District 6 Update - November 20, 2020

 Good afternoon District 6,

As is customary, we had a special Common Council meeting on November 11 to officially adopt the 2021 budget. The only change from the budget presented and discussed on Budget Saturday was restoring the loan of $100,000 from the General Fund to Reid Golf Course for replacing the parking lot.

As I noted after the public hearing, the source of the most comments was the library.  The 2021 budget includes $2.4 million for design. This will include the determination of whether to renovate the existing building or construct a totally new building. Construction funds are in the capital plans for 2022 and 2023.

The regular Common Council meeting on Wednesday had a relatively light agenda. The mayor issued proclamations recognizing November as Native American Heritage Month and the week of November 28 to December 4 as Small Business Week. In the past we have observed the Saturday after Thanksgiving as Small Business Saturday, but this year, in recognition of the difficulties our small businesses have faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, we are expanding it to a full week. As noted in the proclamation, more than half of our small businesses say they need consumer spending to return to pre-COVID levels by the end of 2020 in order to stay in business. As you make your holiday purchases, try to think local. Buy a gift, a gift certificate or a takeout meal if you can. Many of our businesses are offering curbside options to allow you to observe necessary contactless transactions. Appleton Downtown, Inc. is inviting us to take the Support Local 9$20 pledge to spend $20 in 9 independently owned downtown businesses. There are drawings for gift certificates for people who pledge.

https://appletondowntown.org/support-local-920/

There are many other locally owned businesses outside of downtown as well. Amazon and the big retailers are doing fine during the pandemic, but our own businesses need our help.

Before getting into the COVID-19 update, I wanted to note that Health Officer Kurt Eggebrecht was awarded a Distinguished Service to Public Health Award to recognize the special contribution through leadership or service to public health in Wisconsin by the Wisconsin Public Health Association at the end of last month. We are especially grateful that he put off his planned retirement to stay on and help us through this crisis.

As you know, the COVID-19 situation is not good. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services had to create yet another category – CRITICALLY HIGH, with a two-week case count of greater than 1000 per 100,000 residents – for tracking the COVID status in our communities. All but one county in the state was in this category as of today. We are up to 4602 total cases in Appleton, 740 of them still active and I just got notice of two more deaths today, so we are up to 37 deaths in Appleton. The last three deaths have been people in their 60s. I was half watching news the other night and looked up to see the CEO of ThedaCare on a national news program talking about the critical hospital and ICU bed situation in the Fox Valley.

The CDC is advising people not to travel for Thanksgiving and not to gather with people outside their households, but I read that 40% of people are planning a Thanksgiving dinner with more than 10 people. Although we hear good news of multiple successful vaccine trials, we are a long way from mass availability of vaccinations, so the only way to protect yourselves and your loved ones is to stay home except for work, medical appointments or picking up food or medicine, wear a mask indoors or when you can’t maintain adequate distance from others and be diligent about handwashing.

In other Council business, occupancy requests for 3 of 13 planned 5G cabinets (Drew at Roosevelt, Northland at Oneida and Kamps at Linwood) were sent back to the Municipal Services Committee for review – specifically because an alderperson had been unable to attend the committee meeting where it was discussed.

From Community and Economic Development, the Community Development Block Grants discussed in the last update were approved, along with the extension to the agreement allowing a developer to study potential development on the Blue Ramp and Conway Hotel sites.

From Parks and Recreation, changes to the fee structure at Reid Golf Course (the only change is a $1 increase in the twilight greens fee) and to the policies for the Miracle League field at Memorial Park were approved.

Also from Parks and Recreation – and I see in the news that this has already happened – placing large letters spelling out HOPE in Houdini Plaza was approved. These will stay until the end of March – possible longer as they might run with the HOPE photography display on the towers.









In keeping with the HOPE theme, the Public Arts Committee has announced a photography contest to select the images that will be displayed on the Houdini Plaza welcome towers. The photos should be taken in and around Appleton and represent hope in these uncertain times. Details here:

https://www.appleton.org/residents/houdini-photo-contest

There is also a Hope for the Holidays decorating contest for homes and businesses. You can enter online between November 24 and December 8. Winners will be announced December 22. The top two residential winners will receive Appleton Downtown gift certificates. The Appleton Northside Business Association will donate $250 to the charity of the winning business’s choice.  More information here:

http://www.hope2020appleton.org/

As everyone probably knows by now, the traditional Christmas parade has been canceled, but to keep the spirit alive, Santa will be making his way around town each Tuesday between November 24 and December 22.

  • East: Nov. 24
  • Southeast: Dec. 1
  • West: Dec. 8
  • Southwest: Dec. 15
  • North: Dec. 22

You can follow on the Santa Tracker – both for the routes and real time tracking of Santa’s location here:

http://www.santa2020appleton.org/

Last but not least – for the procrastinators – there is going to be a bonus round of leaf pickup -weather permitting. For us in Zone 2, have them out on November 29 for pickup November 30-December 4.

Most committee meetings for next week have been cancelled for the holiday week, so I would expect a light agenda for the Common Council meeting December 2.

Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

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