Appleton Common Council District 6 Update for October 3, 2022

Good afternoon District 6 neighbors, 

I hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful fall day. I’ve started to see a lot of fall color around – I see the little terrace maple outside my window growing more colorful each day. 

This is going to be a busy week in Appleton city government. We start off with a special session at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 5 (immediately before the regularly scheduled Common Council meeting). Representatives of the Trout Museum of Art will be making a presentation on the proposed relocation of the museum to Ellen Kort Peace Park, followed by a vote of the Council on whether or not to continue to the next step of the Process Map voted on at the last council meeting. If you wish to speak, get to the meeting early and sign up. 

I voted against the process map at the last meeting because I believed that it was a waste of time for all concerned to continue with a process that what seems like the vast majority of the community is against, and unless I am given overwhelming evidence of the value of moving forward, I will again vote against continuing work on this proposal. 

In the regular Common Council meeting, I expect that Resolution #11-R-22, which I submitted and is co-sponsored by Alders Meltzer and Schultz, will be separated out. The Safety and Licensing Committee voted 4-1 to recommend it for approval, but I expect that that alder and another who attended the committee meeting will argue against it.  

I also expect the recommendation from the Finance Committee to reject all the bids for the library project will be separated. We had a good discussion at committee, where city staff and the Boldt team answered a number of questions about the bid package. Director Gazza stated that some of the bids were completely unreasonable, and as noted in the last update, there were several packages that received no bids. The team agreed that the best way forward is to continue to look at ways to change the scope of the project, to meet with some of the bidders and with other companies who failed to bid, and to rework the bid packages with the aim of going to the market in early 2023, at which time it is possible that some of the hyper-inflation facing the construction industry may have abated. City staff also answered some questions regarding the temporary library location. The lease on the temporary space is part of the library’s operational budget and is likely offset somewhat by the reduction in utilities, etc., at the Appleton St. location. Library Director Colleen Rortvedt was able to explain the logistics of the move, and why it was not feasible to wait until bids were accepted before moving to the temporary location. One of the main factors is that the library’s internet service is provided by the state network and there is a lead time of six months to move that service. Therefore, it was not feasible to wait longer to move to the temporary facility. Moving back to the current library is not an option, either, as drilling for geothermal testing and other preliminary work was already performed.  

As if all of this wasn’t enough, we will get a presentation on the 2023 Executive Budget and get our copies of the budget. Council members will be spending the next several weeks reviewing the budget and submitting questions to department heads regarding the details. We will be reviewing the budget in a special meeting of the Finance Committee (generally attended by all members of the Council) on October 29, followed by the public hearing on the budget on November 2 and finally, adoption of the budget on November 9. There will be a public listening session on the budget on October 18 at 5:00 p.m. I’ll share more details as they become available. 

In general city business, note that bulky item collection has stopped for the year. City crews will be focused on leaf and brush collection through the first snowfall, then on snow removal. Bulky item collection will begin again in April of 2023. Much of District 6 is in the “vacuum collection” area, so our leaves will go on the terrace rather than in the street. Sticks, pumpkins, etc., need to be separated as the vacuum attachment cannot pick them up and could be damaged. 

Full public works guide is here: Public Works Guide 

More evidence that winter is coming – the park restrooms are beginning to close for the winter. Port-a-potties are being placed in the larger parks but be prepared. 

Finally, absentee ballots for the November 8 election have been sent out by the City Clerk’s office. Please follow all the instructions for filling them out and getting them witnessed to make sure your vote counts. The deadline for requesting an absentee ballot is November 3 (but don’t wait that long). There will be no ballot drop boxes any longer – ballots which are not mailed must be returned to the City Clerk’s office on the 6^th floor of City Hall until the day before election day, or to your polling place (The Scheig Center in Memorial Park, 1313 E. Witzke) on election day. Early voting will start on October 25 on the 6^th floor of City Hall: 

Note that we have a Saturday early voting day for the November election. 

Have a great week!