Appleton Common Council District 6 Update for April 11, 2022

Welcome to new subscribers to these updates. I hope you will find them a useful way to keep up with what’s happening at City Hall. 

The Common Council meeting last Wednesday was the last of this term. Alderperson Martin gave a nice invocation where he thanked all the people that he has worked with during his fourteen years of service to the city. 

New and returning alders in the even numbered districts will be sworn in next Tuesday at 5:15 p.m. in Houdini Plaza. We did this last year because of COVID limiting attendance inside City Hall, and it was so popular that we are continuing it. It is really nice to have a ceremony separate from a normal meeting, especially for the brand-new alders. I’m looking forward to it, having been sworn in over Zoom in 2020. We will follow the swearing in with our informal organizational meeting, where we will go over our council rules. On Wednesday, April 20^th before the regular council meeting, we will have the formal organizational meeting where we have the opportunity to amend those rules. We changed our rules during the last term to allow remote participation by alders and the public after we went back to in-person meetings. I will note that this did not make in-person attendance go down significantly – most of us attend council and committee meetings in person. It has allowed people who are out of town to attend when they would normally have had to be excused. One thing I suspect that will be brought forward is a way for an alderperson to withdraw a resolution after it has already gone to committee. We have had a couple of instances this past term where that would have been a desired option. 

Back to the regular meeting. The mayor issued a number of proclamations, which I talked about in the last update, and we had the poets who were selected to have their work engraved on our sidewalks read their works. In answer to a question that I heard, these poems are inscribed on sidewalk sections that are going to be replaced anyway. It’s always fun to hear the youngest poets read their work while their proud teachers and parents snap photos. 

As noted, we had the public hearing on the special resolution regarding the assessments for sanitary laterals, storm laterals and storm mains for the current street reconstruction projects, including N. Alvin St. There was one resident of N. Alvin St. from District 1 who spoke asking for the exact amount of the assessment. The Director of Public Works met with him privately to discuss.  

The only item separated out of the agenda was the special use permit for the Area 509 restaurant at 1025 N. Badger Avenue. This is the restaurant opened by the owner of the Caribbean Taste food truck. I haven’t been to the restaurant, but based on my food truck experience, it won’t be long. Alderperson Smith proposed to amend the special use permit to require a fence around the outdoor seating area. When the question was asked to determine if this is customary, we heard that the owner had already agreed to put up the fence, so this amendment passed without further discussion. 

The last part of the meeting was an opportunity for us to say goodbye to those alders who were attending their last meeting. It was bittersweet, but I look forward to welcoming our new colleagues and getting back to work next week. 

CEA Review Committee – Monday, April 11, 3:30 p.m.  

This is the Central Equipment Agency – rather than each city department having its own capital equipment with the budgeting and tracking that goes along with it, we have one agency that is home for all of the vehicles and other capital equipment for the city. This committee meets periodically.  

• Changing a diesel truck used as a chip truck in the Forestry Division to a gas engine truck in order to reduce the wear and required regeneration process from the amount of idling by this truck. The same division wants to upgrade one chipper to a model that can process larger material. Overall, these changes will result in a cost savings of about $1800. 
• Requests for the use of seasonal vehicles from the CEA to various departments. 
• Request to upgrade a DPW Traffic sedan  to hybrid electric vehicle when it is replaced in 2023. The increased initial cost will be offset by reduced fuel cost. 
• Request to purchase a fire truck from Pierce Manufacturing planned for this year early to take advantage of a $55,200 savings before a planned price increase on May 1. 

College North Neighborhood Program Open House – Monday, April 11, 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. 

This is another opportunity for the public to weigh in on the plans for this neighborhood north of College Avenue around the library. It’s an open house, so you can drop by for 15 minutes or longer to review the exhibits and provide input. More information is here: https://rdgusa.mysocialpinpoint.com/college-avenue-north-neighborhood-plan/college-avenue-north-neighborhood-plan-home 

I plan to stop by after the Municipal Service Committee meeting is over. 

Municipal Services Committee – Monday, April 11, 4:30 p.m. 

• Items on the agenda include permits for tables and chairs for the new All Tied Up Floral Café at 324 E. College and for the parklet to be installed again on State Street. A great sign that spring is really coming! 
• Other permit requests from the Hilton Appleton Paper Valley hotel for dumpsters, construction containers and nine parking stalls in the Red Ramp. The Hilton branding of the hotel is complete. 
• Parking restrictions in the 400 block of W. College Ave. and the 300/400 block of N. Division St. following 6-month trial periods. 
• Intergovernmental agreements with Outagamie County for the County JJ and CTH JJ (Lightning Drive to Cherryvale Avenue) and CTH E & EE (CTH JJ to Applehill Boulevard) reconstruction projects. 
• Information items include another attempt to review the Crosswalk Installation Evaluation Guidance Flowchart, a review of three different plans (two of the plans would remove no parking stalls and the third would remove eleven stalls) for Soldiers Square and scheduling of public hearing once the project is in the Capital Improvement Plan and recognition of Appleton as a Tree City, USA once again in 2021. 

Finance Committee – Monday, April 11, 5:30 p.m. 

• Requests to award contracts for purchase of equipment for the Water Utility ($37,936 and $28,160). 
• Budget amendments to reclassify some capital funds to operations budget for miscellaneous street reconstruction projects. 
• Request to award budgeted Unit J-22 Mini Storm Sewer Construction to Alfson Excavating, LLC in an amount not to exceed $200,000. 
• Request to approve Contract Amendment / Change Order No. 1 to contract 11-22, Unit W-22 Sewer and Water Reconstruction No. 1 for the addition of ARPA funding to facilitate removal and replacement of public-side lead water services encountered during water main reconstruction in the amount of $20,000 resulting in no change to contract contingency. Overall contract increases from $1,469,167 to $1,489,167. 

Utilities Committee – Tuesday, April 12, 5:00 p.m. 

• Approval to single source and award 2022E Stormwater Consulting Services Contract for assistance with the Interstate 41 Reconstruction Project to Brown and Caldwell in an amount not to exceed $30,000. 
• The 2022 Water Treatment Facility Power Generation Test will be an information item on the agenda. The city will get $8039 in credits from WPPI energy for the power generation capability. 
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City Plan Commission – Wednesday, April 13, 3:30 p.m. 

• There is a public hearing and action item to award a special use permit for a restaurant with alcohol sales (Mill City Public House)  on the site of the former Elks Lodge at 1103 W. College Ave. 
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Safety and Licensing Committee – Wednesday, April 13, 5:30 p.m. 

• Alcohol License Revocation Hearing for Core's Lounge, LLC. The business has exceeded the number of demerit points in an 18-month period. 
• Various alcohol licenses and renewals 

Of great interest in the information items is a discussion of the pilot program for a Traffic Safety Unit to address aggressive driving behaviors and excessive noise. This will include the hiring of a Traffic Safety Officer (funding from the retirement of a civilian Communications Specialist). The pilot program will run from June 1 through the end of 2022, during which time APD and the community will evaluate and determine next steps. For those of you getting this via email, I am attaching Chief Thomas’s memo. 

From the description of the program: 

The Appleton Police Department is committed to the strict enforcement of violations that contribute to personal injury, death, or serious property damage. These violations include, but are not limited to:  

• Speed, reckless driving, or inattentive driving violations.  

• Operation of a vehicle while impaired.  

• Operation of a vehicle after driving privileges have been suspended or revoked.  

• All violations identified during an accident investigation.  

• Pedestrian/bicycle violations that could lead to injury or death.  

• Illegal equipment or operations of vehicles that create a public nuisance. 

 
The meetings for the Community and Economic Development and Human Resources and Information Technology committees are cancelled for this week.