Hello, Neighbors. To all of the mothers reading today, I wish you a very happy Mother’s Day. I hope your day was a good one and that you felt appreciated.
This week in City of Appleton government looks to be a very full Committee Meetings Week. Here is what you can expect to hear about:
Monday, 05/11/2026
Municipal Services Committee – 4:30pm After some of the new council year housekeeping items, this committee will move on to discussion and potential approval of the following:
- A contract in the amount of nearly $200,000 for the 2026 maintenance repairs program for the city’s parking ramps. This dollar amount comes from the enterprise fund for the Parking Utility, not from general funds (property tax funds).
- Some parking changes on a couple of city streets. Both changes are recommended after 6-month trial periods without issue or neighbor feedback.
- A contract for pavement marking (epoxy) maintenance throughout the city in 2026.
- A contract for “weathering steel” bridge inspections required by the state Department of Transportation (DOT). The city only has two bridges of this type of steel and the inspection contract is for $32,000.
- Review of and voting on changes to a previously recommended street reconstruction design for Roosevelt Street between Oneida and Morrison Streets. The original recommendation was for a narrowing of the street from 29 feet to 26 feet in which four terrace trees would be saved. However, after staff review (following neighbor feedback from those living on that stretch of Roosevelt), the recommendation has been changed. Now recommended is no narrowing of the street when it’s reconstructed. This is due to the excessive usage of this street for parking during the summer months for Erb Park patrons. On-street parking will still be restricted to one side of the street and the terrace trees that were initially projected to be saved will now have to be sacrificed. This is an example of neighborhood feedback being taken into account and city staff’s willingness to reevaluate their recommendations.
Finance Committee – 5:30pm This committee will take up some interesting and financially impactful items this week. Here’s the rundown:
- A request for staff to analyze and plan for the restructuring of the city’s Central Equipment Agency (CEA) funding mechanisms. CEA in the city has traditionally been funded by city departments contributing their departmental equipment needs budget dollars to this CEA fund (like “renting” the equipment/vehicles from CEA). The CEA then uses these dollars to maintain and purchase replacement equipment/vehicles as needed by these departments. The recommendation now is to keep the current CEA structure (meaning that the departments themselves don’t own or replace the equipment/vehicles) but to fund it instead with city borrowing/debt. The purpose of this is to free up more departmental budget dollars for other spending which the memo regarding this requested change states is due to the state’s “restrictive levy limits.” I am quite tired of this old excuse. The state levy limits exist to keep municipalities from overspending and laying that expense on the backs of taxpayers without limit. This plan is obviously a loophole around levy limits and will, of course, increase the city’s debt load.  How do you feel about this? I do not, however, see any other alternatives… except to cut city spending wherever possible to keep CEA spending as it is.
- A contract change order request resulting in a request for an additional $8,000 for engineering/design for a project at the city’s water treatment facility.
- A contract change order request which will actually lower the amount needed for concrete sidewalk construction this season. The contract is expected to cost ~$160,000 less due to an overall decrease of 22,900 square feet of concrete sidewalk requested this year.
- Approval of few resolutions that are needed for the city to apply for/receive some grants for corridor studies for the following roadways: CTH AP/Midway Road, Hwy 47/Richmond Street, and — of vital importance to District 13 — CTH JJ/Edgewood Drive. All three grants, should they be awarded, will cost the city some matching funds. But they will be well worth it to increase the safety on these corridors and help with upgrading/urbanizing their designs.
Parks and Recreation Committee – 6pm Members of this committee are charged this week with potentially approving the Houdini Plaza tower panels featuring Harry Houdini as recommended by the Appleton Public Arts Committee and discussion/evaluation/
Tuesday, 05/12/2026
Fox Cities Transit Commission – 2:50pm This meeting has been cancelled.
Utilities Committee – 4:30pm Two action items make up this committee’s agenda for the week:
- Potential approval of an intermunicipal agreement between the City of Appleton and the Town of Grand Chute for maintenance and repair of the city’s Memorial Park South Pond. The Town’s portion of the maintenance is equal to the Town’s proportion of the pond’s overall watershed area from — 20%. The city will perform the maintenance required and invoice the town for their 20% portion.
- Potential approval of a contract for the development of a new Wastewater Treatment Facility Master Plan. The city’s last plan was completed in 1988. The contract for this updated plan will cost the city nearly $400,000. Â
Wednesday, 05/13/2026
Board of Health – 7am  Early-riser board members will be greeted with an agenda full of requests for revisions to the municipal code related to licensing of food establishments, hotels/motels, public pools and water attractions, camps/campgrounds, a request to approve a noise variance for the city’s Department of Public Works (DPW) for an overnight boring project needed on South Badger Street, and an appeal hearing for a dangerous animal declaration.  Â
Joint Review Board (Outagamie County) – 12pm This board meeting will begin with a review of the role of a Joint Review Board (JRB). According to the document included in the agenda it is the JRB’s responsibility to approve or deny the creation or amendment of a Tax Incremental District (TID). And the next item on the agenda proves why the first review item is important as they will review and discuss a proposal for a TID created for the development of the Thrivent property on the north side of Appleton. It is, of course, the early stages of this proposal. But I am bothered by the need for the city to create a TID for this development due to the deep pockets of the property owner. In an excerpt from the Wisconsin Department of Revenue document to be reviewed first at this meeting:
“Required information the municipality must provide
• Specific projects and costs, including the amounts expected to be paid by tax increments and the estimated tax increments over the life of the TID
• Value increment after project costs are paid and the TID terminates
• Reasons why the property owners benefitting from the improvements within the TID should not pay the project costs
• Share of the projected tax increments estimated to be paid by the property owners in each of the overlying taxing jurisdictions
• Benefits the taxpayers will receive to compensate for their share of the projected tax increments”
The blue-highlighted passage is the difficult one for me in this instance. I am having a very difficult time justifying this based on the value and wealth of the property owner, Thrivent.  What are your preliminary thoughts on this? You can view the summary document and whole draft plan as they’re posted online in this board’s agenda document.
City Plan Commission – 3:30pm There are three public hearings scheduled to start this commission’s meeting. The action items directly related to these hearings are as follows:
- Two requests for the rezoning of portions of properties owned by Lawrence University to allow R-2 Two-Family zoned properties for future “infill” residential homes.
- The same potential TID creation information as was presented above for the Thrivent property on the city’s north side. While the JRB will not take any action in this regard, the City Plan Commission will be asked to vote to approve this draft plan.
Community Development Committee – 4:30pm This committee will look to approve the 2026 Annual Action Plan for the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program. This action plan and its approval are required by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Also on the agenda is a new resolution calling for the city to raise the fees assessed on homeowners for city-performed snow removal or weed/tall grass cutting in the event that the homeowner fails to perform these tasks and receives a citation/warning for not following municipal code for snow/weed maintenance. You can view more on this resolution here, here, and here and then please let me know your thoughts on this.
Safety and Licensing Committee – 5:30pm As has been the trend these last few months, this committee meeting will begin with some liquor license demerit point violation appearances. This week, the committee should be hearing from Valley Mobil (for dispensing alcohol to a minor), Pizzeria Pub and Bar (for being open after hours), Katsu-ya of Japan (for dispensing alcohol to a minor), and Tipsy Taco (for dispensing alcohol to a minor). None of these establishments is near the demerit point limit at this time. But it sure seems as though this city has a problem with licensed establishments serving liquor to minors, doesn’t it?
Next on the agenda is an appeal hearing for an applicant who was denied a bartender’s license in the city due to a misdemeanor sexual assault on her record. By state statute, this appeal cannot be granted so this license application denial will certainly be upheld by this committee.
After a few other minor liquor license change/amendment requests, the committee will hear an update from the Appleton Area School District (AASD) on their experience this school year with the city’s new truancy ordinance in effect. You can view the slides from their expected presentation here. I expect that we will hear more about this in the very near future as the initial “trial period” of the truancy ordinance draws to a close soon. I believe that if this has shown any positive effects of the high school student population, we should renew it… at the very least for another school year as an additional trial period.  What do you think?
There are a few other informational items on the agenda including a Gold Cross shared services agreement mid-year report for the city.
Human Resources and Information Technology Committee – 6:30pm This meeting has been cancelled.
What items above have you concerned? What feedback on any of them would you like to provide your alderman? I would love to hear from you!
Thanks for reading today’s late post. I appreciate you allowing me a little time earlier today to enjoy Mother’s Day with my daughter. 🙂 Have a great rest of today and rest of this week!
