Well, Folks… It’s the end of June and summer is here with a bit of a vengeance! I hope you are all weathering the heat and taking care of yourselves. Remember to hydrate!
This Committee Meetings Week there are numerous cancellations of meetings. This is due to the following week being the first week of July including our Independence Day holiday. This first full council meeting in July was cancelled way back in April. Each year, council members recognize that there are often many absences of staff members and fellow council members in early July — summer vacation time! — so the first council meeting in July is regularly preemptively cancelled. As such, here is your “slim-pickin’s” schedule for the week:
Monday, 06/23/2025
Municipal Services Committee – 4:30pmThere are four relatively simple requests for this committee’s consideration this week:
- A follow-up to a temporary evaluation period for a parking change (namely a 15-minute loading zone) on the 500 block of Johnston Street. According the to staff memo on this, the change was implemented for a 6-month trial and has seemed to work. So the committee is being asked to vote to make the changes permanent.
- A request for the permanent implementation of a bus loading zone in front of the Stephen Foster Elementary School on Foster Street.
- A request to approve a contract for the low-bid (also the only-bid) contractor for pavement marking (painting) throughout the city in the amount of $42,386. This amount is available in the city budget but is noted as about 4% higher than last year’s contract for the same volume of pavement marking work.
- A request to approve a long-term temporary occupancy permit for the exhaust on a temporary generator to be run across a sidewalk near the 222 Building (downtown Appleton). The plan is for the exhaust line to be run overhead on the north side of the sidewalk on Superior Street.
Finance Committee – 5:30pmThis meeting has been cancelled.
Parks and Recreation Committee – 6pmThis meeting has been cancelled.
Tuesday, 06/24/2025
Fox Cities Transit Commission – 2:50pmThe action items for consideration by these commissioners are 1) to approve the May 2025 payments for Valley Transit (VT) and 2) approval of a fairly expensive hardware and software package for all of the busses in the system.
The latter would be a contract for ~$329,000 for hardware to be installed on busses and ~$39,000 in software support/services through the year 2032. Federal capital grants would cover 80% of the hardware purchase with the rest coming through the local Valley Transit budget. The software/service would be paid for on a 60% federal/40% local split. While these are steep prices, we know that the existing equipment on the Valley Transit busses is far outdated and in need of replacement. And the new hardware would have a lifespan of 10+ years. The unfortunate thing here is that there are no competitive bids on this to see if this is the best way for Valley Transit to go. VT management is going on the words of the folks selling the system, VT’s use of other services from this vendor, and the recommendation of the transit manager for the City of La Crosse’s busing system which currently utilizes the hardware/software from this vendor. I sure hope that this is the right direction for Valley Transit to go…. especially considering that later on in the agenda, there will be discussion of ridership that includes the following information:
Fixed route ridership of the Valley Transit bus system is down 20% year-to-date from last year. The “demand response” ridership is only up about 3%. A note on the ridership memo in the agenda states that ridership is down due to the systemwide change that transitioned evening bus service to the VT Connector service (not using the regular busses on regular routes). But overall, the bus system is definitely not seeing an increase in usage. Does that warrant that large an expense for hardware/software for tracking of busses and bus routes? I’m not sure. What do you think?
Utilities Committee – 4:30pmThere are two action items on this committee’s agenda. But there is likely to be a good discussion on the one informational item on their agenda as well. The action items include 1) approval of the low bid for the sanitary and storm sewer cleaning and televising work on this year’s schedule throughout the city and 2) approval of a small decrease ($5,461) in a contract for design/engineering services for a project at the Appleton Wastewater Treatment Plant (AWWTP). And in informational items: an update on the Northland-Bellaire Flood Study. Though nothing truly earth-shattering seems to have come from the study thus far, the engineers have apparently come up with some solutions that would help to mitigate potential future watershed issues in that area. If you’re interested, take a look at the update memo. I expect that the activities surrounding this study will eventually lead to action items — read “taxpayer spending” — for this committee and the council. But it seems that the city is not there just yet.
Wednesday, 06/25/2025
City Plan Commission – 3:30pm Commissioners will hold two public hearings and take up action items related to them. All three action items on the agenda deal with a recent plat of land annexed to the city near the intersection of Northland Avenue and Highway 441. The public hearings and first two action items deal with changing the city’s Comprehensive Plan Future Land Use Map and rezoning the property in question. The Future Land Use Map shows this property as designated to be “business/industrial” and the property owner is requesting that this change to “commercial.” That same property recently annexed into the city is currently (by default) zoned “agricultural” and the property owner would like to be zoned C-2 Commercial. The plan at this time is to use these lands to build new buildings to house two businesses — Paul Davis Restoration and Rivian (for a repair/maintenance facility). Closely related to all of these requested changes, the property owner is also requesting that the city approve a new survey map (crossing a current plat boundary) and release a 6′ wide public utility easement on the property. The easement was apparently never used and the city does not see future use for it, so that will likely be approved along with the other requested changes.
It will be interesting to see this land just north of Northland Avenue near the 441 interchange be developed and used. I would expect that all entrances to this new development will require use of existing roads and no new access points to these lots will be added off of Northland Avenue. The latter would be a traffic nightmare! Do you have any thoughts or concerns about development on this plat of land? Let me know.
Community Development Committee – 4:30pm These committee members will also hear a bit about this same newly annexed property at Northland Avenue and Highway 441. This committee hold jurisdiction over the deed restrictions of the business park in which this land lies. A memo accompanying the request from staff to release the deed restrictions on this land says that “the deed restrictions would prohibit the desired future uses on these parcels.” No other information in this regard is provided. There must have been some reason for the deed restrictions in the first place, so I am hopeful that there will be further explanation as to why the restrictions should be released for this land and were kept in place for all others in this business development. I also want to know what things will be allowed without these restrictions that are so desirable to the developers of this land. What specifically would prohibit them from following the same restrictions that others in the same business development had to follow if the deed restrictions were not lifted for this property? I suspect there is good reason; but in the spirit of fairness and equal treatment, I’d be glad to hear why an exception should be made in this instance.
In informational items, the committee will also hear a report from the executive director of the Fox Cities Convention and Visitors Bureau regarding the trends and impact of tourism in the area in 2024. The economic impact summary report can be viewed here. Here is an interesting note included in the summary: “Each household in Fox Cities would need to be taxed an additional $633 per year to replace the tourism taxes received by state and local governments.” This snapshot also tells a good story of the benefits of a robust tourism economy in the Fox Cities:
These statistics seem like a very positive way to end this week’s slate of meetings… and that’s fortunate because…
Safety and Licensing Committee – 5:30pmThis meeting has been cancelled.
Human Resources and Information Technology Committee – 6:30pmThis meeting has been cancelled.
Thanks for tuning in for another installment of the alderman blog today, folks. I hope this week of crazy Wisconsin summer weather does not negatively impact you and yours. Remember: Stay hydrated. And let me know — from the comfort of some cool location — if you have any questions or comments on the above items or anything else city-government-related. Thanks!
“See” you back here next week!
