District 6 Update for January 5, 2022


 Happy Belated New Year District 6! 

Things are still relatively quiet at City Hall, although I know that city staff has been hard at work all along. Common Council has not met since December 15, and since committee meetings were cancelled for the week of Christmas, we voted to cancel today’s normally scheduled council meeting. As you know, all items that come before the full council are considered in committee meetings, generally the week before the council meeting. 

I personally took the time to make an extended visit to family in Texas and Arkansas – we drove almost 2500 miles on this trip – and got to spend some wonderful time with our daughters, sons-in-law and granddaughters. We also got the exciting news that we will have a third grandchild this summer. 

I assume that everyone got their little Christmas card from the city (and county and school district) in the form of the property tax bill. I know that it’s important to get them out early because a lot of people like to pre-pay for income tax reasons, but it does put a bit of a damper on the mailbox. We must be pretty average because our city taxes went up $19 – almost exactly the amount we heard that the average bill would increase. County and school district were up a little more, and the Fox Valley Tech amount was actually down. I did notice that my overall bill was a dollar LESS than last year because of an increase in the Lottery and Gaming Credit. If you don’t have your taxes paid from an escrow account, you can mail the full amount or the installments to the city finance department or drop them off at the drive through window. I have been talking with the Finance Director about looking at a new payment processor for our online payments – the one we use now does charge what I believe is a hefty fee for utility bills and tax payments. I would love to use my airline mileage credit card to pay everything and get miles for visiting the grandchildren, but that charge is just too high. More on that as we have further discussions. 

As of January 1, the new aldermanic district boundaries are in effect. District 6 is now comprised of wards 17, 18 and 19 as shown in the map below:  

 

I’m sorry to see the folks in the old Ward 17 (which is now in Ward 43 in District 14) leaving the district. As I noted before, I am not going to automatically remove you from the mailing list, but I will remove you immediately if you let me know you aren’t interested any longer.  

New neighborhoods between Morrison and Meade on the north side of Lindbergh to Northland were added to the district, along with the neighborhood west of Richmond from Lindbergh to Northland. If you have friends or relatives living in these neighborhoods, please let them know about these updates. I’ll be contacting all the new residents in the next few days as well.  

Speaking of January 1, if you had requested absentee ballots for all of 2021, you will need to request again for this year unless you get them automatically as an “indefinitely confined” person. You can do that here: 

https://myvote.wi.gov/en-us/

 

We know that there will be a primary for the Appleton School Board election on February 15, so you will want to get the absentee ballot applications in soon if you plan to vote absentee in that election. 

District 6 is now split into three Outagamie County supervisory districts – Ward 17 in Supervisory District 20, Ward 18 in Supervisory District 18 and Ward 19 in Supervisory District 17. It’s a little confusing to me, but the city and the county did their numbering independently. You can confirm the information on the “My Property Information” tab on the City of Appleton website: 

 

Click the property ID that comes up and then the “Voting” tab to see the information. 

Note that the district, ward, and county supervisory districts are correct, but the old polling location is still showing. I pointed this out to the City Clerk and just heard back that it will soon be corrected to show that we vote at the Scheig Center in Memorial Park. 

It’s really difficult to think that I have been giving COVID information in these updates for nearly two years, but Appleton reported the first case on March 18, 2020. The new case numbers are now the highest that they have ever been: 

There has been a lot of confusing information lately, particularly with the CDC guidelines for people who test positive. However, what has not changed is the data on vaccinations. Even though the Omicron variant is causing more “breakthrough” infections in vaccinated people, the data shows that getting vaccinated reduces the risk. From the Department of Health Services: 

Boosters are now advised at five months past the second Pfizer or Moderna vaccine for those 16 and over and at two months past the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine. 

Finally, a little palate cleanser for those of us who are putting off taking down the Christmas decorations as long as possible. I asked my husband to put water in the Christmas tree stand on December 15th as I was headed out to get a haircut, knowing that we were leaving town that night or early the next morning. A while later, I got a text from him indicating that somehow, he had caused the whole tree to fall down, not once, not twice, but three times. The text exchange that I relayed caused my hairstylist to laugh so hard that she was afraid she would cut a chunk out of my head. We managed to right the tree after I got home, sweeping many shattered ornaments off the floor. When we returned from our travels on Christmas night, the tree was once more horizontal. My writer husband found inspiration for the song excerpted here: 

The Tree That Ruined Christmas 

(A Two-act Musical) 

(to the tune of “Oh Christmas Tree”) 

Oh Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree 

Unwieldy are thy branches 

Oh Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree 

You trigger avalanches! 

 

I’m not sure what I oughter do 

I only sought to water you 

But you fell right into my arms 

And flung across the room your charms. 

 

Why must you bring me such distress? 

I’ll get the broom and sweep the mess 

Oh are you, Tree, my Christmas curse? 

I’ll turn adversity to verse 

 

I tried and tried to set you right 

But you were itching for a fight 

We ended up both on the floor 

As man and tree engaged in war 

 

(PG-13 verse omitted) 

 

Oh toward the end the fir did fly 

As I let loose a mighty sigh 

And shrugged and said O what’s the use 

I’ll toss you out and get a spruce. 

 

Act 2 

(In which the tree continues to misbehave – to the tune of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”) 

God Rest Ye Cruddy Christmas Tree 

You will not upright stay 

We just returned home from our trip 

Again face down you lay 

 

So once again you needle me 

You nasty piney hellion 

Are you so mad we cut you down 

You’re staging a rebellion? 

 

I cannot bear another fall 

Another loud crash landing 

I toss you to the curb, look back 

You wink … You’re proudly standing! 

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