Greetings District 6 Neighbors,
The Common Council is back to work this week after a “fifth week” with only a couple of meetings.
There will be a special meeting of the Finance Committee at 6:45 to vote on approving a resolution for the emergency replacement of a bulk storage tank for the sodium hypochlorite that us used as the primary disinfectant for drinking water. The water treatment plant has three of these 11,000-gallon tanks, all placed into service in 2001. They have an expected life of 15 years, but relining can extend the life another 25 years. All three tanks were relined in 2022 and 2023. However, a “sizeable” leak was discovered in one of the tanks in January – small leaks had been found in all three tanks since relining, but this one was more extensive. The risk to the disinfection process if two tanks were offline at the same time is such that the water treatment plant believes they should replace all three tanks. No cost was given in the meeting materials, nor was a source of funding. I don’t believe we should risk having these tanks offline, but I do want to know what the plan will be to prevent this type of problem in the future; i.e., keeping an unused tank as a backup, etc.
The agenda for the Common Council meeting includes proclamations for Black History Month (may it not be the last) and Burn Awareness Week. The mayor will also be presenting appointments to the Appleton Public Arts Committee and the Advisory Panel on Sustainability and Climate Resilience.
It is sometimes hard to predict what alders might separate from the agenda for individual votes and discussion, but I expect that a bartender license that the Safety and Licensing Committee recommended for approval might come up. We had held this item from the previous meeting to allow the applicant to provide evidence of rehabilitation. My understanding from the Assistant City Attorney was that the evidence that existed was sufficient to require us to grant the license.
I would also expect to see the request to accept a non-state grant from the Wisconsin Department of Administration ($274,000) for the library project separated from the agenda. Alder Hartzheim voted against accepting the grant after her amendment requiring that the grant only be accepted if the total cost of the project did not increase. As I stated in the meeting, the council has committed to the taxpayer portion of the project staying at the budgeted $26.4 million. The fundraising effort was within $100,000 of their $12 million goal at the time of the meeting. If the fundraising effort exceeded the goal and wanted to add some “nice to have” items to the project, I believe that to be a benefit for library patrons and not an issue for city taxpayers.
I don’t expect that we will discuss it, but the Municipal Services Committee recommended approval for accepting a grant for a permanent signal at Richmond St. and W. Ridgeway Dr. in our district. This will be really important during the I-41 construction where the Ballard interchange will be closed and generally for dealing with the traffic coming out of the Richmond/Northland roundabout.
An item that we won’t discuss tonight is the license application for Delaire’s, the coffee bar turned board game lounge planned for 823 W. College Avenue. This application has been going back and forth since October, and I have written about it extensively. At the last Safety and Licensing Committee meeting, I tried to add a restriction to the license that would make it contingent on not having gambling machines on the premises, but that amendment failed 3-2. The committee then held the item yet again because of the understanding that we might be able to hear from a witness who has additional information on the plan to install gambling machines on the premises. I will not vote to grant a license without this restriction. I don’t believe that the owner does not intend to install these machines, and, while they are illegal under state and local law, state law basically allows a bar to merely pay a fine if they are found on the premises. We have far more flexibility before granting an alcohol license than for revoking that license, so I would like to have the assurance up front that we can stop this activity.
Also not on the agenda for tonight, but another issue from the Safety and Licensing Committee that I believe the Common Council needs to address is the fact that two different establishments were asked to appear and address their alcohol license demerit point violations (both involving either sales to underage persons or minors on the premises) and neither chose to appear. This has happened a few times since I have been a member of this committee. I would like to consider a penalty for failure to appear at these hearings and will be discussing further with the City Attorney’s office.
Finally, while my job is to represent the residents of my district in the city, I have received some inquiries about the role of city law enforcement in the enforcement of federal immigration laws. There has been a lot of uncertainty and some misleading or flatly false statements on social media. Today, the Appleton Police Department responded to a post which tagged it (and appears to have been a fundraising effort or scam of some kind as it included a GoFundMe link). I am sharing the whole statement here:
Yesterday, we were tagged in a social media post claiming that the Appleton Police Department was involved in an incident where a single mother was arrested and deported. We have reviewed the calls for service for the alleged timeframe and have established this incident did not happen.
We understand that there is considerable uncertainty and anxiety about immigration enforcement given the current public discussion at the federal level. However, it has never been the authority of the Appleton Police Department, or any other local agency, to investigate or enforce federal immigration law violations. It is unfortunate to see individuals have chosen to use the uncertainty to amplify fear and mistrust. The Appleton Police Department does not tolerate biased policing and has taken steps, including policy development and education on how implicit bias affects everyone.
In the post and related comments, we observed a discussion suggesting supporting the mother using donations through cash app services. As always, we recommend staying vigilant when sending money or donations.
The Appleton Police Department has a long history of working together with all members of our community to ensure their safety. We serve all people, regardless of their immigration status. As law enforcement officers, we do not routinely inquire about a person’s immigration status or detain or arrest individuals solely for suspected violations of immigration laws as we have no jurisdiction in this regard. We have worked hard to gain the trust of the members of our community, and will continue to work tirelessly to investigate crime and keep our community safe.
Don’t forget to make your plans for the grand re-opening of the Appleton Public Library on February 15. The library opens at 9:00, with the ceremony beginning at 11:00. There was a bit of confusion as Menasha scooped us a little by having their grand re-opening a week earlier on the 8th.
Have a great week and enjoy the big game if you are so inclined. All my teams are out, so I’m just there for the snacks.
Denise
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