Appleton Common Council District 6 Update for March 4, 2026

Greetings, District 6 Neighbors,
My brain is telling me it’s spring in spite of the long-range forecast assuring me that it is not. It WAS nice to take a walk yesterday without layering up and I certainly enjoyed the sunshine as I was out and about this morning. It’s also not spring yet for the Public Works Department – they’re still in winter snow removal mode until April, so don’t start putting bulky items out for pickup just yet. Likewise, spring yard waste collection is weather dependent, so if you’re cleaning out your gardens and flowerbeds already, either hang on to your bags or drop them off at the yard waste site. The Glenwood site is open Monday – Friday 9:00 until 4:30 through the end of March. Summer hours will start at Glenwood on April 4, and the Whitman site will open for the season on April 1.
A couple of people have asked me questions about the AASD referendum. Remember that the school district portion of the property tax is not determined by the city even though it appears on the same bill. The district has held a few information sessions on the referendum already, and there are more scheduled for this month ahead of the April 7 election:
Thursday, March 12, 6:30 p.m.       
Wilson Middle School Multipurpose Room
225 N. Badger Ave.
Sunday, March 15, 1:00 p.m.          
Einstein Middle School Commons
324 E. Florida Ave.
Thursday, March 19, 6:30 p.m.       
Virtual Session Via Zoom
Wednesday, March 25, 6:30 p.m. 
AASD Welcome Center
2701 North Oneida Street, Suite C3
It’s a full council week, with just a meeting of the Appleton Public Arts Committee this morning and a special meeting of the Municipal Services meeting at 6:45 tonight on the calendar in addition to tonight’s council meeting.
The Public Arts Committee was to decide on two alternate proposals for the tower in Houdini Plaza. The first option is to hold a photo contest, with the theme to be determined by the committee. The second option would be a Harry Houdini based display on the 100th anniversary of his death and with the Society of American Magicians hosting a convention in Appleton the first week of July. I’ll share the plan once the meeting minutes/video are available.
The special Municipal Services Committee will vote on a proposal to change the current 15-day payment deadline for parking citations to 30 days. People seem to be having more difficulty meeting the 15-day deadline due to USPS delays, travel, etc., resulting in more appeals of citations. It’s really simple to pay those tickets online (the other person in my household has overstayed his welcome in a parking space downtown a couple of times, so I know how simple it is), but I don’t see any issue with extending the time for payment if it reduces workload for city staff and makes life easier for our citizens.
 The agenda for the council meeting includes the mayor’s recommendation for a reappointment to the Appleton Housing Authority and public hearings ahead of special resolutions on assessments for sanitary laterals, storm laterals, and storm main ahead of 2027 street reconstructions, assessments for concrete construction projects in 2026 and for the street vacation of a small piece of property off of what is now the Newberry Trail.
The wheel tax eliminated special assessments for street reconstruction, but residents are still assessed for replacement of laterals, and residents are assessed for NEW concrete street construction in new subdivisions.
The only items that I think might result in some discussion come from last week’s Safety and Licensing Committee meeting. The first is the special event application for the No Kings protest at the end of the month. ESTHER submitted the application eight days past the 45-day deadline which resulted in an automatic denial. The Safety and Licensing Committee recommended unanimously that the application be approved after hearing that all relevant departments had approved their portion of the application with the exception of the Department of Public Works, which was waiting on the Traffic Control Plan for the event. The committee conditioned its recommendation on receipt of the Traffic Control Plan by March 6. The key factor in the vote was likely the statement by Police Chief Olson that, while people are always free to exercise their First Amendment rights, APD preferred an approved special events permit so that they could plan for the safety of the participants and the general public. Since the special events policy was changed 14 months ago, three applications have been automatically denied due to missing the deadline. The other two were also approved.
The Safety and Licensing Committee also recommended approval of the ordinance that would adopt the state statute allowing impoundment of cars when the drivers are cited for reckless driving. The definition of reckless driving is pretty narrow (not just speeding), and the report on traffic citations shows two citations for reckless driving in the month of January.
Have a great week! (22 days until Brewers Opening Day)


Denise

 

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