Appleton Common Council District 6 Update for April 1, 2026

Greetings District 6 Neighbors,

No matter how long I live in the Midwest, I won’t get used to how hard winter fights before it gives way to spring. 60 degrees days with sun a couple of days ago, the view of the budding maple tree outside my window as I work, then the forecast of snow this evening and ice Thursday morning…sigh.

This is a full council week, the probably the last before we seat the new council after next week’s election – more on that later. The only other meeting this week is the one the Appleton Public Arts Committee held this morning, where they discussed and voted on the Houdini-related photos to be displayed in the welcome tower in Houdini Plaza. As noted in an earlier update, this display, along with the proposed state historical monument for Houdini Plaza is being proposed for the commemoration of the 100 year anniversary of Harry Houdini’s death and in time for the Society of American Magicians convention to be held in Appleton the first week of July. The committee will also vote on the request from Appleton Downtown, Inc. to approve new banners for College Avenue.

The council meeting will begin with several mayoral proclamations:

·       Hemophilia Awareness Day

·       Public Health Week

·       Library Week

·       Earth Day

·       Arbor Day

·       Golden Rule Day

 

The mayor also has a list of appointments and reappointments to city boards and commissions for council approval. I am certainly grateful to the citizens who volunteer their time and expertise to these bodies.

 

The rest of the agenda seems fairly straightforward. The budget carryover requests didn’t generate any discussion from Finance Committee members – most of the special consideration carryover requests (those that are not for prior year projects continuing into 2026) are for related projects.

 

We could hear from the owner of Mac's Towing, LLC d/b/a Bob's Towing after the unanimous recommendation from the Safety and Licensing committee to remove the business from the Appleton Police Department's towing rotating call list. In addition to the company refusing a number of calls much higher than the other towing companies, one of the drivers has a history of frankly disturbing interactions with dispatch operators – a number of which we heard during a two-hour committee meeting last week.

 

Another large portion of that two-hour meeting was devoted to the Appleton Area School District truancy update. The good news is that habitual truancy is down to pre-COVID levels and the passing rate for classes has increased as well in spite of there having been only one truancy citation issued since the November 1 re-implementation of a truancy ordinance. I am encouraged by these results – maybe the mere existence of possible truancy citations IS getting more students to show up for school.

 

In “Other Council Business” we will discuss moving the second council meeting in April from the normal third Wednesday (April 15) to April 22. Council rules call for the new and re-elected alders to be sworn in on the third Tuesday of April, which is the 21^st this year, followed by an informal organizational meeting. Update: the council voted to keep the meeting on April 15. The formal organizational meeting will take place on April 22, but will not be followed by a council meeting. Most committees will meet on the week of April 27, but the Municipal Services Committee will still meet on April 20 because there are street reconstruction projects for which notices have already been sent.

 

On that note, don’t forget that early voting continues at City Hall today until 6:00 p.m., Thursday, April 2 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Friday, April 3 8:00 a.m. to noon. If you still have an absentee ballot, you should probably consider dropping it off at the drop box in the breezeway at City Hall (by the Finance Department drive-in window) or at the City Clerk’s office on the 6^th floor of City Hall through Monday, April 6, or take it to your normal polling location on Election Day. For District 6, our polling location is the Scheig Center in Veterans Memorial Park. If you need assistance with early voting, you can call the City Clerk’s office at (920)832-6447 to make arrangements for curbside absentee voting. On Election Day, there will be signs with a phone number to call for curbside voting assistance at your polling location.

 

April marks the beginning of curbside large item pickup. You can put out up to two items for pickup on the week opposite your recycling day subject to the rules below. For more information, please refer to the Public Works Guide.

Editorial comment: please help us maximize the life of the Outagamie County landfill (and the earth!) by recycling whatever you can. For items that are usable, check with organizations like the Salvation Army or Habitat ReStore to see if they can use those items. Habitat ReStore welcomes a lot of building materials. BuyNothing groups on Facebook can connect you to people who can use your items as well.

 

 

Have a great week and rest assured that actual spring will be here eventually,