Appleton Common Council District 6 Update for the Week of July 8, 2024

 Good afternoon District 6 neighbors 

I’m grateful to be hunkered down in my warm guest room/office today (or at least until I have to leave for my committee meeting this afternoon), as it appears that winter has decided to present itself with a vengeance. I’m glad we got most of the outside decorations up last week – the greenery in the window boxes is going to have to wait a couple of days, I think. 

As we wind down to the end of the year – our last Common Council meeting for 2021 will be December 15 – agendas get a little shorter and some committee meetings get canceled because there are no action items. I believe last Wednesday’s Council meeting might have been the shortest that I have attended since I’ve been an alderperson. Most committees did not meet Thanksgiving week, so we just had a few items on the agenda. 

The mayor issued a proclamation for Public Health Thank You Day in recognition of the work that these folks have always done to help keep us healthy and in special recognition of what they have had to take on during the COVID pandemic. 

During the COVID-19 update we learned that our COVID case burden and rate of new cases has put Appleton back into the CRITICALLY HIGH category – right where we were a year ago before vaccines were widely available. We are also in the HIGH category for transmission rate. I’ve been reading the stories about local hospitals having to turn away patients from outlying areas because they have no beds available. Vaccination rates are increasing slowly, but we were still at 62.2% overall fully vaccinated in Appleton and 73.9% of those over 12. The rate for 12-17 year olds was 58.9%, with 64% having had at least one dose. We should have figures for the 5-11 age group at our next meeting. Appleton’s vaccination rates are higher than the U.S. or Wisconsin overall. Vaccinations and boosters are still being offered at the former Best Buy location on S. Kensington: https://covid-19-appleton.hub.arcgis.com/pages/vaccine-site and at the Fox River Mall: https://www.outagamie.org/government/departments-f-m/health-human-services/public-health/communicable-disease/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19/covid-19-vaccination Boosters are approved and recommended by the Centers for Disease Control for everyone 18 and older who is 2 months past a Johnson & Johnson vaccination or six months past Pfizer or Moderna. 

No items were separated for individual consideration or votes at the meeting. Contracts were awarded for lighting projects at the wastewater plant and the Green parking ramp, and materials testing contracts were awarded for the Department of Public Works. A couple of speed limit and stop sign changes did result in the Traffic Department agreeing to give the alderperson in the district notice of changes that are done even on an administrative/temporary basis. 

In this week’s committee meetings: 

Municipal Services Committee – Monday, December 6, 4:30 p.m. 

• Proposed changes to Municipal Code Section 9, Division 3-Central Business District Street Vendors 

This was the proposal from the last meeting to increase the allowed number of food trucks from four to eight and to remove the restrictions about where they could park. After voting for this change in committee, I talked to a couple of people who had concerns about the potential effect on some existing businesses who sell “grab and go” meals. Because of this, I referred this item back in the last Common Council meeting. Since then, I have been working with Appleton Downtown, Inc. and our city attorneys, and I think we have a good compromise, which keeps the restriction on a food truck parking within 50 feet of a food business, but removes a lot of the vague and unenforceable language. 

• Reconstruction of Lawrence, Oneida, Morrison and Durkee Streets downtown 
  We reviewed the plans for these in our last meeting and will vote on the proposals this week. I am excited for what I believe will be changes to make downtown more pedestrian and bike friendly and overall more welcoming to people shopping or doing business downtown.  
• Changes to the Department of Public Works fee schedule.  
  
  The changes are mostly  to remove the services that will no longer be available under the new DPW pickup plan for brush and bulky items. 
  
   
• Approve updates to the Municipal Code for the approved operational changes for Solid Waste and Recycling, Brush Collection and Leaf Collection. 
• Award 2022 Contract for Operation, Maintenance, Monitoring and Passive Vent Improvements at the Closed City of Appleton Landfill to SCS Engineers, in an amount not to exceed $218,393. 

Utilities Committee – Tuesday, December 7, 5:00 p.m. 

• Updates to Municipal Code regarding lead and galvanized water service line replacement. 
• Award of contracts for stormwater consulting services to raSmith and Brown and Caldwell ($47,500 each contract). 

City Plan Commission – Wednesday, December 8, 3:30 p.m. 

• Request to approve Special Use Permit #3-21 for a paint/craft studio with alcohol sales and service located at 550 North Morrison Street, Unit D. 

This is the item that was referred back from Safety and Licensing a while back because the owner was not aware that she could be present. The Plan Commission needs to award the special use permit and Safety and Licensing would approve the alcohol license. 

 

Safety and Licensing Committee – Wednesday, December 8, 5:30 p.m. 

• Alcohol licenses related to the business above 
• Changes to the alcohol license demerit system (this was introduced as a resolution by Alderperson Smith at last week’s Council meeting) that would change the language from “violation” to “conviction” and increase the demerit period to years, so that if the number of demerit points were reached over a two-year period rather than a single year, the business could lose a liquor license. It would also require the holder to appear before the committee when warning status is reached. 

Human Resources and Information Technology Committee – Wednesday, December 8, 6:30 p.m. 

• Formal introduction of new Information Technology Director Corey Popp 
• Increases of 1.25% to the salary schedule (the pay ranges for each level of positions in the city) for non-represented and seasonal employees. Note that police and fire salaries are established in the union contracts. 
• Approval of the exception granting the 2.5% across the board salary increase approved in the 2022 budget. 

Everyone stay warm and remember that there are still people who have to walk around in this weather (mail carriers, delivery people, kiddos headed for school and the bus stop), so try to keep those sidewalks accessible. Help out a neighbor if you are able and they aren’t, and please don’t let your sump pump drain onto the sidewalk.