Appleton District 6 Update for September 21, 2022

Good afternoon District 6 neighbors, 

We’re definitely starting to see signs of fall (in addition to sneezing) the last few days. I’m starting to notice some trees starting to change and our outdoor exercise class at the Scheig Center was serenaded by a couple of geese overhead who seemed to have a destination. 

Congratulations to all who participated in any of the events during Fox Cities Marathon weekend and thanks to all who volunteered. My walking buddy and I did the half marathon and were pleased to achieve our goal of completing it in under 3 hours.  

I know that a lot of folks are looking forward to Octoberfest returning this weekend after a two-year absence. Note that the indoor car show for License to Cruise is moving to the Fox Cities Exposition Center this year. Thanks also to volunteers for this event – lack of volunteers is one of the reasons that last year’s event was cancelled. 

I expect that tonight’s Common Council meeting will have quite a few members of the public attending to speak about the proposal by the Trout Museum to build a new facility in the Ellen Kort Peace Park. The Parks and Recreation Committee, after amending the process map discussed in the last update to include a step 3.5 and to have Common Council approval at each step, voted 5-0 to approve said map: 

I attended the committee meeting and shared with my colleagues what I have heard from the majority of my constituents and my concerns that by even taking one more step in the process, we are approving activities that will incur a cost of staff time and other resources. I fear that the sunk cost argument might prevail if we got too far into the process. I plan to vote against approving any further action. I believe there are other properties that are still privately owned that the Trout could pursue to achieve the goal of building on the Fox River and leaving the small amount of publicly owned riverfront property for the use of the public. I respect the view of some of my colleagues that not proceeding with a clearly defined process that would allow us to see and vote on the plan at every step would be a mistake, and I would absolutely be in favor of such an approach for another project, but I really cannot see a way forward for a private (again, albeit non-profit) entity to take what would be a large part of an already small public park that has a defined purpose. It would be lovely to see another entity complete the development of the park as the city does not have funds available at this time, but I believe that the cost to our citizens in general is too great. 

The alder salary item on the agenda of the Human Resource and Information Technology Committee meeting last week was held until October 26. I made this motion for a couple of reasons. First, we had two committee members excused from the meeting, and I wanted to have a full committee considering recommendations. Second, even though we would be considering salaries for the beginning of the 2024 term (the action taken last year becomes effective on April 1, 2023, raising the salary from $6221.44 to $6750), we agreed that we would like to look at the 2023 budget in terms of city employee compensation before making a recommendation on any alder salary change. 

Finally, an item that is not on the agenda this evening but that is very much in the news is the opening of bids for the library project. The Post-Crescent broke the story that the bids on 32 of the 38 categories came in at almost $45 million, and that 6 categories received no bids. 

The mayor issued a less sensational letter today – I am including the entire text here: 

Dear Appletonians, Colleagues, and Neighbors,  

When the City of Appleton and the Appleton Public Library set out on the redesign and renovation of the library building, we identified seven principles to guide our work. Among these were to “steward existing community investments” and to “deliver a cost-effective plan, maximizing taxpayer value while meeting community needs.” We have held to these principles at every step of the process.  

Yesterday’s bid opening for the construction of a redesigned library revealed that costs have escalated beyond even our most conservative estimations. In total, the bids received place the project at approximately $14 million over the budget of $40.4 million. This comes after significant efforts over the last few months to reduce project cost through the value engineering process without major scope or programmatic adjustments.  

This morning, we convened a meeting of the project team to discuss the bids and next steps. First, we were clear that we will not ask our local taxpayers to absorb the higher cost of the project. Additionally, we cannot expect the fundraising campaign to increase its target to fill the gap. Finally, we agreed that we are not willing to compromise on the quality or longevity of the building – simply put, we are committed to doing this project the right way. With those understandings in place, we were left with the decision of how to move forward.  

While we recognize that inflation is affecting construction pricing, there are inexplicably high costs in a number of bids, which are unacceptable to the City. Therefore, we intend to recommend to the Common Council that all bids be rejected, allowing the project team to rework the design and scope and re-bid. To best align with industry timelines and maximize our competitive position in the marketplace, we anticipate going back out to bid in early 2023.  

In the meantime, the project team will be working to reevaluate every detail of the project to identify opportunities to further reduce costs. Some of this work may include adjustments to the square footage of the building and aesthetic details. We are unwavering in our commitment to minimizing the impact of these changes on the quality, beauty, and functionality of the Appleton Public Library building. The Appleton Public Library will continue to operate at its temporary location. Overall project timelines will be adjusted accordingly as we go about this work. As we have at every step of the process, we will continue to provide timely and transparent communication to the Common Council and community as we proceed.  

The City of Appleton is deeply appreciative of the work of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and the Boldt Company as we navigate truly uncharted waters together. We are grateful to the many volunteers, donors, public officials, and community members who have contributed to making this vision a reality. We have assembled an extraordinary team to deliver this project and are confident we will be proud of the final result. We are also grateful to our community for the trust you have placed in us to do this work. While we are disappointed by yesterday’s results, we are undeterred. 

Yours,  

Jake Woodford – Mayor  

Dean Gazza – Parks, Recreation, and Facilities Management Director  

Colleen Rortvedt – Appleton Public Library Director 

I expect that we will see the bids and a recommendation to reject them on the agenda of the Finance Committee for next Monday. I am terribly disappointed, but not completely surprised at the result of the bid process. We have all seen how costs for construction have skyrocketed in the past two years. My hope is that by re-evaluating as the mayor discussed, and with some easing of the spike in construction costs, that we will be in a better position early next year.