Appleton Common Council District 6 Update for April 1, 2025
Greetings District 6 Neighbors,
I’m tempted to leave city business aside to request that we launch an immediate investigation into the Yankees’ bats – my least favorite team really doesn’t need a bunch of super bats, do they? Sending healing thoughts to the psyches of all the Brewer pitchers.
As the return of baseball brings spring thoughts even when the weather doesn’t cooperate (more snow tonight?!?!), a reminder that the yard waste sites start their summer hours in April.
We also return to curbside large item pickup in April – every other week opposite of recycling week. Two items per collection.
As always, PLEASE try to donate items that are usable to keep them out of the landfill. The city had to raise the container fees this year because of the increase in the tipping fees at the Outagamie County landfill. The Habitat ReStore takes building materials, furniture, etc., and can help arrange pickup. For other items, check out Buy Nothing groups on Facebook – most of us would be in the North Central group.
The Outagamie County landfill has recycling for many types of items, including Styrofoam.
Electronics are a little trickier, but many organizations have events where you can recycle those items – small items are generally free and larger items such as televisions, etc., can be recycled for a fee. I know that there is an event at Fox Valley Tech on May 1.
I’ll focus first on what will NOT be on the agenda at Wednesday’s Common Council meeting. As many of you have probably heard, the resolution from Alder Siebers to create a truancy ordinance was held until May 14. This will allow for the previously scheduled meeting between Mayor Woodford and city staff, APD, AASD and Judge Schneider on April 15. At the Safety and Licensing Committee meeting, Alder Siebers clarified that his resolution was intended as a “shell” and expected that a more concrete plan would be substituted before it is taken up again by committee and the Common Council. I thought it was noteworthy that every one of the people who spoke at the committee meeting was against implementing anything like the truancy court that was discontinued when the previous truancy ordinance was repealed in 2019. All of the speakers noted the lack of resources in AASD to deal with underlying mental health, bullying, disabilities and other issues that caused students to miss school. The city’s resources would likely be limited to enforcement, and even there I wonder how we would allocate resources when APD is already stretched pretty thin. It certainly seems that school funding might be a pretty big issue here.
The other item that was held in committee this week was the Trout Museum’s request for a loading zone that would take two parking stall on College Avenue in front of the new building. Several neighboring business owners spoke against the proposal at the committee meeting. A Trout Museum staff member noted that the museum frequently had buses with school groups or senior citizens and needed a safe spot for unloading. A justification that felt less valid to me was that the residents of the new apartments would be receiving deliveries, and those drivers would need a loading zone. I am not aware of other loading zones specifically for downtown apartments.
The items that I expect will be separated out for individual consideration and votes are:
From the Municipal Services Committee:
The contract for a Parking Utility Strategic Planning and Marketing Study (Walker Consultants - $200,000). I noted the reasoning behind the new study last week. I have heard some objections to the funding, and I want to note that the full amount of the proposed contract comes from the Parking Utility enterprise fund – remember that an enterprise fund is separate from the General Fund and funding is provided by the ratepayers. We did allocate $1.5 million in ARPA funds to replace lost revenue from the pandemic and then an additional $244,000 in ARPA funding in 2023, I reached out to Finance Director Ohman to find out if there has been other funding shifted to the parking utility. I requested a copy of the report from the 2015 study to determine whether the parking utility had failed to implement recommendations from that study as some alders have asserted. Of the 15 recommendations in that study, there were only a few that have not been implemented at all:
- Hotel key card access to parking ramps and prepaid Performing Arts Center parking
- Smart parking meters – as smart phone usage exploded, the Passport app was implemented instead of changing meters
- Neighborhood parking zone restrictions to two hours on weekdays – this was not implemented due to concerns for local residents’ usage
There was also a recommendation that Lawrence University expand the Chapel parking lot by 50 spaces, but I’m not sure what influence the city would have had over that.
Reading the 2015 study was fascinating. It forecasted a 10% increase in demand, but not the significant increase in downtown residential units or U.S. Venture moving downtown into an existing building. There was a recommendation that the city and the YMCA jointly create a replacement for the old Soldiers Square ramp, but the Y built the new ramp on their own. And, of course, no one could have forecast a pandemic that would empty whole office buildings downtown.
As I noted last week, I am in favor of the new study, expanding it to include areas that are not specifically downtown. I think the large amount of public interest in the proposed removal of two stalls for a loading zone indicates that there is still a need to look at parking overall. $40,000 of the contract is for digital parking management that would hopefully streamline the payment process. Personally, I hope some analysis of the Passport app fee is included – at some point the fee went from 15 cents per session in addition to the parking charge to 30 cents, which seems a bit excessive.
At the Finance Committee meeting, the budget carryover item was split to separate the three items from Facilities - $107,625 excess funding from the park pavilion roof replacement project to be used for consulting to create a climate action plan for the city and a total of $20,006 from furniture upgrades at the Municipal Services Building and lighting upgrades at fire stations to go toward updates to the wayfinding signage in the City Center complex after all the new development there – from the rest of the budget carryover items. The committee voted to recommend denial of these items. I cast the only vote against the denial. Honestly, I would like to see a better breakdown on the signage – there was some indignation about wayfinding when people know where City Hall is, but even before all the new development, it could get confusing INSIDE City Center, but that seems a bit steep. I voted against the denial to try to save the funding for the climate action plan. We passed the resolution at the last council meeting committing to a goal of reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by half over the next ten years and I think it would be wonderful to get some expert guidance on how to meet those goals. What really concerns me, though, is climate mitigation. We have seen multiple 500-year floods in the last few years, with the flooding last summer causing devastating losses to some of our neighbors here in District 6, and especially to our neighbors to the east in District 14. The Northland-Bellaire flood study is currently in progress, and I expect that some expensive recommendations are going to be the result. There is a scientific consensus that climate change is the cause of increased flooding in the Midwest, and we are going to have to be prepared to deal with these events.
Warmer winter temperatures can mean that more insect pests survive to cause problems with agriculture and health. Purchasing our first home outside of the southern United States came with the pleasant surprise of not having to obtain a termite policy, but those destructive bugs are ranging northward.
We have one city staff person whose time is partially dedicated to sustainability, and he does an amazing job, and I’m grateful for the members of the Appleton Sustainability Advisory Panel who volunteer their time and expertise, but I think that spending these excess funds for a professionally developed climate action plan is a worthwhile investment, particularly as it appears that the federal government is rolling back climate action to the point of removing information from department websites. Local and state governments are apparently going to be on our own. I hope that my colleagues can be convinced that this is a worthwhile investment in our city’s future.
Tomorrow’s meeting will be the last full council meeting for Alders Siebers, Alfheim and Doran. I thank them for their service to our city and wish them success in their next ventures. Alder/Senator Alfheim is already doing double duty for the city and the state!
On a sadder note, I attended the funeral for former Alder Joe Martin yesterday. He was passionate about our city and the people who live here, and he was a great source of advice to me when I was newly elected. The city and the community will miss him.
I hope everyone has a great week. Get out and vote if you haven’t already.
Denise
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