Appleton Common Council District 6 Update for February 28, 2023
What a joy
this sunny and relatively warm day is compared to what we’ve endured for the last
few. Just a reminder for our next big snow (and there will surely be one before
we put this winter behind us) that those of us with a corner lot should make
sure to clean off the storm drains. We had a lot of street flooding yesterday
due to all that rain and blocked drains. The Department of Public Works had to
switch gears from plowing yesterday to address the flooding.
We have a
reasonably light agenda for Common Council this week, but before that meeting,
the Safety and Licensing Committee will meet at 6:30 on Wednesday to make up for
last Wednesday’s meeting which was cancelled due to the bad weather. As noted
in last week’s update, they have a public hearing for a demerit point violation
at Chadwick’s Bar along with the normal license applications. Information items
will include updates to the Emergency Operations Plan and the Directors’
Reports.
The Library
Board is meeting this afternoon (Tuesday, 2/28) at 4:30. They have a lengthy
agenda which includes the bill registers for December and January, budget
amendments to reflect various donations and the report of the Planning
Committee. They will also discuss the report of the Personnel and Policy
Committee and establish the Library Director’s performance goals for 2023.
Information items listed include a building project update, but the agenda does
not have any details other than what we heard in the last Common Council
meeting. Remember that you can view updates here: https://apl.org/building/ and even sign up
for email updates.
Moving on to
the full council meeting Wednesday night, the mayor will present proclamations
for MS Awareness Week, Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month and Be Active
Wisconsin. You can still sign up for Be Active Wisconsin here: https://appletonparkandrec.org/programs-activities/special-events-trips/be-active-wisconsin-2/
It’s easy to log your minutes (shoveling snow totally counts!) and you get a
nice long-sleeved T-shirt in addition to helping us compete with other cities
in Wisconsin.
There are a
few action items that might spark some discussion. The first is the proposal to
enhance the scope of the study of the city’s Enhanced Crosswalk Program to include
developing policies that would encompass other Complete Streets initiatives. The
study still be completed for the initial budgeted $75,000 which was allocated
from the excess general fund balance from 2021. The item was amended in
committee to include a step for feedback from alders. We hear from our constituents
about problem areas that might not be obvious to the traffic engineers or
consultants, so I support this change.
http://cityofappleton.legistar.com/gateway.aspx?M=F&ID=f8afc591-e373-4419-8fe8-c9f186e78a25.pdf
The other
items that may spark some more discussion are acceptance of the federal grant and
awarding the contract for the Whitman Facility Remodel and the grant
application for an additional $12 million federal grant for the Whitman Facility
and $25,254,700 for the Downtown Appleton Joint Development Project (the
downtown transit center and mixed-use project). The second grant has a 20%
local match that would be shared by the nine municipalities that are part of Valley
Transit.
The items
generating the most interest on social media and in the print media are not
action items at this week’s Common Council meeting. The College Avenue
reconfiguration proposal will come before the Municipal Services Committee and
Common Council for approval sometime in March. If approved, the project would
go out for bids and the committee and council would then vote to award the
contract for restriping. Signal improvements would take place during the summer
and fall, and additional data collection and monitoring would happen through
the end of the year. City staff will provide updates to the Municipal Services
Committee throughout the pilot project.
We will also
not be hearing or voting on anything related to the Trout Museum proposal to
relocate to Ellen Kort Peace Park. The museum is still engaged in the site
analysis. If they want to proceed to the next step, another Common Council vote
would be required. I have not been given any information as to the completion
of the site analysis.
I would like
to take a few minutes to talk about the resolution on pesticides, herbicides,
and fertilizers that I joined with four of my colleagues in introducing at the
last Common Council meeting. Having grown up in the South, home of rampaging
poison ivy and innumerable insect pests that just stay around all year because it
never really gets cold enough to get rid of them, I have used enough Round-Up
and other chemicals to give me pause. However, years ago, I started to read
articles about the decline of bee colonies all over the world and I started to
look at ways to lessen my own impact. I also worry about the effects some of
these substances on our water supply. There are still studies going on about
possible glyphosate (the active ingredient in Round-Up) and we know the effects
of phosphorus runoff on the spread of harmful blue-green algae in lakes and
rivers. Shortly after we moved to Appleton, I convinced my husband that we
should stop using chemical pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizer on our lawn.
It was not an easy sell. Our yard does not look like a golf course and I’m growing
to (grudgingly) accept that. I’ve planted milkweed to attract the Monarchs and
have started planting native ground covers and shrubs. I joined the Pollenablers
Fox Cities group and have learned so much about the insects that are
responsible for one-third of every bite of food we eat. We embraced No Mow May,
although my husband still clips the dandelion heads one by one after they go to
seed in order to lessen the spread to neighbors who try to keep their lawns
dandelion free.
I have heard
from a couple of constituents who were concerned about lawn care services
spraying chemicals that they feared were spreading to their chemical free
lawns. The Wisconsin Department of Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP)
regulates those companies, and I directed the callers on how to report a
suspected violation. Commercial applicators are required to be licensed and
follow the label directions on any substances they apply (“the label is the law”).
They are also required to mark treated areas so that neighbors and people
walking on the adjacent sidewalks are aware. City employees who apply chemicals
are also licensed and follow the label directions. I am concerned that there isn’t
any way for us to know that a private citizen has used when we are walking on
the sidewalks with our children and our dogs.
When my
colleagues approached me with this resolution, I was concerned about the
breadth of the language and also has some concerns about any language involving
the terraces. Homeowners are required to maintain them, but they are really
city property. We scheduled a meeting with a representatives of several city
departments, and I did get some of my questions answered, but there were
several legal questions for which the City Attorney’s was going to have to do
some research. We talked about scheduling another meeting.
However, the
city staff and the mayor felt that it was not incumbent on staff to help alders
draft legislation, so we were told that staff would not be meeting with us
about this resolution again. At this point, we met again as a group and ended
up submitting a resolution that was broader than I would have written myself. I
remained as a signer because I really want to use this as a public education process
about the safe use of lawn chemicals. I don’t expect everyone in the city to adopt
chemical free lawn care, but I would love to get to the point where we could
have some kind notification process to let neighbors know that there had been
chemicals applied. The resolution has been submitted to staff, where I hope to
get some of the feedback that we wanted by setting up the meetings prior to
submitting the resolution.
Please let
me know your thoughts on this – I know it has already hit social media, but I
would love to hear how the folks in District 6 feel.
After all
this time on the council I am headed out this evening for my first ride-along
with the Police Department. I started after a special election in September, and
then came COVID, so when I met with Chief Olson last week and mentioned that I
had not taken the opportunity yet, she immediately started the ball rolling. So…I’ll
be riding around with one of Appleton’s finest for a few hours tonight. Let’s
hope it’s uneventful.
Here's
hoping that all of you have a similarly uneventful (especially winter weather
events) week.
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