Hello there, Neighbors! Thanks for tuning in once again for an alderman blog post. This week looks to be a bit of a busy Committee Meetings Week with very few meeting cancellations. See below for the usual rundown of what can be expected in this week’s meetings.
Monday, 06/09/2025
Municipal Services Committee – 4:30pm This committee will be asked to approve numerous street occupancy permits, ordinance changes for street signage, and also be asked to be the second committee to approve the mural painting mentioned last week (see here). In addition, they will be asked to approve
- A sole sourcing contract for Desman Design Management for the 2025 repair and maintenance program in an amount not to exceed $96,400 for repair and maintenance of the city’s parking ramps. It sure is a drain on the city’s parking utility budget to keep these ramps maintained, isn’t it?
- A pavement marking contract for ~$177,500 which is, per the memo accompanying the request, 15% above the city’s estimate. There is no note as to how the overage will be funded… but I will be sure to ask!
- A series of street parking changes around the areas of new stop sign controls and anticipated crossings of students when the new Sandy Slope Elementary School opens next fall. They include the following parking prohibitions: 1) on the south side of Ashbury Drive from Providence Avenue to a point 52 feet east of Providence Avenue, 2) on the north side of Ashbury Drive from Providence Avenue to a point 70 feet west of Providence Avenue, 3) on the east side of Providence Avenue from Ashbury Drive to a point 57 feet north of Ashbury Drive, 4) on the west side of Providence Avenue from Ashbury Drive to a point 98 feet south of Ashbury Drive, 5) on the east side of Lightning Drive from a point 150 feet south of Ashbury Drive to a point 50 feet north of Ashbury Drive, and 6) on the north side of Ashbury Drive from Lightning Drive to a point 171 feet west of Lightning Drive.
- And most likely to garner questions is a request to approve the roadway design parameters for the first (southernmost) development area of the Thrivent property. See here for the memo detailing the expected streets, their widths, their defined terraces, and any additions such as bike paths. Take a look and let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Finance Committee – 5:30pmSince this committee did not meet last Committee Meetings Week due to the Memorial Day holiday, there are quite a few items on their agenda this week. They include
- A request to approve the city applying to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WisDNR) for a 2026 safe drinking water grant which is designed to help municipalities assist private homeowners in the replacement of private lead water service lines. The city received over $500,000 in grant funding for this in the 2025 budget year.
- A request to approve the city’s support of an external grant application for a Safe Streets and Roads for All program. Should the grant be awarded, the city would need to put in a local match of ~$18,300 for a bike and pedestrian plan for a high crash area along CTH KK. Appleton would be in on this plan along with the Village of Harrison, the Town of Buchanan, the City of Kaukauna, and Outagamie and Calumet Counties.
- A request to approve another change order in an Appleton Wastewater Treatment Plant (AWWTP) project which has taken quite a few twists and turns as it’s gone along. This change order (a sixth one), added to the others already approved, will eat up 90% of the project contingency. I’m sure there is good reason for it… but I am concerned that the project still has a few months left and could require more contingency dollars.
- And whadda ya know…? The city is still not done paying a consultant for assistance with administration of the “free” American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds that the city received post-COVID. There is a request on the table to pay this consultant an additional $70,000 (bringing the total of these consultancy fees to $220,000) for “the last of” the administration of the use/distribution of the “free money” from the federal government. The request is to use the city’s newly created ARPA Reserve Fund for this additional $70,000. This reserve fund — $1.5M as you might recall — was set up to hold the interest that the city received for temporarily investing the ARPA funds that were received but not yet used. This reserve fund creation was mentioned here and here. And at that time, I expressed concerns over holding these funds instead of using them to mitigate some of the city’s more immediate infrastructure needs. I was told at the time that there were seemingly no reasons envisioned for the use of these funds so the balance in this fund would go to debt reduction (75%) and other projects (25%). And now… the fund will likely be reduced by $70,000 for even more consultancy fees. This is extremely disappointing to me. What are your thoughts on this?
Parks and Recreation Committee – 6pmAt the end of last week’s council meeting, a resolution to change the name of Appleton Memorial Park was submitted. This committee will debate the merits of the request to rename this park Veteran’s Memorial Park. This would, of course, not be a free and easy transaction. It comes with the expense of changing all city documents which reference the park, all city signage for the park, all maps and promotional materials, etc. While I have absolutely no qualms against supporting or honoring veterans, I’m not sure that a significant change will be made in the public’s opinion of whether Appleton honors its veterans based on a potentially costly park name change.
I am concerned about the reasons for the current Veterans Park in Appleton being renamed in the future as well. This is mentioned in the resolution; but no further explanation is given. Why can’t it remain as is and therefore not necessitate the need for a renaming of Appleton Memorial Park?
I am also concerned about the proper spelling/punctuation of the name of the park (should the resolution pass) as I believe that it should be Veterans’ (apostrophe after the “s” to indicate the plural possessive) or simply Veterans (with no possessive apostrophes) while the proclamation requests Veteran’s (singular possessive). This may seem like a little thing… but, if a name change is approved, it will affect how the public will refer to the park and therefore proper grammar in the name deserves some discussion.
What are your thoughts on this proposed change?
Tuesday, 06/10/2025
Fox Cities Transit Commission – 2:50pmThis meeting has been cancelled.
Utilities Committee – 4:30pmThis committee will meet for only one action item — approval of the 2024 Compliance Maintenance Annual Report for the city’s wastewater utility. There is an interesting item on the Informational Items portion of the agenda, though. A renewable energy company has requested to enter into a partnership with the city’s wastewater utility where this company would purchase and refine the excess biogas generated by the utility. The city is in the early stages of negotiating the details of this potential partnership so there are no further details as yet. I’m sure there will be more to be heard in this regard in the future.
The water main break reports for February, March, and April are also on this agenda for review. While the loss calculated in April is around $150,000, February’s and March’s losses were both over $200,000.
Wednesday, 06/11/2025
Board of Health – 7amEarly riser board members will discuss the 2024 Annual Report of the city’s health department, a dangerous animal declaration, and the latest approved noise variances.
Appleton Redevelopment Authority – 9am This meeting has been cancelled.
City Plan Commission – 3:30pmCommissioners will be asked to debate and potentially approve the rezoning of a recent city annexation in District 13. This Dewitt Annexation is located north of the Emerald Hills subdivision and between French Road and Lightning Drive (where that roadway will be extended north). All newly annexed land in Appleton is automatically zoned Agricultural. But the request on the table is to change that to R-2 (residential, allowing for both single-family and two-family dwelling units) for the future development planned there.
Community Development Committee – 4:30pmThere are two public hearings, two corresponding action items, and one separate action item on this committee’s agenda. All three are related to the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) for the city. The first action requested (which includes a formal public hearing) is to approve the 2024 Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report for the city’s CDBG program which is due to the federal government by the end of June. The second action requested (which includes a formal public hearing) is the approval of the city’s CDBG 2025-2029 plan, another requirement of the federal government in exchange for the city’s receipt of these CDBG funds. And the third item in need of approval is an amendment to the already approved 2025 CDBG allocations from the city. The city received $12,372 less in CDBG funding than was anticipated from the federal government this year. As such, a matching lowered distribution of the already approved funding is suggested by city staff. (See here for the details on the suggested amended amounts to be allocated.)
Safety and Licensing Committee – 5:30pm Some late, late liquor license renewals, a retail outlet transfer application to allow for beer sales in Jones Park for “Flicks & Sips” events in July and September, various new regular and temporary liquor license applications, some late, late cigarette/tobacco license renewals, some liquor license changes of agents, some premises amendments (to allow for liquor sales/consumption in outdoors areas/on the College Avenue amenity strip), and a couple other salvage dealer, taxicab company, and mobile home park licenses are up for approval by this committee. The list is long; but there don’t seem to be any items that stand out as un-approvable.
There are also four liquor license holders with new violations to report to this committee:
No Licensed Operator
– Lindo Michoacan, 211 N Richmond St
– Walgreens, 700 W College Ave
Sell Alcohol to Minor
– Foxtrot Saloon, 812 S Oneida St
– Stucs Pizza, 110 N Douglas St
And there will apparently be an update to the committee members on the city’s new Special Event Policy. After last week’s full council approval of the late application for a special event coming up at the USA Youth Sports soccer fields, I wonder if this policy will be modified or changed for future applications…?
Human Resources and Information Technology Committee – 6:30pm This meeting has been cancelled.
You can all thank the city and city staff for the length of today’s alderman blog post (as opposed to the short one last week)! Despite the long week it looks to be, I am still happy to attend these meetings, ask good questions, and represent my District 13 neighbors as your alderman. I hope that you will reach out to me with any questions or concerns that you might have regarding any of the above items or anything else city-government-related.
Have a great week this week! I look forward to “seeing” you back here next week as well.
