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Greetings District 6 Neighbors,
I hope everyone got a chance to get out and enjoy some of
the glorious weekend, even if it was to do yard work. Speaking of yard work,
the last spring yard waste collection will be this week (tomorrow for my
neighborhood and a lot of the district. After that, you’ll have to take yard
waste to either the Glendale or Whitman yard waste sites. The new schedule means
that one of the sites will be open every day of the week. Disposal of branches,
etc. is free, but there is a $4.00 per bag charge for grass clippings.
https://www.appleton.org/residents/street-maintenance/leaf-yard-waste-collection
The mayor issued six proclamations at the last Common Council
meeting:
· Asian
& Pacific Islander Heritage Month
·
Jewish
American Heritage Month
·
Municipal
Clerks Week
·
Nurse
Appreciation Week
·
Public
Service Recognition Week
· Teacher
Appreciation Week
As the child of a public-school teacher and a nurse and
the mother of two public-school teachers, I have to give a special shout out
for the recognition weeks for those important professions without diminishing
any of the other groups being recognized. I suspect that the Common Council
would cease to function without the City Clerk’s office, which publishes all of
our meeting agendas and minutes and generally keeps city government working in addition
to running all of the elections, so special thanks to City Clerk Lynch and her
team.
The only item on the council agenda which resulted in a
whole lot of discussion was the application for a bartender license for an
applicant with multiple OWIs on his record (the last was in 2019). As I noted
in the last update, the request has bounced between the Safety and Licensing
Committee and the Common Council for several weeks (the original application
date was February 2). The last hold was because the applicant and his employer
had not been aware that the application had been referred back to the committee.
Both did appear once again at the last Safety and Licensing Committee, and the
restaurant owner reiterated her testimony in support of the applicant, whom she
has known for ten years. I voted to grant the license in committee and again at
the full council meeting because the last offense was five years ago, because I
believe that the applicant is sincere about continuing to work on his sobriety,
because of the support of his employer and based on a careful reading of a long
memo from our City Attorney’s office. The employer would bear the burden of demerit
points and possible loss of the liquor license for her establishment if the
applicant violated any alcohol service ordinances. I also believe that people
can be rehabilitated and that people who pay their penalties deserve a second
chance. Many of my colleagues did not feel that way, and the license was
granted by a vote of 8 to 6 with one alder excused from the meeting. One of our
colleagues suggested that those of us who voted in favor of granting the
license were unable to separate our emotion from logic and another stated that
we lacked common sense. I would be interested in hearing your thoughts. Should
someone with an alcohol related record be barred forever from having a license
to serve alcohol?
We had to vote on some ward changes resulting from the
new legislative maps voted on by the state legislature for the upcoming
elections. We can’t split city wards across legislative districts, so a few new ones had
to be added. No aldermanic districts will change, but some districts will have
additional wards. We had thought District 6 would be one of those, but they
managed to move the lines around here without having to add a new ward.
In committee action this week:
CEA Review Committee – Monday, May 6, 3:30
p.m.
This committee oversees the Central Equipment Agency, which
sources all of the capital equipment for city departments. They meet periodically
to approve equipment requests. They will be electing a chair and a vice chair
and voting on requests from the Appleton Fire Department for a pumper truck (Pierce
Manufacturing - $1,122,800.00). The lead time on these vehicles is not 50-53 months
and ordering.
The Department of Public Works is requesting to hold a
forklift for use by the Traffic Division when it is replaced this year, and the
Utilities Department is requesting to upgrade the planned purchase of a pickup
truck to a cargo van which would fit the more diverse needs of the department.
Municipal Services Committee – Monday, May 6,
4:30 p.m.
We have a number of parking and traffic control
ordinances to consider- changing parking restrictions and the addition of stop
signs at various locations throughout the city. We’ll also be considering a
request from The Boldt Company to extend their street occupancy permit for the
work at The Fox Commons on College Avenue through July 1 and modifications to the
downtown parking and meter change policy. The parking policy changes will serve
to codify changes that have already been put into effect.
We will once again have the overnight parking resolution
on our agenda. Alder Siebers and I met with the Public Works Director and Deputy
Director last week hoping to work out some kind of a pilot program that would
allow alternate side overnight parking (without a permitting system) other than
in the winter months, but after internal discussions, the DPW staff believes there
are too many unaddressed issues to move forward without a study that they
propose to budget for in 2025. I expect that there will be robust discussion at
this afternoon’s meeting. I hope we can arrive at something other than just a
denial because I believe that we need to address the parking issues in the
downtown area (and some areas of District 6, to be honest) as we continue to work
toward denser housing development.
Finally, as an information item, we’ll get an update on Bird
Scooters. Representatives from Bird will be attending virtually. I do not sense
any appetite for continuing the relationship from my colleagues; however, we do
not have any ordinance currently that prohibits a private company from operating
a ride-sharing service such as Bird does. My preference is that we would enact
an ordinance that would prohibit the private operation of the service without a
contract (and some reimbursement) for the city.
Finance Committee – Monday, May 6, 5:30 p.m.
As part of the Safe Drinking Water Loan Program through
the Department of Natural Resources, Appleton can apply for a loan on which the
principle will be forgiven for work to replace lead service lines. ($611,302.00).
We will also vote on a budget amendment to move these funds to the Water
Utility.
The pumper truck purchase from the CEA agenda is also before
the Finance Committee.
Finally, Resolution #5-R-24, submitted by Alders Wolff
and co-signed by Alder and Finance Committee Chair Firkus is on the agenda.
This resolution proposes to raise the wheel tax by $10 to $30 a year for each eligible
vehicle registered in the City of Appleton. Since Alder Firkus will not be able
to attend this afternoon’s meeting, I expect that we will hold this item until
the May 20 meeting. I want to have additional discussion with city staff about
this proposal, so I would have voted to hold it regardless. I’ll write more about
it in a future update.
Utilities Committee – Tuesday, May 7, 4:30
p.m.
The committee will be voting on several contracts:
·
Engineering
services for the Appleton Water Treatment Facility Carbon Dioxide System
Rehabilitation Project (McMahon sole
source - $29,700.00 with contingency)
· Leak
monitoring system (Badger Meter Syrinix sole source - $90,000.00)
·
Contract
Amendment #1 to McMahon for Phase II Solid Dewatering Equipment Upgrades for
additional design and construction management services in the amount of $26,900
increasing the contract amount from $162,000 to $188,900
They will also vote on the DNR loan discussed above.
Appleton Public Arts Committee – Wednesday, May
8, 8:00 a.m. (special)
In addition to electing a chair and vice chair, the
committee will vote on a request from Neo Medina (the artist who has done the
murals at the Boys and Girls Club, The Kaleidoscope School and various other
works around town) and the Trout Museum of Art to paint a mural inside the Red Parking
Ramp. The mural will be completed by students taking a murals class at the
Trout Museum.
Appleton Redevelopment Authority – Wednesday,
May 8, 9:00 a.m.
The committee will be electing a chair and vice chair and
voting to approve the appointment of Jeff Nooyen to the ARA Exhibition Center
Advisory Committee as a replacement for the late Walter Rugland.
They
will also be getting an update on the Mayor's Taskforce on Housing Development
Policy – Final Housing Development Policy Guide.
City
Plan Commission – Wednesday, May 8, 3:30 p.m.
The
commission will be voting on a rezoning request for a parcel of land west of Providence
Avenue
and Aquamarine Avenue and north of Jasper Lane for the 8th Addition
to the Emerald Valley subdivision. The land is currently zoned as agricultural,
and the new zoning would be single family residential. We’ll also be voting to
approve the preliminary plat for the 8th, 9th and 10th
Additions to Emerald Valley.
We
will also welcome new member Richard Carpenter to the Plan Commission.
Safety and Licensing Committee – Wednesday,
May 8, 5:30 p.m.
There are a number of public hearings for alcohol demerit
point violations (Aldi and Walmart locations selling to minors and two
convenience stores with gambling machines on the premises).
In addition to the normal license renewals and approvals,
we will vote on the fire department automatic aid agreement between the City of
Appleton and the Village of Little Chute.
We will also be reviewing the Fire Department Shared Service
Agreement with Gold Cross Ambulance as an information item.
The Parks, Community Development and HR/IT Committees will
not be meeting this week.
Have a great week!
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