Appleton Common Council District 6 Update for the Week of November 10, 2024

Greetings District 6 Neighbors,

I’d like to start this update by recognizing veterans for their service on Veterans Day. I am planning to attend the Fox Valley Veterans Council event this morning at 11:00 at the Veterans Memorial inside the Outagamie County Courthouse.

I’d also like to thank the  City Clerk and her staff, along with all the election workers, for all their hard work during last week’s election. They handled long lines during in-person absentee voting and some long lines at the fifteen polling sites on election day with efficiency and grace.

Last week’s Common Council meeting was preceded by the public hearing on the 2025 budget, where several members of the community were present, but the only speaker was the representative of the League of Women Voters. The special council meeting where we will vote on adopting the budget will be held this Wednesday, November 13 at 6:00 p.m.

The only item separated for individual discussion at the council meeting was the revised special events policy, where the fee schedule was revised so that the city would be able to recoup 25% of the actual cost of special events (public safety and city staff time, etc.) That item passed 12-1 with Alder Doran as the single nay vote. His position is that the city should be charging the organizations a larger portion of the cost of holding the events.

As I wrote last week, there was a motion to reconsider the proposal to extend the non-smoking area around the library and the transit center. Alder Jones, who was excused from the meeting where the item was first considered, made the motion to reconsider, and this time, the change was approved by an 11-2 margin, with Alders Hartzheim and Doran voting nay. Alder Croatt changed his position from the previous vote to vote for the extension.

In this week’s committee meetings:

Municipal Services Committee – Monday, November 11, 4:30 p.m.

The committee will get a presentation on the College Avenue Lane Configuration status for August, 2023 through July, 2024.

Action items include the contract for design and construction-related services for the 2025 maintenance and repair program for the Red, Yellow and Green Parking Ramps (Desman Design Management - $96,370). The request for a sole-source contract is based on continuity of service as Desman has been the design and construction administrator for the parking ramps since 2019.

We’ll also vote on an amendment to the 2024 Materials Testing contract with Westwood Professional Services, increasing the contract amount by $100,000 due to testing needs exceeding the previous estimated amounts. Funding is available within the budgets for the projects.

The agenda also includes the service contract for Traffic Signal Control and Management Software Expansion (Traffic Control Corporation - $107,210 with contingency). Traffic Control Corporation is the single vendor for the Econolite brand traffic signal control and management software in Wisconsin.

Finally, we’ll be looking at a temporary occupancy request for a dumpster in the parking lane at 213 E. College Avenue as part of the ongoing construction project and a request by Mosaic Health for the purchase of five designated parking stalls in the Yellow Ramp.

Finance Committee – Monday, November 11, 5:30 p.m.

The committee will vote on contracts for the purchase of sludge density meters for the wastewater treatment plant (Allied Instrument - $53,342) and for four high-service check valves for the water treatment plant (Dorner Company - $157,872). The density meters determine the efficiency of sludge removal by the clarifiers to prevent too much sludge going to the anaerobic digesters, which would require additional heating and produce extra biosolids. These meters would replace two that recently failed. Funding comes from the budget for the primary clarifier rebuild that was delayed due to the bid cost exceeding the budgeted amount. The check valves at the water treatment plant prevent leakage from the pumps that deliver treated water through the distribution system.

We’ll also be voting on the extension of the contract with CliftonLarsonAllen for the city’s annual financial audits for 2024 and 2025. ($81,700 and $82,500 respectively), and a change order for additional sidewalk replacement (more sidewalk areas needing replacement) that will reduce the contingency in that contract by $50,000.

Information items include a report on the status of ARPA funds as of September 30. All of the funding has been spent or obligated per the requirements of the program.

Fox Cities Transit Commission – Tuesday, November 12, 2:50 p.m.

The commission will be voting on a contract to enter into an intergovernmental agreement with the Milwaukee County Transit System to purchase the WisGo fare system. The system will allow riders to use a reloadable fare card or a smartphone app to manage payments. The first-year cost is $168,636, which includes setup, equipment and the first year’s maintenance fee. 80% of the cost is federally funded.

Utilities Committee – Tuesday, November 12, 4:30 p.m.

The committee will be voting on three stormwater-related contracts with Brown and Caldwell:

• 2024C Stormwater Quality Modeling ($53,620)
• Northland Creek and Bellaire Watersheds Stormwater Evaluation (the Northland Creek watershed runs along Morrison between Wisconsin and Glendale – clearly important to evaluate after the flooding this past summer-see the notes from Director Jungwirth below) ($301,200)
• Amendment #3 to the 2024A Stormwater Management Plan Review Contract (increase of $115,000 – additional work relating to the anticipated submittal of the Thrivent Stormwater Management Plan).

Board of Health – Wednesday, November 13, 7:00 a.m.

The board will take up an appeal of a dangerous dog declaration, including a potential closed session to deliberate said appeal.

They will also review several updates to policy and procedure manuals for the Health Department.

Information items include the 2025 Health Department budget, the October 2024 newsletter and the Q3 quarterly report.

City Plan Commission – Wednesday, November 13, 3:30 p.m.

The Plan Commission will meet in closed session to discuss land acquisition of real estate within a city industrial park. Closed sessions are used when public discussions of a negotiation could negatively impact that process.

The Parks and Recreation, Safety and Licensing and Human Resources and Information Technology committees will not be meeting this week. As noted above, we will have a special Common Council meeting on Wednesday, November 13 to adopt the 2025 budget.

During Budget Saturday, Department of Public Works Director Jungwirth addressed the summer flooding incidents when she talked about the Stormwater and Public Works budgets. I was taking notes at that time but asked her if she would provide a summary of her remarks that I could share with folks in the district, as I know many of you were affected by the flooding.

Her notes:

From late July until now, DPW staff efforts have been dedicated to collecting data, mapping, and data management. What we can offer from this effort is that the July storms did not impact all areas of the city equally, but the more affected areas were on the north side of Appleton. 

As data continues to be analyzed and discussions continue regarding the next steps, staff intends to execute a multi-faceted approach to make progress on flood relief efforts that include the following.

1. To start, some near-term solutions are being considered to make near-term progress. This includes items such as localized regrading and increasing capacity of and reducing clogging of street inlets and yard drains by switching out castings. 
2. Staff’s intended mid-level progress would be to initiate internal storm modeling and analyses by our staff to assess the smaller watersheds within the city that have been impacted by flooding. As these analyses are performed, upsizing of storm sewer on reconstruction projects will continue and will provide additional stormwater capacity.
3. As stated already, the north side of Appleton was the most heavily impacted, particularly within the Northland and Bellaire Drainage Areas. For reference, the Northland and Bellaire drainage areas, broadly speaking, are bound by I-41 to the north, US 441 to the east, Packard Street and Fox River to the south, and Mason Street to the west. It is important to have a more comprehensive stormwater drainage analysis within these two areas that can home in on multiple neighborhood-level flood control project options. Therefore, staff will be proposing at an upcoming Utilities Committee Meeting utilizing 2024 consulting services funds to initiate a consultant-led study for these areas.

It is important to note that these flooding issues did not begin overnight, nor will there be a one size fits all solution. Our progress is going to take time and resources, and I can assure you that DPW staff remains dedicated to the effort.

Please let me know if there are questions related to the above and I will reach out to Director Jungwirth and her team.

Have a great week (if we don’t blow away this afternoon),

Denise