Appleton Common Council District 6 Update for the Week of August 25, 2024
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| Women's Equality Day Proclamation Presentation |
Greetings District 6 Neighbors,
Well, summer apparently read my last update and decided to let us know that it isn’t done yet. We’ve got some scorchers for the next couple of days especially, so take care of yourself and stay hydrated!
Today is Women’s Equality Day, celebrating the 19th amendment which gave women the right to vote, and I was excited to be able to attend a ceremony at City Hall this morning where Mayor Woodford presented the proclamation to a group of members of the coalition of women’s organizations supporting women’s rights in our area. As the proclamation notes, not all women received the right to vote at that time, and there is still work to be done, but we nonetheless celebrate the progress and the countless women who worked to achieve that progress.
We started the Common Council meeting last Wednesday a few minutes late, since we were one person short of the ten members required for a quorum due to a combination of travel and illness. Thanks to Alder Hayden, who rushed to chambers in spite of a nasty cold so that we could hold the meeting.
The meeting itself was relatively uneventful, although there were quite a few items separated for individual discussion and votes.
The variance request for the driveway extension (installed without a permit and in violation of city code prohibiting driveway extensions more than four feet into the front yard) was referred back to the Municipal Services Committee by Alder Croatt, but I don’t see it on the agenda for this afternoon, so I assume that would be taken up at the next meeting.
We voted to accept the grant funding for the Transit Center and the Whitman Avenue Valley Transit facility remodel but will need to approve the corresponding budget amendments at our next council meeting because those items require a ¾ majority of the council.
The saga of The Corner Pub is finally over, with the license renewal being approved by the Common Council. I had a brief chat with the owner on the elevator heading up to the meeting and they were planning to reopen this week.
The resolution calling for a ¾ majority vote for any action related to the wheel tax was held until the next council meeting since we did not have that majority present to vote on it last week.
In this week’s committee meetings:
Municipal Services Committee – Monday, August 26, 4:30 p.m.
We have a busy agenda for this afternoon’s meeting. We’ll be voting on the design for the Lawe Street reconstruction between College Avenue Spring Street. 90% of the project will be federally funded through the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. There was a public meeting back in March to explain the project to interested residents, and we have heard from residents and neighboring businesses throughout the planning process. The current design option calls for replacing the existing pavement as follows:
College Ave – Washington St
- New concrete pavement would be constructed at 40’ wide from face of curb to face of curb. The proposed 40’ wide street is 1-4’ wider than the existing street (39’ & 36’). o 1 thru lane in each direction
o Dedicated left turn lane at College Ave
o Bike lanes along both sides of the street
o On-street parking would be restricted.
Washington St – Franklin St
- New concrete pavement would be constructed at 32’ wide from face of curb to face of curb. The proposed 32’ wide street is 4’ narrower than the existing street (36’). o 1 thru lane in each direction
o Bike lanes along both sides of the street
o On-street parking would be restricted.
Franklin St – Spring St
- New concrete pavement would be constructed at 32’ wide from face of curb to face of curb. The proposed 32’ wide street is the same width as the existing street. o 1 thru lane in each direction
o Bike lanes along both sides of the street
o Raised medians for pedestrian crossings would be constructed at North St & Pacific St.
o On-street parking would be restricted.
- All existing sidewalk and driveway aprons within the project limits would be removed and replaced with new concrete sidewalk and driveway aprons.
- Sanitary sewer and water main will be reconstructed, if necessary, in 2025.
Detailed plans can be found here: https://www.appleton.org/government/public-works/admin-engineering/project-information/lawe-street-from-college-ave-to-spring-st/-fsiteid-1#!/
Of special interest to District 6 residents is the grant application to place a permanent traffic signal at the Richmond/Ridgeview intersection. As discussed recently, the DOT is going to place a temporary signal there during the closure of the Ballard/Interstate 41 interchange. The city plans to ask for the temporary signal to stay up a year longer and then work with the Town of Grand Chute on the permanent signal. Traffic Engineer Lom believes that the increased traffic during the I-41/Ballard interchange construction should increase the changes of our receiving the grant.
As part of the IT system upgrade, we are being asked to approve an ordinance change that would make the billing for trash and recycling containers quarterly rather than weekly. We already bill quarterly for utility services; this would just change the presentation of the charges as a quarterly rather than a weekly amount. The rates would not change.
The committee will review a request for a waiver of the administrative fee ($160) charged to a business on N. Superior St. after it was cited for violation of the weed ordinance. The business had been notified twice that it was in violation but cut the weeds before the city contractor arrived to perform the job. City staff is recommending denial of the waiver.
Finally, we will be voting on approval of a sole source contract (Traffic and Parking Control Co., Inc. - $221,209.00) to replace the credit card readers on the parking ramps with chip and tap functionality and replace the current desktop software which is difficult to maintain and troubleshoot with a cloud-based system. The sole source contract is based on the need to maintain continuity with the current systems. The cost is within the operational budget of the Parking Utility.
Finance Committee – Monday, August 26, 5:30 p.m.
The committee will be voting on the approval of a contract for renovation of the elevators at the wastewater treatment plant. (Otis Elevator Co. - $292,930 with contingency) and on a contract for the Waste Heat-to-Power Generator Install Project (Rhode Bros, Inc. - $605,763.00 with contingency). The latter also has a budget amendment moving $200,000 from the Sludge Building Addition project to this project.
The grant application for the traffic signal at Richmond and Ridgeview will also come before a vote at the Finance Committee.
We’re being asked to approve three sole source contracts for the wastewater treatment plant:
- Donohue for engineering services for phase 1 of the Anaerobic Digester Engineering
Evaluation ($54,515.00 with contingency)
- McMahon for engineer services for Water Tower Booster Pump Improvements ($48,900.00 with contingency)
- Applied Technologies, Inc. for engineering services for Column and Plank
Storage Upgrades ($28,050 with contingency)
In all three cases, the sole source contracts are being recommended due to the firms’ experience with the respective projects.
The saga of the Green Ramp continues with the request to award a sole source contract to Restoration Systems, Inc. ($59,613) for Phase 2 of the Green Ramp Barrier Panel Emergency Repair. The city expects to recover the costs from the driver or their insurance.
Fox Cities Transit Commission – Tuesday, August 27, 2:50 p.m.
In addition to approving the July payments, the commission will vote on a sole source design contract for Phase 2 of the Whitman Avenue facility construction. (Kueny
Architects, LLC - $826,000 plus a 5% contingency). The same firm has completed all the architectural and engineering work for the facility since the project began in 2021 and selection of a new firm would result in substantial duplication of work and expense.
Information items include the presentation of the 2023 Audit, the Financial Report and the Ridership Report.
Utilities Committee – Tuesday, August 27, 4:30 p.m.
The committee will vote on authorization for the City Attorney and Mayor to request exclusion from the class action lawsuits against Tyco and BASF for PFAS contamination. This would allow the city to pursue legal action on its own if warranted in the future.
They will also vote on an engineering services contract for the Utilities Department Network System Upgrades Project. (Donohue and Associates, Inc. - $256,324.00 with contingency) Donohue was the only firm who attended the pre-proposal meeting after the RFP for the project was issued.
The committee will also vote to update the Municipal Code regarding the late fee for stormwater utility payments from 1.5% to 1% to be consistent with the amount that is being billed and that is approved by the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin.
Finally, they will receive the final report on the December 26, 2022 polymer incident at the wastewater treatment plant.
City Plan Commission – Wednesday, August 28, 3:30 p.m.
There will be a public hearing and vote on a proposed rezoning of two parcels on S. Schaefer St. (2111 and 2121, 2125) The owner would like to combine the two parcels, but they are currently zoned into two different planned development commercial districts, so must be rezoned in order to allow the combination.
The commission will also vote on the approval of the Downtown Appleton Business Improvement District (BID) 2025 Operating Plan.
Community Development Committee – Wednesday, August 28, 4:30 p.m.
The committee does not have any action items for this week, but there will be two public hearings related to Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding and information items associated with the notice of funding availability for 2025 and the creation of the 2025-2029 consolidated plan for the CDBG program.
Other information items include the Community Development Department Mid-Year 2024 Budget Report and the July Inspection Division Permit Summary Report.
Safety and Licensing Committee – Wednesday, August 28, 5:30 p.m.
In addition to the normal license applications and renewals, the committee is being asked to vote to adopt the Outagamie County Hazard Mitigation Plan and to adopt some revisions to the Municipal Code related to emergency management in order to conform to state statutes and make some grammatical revisions.
Human Resources and Information Technology Committee – Wednesday, August 28, 6:30 p.m.
The wastewater treatment plant is proposing to reorganize three different operator groups into one, with rotating assignments to allow for more operational flexibility, enhanced training and skill development, improved team cohesion and morale, streamlined management and administration and several other benefits. There would be no budgetary impact to the reorganization but would allow employees to earn a higher wage in the future because of the new classification.
The committee will also vote on a new generative AI policy for city employees, which would establish guidelines for use, including strict adherence to intellectual property laws and privacy considerations, along with rules for citing the use of AI.
The committee will take up what I am sure is every member’s least favorite annual action item – alderperson salaries. In order to avoid voting on our own salaries, we must act on the salaries for alders taking office in 2026 by the end of 2024. It’s always a touchy subject because no one wants to look like they are trying to enrich themselves at taxpayer expense, but the job requires work and people deserve to be compensated for the work that takes them away from their families to attend multiple meetings each month. In order to avoid being a council made up of only retired people like me, we need to understand that some people might have to pay for childcare to fulfill their duties, or to sacrifice income that they could make if they are self-employed. We risk shutting out whole groups of candidates to serve if the salary is a barrier.
The current salary of $6750 per year plus a monthly parking pass took effect at the beginning of the 2023 term. At that time, it was a pretty substantial increase. I won’t comment on the salary until I see what action the committee takes.
The material on salaries does note that an administrative mistake was made back in 2017 when a 1% increase ($59) was implemented although the Common Council had voted in 2015 not to increase the salary for 2017.
Information items include a number of policy updates.
It’s going to be a busy week – have a great one!
Denise
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