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

Greetings District 6 Neighbors,

I’m writing this while monitoring the Packer game by way of the shouts and/or groans from downstairs. Wishing the Pack better luck than the Brewers had this week.

In the special Municipal Services Committee meeting last week, we were not able to vote to approve free parking downtown for Small Business Saturday because the motion to change the original request to omit the parking ramps for which we don’t have a good way to turn off the payment process did not get a second and we couldn’t vote for a request that we didn’t have a way to fulfill. Spoiler alert – that motion did get a second in the full council meeting and the council voted to grant fee parking at meters on November 30. When I had my biweekly meeting with the Director and Deputy Director this week, we discussed some other options that I would like to see for 2025.

I referred the bartender license for the person who had been convicted of a 4th OWI (conviction in January 2024 for a 2023 incident) back to the safety and licensing committee for more discussion. We’ll take that up this Wednesday.

The other items separated for individual discussion and votes were the driveway extension on N. Ballard and alderperson salaries. Both items passed as they were approved in committee – not granting the variance for the driveway extension and leaving alderperson salaries for 2026 the same as they are now - $6750 per year. There might have been more appetite for granting the variance for the driveway extension if we hadn’t seen multiple incidences of cars being parked there when we were told it was just being used as a turnaround because of the danger of backing out onto busy N. Ballard St.

As expected, we got an overview of the 2025 Executive Budget from Mayor Woodford and got our budget books. This year’s book came in at 684 pages, only five more than last year. The public listening session has been set for October 16 from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. in council chambers at City Hall. Unlike the virtual sessions from prior years, no preregistration is required, so if you have thoughts on the budget, you are welcome to attend. The full budget is on the website here: https://www.appleton.org/home/showpublisheddocument/26839 if you want to join me in reviewing it. I will work diligently to complete my review by the time of the listening session. I have just started my review of the budget, but the introduction tells me that the property tax RATE for those of us in the Outagamie County portion of the city decreases by 1.6% in the proposed budget.

In this week’s committee meetings:

CEA Review Committee – Monday, October 7, 4:00 p.m.

The Central Equipment Agency manages the capital equipment for all city departments. They are meeting this week to review a request from the Appleton Police Department for an enclosed trailer to be retrofitted as an ID van for the Forensic Evidence Specialist. Funds were previously allocated to replace the existing van – purchased in 2013 and designated for replacement in 2022. The cost would be $24,683, which would include the $22,169 allocated for replacement by CEA, with APD covering the additional cost.

Municipal Services Committee, Monday, October 7, 4:30 p.m.

The committee will be voting on the design for the four street reconstruction projects for which the public hearings were held at the last meeting: Bellaire Ct. between Atlantic and the cul de sac, Alexander St. between Melrose and Glendale, Bell Avenue between Summit and Richmond, and Melrose Avenue between Alexander St. and Ballard Rd. The Department of Public Works has prepared a list of the questions that came up during the public hearings and the responses to those questions that will be distributed to residents who attend the committee meeting. For all of the projects utility work will take place in 2025 and the street reconstruction in 2026.

We’ll also vote on a request to extend the temporary occupancy permit for The Boldt Company for the parking and bike lane at College Avenue and Drew St. for construction of the Trout Museum/Lawrence University project.

Finance Committee – Monday, October 7, 5:30 p.m.

The committee will vote on a contract recommendation for the Carbon Dioxide System Rehabilitation Project at the water treatment facility (Rohde Brothers, Inc. - $228,800 with contingency). The existing system was commissioned as part of the construction of the plant in 2001. The low bid is within the project budget.

We’ll also be voting on a contract for janitorial services at city facilities for the years 2025-2029. The current contract expires at the end of this year. The evaluation team is recommending awarding the contract to Kleenmark ($463,883). They were not the low bidder by about $8000, so I’ll be asking staff how recommendation and interviews may have influenced the recommendation.

There is another sole source contract recommendation for the wastewater treatment plant – inspection and rebuilding of two of the three effluent screw pumps (the third failed and was repaired in 2023). These pumps prevent flooding of the plant during high flow events or high-water level in the Fox River. The recommended vendor (Mideast Power Products - $38,828 with contingency for the two pumps) performed the repairs on the third pump and is the only company that maintains a used parts inventory for this particular pump. Funds remain in the 2024 operations budget for this repair.

There is a budget amendment to record the donation from the Community Foundation for the purchase, training and travel for two new dogs for the K9 program – replacing a retired dog and one who died. ($51,339)

The saga of the Green Ramp continues with the request to approve a contract with Restoration Systems, Inc. ($73,700) for Phase 3 of the repairs. This was the damage caused by a driver hitting the barrier and the city is pursuing the driver and his insurance company for reimbursement of the repair costs.

Finally, we have the good news that the agreement with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation is being amended to slightly reduce the city’s responsibility for the Ballard/I-4 interchange – from $435,200 to $431,050.

Board of Health, Wednesday, October 9, 7:00 a.m.

The single action item for the Board is a proposal to ban smoking around the transit center and the library. The new library will include an outdoor children’s programming space near Oneida St. and the Health Department also wants to discourage people from congregating near where vehicles are entering the library parking lot. As someone who has to traverse this space to get to meetings in City Hall, I heartily approve of this proposal. The secondhand smoke is really an issue in that block.

Information items include the Health Department newsletter for September and approved noise variances for special events.

Appleton Redevelopment Authority – Wednesday, October 9, 9:00 a.m.

The ARA will be reviewing the Comprehensive Plan update and engagement plan for the full Comprehensive Plan and the Wisconsin Avenue, Richmond Street and S. Oneida Street subareas.

Board of Building Inspection – Wednesday, October 9, 2:00 p.m.

The Board will be taking up a request for a property at 841 W. Lawrence St. that has been changed from commercial to residential use. The owners want to continue to use a stairway that is 30 inches wide as the egress from the second story when the Municipal Code requires residential stairways to be 36 inches wide.

City Plan Commission – Wednesday, October 9, 3:30 p.m.

The commission will act on the Municipal Code changes that were reviewed at our last meeting. These are related to driveways, driveway extensions, parking pads and outdoor parking (moving to the zoning code) and official map amendments and zoning amendments and to zoning related to alcohol consumption (this would eliminate the requirement for a special use permit separate from the liquor license). There will be public hearings on these items as well.

Community Development Committee – Wednesday, October 9, 4:30 p.m.

The committee will be taking action on Municipal Code changes clarifying what types of projects require a permit, codifying the requirement that fence posts be anchored 48 inches into the ground to avoid upheaving from freezing and clarifying the definition of a fence and movement of the code related to driveways also to be discussed in the Plan Commission meeting.

Information items include the Inspections Division Permit Reports for August and September and the Community Development Department 2025 budget.

Safety and Licensing Committee – Wednesday, October 9, 5:30 p.m.

In addition to license applications and renewals, we have the bartender license referred back from the council meeting. Although I voted to approve the license at the last meeting, additional information about the applicant’s encounters with law enforcement between the third OWI and the most recent one have made me decide to vote against granting the license. I am reluctant to take away someone’s livelihood, but I believe that this applicant has not shown a serious effort at rehabilitation.

We will also be voted on proposed changes to the Special Events Policy. The proposed changes would allow the city to recoup more of the cost of special events, which place a burden on city facilities, and especially for the cost of city personnel at special events. The new policy also clarifies the timing for applications and approvals.

Human Resources and Information Technology Committee – Wednesday, October 9, 6:30 p.m.

The sole action item is the request to contract with the Matrix Consulting Group for an organizational and workload study for the Appleton Police Department ($69,000 from budgeted ARPA funds).

The goals of the study are to:

• Assess the current and anticipated future demands for service to ensure we can

meet these needs without compromising service quality and safety of our

community and employees.

• Evaluate current patrol coverage and distribution by examining how officers are

assigned across differing shifts, geographic areas and tasks.

• Improve budgeting and resource allocation decisions based on data we collect

regarding hiring, overtime needs, and equipment procurement.

• Plan for future growth by identifying anticipated community demands due to

population growth, changes in crime trends, or new responsibilities for the police

department.

• Retain quality officers in our community by finding ways to adequately staff to

reduce officer fatigue, stress and burnout.

Have a great week---I need to run make sure that the Packers hang on!

Denise