Appleton Common Council District 6 Update for February 6, 2023

Photo by Nestor Cisneros - one of the winners of the "Images that Define Appleton" photo contest.  

Greetings District 6 Neighbors, 

I’m personally grateful to see some warmer weather and happy to have been able to take a walk outside yesterday for the first time in a while. However, I know not everyone shares my feelings. I was in a meeting with some folks from Parks and Recreation on Friday and they were simultaneously rejoicing because all the skating rinks were finally going to be open and dreading the fact that they would probably only be open a few days before the weather warms up too much. 

Before I get into the review of last week’s Common Council meeting, just a quick apology for those of you who like to watch the live stream. We’re having some issues with streaming and recording, probably due to all the construction that’s going on in the building. We didn’t have streaming or recording of the meeting – we even lost our electronic meeting management  system midway through and had to handle the rest of the meeting the old-fashioned way. Fingers crossed that things get back to normal soon. 

The proposal to award $1 million of the ARPA funding designated for affordable housing grants was not separated for individual discussion as I thought it might be. The thorough discussion in the Finance Committee meeting where we heard that this grant would be the difference in the project being built or not must have been satisfactory to those who had concerns. I look forward to seeing the project get started. I am always grateful to my colleagues who take the time to attend committee meetings to ask questions even if they are not members of that committee.  

One item that was separated was the item from Municipal Services that made some changes to the municipal code regarding driveway extensions. I think that these changes are positive and .will give better guidance to homeowners who want to widen their driveways and reduce the number of variance requests. There was some concern that language mandating paving of gravel driveways within six months of sale was removed from the municipal code, but state statutes enacted in 2015 actually made that section of the code unenforceable. The Inspections Supervisor did not feel that there was a great risk of an outbreak of gravel driveways due to this change. 

http://cityofappleton.legistar.com/gateway.aspx?M=F&ID=d43a6c67-3ecc-4d09-8f7e-a1548afb50be.pdf 

Two items from Valley Transit were separated and sparked some conversation. I had been asked if the buzz about train service to Appleton and Green Bay would affect the plans for the new transit center, so I put the question to the mayor and Valley Transit General Manager McDonald. They reminded us that the only action taken thus far on passenger rail service was the letter from local officials and would be too far down the road to change plans for the transit center. My time in the Northeast made me appreciate train service, so I look forward to any developments on that front. There were some questions about what seems to be a pretty vague figure on the total cost of the transit center and on the request to approve outside counsel to handle the grant application and development process. Basically, we only have the commitment for the first floor of the transit center that will be used by Valley Transit. There is not a development agreement for remainder – residential and retail. As I understand it, the estimate for the first floor is around $25 million, of which the grant would fund 80%, with the city providing a 20% local match. Outside counsel was proposed for two reasons – first the complexity of the grant writing process, and second, the fact that nine municipalities are involved in the project. In answer to my question, we were informed that the legal fees would be part of the total project. Both items did pass unanimously. 

Moving on to this week’s committee agendas: 

Municipal Services Committee – Monday, February 6, 4:30 p.m. 

The committee will be considering a proposal for a “State-LET Urbanized Area STP-Urban Program Project” for the reconstruction of Lawe Street from College Avenue to Wisconsin Avenue. The Wisconsin Department of Transportation would complete the project using 80% federal and 20% municipal funding. The city would still be responsible for water and sanitary sewer line replacement. This would be a welcome source of funding for a street that hasn’t been repaired since 1973 and is in poor condition. A related information item to be reviewed is the resolution from 2022 to remove the designation of Lawe Street as a truck route. 

The committee will also consider an appeal of a snow removal assessment and a proposal for a six-month trial of removing the two-hour parking restriction on W. 5^th St. from Walnut to Elm and the south side W. Prospect St. east of 6^th St. 

Information items include the Inspection Permit report, a review of the Passport Parking Utility for 2022 and (expected to generate great interest) further discussion of the proposed reconfiguration of College Avenue. The discussion was cut off at the last committee meeting because the meeting was running over the allotted time. 

Finance Committee – Monday, February 6, 5:30 p.m. 

The agenda includes requests to reward a number of contracts, included the sole-source contract for epoxy floor coating at Fire Station 1 which was held at the last meeting with a request to staff to get more information about the process for these sole-source contracts. Other contract requests: 

• Request to award the 2023 V-Building Painting Project contract to SDS Painting Co, Inc. in the amount of $86,330 with a contingency of $10,000 for a project total not to exceed $96,330. 
• Request to award the 2023 Telulah Park Hardscapes Reconstruction Project contract to Northeast Asphalt, Inc., in the amount of $166,499.50 with a contingency of $32,000 for a project total not to exceed $198,499.50. 
• Request to award the 2023 Water Plant Park Hardscapes Reconstruction Project contract to Northeast Asphalt, Inc., in the amount of $522,443.10 with a 15% contingency of $78,366.47 for a project total not to exceed $600,809.57. 
• Request to award Unit W-23 Sewer & Watermain Reconstruction No. 1 to Superior Sewer & Water, Inc. in the amount of $2,222,221 with a 3.4% contingency of $75,000 for a project total not to exceed $2,297,221. 

I expect the proposal for the redesign of Vosters Park to be held again. After Alder Hartzheim arranged two meetings for residents to address their concerns with city staff, there are still some issues to be resolved. The park is currently mostly wooded, but most of the trees are affected by the emerald ash borer and need to be removed. The neighbors would like to keep as much wooded area as possible, and there are also concerns about a proposal to remove the boardwalk. 

There are information items about some departmental reorganizations – we’ll take these up as action items in the Human Resources and Information Technology Committee meeting. 

Parks and Recreation Committee – Monday, February 6, 6:30 p.m. 

The only action items are a request for private events at Jones Park in June and July and the winning entries for the Houdini Plaza photo contest - http://cityofappleton.legistar.com/gateway.aspx?M=F&ID=150887a1-7f59-4587-a467-c890d83b0973.pdf 

I’m not sure how the Public Arts Committee managed to choose from so many wonderful photos. 

Board of Health – Wednesday, February 8, 7:00 a.m. 

We do not have any action items, but we will be getting the presentation of the Level III Health Department Designation to the Appleton Health Department by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, hearing about a table of organization adjustment in the Health Department (again, an action item in HR and IT), getting notice of a dangerous animal declaration, hearing about granted noise variances, and getting quarterly reports for Q3 and Q4. 

There has been a bit of community discussion and a number of letters to the Common Council about some issues with noise variances for downtown businesses. I’ll be looking forward to hearing the resolution of those issues. 

Human Resources & Information Technology Committee – Wednesday, February 8, 6:30 p.m. 

The committee will be reviewing a request from the Police Department to move the Operations Coordinator from the Patrol Captain to the Lieutenant of the Community Resource Unit. We’ll also be looking at some reorganizations in the Legal Services and the City Clerk’s office – essentially merging the departments. The new department would be the Legal and Administrative Services Department. The City Clerk’s title would be expanded to City Clerk-Deputy Director of Administrative Services and the City Clerk position would be placed in Grade 13 along with other department deputy directors. Attorney Behrens notes that just ten years ago the City Clerk position was at the department director level and the duties have remained the same. The Deputy Clerk position would become the Administrative Services Lead – keeping the responsibilities of Deputy Clerk. One Administrative Support Specialist would be designated the Elections Clerk in keeping with the amount of time that is spent supporting elections. The fiscal impact would be nominal, with the Administrative Services Lead and Elections Clerk receiving a small grade increase. The City Clerk-Deputy Director of Administrative Services is already at the salary for the new grade, but this allows more growth opportunity. 

Finally, we have an organization change in the Health Department, but the specifics were not included on the agenda. We will have them before the meeting. 

Information items include an update on the HVAC technician incentive program – up to $2500 signing bonus if you know any experienced HVAC technicians. http://cityofappleton.legistar.com/gateway.aspx?M=F&ID=4603accc-7c3c-4ff4-9c67-c6b5944ac88e.pdf 

City Plan Commission, Utilities, Community and Economic Development and Safety and Licensing Committee meetings are canceled this week. 

Note that in the next Common Council meeting (February 15, 7:00 p.m.) there will be an update on the Trout Museum proposal for Ellen Kort Peace Park. 

One last note: I’ve been seeing a few large items placed on the curb, so I’m reminding everyone that bulky item collection is suspended for the winter months. It will resume in April after snow removal is no longer needed (we hope!). Take those items to the landfill, hang on to them until spring or check with charitable organizations to see if they can use them – some groups will pick up. 

Have a great week!