Appleton District 6

Greetings District 6 Neighbors, No matter how long I live in the Midwest, I won’t get used to how hard winter fights before it gives way to spring. 60 degrees days with sun a couple of days ago, the view of the budding maple tree outside my window as I work, then the forecast of snow this evening and ice Thursday morning…sigh. This is a full council week, the probably the last before we seat the new council after next week’s election – more on that later. The only other meeting this week is the one the Appleton Public Arts Committee held this morning, where they discussed and voted on the Houdini-related photos to be displayed in the welcome tower in Houdini Plaza. As noted in an earlier update, this display, along with the proposed state historical monument for Houdini Plaza is being proposed for the commemoration of the 100 year anniversary of Harry Houdini’s death and in time for the Society of American Magicians convention to be held in Appleton the first week of July. The comm...

Just a week ago! Greetings District 6 Neighbors, I  guess it was wishful thinking that the snow would be  m ostly gone by now, but surely, we are getting close to actual spring. I still think the roof will be closed for the Brewers opening week homestand. Sticking with sports, congratulations to the Badger women for their second straight (and ninth overall) NCAA hockey title! That takes a bit of the sting out of the men’s basketball team’s loss in the first round of the NCAA tournament. How are those brackets looking, by the way? Mine is toast, so I’m down to rooting against all the high seeds. The Common Council meeting last week was uneventful – Council President Van Zeeland chaired the meeting as Mayor Woodford was in Washington D.C. at the National League of Cities conference. He did appear remotely to share his recommendation for the city’s new Finance Director. The council approved the special events application for the No Kings event on Saturday afternoon. Be aware...

Greetings District 6 Neighbors, Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I hope everyone is digging out OK from Blizzard Elsa (I will not have good feelings about one of my granddaughters’ favorite movies for a while). I’m grateful to all the folks at the Department of Public Works who have been working around the clock to try to get things cleared out. All the streets should have been plowed by now, but with the cold weather, it’s still going to be snow packed in places.  We’re supposed to get just a bit more snow tonight, but a big warmup and some sunshine should have a lot of this melting by the weekend. Check your sump pumps and if you’re on a corner like we are, make sure that the storm drain isn’t blocked. I’m also grateful to everyone who has been out helping their neighbors during this near-record blizzard. We’ve had good Samaritans in my neighborhood going down the block clearing multiple sidewalks. It’s a full council week, but there are a couple of committee meetings as well. The Histor...

Greetings District 6 Neighbors, I hope everyone is enjoying the sunshine and warm temperatures today and that the discombobulation over the time change fades soon. Although several people came to the Common Council meeting to speak in favor of granting the special use permit for the No Kings Rally on March 28, Alder Croatt (chair of the Safety and Licensing Committee) quickly referred the item back to committee. Although all of the departments had signed off on the application, during discussions with the Appleton Police Department, they decided that the original plan for the group to march from Houdini Place to the Outagamie County Justice Center on S. Walnut St. would concentrate a large number of people in the parking lot there and that an alternate route would be safer. The alternate route would take the marchers east on College Avenue to Durkee St. and then back to Houdini Plaza. Because of the change in the traffic control plan, more discussion at the committee level is warranted...