Happy No Packers Sunday, Neighbors! We are in a unique Committee Meetings Week with a few committee meetings scheduled around a Wednesday special meeting of the full council. Here’s what we’re looking at:
Monday, 11/11/2024
Municipal Services Committee – 4:30pm These committee members will hear an update report regarding the “road diet” (lane reconfiguration) on College Avenue and then move on to the following other items up for approval:
- A sole-source contract for design and repairs for all of the city’s parking ramps. Interestingly, the 2024 budget included a line item for $100,000 for parking ramp repairs and the bid that this contractor submitted for the 2025 repairs is $96,370. I doubt this is a coincidence.
- A long-term placement of a dumpster at 213 E College Avenue for construction debris there. This comes with a ~$2,500 payment for the placement of the dumpster to offset the parking revenue that would potentially be lost by the city for the two parking spots taken up by the dumpster during that time.
- A contract increase — a doubling from $100,000 to $200,000! — for materials testing for Public Works/Engineering for the balance of 2024. This increase is being called for due to the continue construction of the Lightning Drive extension, Green Ramp repairs, and the upcoming/continuing development plans for the Thrivent development.
- A contract expansion for traffic control fixture updates throughout the city.
- The purchase of some Yellow Ramp parking spaces by Mosaic Health. They are looking to purchase (pay double the permit fee) for five reserved spaces on the third floor of the ramp for at least three years.
Finance Committee – 5:30pmMembers of this committee will look to approve a couple of contracts for the water and wastewater utilities, a contract extension for audit services (to the tune of $81,700 for 2024 and $82,500 for 2025), and a change order for additional sidewalk replacement which will decease the contract contingency to $0. There will also be a review of the status of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds received by the city are now all either spent or obligated. See here for this summary.
Parks and Recreation Committee – 6:15pm This meeting has been cancelled due to lack of agenda items.
Tuesday, 11/12/2024
Fox Cities Transit Committee – 2:50pm Commissioners will be asked to approve a new fare system for Valley Transit. The current fare system is no longer supported (due to age) and the new system will take contactless fares such as via ApplePay, debit payment, and Google Pay.
Utilities Committee – 4:30pm Three sole-sourcing contracts for stormwater evaluation for the Northland Creek/Bellaire watershed (where much of the recent flooding in the city occurred), stormwater quality modeling (required by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WiDNR)), and stormwater management plan reviews (increased this year due to the Thrivent property plans) are on the agenda for this committee. (How nice for Brown and Caldwell, being offered all three of these contracts without competition.)
Wednesday, 11/13/2024
Board of Health – 7am The early-risers on this board will decide on an appeal on a prohibited dangerous animal declaration for a Rottweiler with a bit of an interesting history (see the documents on the agenda here). They will then review and look to approve some health department policy updates. They will also review the latest health department newsletter, the 2025 proposed budgets for the health department, and third quarter report.
Appleton Redevelopment Authority – 9am This meeting has been cancelled due to lack of agenda items.
City Plan Commission – 3:30pm There is a notice that this commission may go into a closed session regarding the one action item on their agenda — “ land acquisition of certain real estate located within the City’s industrial parks.” There is delightfully little else on the agenda about this action item… so we will have to see what else comes to light regarding this “land acquisition” during and after this meeting. You can attend this meeting (though you will be kicked out if they go into closed session) and/or watch the meeting online by going to this website and clicking the “in progress” link next to this meeting while it is in session.
Community Development Committee – 4:30pm This meeting has been cancelled due to the special meeting of the Common Council.
Safety and Licensing Committee – 5:30pmThis meeting has been cancelled due to the special meeting of the Common Council.
City of Appleton Common Council – Special Session – Adoption of the 2025 Budget – 6pm This meeting is solely for the review of the minutes from Budget Saturday and a line-by-line (potential) approval of the 2025 Executive Budget (the mayor’s proposed budget). This is the last opportunity for public comment on the overall budget and for any council member budget amendments. There will likely be none of the latter… but one never knows! You are welcome — and encouraged — to speak about any item of interest on the proposed budget before the council moves to approve it. Your voice is important! Please stop in at City Hall (6th floor, 100 N Appleton Street) and share your opinions. If you have any questions regarding the 2025 budget or this approval process, please contact me and let me know.
Human Resources and Information Technology Committee – 6:30pmThis meeting has been cancelled due to the special meeting of the Common Council.
Please always feel free to contact me should you have any questions on the above items or anything else city-government-related. I am always happy to hear from you!
Thanks for reading this week’s blog post. I’m so glad you stopped in to stay informed on your city’s local government activities. Have a great week!
