Welcome to the last week of the longest short month of Wisconsin winter, Neighbors! We’re almost through to March!!
This week is a Committee Meetings Week so there will be lots of the usual small items approvals to be made throughout the week. The big-ticket items and items of interest are detailed below:
Monday, 02/24/2025
Municipal Services Committee – 4:30pm This committee will be revisiting an item that was referred back to them during the council meeting last week — the proposed 2025 DPW Fee Schedule. You’ll remember that I’ve mentioned this a couple times in the last couple alderman blog posts (here and here) because I find it difficult to understand the rationale behind the nominal increases to our garbage can fees. What is the purpose of the increase? Is it to offset increased tipping fees? Is it to help the city better manage the garbage can inventory? Or…? And how much additional revenue is this change expected to result in for the city? Is it worth doing? There are many questions to ask in this regard and none were asked the last time this committee took up this item. Do you have any specific questions in this regard? If so, send them my way right away so that I can ask them at this Monday evening meeting.
This committee will also take up the following:
- The proposed final approval of the Downtown College Avenue Lane Reconfiguration. Since this was implemented, there has been a 12.7% reduction in reportable crashes and and average speed reduction of 3% on this stretch of College Avenue. I tend to believe that noise levels are not significantly lower than they were… but noise level measurements were not reported in the materials for this agenda.
- A proposed increase in the city’s contribution to an overall increase in the design services contract for the Olde Oneida Street Bridge. The state Department of Transportation (WisDOT) has changed some standards for the bridge and will pay 80% of the increased design fees needed to meet the new standard. The city’s portion of the increase needed comes to $12,614.
- Two resolutions which will allow the city to levy special assessments on property owners along streets which will get new storm laterals, sanitary laterals, and concrete curb and gutter in the 2025 construction season. Those of you on Cherryvale Avenue should be seeing information from the city in this regard soon (assuming prompt approval and processing of the calculations for these assessments).
- Some parking changes to make the corner of Glendale and Meade a safer corner.
- And approval of a contract increase (which is technically a “sole-sourcing” as the changes are not going out for competitive bids) for design and inspection services related to the bascule (moving) bridges on Lawe and Olde Oneida Streets.
Finance Committee – 5:30pmThere are a number of items — none egregious — that this committee will take up and potentially approve:
- Moving of funds left over in the 2024 budget from the Telulah Park Pavilion Renovation project to this year’s Pierce Park Pavilion Renovation project due to bids coming in over budget. The bids for the Pierce Park project were higher since lead paint was discovered in the pavilion to be renovated and this will require added mitigation work by the contractor.
- A rather complex set of budget shifts from miscellaneous 2024 under-budget projects at the Appleton Wastewater Treatment Plant (AWWTP) to a major HVAC and Receiving Station upgrade project at the AWWTP. The project will cost around $4M and the only bidder for the project was August Winter & Sons, Inc.
- The two resolutions mentioned above for calculation and special assessment on property owners for laterals and final curb and gutter on streets to be constructed in the 2025 season.
- Contracts for sandblasting/painting of a tunnel at the AWWTP, AWWTP column and plank storage upgrades, and asphalt paving for other projects in the city’s 2025 Capital Improvement Plan (the latter of which came in under budget!).
- Another budget carryover from 2024 to fund an increase of $13,300 for design and construction management of some added changes to the polymer feed system and filtrate piping evaluation at the AWWTP.
- A sole-source request for the contracting of Donohue for inspection, maintenance, and improvements to the AWWTP’s two 2.2-million-gallon egg-shaped digesters (ESD… yes, there is an acronym for egg-shaped digesters).
Parks and Recreation Committee – 6:15pm This meeting has been cancelled for lack of agenda items.
Tuesday, 02/25/2025
Fox Cities Transit Commission – 2:50pmThis will be the commission’s first meeting in 2025. As such, they will look to approve financials, ridership reports, and payments from November 2024, December 2024, and January 2025. They will also discuss and potentially approve the extension of the current contract for marketing consulting with Red Shoes, Inc. through 12/31/2025.
Utilities Committee – 4:30pmThis committee has one action item on their agenda — a sole-sourcing request for the 2025 native landscape management around the city’s stormwater facilities. NES Ecological Systems has been the city’s provider of these services since 2022 when they won a competitive bidding process. At that time, it was established that they could, with satisfactory performance, be renewed for these services until 2026. There is also a water main breakage report for January 2025 in information items on the agenda. Last month’s results show a loss of almost $100,000.
Library Board – 5pm (Location: Appleton Public Library – Cornerstone Conference Room) Board members will look to approve the bill registers and cash flow statements from December 2024 and January 2025 and a small 2025 budget amendment. They will discuss a report from their Personnel and Policy “sub-committee” and the approval of establishing the 2025 performance goals for the library director.
Wednesday, 02/26/2025
City Plan Commission – 3:30pmThis meeting has been cancelled for lack of agenda items.
Community Development Committee – 4:30pmAnother developer in a TIF District in the city would like an extension of a contractual agreement with the city. An extension would need approval from this committee and then the full council. This time it is the developer of the so-called Blue Ramp Site (just north of the City Hall building) and they would like to delay the closing date on the purchase of this lot from the city from the original closing date of 07/31/2024 (once already amended to 02/28/2025) to the newest proposed closing date of 05/01/2025. The information included in the agenda for this item states that this would be a “final extension” of this closing date. Let’s hope it really is this time.
Safety and Licensing Committee – 5:30pmIn the last meeting of the week (due to the next scheduled one already being cancelled), these committee members expect to hear from leadership of two liquor licensed establishments who have recently earned demerit points for “No Licensed Operator on Premises.” There is also a denial of a mechanical amusement device license on the table for discussion by this committee. It seems that the owner of a pub on North Sharon Street applied to have a number of illegal gambling machines on site at his establishment. The license denial is for those machines and not for a simple dart board (the one legal item for which this license could be granted). This poor guy was following the rules and registering his mechanical devices… unlike, I would guess, many other establishment owners who do not and have not done so. So hopefully he will at least get the license to have a legal dart board at his pub!
That owner and the owner of another new establishment in the city are applying for liquor licenses in the city as well. It is interesting to note that these two licenses would be “provisional” — the over-$10,000 licenses. I think there needs to be a more thorough examination of the unused regular liquor licenses in this city as these over-$10,000 ones are prohibitive for new establishments to get up and running in this city… all while some less expensive regular licenses go unused throughout. Do you agree?
Human Resources and Information Technology Committee – 6:30pm This meeting has been cancelled for lack of agenda items.
That’s about all for the week… If something above triggers a comment or question from you, please be sure to send a note my way. I am always happy to hear from you.
I hope that you have a great last week of February and that we all get to enjoy a little warmer spell as we move into March. Thanks for tuning in again this week. “See” you next week!
