Appleton Common Council District 6 Update for February 6

Greetings, District 6 Neighbors,

I hope everyone is enjoying the warmer weather this week – rumor and AccuWeather have it that we’re going to get above freezing on Friday and for most of the next two weeks! When I see the news from around the country (including places I’ve lived) where they just don’t have the resources to deal with snow and ice, I’m grateful that we have the infrastructure here in the Midwest to allow us to handle the weather pretty well.

The action items on the agenda generally passed through their committees of jurisdiction unanimously, but I want to focus on the Northland-Bellaire Flood Study Updates and Study Update #4 from the Utilities Committee. While the initial recommendations focus on the area east of Meade Street where most of the July 2024 flooding occurred, potential future plans include the area west of Oneida Street in District 6. I also realize that some subscribers to this newsletter live in part of the affected area which was in District 6 before the 2021 redistricting. The Department of Public Works presented the recommendations of the study, including long-term and potential future upgrades. What was actually voted on was the authorization for preliminary engineering – the steps include:

· Develop a single-source contract scope of services for preliminary engineering design of the initially recommended improvements, and

· Present a request to approve the design contract at a future Utilities Committee meeting as soon as can be reasonably developed.

 

The recommended improvements include:

· Veterans Memorial Park Pond South (VMPPS) Expansion

· Northland Avenue Storm Sewer Improvements and Inlet Capacity Enhancements East of Meade Street

· Local Sewer Improvements and Inlet Capacity Enhancements East of Meade Street and South of Northland Avenue.

 

The full presentation is linked here:

The first diagram shows the identified areas at issue, including the flood depth.

Page 3 shows the proposed improvements, and Page 5 shows the estimated benefit of those improvements – notably a reduction in water depth from 5.3 feet to .5 feet in the worst-hit area just south of Northland Avenue. Page 7 shows potential future expansion of improvements to the Northland Avenue storm sewer line west of Meade Street and local storm sewer improvements west of Oneida Street.

 

None of this work is cheap. DPW provided budget estimates for the initial recommendations:

There were already plans for a stormwater rate study, and these improvements, plus other work required by the DNR, will likely require a stormwater rate increase at some point in the future. Stormwater is a utility that is financed by user fees (in our water bills) rather than through the general (property tax) fund.

 

I regret that I was unable to attend the committee meeting due to a commitment I made before the agenda was posted, but I watched the video would recommend it if you are interested in the study and recommendations:  https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx#

 

As noted above, the engineering study is what was recommended for approval by the Utilities Committee. We will see all of the succeeding contracts, etc., at future committee and council meetings.

 

Although neither item appears on the council agenda for tonight, two information items from last week’s Safety and Licensing Committee meeting generated enough questions and comments from the public that the meeting ran over two hours.

 

The Appleton Area School District presented a truancy update. The Common Council directed that AASD provide these regular updates as a condition of the passage of the truancy ordinance last November. Chronic absenteeism and habitual truancy are both down slightly from 2024-2025 for the first semester of the 2025-2026 school year, but lower than any year since the pandemic. AASD also notes that 41.8% of students attending “Attendance Education Lessons” required of student with a high number of absences have improved their attendance. They also noted that one truancy citation has been issued (to a student who has not attended school since early in 2024-2025) but has not been adjudicated.

 

The other information item was a presentation by the Appleton Police Department, at my request, about the use of Flock Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) cameras in Appleton. If you did not review it from last week’s newsletter, here it is again: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/gateway.aspx?M=F&ID=66f53913-a6a4-44a7-b90c-4e53dfbfbf65.pdf

A representative from Flock attended the meeting via Zoom to answer questions from the committee as well. There were a number of members of the public who shared their concerns about the security of Flock camera data, the possibility of use for non-law enforcement purposes, sharing of data with federal agencies, etc. You can watch the whole meeting here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx#

What I came away with from the meeting is that the Appleton Police Department has pretty robust policies and procedures around the use of Flock camera data, and that APD has already modified some of those policies to tighten controls over this data. I remain concerned that, while a case number is required (apparently not the case for the Menasha PD when the alleged abuses occurred there), there is not a cross check that it is a VALID case number. There would definitely be work required to integrate the Flock database with APD’s internal system, but my IT brain tells me it’s certainly doable. I also have concerns about other Wisconsin law enforcement agencies who have access to Appleton’s Flock data and if their use would be subject to the same controls as APD has internally. All parties agreed that this was not the end of the discussion, and, as noted, Chief Olson has already shared some proposed policy changes with us.

 

All APD policies are linked to the city website: Policies. There is also a transparency portal available (sourced by Flock) which gives information about data sharing, number of searches and policies.

 

Please note that the Flock presentation was an information item on the Safety and Licensing Committee agenda and thus does not appear on the full council agenda like an action item would. Therefore, public participation regarding Flock cameras will not be allowed at tonight’s meeting. Again, the discussion with APD is ongoing and I expect that we will see more in the coming weeks. Chief Olson has been very responsive to mine and other alders’ requests for information and has been open to exploring updates to APD’s policies and procedures.

 

 

I’ll leave you with a couple of reminders. First, if you haven’t filled out the Sustainability Survey, please do so. You can also apply to be part of the city’s planning team.

AASD is holding several information sessions about the operational referendum that you will see on your spring election ballot.

Virtual session signup is here.

 

Have a great week and enjoy the heat wave!

Denise