Appleton Common Council District 5 Update - January 10, 2022

 Good afternoon District 6 neighbors, 

Today marks a return to work for the Common Council with an abbreviated schedule of committee meetings, but before I get into the details of those meetings, I want to share a couple of news items. 

The first is that the City of Appleton is now accepting grant applications for American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds for non-profit community events and behavioral health care programs. You can get more  information here: 

https://www.appleton.org/Home/Components/News/News/21012/18?backlist=/&fbclid=IwAR2E1GLrt2uPke7_nd-eqgwYggWxeV85vWfxg2vlEudmcG5qfXAdTZklYeA 

Application deadline for both programs is February 3. 

The second item is the partnership between the City of Appleton and ThedaCare to continue the COVID-19 testing facility in the former Best Buy location at 2411 S. Kensington Dr. Tests will be given Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. These are PCR tests with results available in 3-5 days. 

https://doineedacovid19test.com/Appleton_WI_14586.html 

In this week’s committee meetings: 

Finance Committee – Monday, January 10, 5:30 p.m. 

  • Relocation orders to acquire permanent easements for water main and sidewalk construction on Oneida St. and N. Appleton St. downtown respectively. 
  • Budget amendments to record grant funds from the state Department of Health Services and Outagamie County, along with funds from the sale of donated beds for COVID-19 vaccination clinic and other pandemic response expenses. 
  • Award the contract for professional services, including design and construction documents to McMahon for the 2022 Wastewater Hardscapes Improvement project - $49,800 with a 5%  contingency. 
  • Award the contract for the “2022 Telulah Park Pickleball Complex” to Northeast Asphalt, Inc. - $484,862 with a contingency of $15,138. The city has received a donation from for the full $500,000 amount. 
  • Award the contract for the Appleton brand study to Unlisted, LLC - $58,700 for brand development services and $30,140 for implementation preparation services. The firm is local, but did not have the highest bid score or the low bid. Other factors were listed in the recommendation memo – I will watch the committee meeting to get a better feeling for the reasoning behind this decision. While I noted earlier that I had not been a proponent of the brand study initially, I now believe that some of the components, including a redesign of the city website, are much needed. 

Utilities Committee – Tuesday, January 11, 5:00 p.m. 

  • The major action item is the approval of the 2022 Private Lead / Galvanized Service Replacement Program. The ordinance passed last December required homeowners to replace lead and galvanized service lines within one year of being notified by the city. $1 million in ARPA funds were allocated to replace know public lead service lines. Here are the details of the new program: 
           

    Bottom line – the city will pay for the replacement of private lead/galvanized water service lines but not restoration of any property not part of the        construction project. 

  • Award contract Amendment 3  for the Water Treatment Facility Optimized Corrosion Control Treatment (OCCT) Studies to Jacobs Engineering - $31,740 for a total revised contract of $190,790. 

Board of Health – Wednesday, January 12, 7:00 a.m. 

  • In addition to the normal COVID-19 update, the Board of Health will be considering a resolution to allow additional “rescue hives”  and/or two “nucleus colonies” to be maintained by both residential and non-residential beekeepers. A rescue hive would allow bees that would have otherwise been exterminated to be held for 30 days by a beekeeper until a new location for the hive can be found. A nucleus colony is a small hive that exists only for the purpose of replacing a failed queen, producing no honey. Staff has recommended approval of this change, along with a recommendation to change the approval licensing period to be a calendar year in order to coincide with the residential chicken permits. 

City Plan Commission – Wednesday, January 12, 3:30 p.m. 

  • Public hearing and approval of special use permit for a restaurant with alcohol sales at 1016 E. Pacific St. The Board of Zoning appeals approved the request to provide no off-street parking for this business with a capacity of 30 people. The building had one off street parking space when it operated as a photography studio. 
  • Public hearing and approval of a special use permit for an indoor recreational facility with alcohol sales and consumption at 2009 and 2011 N. Richmond St. The plan of operation states that there will be a “rage room”, paint splatter room, air soft target shooting area and a small bar area. 
  • Approval of Stone Ridge Estates preliminary plat just south of Edgewood Drive and west of Haymeadow. 
  • Approval of Extraterritorial Final Plat for Center Valley at 3800 in the Town of Grand Chute – in the area where WG&R Furniture and REI are located. (Appleton has approval rights for development within 3 miles of the city limit.) 
  • Approval of land dedication for Spartan Drive right of way west of N. Meade St. The land was annexed in November of 2021. 

Community and Economic Development Committee – Wednesday, January 12, 4:30 p.m. 

  • Approval of the second phase of the Merge, LLC development – on the former Blue Ramp site in TIF District 11. The development would include 75 rental units in a 5 story building with retail on the ground floor. The city’s “pay as you go” contribution from the tax increment revenue would be the lesser of $2,160,000 or 18% of the tax increment value as of January 1, 2025. The building’s assessed value would be a minimum of $12 million. 
  • Information items include updates to the city’s Housing Affordability and Housing Fee reports. 

Safety and Licensing Committee – Wednesday, January 12, 5:30 p.m. 

  • Approve contract for the Appleton Fire Department to provide confined space standby and rescue to Purina Animal Nutrition, LLC in Little Chute. The firm will pay all personnel and equipment costs, plus a $300 contract fee to AFD. 
  • Various liquor licenses, including those for the businesses requesting special use permits at the City Plan Commission meeting. 

Stay safe – the COVID cases are higher in the city than they have ever been. 

Try to stay warm – I don’t see a day above freezing for as far out as my weather app goes. 



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