Appleton Common Council District 6 Update for June 18, 2025

Photo borrowed from Alder Smith

Greetings District 6 Neighbors,

First, a belated Happy Father’s Day to all the dads, grandpas and father figures. I hope you had a proper day of relaxation and love. We had such a busy committee week and June is a crazy birthday month in my family that it just got lost in my mental outline.

Speaking of being unable to keep track of things…

Summer in Appleton and the Fox Cities brings us so many fun things to do that I often have to choose between multiple things on any given day. Just this week we have the Wednesday Concert in the Courtyard at the Hilton Paper Valley, Thursday concert at Jones Park, the grand opening of the Mary Beth Neinhaus Activity Center on Friday, the Farm Market on Saturday, Make Music Day on Saturday, Pride Festival Saturday…

The busy committee week brings us to a council week agenda that is long, but I think likely only to generate separate votes on a couple of items.

The item that generated the longest committee discussion was the resolution proposing to rename Appleton Memorial Park to Veteran’s Memorial Park. As I noted last week, I had a number of questions about the proposal, including the origin of the resolution, the cost and the process for moving monuments. I attended the Parks and Recreation Committee where the resolution was discussed at length and sometimes emotionally by committee members, members of the veterans’ groups and city staff. After an amendment changing the proposed name to “Veterans Memorial Park,” which I support, the resolution was recommended for approval by a 3-2 vote.

I found that the resolution did originate from a request by veterans, particularly former alderperson and Common Council President Jack Voight, a Vietnam veteran. Mr. Voight is also the former Wisconsin State Treasurer, Outagamie County Treasurer (and former District 6 resident until the 2020 redistricting). In April, a Vietnam War memorial to the 1,249 Wisconsin veterans who died in that war was dedicated at his building on Richmond St. Mr. Voight has devoted much of his time and energy to veterans since his “retirement.”

There seems to be no real documentation behind the name of the park. It was originally named Langedyke Park after the donors of the land. The meeting minutes from the November 20, 1974, Common Council meeting state that names were submitted by the public. The park was renamed Appleton Memorial Park, but the minutes do not show any reasoning behind that name. The current Veterans Park was renamed from “Memorial Bridge Park” from then-Alderperson Voight in August of 1988.

Director Gazza estimates that the cost of renaming the park will be small – between $750 and $1,600 – just changing signage. He also advised that there is funding in the Capital Improvement Projects budget that has been approved every year for maintenance of the war memorials. For 2025, the amount is $30,000. Director Gazza stated that, if the resolution is passed, there are plans to relocate the Gettysburg Address Memorial and the Spanish American War Memorial currently tucked away in Pierce Park to the renamed park. Any monuments created or moved would be subject to council approval.

Memorial Park has a recently erected veterans memorial near the Scheig Center – outlined in red on the map below:

Director Gazza states that relocated or new memorials would likely be in this area as well rather than spread around the park.

There is no proposal to change any policies about other uses of the park.

If the resolution passes, the current Veterans Park would be renamed.

Getting answers to these questions and particularly hearing the testimony of the veterans who came to speak to the Parks and Recreation Committee last week convinced me that this was a worthy change. The current Veterans Park is small, has no parking and no facilities other than a playground and a porta-potty. I know about the parking situation from experience – I was late to my first Veterans Day event as an alderperson because I had to park several blocks away on a neighborhood street near the park. Having parking available would make events more accessible to veterans, particularly disabled veterans, and to more of the public.

It is my hope that having a dedicated park and centralizing the monuments will encourage private donations to help create memorials to veterans of more recent conflicts and increase visibility and recognition of the history of service and sacrifice by our veterans.

A couple of other items that might be discussed are the resolution for development of a corridor study and a comprehensive bike and pedestrian plan. Both of the studies are 80% funded through the Safe Streets and Roads For All (SS4A) program. The need for the corridor study of the KK (Calumet Street) corridor was identified in the East Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (ECWRPC) Comprehensive Safety Action Plan (CSAP) for the Appleton (Fox Cities) and Oshkosh Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs). As the alderperson on the City Plan Commission, I hold a seat on the Appleton MPO Policy Board and have heard the discussions about safety issues in that corridor. There were  823 crashes: 9 serious injuries and 3 fatalities on that corridor between 2018 and 2022. As I noted last week, Appleton’s share of the cost of this study would be $18,343. The CSAP identified 6,425 crashes occurring in the City of Appleton between 2018 and 2022, representing 25% of the total crashes in the MPO. Between 2018-2022, 128 crashes resulted in a person being killed or seriously injured, with 25 of them involving a pedestrian or bicyclist. The city has an on-street bicycle plan from 2010 and a trails master plan from 2017. A consolidated plan will provide direction on planning bike and pedestrian facilities across the city. The city’s share of the cost would be $40,000.

An additional $70,000 for ARPA administration was discussed at the Finance Committee meeting, with Finance Director Ohman taking responsibility for underestimating the volume of work remaining for fulfilling federal requirements for record keeping and reporting of outside grants funded through the ARPA program. There are funds remaining in the reserve fund created from interest on unspent ARPA funds to cover the additional expense.

We have a closed session listed on tonight’s agenda “for the purpose of discussing the investment of public funds and real estate negotiations where competitive or bargaining reasons require a closed session concerning a proposed future use of a portion of Appleton Memorial Park.” I am not sure what this is about, but I will report just as soon as I am able.

The other meetings this week are by the Library Board. The Board had its normal meeting on Tuesday, where they voted on approving the bill register and budget amendments to record donations. They also received the new building update (I love the fact that the parking lot is so full whenever I pass to go to city hall!) an update on the APL hiring process and the 2024 Annual Report. The Board President’s report included trustee training on the library budget and notice of the Personnel and Policy Committee meeting on June 20. Staff updates included the Children’s Program and Community Partnerships. The June 20 meeting will address the Director’s Mid-Year Performance Review and updates to the Customer Service, Safety and Security and Circulation policies. The Board may go into closed session to discuss personnel matters.

If you missed the pre-screening of the PBS Mile of Music documentary on Monday evening (as I did due to a conflict with another meeting) you can watch it on June 23 at 8:00 p.m.

Have a great week!

Denise