Appleton Common Council District 6 Update for the Week of June 24, 2024

Erb Pool

Greetings District 6 Neighbors,

I’m writing this to the sounds of the N. Alvin St. reconstruction. We’re in peak traffic cone season in Appleton and all of Wisconsin, so pay attention and give yourself a few extra minutes to get where you’re going. I personally am glad that the water and sewer work on N. Morrison seems to be wrapped up because I could NEVER seem to remember that it was closed – the number of times I had to turn back down to Wisconsin is pretty embarrassing.

On the subject of street construction, the Common Council did narrowly (8-7) pass a $10 increase to the wheel tax after it was amended to delay the implementation until January of 2025. I believe that Alder Van Zeeland offered the amendment in the hope that the 2025 budget might find a way to avoid the increase, either through increased state aids or a continued easing of costs. A change in the wheel tax requires 90 days for the state to implement and has to take effect on the first day of a month, so it would have been October before it could be changed anyway. As I said at the meeting last week, I don’t like the wheel tax. The burden is heavier on those with lower incomes, and state law limits it to passenger vehicles, not the heavy trucks that likely cause the most wear on our streets. However, with the costs of street construction increasing, the current wheel tax is covering less and less of those costs. Even in 2014, the wheel tax did not replace the amount collected by special assessments. I voted for the increase reluctantly because I want the city to stay on our projected path of reducing debt and at least have some of the costs of street reconstruction be shared by those who use the streets.

In other council action last week, an amended version of Resolution #4-R-24 was passed. The original resolution called for completely eliminating the use of a list of pesticides and herbicides by the city and the release of information about the use of those chemicals on city property. The amended version calls for record keeping regarding the use of chemicals to be incorporated into the turf management policy so that when a pesticide is applied, there is a record of the type of chemical used and where it was applied. This seemed to be a very reasonable compromise. The action by the council will remove the item from this week’s Municipal Services Committee agenda, where it was held at the last meeting.

We also voted to discontinue negotiations with Bird Rides about dockless scooters for the 2024 season. In order to prevent Bird or another operator from bringing in the scooters without a memorandum of understanding, we directed the City Attorney’s office to draft an ordinance preventing the public rental of those vehicles. This does not signal the end of scooters in Appleton forever, but some of the lessons learned over the years we had the Bird scooters taught us that we need to develop a program that will avoid some of the issues that we saw with Bird. I am hopeful that we can bring back either Bird or another company once a program is developed. I’d also like to see bicycle and/or e-bike rentals around town. I do have to add that I was not pleased with some of the statements that Bird representatives made during some of the committee meetings. They implied that outgoing Department of Public Works Director Block had no interest in working with them. As chair of the committee, I spoke to her and other members of the staff multiple times during this process and clearly understood that city staff was willing to carry out whatever decision was made by the Common Council.

Moving to this week’s committee agendas:

Municipal Services Committee – Monday, June 24, 4:30 p.m.

We’ll be taking up a permanent street occupancy permit for the Rise Apartments for door swing areas and associated concrete stoops to extend into the Harris Street right-of-way. There is also a request for a temporary street occupancy permit from The Boldt Company for some of the ongoing work on Fox Commons/City Center.

The request from the Lil Taco restaurant on S. State St. to place picnic tables in front of the restaurant is back after being held at the last meeting. Alder Siebers was concerned that the picnic tables that they wanted to use couldn’t be put inside in the evening and would result in more congregation on a block where there is already a high incidence of disturbances. I did notice that other restaurants also have picnic tables outside, so I’m not sure we can deny this request.

Finally, we have the resolution calling for ending No Mow May – going back to enforcing the tall grass restrictions year-round. I did not care for the language in the “whereas” clauses of the resolution that were an echo of last year’s version – statements that I believe are divisive, and in some cases, of questionable accuracy. There seems to be a general willingness to make some changes in the policy short of going back to full enforcement of the tall grass restriction. I am considering offering an amended version that would keep the restrictions in front yards but not enforce them in back yards during May. I suspect that it will still be a lively discussion, but I expect that some version of this might pass.

Finance Committee – Monday, June 24, 5:30 p.m.

The committee will be voting on the 2025 special assessments policy – water and sewer laterals are still assessed to homeowners although street reconstruction is not except for new subdivision concrete paving. The new policy increases the rate from $52 to $55 per lineal foot to reflect cost increases.

We will also vote on awarding the contract for the Phase II Belt Filter Press Equipment Upgrades Project at the wastewater treatment plant (Staab Construction - $4,842,119 with contingency) and a change order for Phase 1 of the project within the contingency for that project.

Information items include a couple of change orders for ongoing projects and a budget amendment to record donations for memorial benches in parks.

Library Board Personnel and Policy Committee – Tuesday, June 25, 8:30 a.m.

Action items include the Library Director’s Mid-Year Performance Review and some policy updates.

Safety and Licensing Committee – Wednesday, June 26, 5:30 p.m.

In addition to the normal license applications, there is a recommendation for denial of an alcohol license for Mr. Frogs on College Avenue due to the owner’s involvement with the cocaine distribution that took place in restaurants in Appleton and Kimberly. There is also a hearing on withdrawing the alcohol license for an establishment that has not opened for over a year.

Other committee meetings are cancelled this week. I’ll take advantage of some of my extra time by showing visiting kids and grandkids all the fun to be had in Appleton and surrounding areas!

Have a great week,