we assume that RockEnvironmentalNetwork is speaking for (or is) Julie who's running for city council? Full disclosure would be nice.

they dont care if people move. lose jobs. they get tax money from the places that hold the loans on our homes. money will never be a problem. to raise taxs to pay for projects weather schools,bike paths,ice rinks. if we keep voting for people that could not find water if they fell from a boat.

REN - Right On!! Urban sprawl is out of control. We need to be looking "downtown" for future housing needs.

Growth into the Town of Harmony will be controlled only if THE RESIDENTS OF JANESVILLE take notice of what is happening, and elect COUNCIL MEMBERS THAT ARE PAYING ATTENTION TO WHAT “CITY OFFICIALS” ARE RECOMMENDING TO OUR NEIGHBORING COMMUNITIES! Since the Comp Plan, is “ONLY A PLAN” ACCORDING TO OUR INCUMBANTS, then the recommendations made by Cantrell are to be disregarded by the Milton School District, until such a time, that the “plan” is amended by those with a vision for the future, which includes our surrounding towns & farmers that ACTUALLY FARM THE LAND to feed our growing population – not landowners with the intention of developing the property, for their own personal financial gain. As residents of Janesville, it is our responsibility to question the motives of our "Official" - we have been told that the City will "not grow to the NE, because our plan talks about infill and housing demand and our shrinking population will not warrant such growth.” Yet here he is asking our neighbors to allocate funds for a new high school so that we now have an excuse to grow into these lands, requiring infrastructure, a water tower, ETC, .... when does it stop?? What happened to working with the County and surrounding Towns, Villages and Cities for a regional vision? If Cantell is successful, and Milton School District gets a referendum approval for a new high school, in conjunction with a OUR un-"smart growth" plan for Janesville, then we, as citizens of Rock County are the losers.

The comments from Cantrell, are in support of the recently adopted, highly controversial, comp plan, which allocates future growth of the City into our fertile working lands, which also happen to be in Milton’s School District. Growth on the NE side of town, DOES NOTHING TO REVITALIZE OUR INNER CITY NEIGHBORHOODS. To the contrary, it moves residents away from the heart of our City. IT DOES NOTHING TO PROTECT OUR FARMLAND FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS, or PROTECT OUR AQUIFIER (groundwater) or MAINTAIN HABITAT FOR WILDLIFE. It DOES NOTHING TO PROMOTE SUSTAINABILITY, support SMART GROWTH PLANNING, OR SAVE TAXPAYERS MILLION FOR INFRASTRUCTURE ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF TOWN, WHILE OUR INNER CITY’S STRUCTURES ARE CRUMBLING. According to the Janesville Comp Plan's INTERGOVERNMENTAL COOPERATION ELEMENT, planners were to have already discussed the plan's affect on adjacent municipalities, BEFORE THE PLAN WAS ADOPTED, another reason why this plan should have been DELAYED by the CURRENT COUNCIL - they ignored even a letter from the Governor's office! Bernie Nikolay, Milton School Superintendant, was unaware of implications of Janesville's plan on Milton’s School District, or the ag community, when I contacted him in Feb of 2009 – he stated that he had received a COPY of Janesville's Plan, but did not have a meeting scheduled with Cantrell until MARCH 16th - a full week AFTER the Council ADOPTED THE PLAN, and two weeks after Cantrell tried to get a CITY ORDINANCE SUSPENDED, to shove the plan through Council the end of Feb! Needless to say, the meeting with Milton School District was rescheduled to tonight - and I didn't realize it until reading this article, or I would have attended and contradicted Cantrell’s conclusions. Anyone that calls this planning, needs to go back to square one, and follow what has been happening with our comp plan! Cantrell suggests that Milton School District move forward with their referendum regarding a new high school, in response to Janesville's future growth on the NE side of town, based on a Comp Plan that contains OVER 10K ACRES OF FARMLAND that does not belong in the plan in the first place!

You know, school boards have to plan ahead for 18 to 24 years of growth, regardless of what is happening in any random 18 to 24 months.

Lets see how many of us are left here being able to pay taxes before we commit to building more golden palaces......

Putting the cart in front of the horse?? Just a bit I'd say. Lets see what happens in the next 18 to 24 months before we start spending what we don't have yet.