Hi, again, Neighbors. Thanks for joining me back here for a week of what amounts to some semblance of regularity as far as city government meetings is concerned. This week is Committee Meetings Week and we have an almost full schedule. Here is a rundown of what you can expect:
Municipal Services Committee – 4:30pm Members of this committee will be asked to approve a 2023 “blanket” sole-source provider agreement for traffic signals and street lighting. Sole-sourcing means just what it sounds to mean — that one source, instead of competitive bidding, will be used by the city for the supply of these traffic control devices. Normally, this would not be a good practice for a municipality as competitive bidding ensures the best pricing for city purchases. But as a memo from the city’s traffic management department notes, there is little ability for most municipalities to go out for competitive bidding due to the lighting/traffic control manufacturing industry.
This committee will also hear from the Department of Public Works (DPW) regarding their Sidewalk Poetry Program in 2023. Since this presentation is an informational item, no action will be taken by this committee in this regard. But I will be speaking this week with the DPW director in this regard as there is currently no public oversight (via open/public hearings) regarding the poetry chosen each year for stamping into new sidewalk concrete provided by taxpayer dollars. I believe that since public dollars support this program, public input should be allowed. And it has not been to this point. If you have thoughts in this regard, please let me know so I can also take them to the director when she and I discuss this.
Finance Committee – 5:30pm There is only one action item on the agenda for this committee — a request to award a contract for numerous sanitary and storm sewer construction projects which appears to be nearly $200,000 over budget. I will be following up with the DPW in this regard as we need to know where the shortfall will come from on these projects. I am saddened to see this trend in city projects and hope that this is not a sign of more of these to come in 2023. I will let you all know what I find out when I know more.
Tuesday, 01/10/2023
Utilities Committee – 4:30pm For the Appleton Wastewater Treatment Plant (AWWTP), it was an eventful week or so between the Christmas and New Years holidays. You may have seen or heard about an “incident” at the plant. If not, here and here are just a couple of the new articles about the issue. During this meeting, committee members will be asked to approve 1) the purchase of a new flow pump to replace one of the two pumps at AWWTP which failed and 2) a contract for some additional repair work on the impeller on the existing failed flow pump. Though the polymer incident noted above did not cause the pump to fail (it did so in November 2022), the incident did cause an expedited need for this flow pump which has a manufacturer’s lead time of five months and for the associated repairs. The mayor approved an emergency purchase authorization of this new flow pump (for ~$133,000) during the holiday break but full approval of the purchase is required from this committee and the full council. The treatment plant would have required this purchase sometime soon, whether or not the polymer incident had occurred. But the incident pushed the timeline for this expense forward.
The committee will further review and ask questions regarding the polymer incident in the informational items portion of the meeting and review the November 2022 water main breakage report (which shows a total value of the month’s loss at ~$220,000). A memo detailing the polymer incident and showing a diagram of current operations due to the incident can be found here. But there is little more detail in this memo/and diagram than what has already been disclosed to the media. I expect that the financial loss to the city will be fairly significant, especially in the loss of the methane-produced heat for the digesters and the 17 campus buildings at AWWTP which has had to be supplied by outside power since the incident and will continue to be provided by outside sources until operations get back on track there. I will keep you up to date on further details of the expenses of the incident and, hopefully, the causes and expected controls which will be put in place to make sure another similar incident such as this will be avoided.
Wednesday, 01/11/2023
- inclusion of park/trail needs in all pre-plat-submittal discussions between a developer and city staff,
- a newly proposed square-footage-per-dwelling unit requirement for land dedication for parkland/trails as shown below. This means that a subdivision developer must dedicate (give) to the city this total square footage of land in his/her proposed subdivision for parkland/trails.
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a newly proposed fee-in-lieu-of-land schedule as shown below. This means that, where parkland/trail dedication is not possible or feasible (to be determined by vote of the common council), the developer must pay the city a fee instead of dedicating land. The city will then keep those funds in an account used solely for acquisition of future park or trail land.
Safety and Licensing Committee – 5:30pm Residents of Appleton’s District 12 will likely have a new polling place after this committee meets (assuming the full council also approves the following week). Since the sale of the previous polling place, a new one is needed and this committee will be asked to approve the change. The balance of this committee’s meeting agenda includes requests for approval of a liquor license and a couple of cigarette licenses.
