District 6 Update, December 7, 2020

 

Good afternoon District 6,

I hope everyone is starting to enjoy the holiday season, different as it may be this year because of COVID-19. I decorated the outside and inside of my house a lot earlier than I usually do just to have some holiday cheer. I know that many families have decided, like mine has, to skip family gatherings this year. It will be difficult to miss seeing loved ones, but I have hope that with vaccines on the horizon and with our case counts leveling off a bit, that we can look forward to a “normal” holiday season next year.

The opening of this note is a good intro into the COVID-19 update from last week’s Common Council meeting. As noted, our cases are leveling off a bit, and that change in moves us from the Critically High status back to Very High. The deaths in Appleton and Wisconsin are still trending upward, however.

The Common Council meeting was quite short – there were no items separated out for individual consideration, so we voted on all the committee actions as a whole.

The Municipal Services Committee recommended granting the first 5 of 13 planned street occupancy permits for cabinets to house 5G infrastructure. Council passed a resolution last year to ask the state to further consider the effects of 5G technology, so I did quite a bit of research on this matter. The subject has been muddied by a lot of misinformation linking 5G to COVID-19, which is complete nonsense. I read a number of articles and I was unable to find a peer reviewed study linking 5G to any adverse health effects in humans. I did have some concerns about a study linking prolonged exposure to adverse effects on bees, but I read other articles which disputed that. Overall, I was not able to find data showing a strong enough link for me to vote against the permit.

The Finance Committee voted to award the contract for additional work on the 2019 Wastewater Treatment Plant improvements project from the 2019 budget.\

The last committee meetings of the year are likely to be this week, as meetings are normally cancelled the week of Christmas.

In the Municipal Services meeting this afternoon, items of particular interest involve the repaving of Opechee and Owaissa Streets near Riverside Cemetery. The plans call for widening the streets and adding sidewalk on the east side of Owaissa. This could result in the loss of a number of trees. Alderperson Meltzer has been seeking input on this proposal. Although this is not in District 6, I don’t really think that the traffic in that area really call for the wider street and sidewalk on the other side, particularly if it means the loss of more trees in our city. I will try to attend this meeting virtually to see how this works out. Full Council will still have to vote on the recommendation.

The Parks and Recreation Committee will be voting on a Master Trails Plan amendment to add new trails on the north side.

The Human Resources and Information Technology will vote on renewing the agreement allowing Appleton Housing Authority personnel to participate in the City’s dental, life, long term disability and voluntary insurance plans through 2022, and the City’s medical plan through 2021, after which AHA employees will no longer participate in the City’s medical plan.

HR and IT will also vote to approve the new Valley Transit 2021-2023 Labor agreement. The agreement calls for a 1% across the board increase in April of 2021 and in October of 2021, and a 2% increase in January of 2022 and January of 2023. There will be a one-time payment to drivers, communications technicians and utility works of .25 per hour worked in 2020.

There will be a vote to approve an exception to the Salary Administration policy to allow a 1.5% across the board pay adjustment in lieu of pay for performance for year-end 2020 and to extend the emergency sick leave policy through June of 2021.

As always, you can watch committee meetings and full Common Council meetings live on the Legistar site:

https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx

If you want to participate in a meeting remotely, here are the instructions:

https://www.appleton.org/home/showdocument?id=23370

In-person public participation is still being allowed, with restrictions on the number of people in Council chambers.

Finally, tomorrow is the first night that Santa will be making a visit to District 6! Wards 50 and 15 are on the West Route, where Santa will be visiting on December 8. The rest of the district – Wards 16 and 17 will be on the North route, where Santa will visit on December 22. You can track Santa here:

http://www.santa2020appleton.org/

Also, make sure and check out the Parks and Recreation Department’s holiday programs on their website:

https://appletonparkandrec.org/

I’ll leave you with a photo of a gift I’m sending to family members this year – the ultimate representation of 2020:



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