Appleton Common Council District 6 Update for the Week of March 9, 2025

Greetings District 6 Neighbors,

I hope you have been able to get out and enjoy some of this glorious early spring weather. It feels a bit odd to be out in shirtsleeves when we had a pretty big snow just a few days ago. I understand that it’s likely just false spring but I’m enjoying it nonetheless.

The Common Council meeting last week was fairly uneventful, with just a few items being separated for individual consideration and voting. The biggie was the proposal to make the College Avenue reconfiguration permanent after the 18-month trial. One business owner was present to speak in opposition, citing the loss of parking among other issues. When I asked Director Jungwirth about parking, she confirmed that no parking stalls were lost due to the reconfiguration, and that parking meter revenue had actually increased 9% over the trial period. The vote was unanimous for making the change permanent. You can read the whole report and watch the video here: https://www.appletonwi.gov/government/departments/public_works/engineering/smart_streets.php

Alder Schultz originally wanted to refer the contract for the Pierce Park Pavilion renovation back to the Finance Committee because he had been unable to attend the previous committee meeting and had some questions about the contract, but the council voted to overrule the referral because a two-week delay in getting the work started could result in the pavilion not being ready for the spring/summer season.

The other items considered separately we alcohol licenses for two businesses whose owners had received demerits for violations at other businesses they own. There were a couple of alders who voted against granting the licenses for these businesses. As I stated at the council meeting, we have a very defined demerit system for alcohol licenses and businesses are subject to losing that license if they exceed the demerit point limit. When a business receives demerit points, they are called before the Safety and Licensing Committee to address the violation and to describe the actions that they have taken to eliminate the cause of the violation. I believe that this system works well and that there is no need to prejudge someone due to a past violation. The council voted in both cases to grant the license.

Moving on to this week’s committee agendas:

CEA Review Committee – Monday March 10, 3:30 p.m.

The Central Equipment Agency (CEA) “owns” all the capital equipment – vehicles, machinery, etc. for all of the city departments and each department is assessed proportionally for this equipment. The CEA committee meets periodically to evaluate department requests for new and replacement vehicles and machinery, requests to utilize existing vehicles on a seasonal basis and changes to previously approved equipment. The committee with consider seasonal vehicle requests for several departments, vote on approving the equipment replacement schedule for 2026, a request for a new mower for Reid Golf Course ($23,979), change orders to increase cab space in fire trucks to be delivered in 2027 and 2029 and a request to purchase a new ladder truck for delivery in 46-49 months (the new lead time for fire trucks from Pierce Manufacturing). The estimated price is $2,099,909. The Fire Department is also asking to keep a truck scheduled for replacement this month to use as a training vehicle for another year after which it would be sold. AFD notes that the net revenue from selling these vehicles is low – generally netting only about $4,500.

Municipal Services Committee – Monday, March 10, 4:30 p.m.

The committee has a single action item – a request to award a contract for sanitary flow monitoring (raSmith - $36,000). This work would be to compare the actual pipe flows in three sanitary sewer lines running from the north side of town to the wastewater treatment plant (along Meade, Ballard and French Rd.) the predicted flows from the design capacity calculations for these lines. With the extensive development on the north side of Appleton and with the planned development of the Thrivent property, the Department of Public Works wants to make sure that there is enough capacity to meet future needs. Funding is available for the contract within the wastewater budget.

Parks and Recreation Committee – Monday, March 10, 6:15 p.m.

The committee will take up a resolution submitted by Alder Hayden for the Appleton Sustainability Advisory Panel (ASAP) that would formally set a goal of reducing the city’s greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2034 and set the "stretch goal” of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 contingent on the electrical utility reaching its Scope II (indirect emissions) target.  The Advisory Panel was created at the recommendation of the Taskforce on Resiliency, Climate Mitigation and Adaptation as part of its Climate Action Proposal to create a permanent advisory body. In order to limit global warming to 1.5 o C the recommendation on net zero guidelines is to reduce emissions by half each decade. The city has been calculating emissions and has a baseline for this goal. City departments, with the guidance of the Project and Sustainability Manager, have made a great deal of progress on the city’s climate initiatives, decreasing emissions, and saving taxpayer dollars at the same time.

You can view some of the accomplishments, along with recommendations for things we can do at home, on the Sustainable Appleton page: https://appletonwi.gov/government/sustainable_appleton/index.php

They will also vote on a recommendation (approved by the Appleton Public Arts Committee) to install what Creative Downtown, Inc. (associated with Appleton Downtown, Inc.) is calling a “sculpture promoting Downtown Appleton.” The installation would use the ADI “One Great Place” brand and would have cutouts for photos. The words on the rings would be interchangeable. An illustration is shown below. I’m looking for input here – I honestly think calling it a sculpture is a reach, and I think it’s a bit tacky. I like the photo displays by the fountain and the simple white letters that have been changed each year are nice (“HOPE,” “GROW”), but I don’t think I can vote for this.

The final action item is a resolution renewing Appleton’s designation as a Bird City USA.

Utilities Committee – Tuesday, March 11, 4:30 p.m.

The committee will vote on approving a contract for a water meter test bench upgrade (Core & Main - $106,787). The current test bench was installed in 1990 and is a complete manual system and replacement parts are no longer available. Meter testing is essential to make sure that water bills are accurate. The proposed system is automated but would integrate with existing components. The bid came in under the budget of $140,000.

They will also vote on the Annual Stormwater Report to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

Board of Health – Wednesday, March 12, 7:00 a.m.             

The Board will consider the fees for noise variances as approved in the 2025 Annual Budget. Because the process for granting these variances is time consuming in spite of improvements made to the process. The fees would offset the cost of doing this work. The proposed fees are as follows:

Fee Schedule

$75 per month for any noise variance requests covering a calendar month, (regardless of whether residential or commercial). There is no limit on the number of days that can be included within a single monthly variance. Requests spanning multiple months will require separate variances at $75 per month.

$50 per week for any noise variance request covering a single calendar week (regardless of whether residential or commercial). For weekly requests, there is no limit on the number of days requested within that week. Requests for multiple weeks in the same month may instead be processed as a monthly variance at $75 per month.

$25 per day for any noise variance request covering a single day (regardless of whether residential or commercial). If multiple dates are requested within the same calendar week (Monday–Sunday), the weekly rate of $50 will apply.

These groups would be exempt from the fees:

• Non-profit entities

• Special Event License holders

• Those renting park or pavilion amenities through the Department of Parks and Recreation

• Conditional Noise Variances as approved by the Board of Health

 

Information items include a presentation on short term rental (Air BnB and the like) licensing and the Health Department newsletter for March 2025.

 

Appleton Redevelopment Authority, Wednesday, March 12, 9:00 a.m.

 

The Redevelopment Authority members will be completing an exercise on the Comprehensive Plan/Sub Area Plan updates and hearing about next steps. A reminder for everyone that the next community session will be next Tuesday, March 18 from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the Appleton Public Library in the Mary Beth Neinhaus Community Room. This is a drop-in session, so come whenever you can to provide input on Appleton’s future.

 

They will also get a report on the March 3 meeting of the ARA Exhibition Center Advisory Committee, including an overview of the Exhibition Center (I found this helpful – see the illustration below) and a presentation on the Exhibition Center bonds and the FCEC year-end report.

City Plan Commission – Wednesday, March 12, 3:30 p.m.

The Plan Commission will hold a public hearing and vote on a special use permit for a used car sales and display lot at 100 W. Wisconsin Ave. (Northwest corner of W. Wisconsin and N. Oneida). The site was originally a gas station, but the pumps were removed in the 1980s.

The ADI request for the sculpture in Houdini Plaza discussed above under the Parks and Recreation Committee agenda will also be on the agenda for the plan commission – again, please share your thoughts with me about this.

The Plan Appleton workshop on March 18 from 4:00 to 7:00 at the library will be discussed as an information item.

Community Development Committee – Wednesday, March 12, 4:30 p.m.

The committee will be voting on a couple of fee increases and a correction to a published fee:

• Reinspection fee (when an inspector has to return because a site is not ready for inspection on the originally scheduled date) from $35 to $75
• Erosion Control Fee from $40 to $50
• Electrical Permit – corrected to reflect the $85 approved in the 2025 budget for work from $1,001 to $10,000.

They will also vote on text updates to the municipal code relating to HVAC work.

Finally, they will vote on a recommendation to hold the selling price for land in the Southpoint Commerce Park at $43,000 per acre and to “hold option fees to reflect 1% of the purchase price annually for lots of 5 or less acres and 2% of the purchase price annually for lots greater than 5 acres. City continue to pay a commission of eight percent (8%) of the sale price when licensed broker is procuring cause for a transaction.”

Information items include the Comprehensive Plan workshop and the Inspection Permit Report for February.

Safety and Licensing Committee – Wednesday, March 12, 5:30 p.m.

In addition to normal license applications, we will be looking at two recommendations for denial of Commercial Solicitation licenses. The first is for a company selling vacuum cleaners and carpet cleaning services. City staff is recommending denial because of a history of “predatory sales tactics, intimidation, and disregard for licensing requirements.” The second license, for an individual working for the firm above, is recommended for denial due to the criminal history of the applicant.

Have a great week and enjoy this spring weather!

Denise