Appleton Common Council District 6 Update for April 27, 2026

Greetings, District 6 Neighbors,

Could it be, could it be that spring is really here? I see the trees leafing out; we have a couple of tulips blooming and I hear my husband getting quotes on mulch, but I still don’t trust it.

While on the subject of spring, remember that we have three more spring yard waste pickups scheduled.

If you want to take yard waste to the collection sites, remember that the Glendale site is open Friday – Monday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and the Whitman site is open Tuesday – Friday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. All yard waste other than grass clippings can be dropped off without charge; grass clippings are $4.00 per 30-gallon bag.

We’re ending an odd month schedule-wise for the Common Council. Because state law and our city code determine the election date and the date that newly elected and re-elected alders are sworn in, we only had a couple of committee meetings last week, along with our informal organizational meeting and the formal organizational meeting. The remaining April committee meetings are being held this week – a “fifth Wednesday” week where normally no meetings are held.

The Municipal Services Committee met last Monday, where the designs for several street reconstructions were on the agenda. Per the Complete Streets Guide adopted in 2024, streets are classified according to the amount of traffic, street parking demand and other criteria. Per Complete Streets guidelines, local streets with low traffic volume are being narrowed by a few feet, with parking allowed on only one side. Many studies have shown that narrower streets reduce the speed of traffic. We can also reduce the cost to the taxpayers and often save terrace trees by making these residential streets narrower. Complete Streets also calls for sidewalks on both sides of residential streets to increase pedestrian safety and encourage multi-modal transportation. The policy has resulted in some contentious meetings when homeowners disagreed strongly with the proposed street design. This was the case last week. At the design hearing at the previous committee meeting, many residents of S. Driscoll St. expressed their disapproval of the proposed design, mostly around the proposed narrowing of the street and removal of parking on one side. I’ll note that parking is prohibited on one side of the street throughout the winter now. They were also opposed to adding sidewalks. In spite of public works staff advising that repeating the traffic and parking count was unlikely to change the street classification, the committee voted to hold the design until the June 8 meeting and asked staff to repeat the traffic count (not difficult because it uses an automated meter) and the parking count (will require staff to travel and count cars multiple times, including on a weekend). I don’t expect the recommendation to change after the additional counts and I personally don’t think that we should abandon the plan for sidewalks, which are very important for safety. I do think that the city should be looking at ways to avoid having to assess homeowners for sidewalks when the street is reconstructed and will pursue options for funding sidewalks that are added to existing streets during reconstruction.

The (all returning) alderpersons from the even districts were sworn in at a brief ceremony in Fox Commons on Tuesday evening, followed by an informal organizational meeting where we reviewed the council rules and committee functions. One rule change was proposed, but on the advice of the city attorney, was withdrawn at the formal organizational meeting.

I attended my final meeting as a member of the City Plan Commission on Wednesday afternoon. I did not ask my colleagues to nominate me to serve again after over six years – it seems like time to give another colleague the opportunity. We voted on the extraterritorial final plat for a Habitat for Humanity development in Grand Chute – as I’ve noted before, Appleton has plat approval authority for development within three miles of our city limits. We also reviewed proposed updates to the city code relating to solar installations – clarifying language and ensuring compliance with state statutes. These changes will come to the commission as an action item in the coming weeks.

On Wednesday evening the council held our formal organizational meeting for the 2026-2027 council year. Alder Brad Firkus was elected Council President; Alder Patrick Hayden was elected Council Vice President and Alder Josh Lambrecht was elected to replace me on the City Plan Commission. We also received our committee assignments – I will serve as chair of the Finance Committee and will remain a member of the Safety and Licensing Committee. I’ll also serve as the council representative on the Library Board.

As noted, most committees will be meeting this week.

Finance Committee – Monday, April 27, 5:30 p.m.

As all of the committees will do when they meet for the first time this council year, the Finance Committee will elect a vice chair, confirm the meeting time and date and designate the contact person (the director of the relevant department). The Finance Committee will also elect a representative to the Central Equipment Agency committee. The CEA “owns” all of the city’s capital equipment, vehicles, etc. with each department budgeting an allocation for the equipment they use.

Getting into action items, the committee will vote on the police department request to apply/accept a grant from the Wisconsin Department of Military Affairs for upgrading and replacing radios that would help with collaboration with Outagamie County. The $39,518 grant requires a match from the city of $9,879 (20%). There is also a resolution committing APD to joining the replacement statewide public safety interoperable communication system as an interoperable user when it becomes available.

In another grant item, the Department of Public Works requests approval to apply for $1,157,000 in Safe and Reliable Transportation grant funding from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation for Traffic Signal & Geometry Improvements - Badger / College (Hwy125) & Badger / Memorial (Hwy 47). This grant requires a $115,700 (10%) match from the city.

The committee will also vote on change orders for the contract for Unit DE-26 Miscellaneous Sidewalk and Concrete Street Excavation Repairs (Al Dix Concrete - $25,000) to cover City Park sidewalk replacement for the Parks and Recreation Department and for Unit X-26 Sewer and Water Reconstruction (Kruczek Construction - $20,271) to add 200 feet of storm sewer and lateral on Eighth Street to alleviate a drainage issue associated with overactive lateral discharge. Funding will come from positive bid variances in other stormwater capital projects.

Utilities Committee – Tuesday, April 28, 4:30 p.m.

The committee will vote on the Unit F-26, Sanitary and Storm Sewer Cleaning & Televising contract (Green Bay Pipe & TV, LLC - $352,500.00).

They will review the water main break reports for February and March as information items. The breaks are down a bit from this time in 2025.

Board of Review – Wednesday, April 29, 9:00 a.m.

The Board of Review gives taxpayers the formal opportunity to appeal assessments they believe are too high or incorrect. The Board generally meets for the first time during the 45-day period starting the fourth Monday in April and stays in session for two hours to allow taxpayers to view the assessment roll and other assessment data. There are two hearings for property owners objecting to the assessments of their property scheduled for this meeting.

Community Development Committee – Wednesday, April 29, 4:30 p.m.

The committee will hold a public hearing and then take up the action item to award the 2027 Community Development Block Grant funds to external partners. The total award for the city was $19,710 higher than the anticipated award, so the approved amounts were adjusted accordingly.

In addition to the usual administrative functions for the first meeting of the year, the Community Development Committee will elect a member to the CDBG Advisory Board.

They will also vote on an amendment to the development agreement for the property at 200 W. College Avenue (the Chase Bank building) to extend the completion data and adjust the TID fund payment schedule to allow partial payment for the year that the project achieves the required assessed value. There is also an update to the development agreement to record a quit claim deed on an alley right of way before the city signs off on the amendment to the agreement.

Finally, the committee will vote on awarding contracts for grass and vegetation cutting services for private lots in violation of city code, grass cutting for city-owned stormwater ponds and grass cutting for city-owned industrial sites (B&V Maintenance - $33,951 for all three contracts).

Safety and Licensing Committee – Wednesday, April 29, 5:30 p.m.

There are five alcohol license demerit point hearings scheduled to start the meeting. The action items are all of the normal license renewals for 2026-2027, a few new license applications and updates, along with the APD radio grant application discussed above. We have one appeal of a special event application automatic denial for the Edison Family Fun Run submitted by the Edison Elementary PTO. The application was submitted one day late. All departments other than Valley Transit have approved the application.

Human Resource and Information Technology Committee – Wednesday, April 29, 6:30 p.m.

The committee will review and vote on approving changes to incorporate Aerial Bucket and Forklift policies into the General Safety Policy. They will also vote on participation in the State of Wisconsin Wireless Contract. The city has had persistent performance and reception issues with the current provider – Cellcom – and would like to move to Verizon. The annual cost would increase by $24,900, but Verizon is offering a per-line credit of $400 with activation of new devices and a two-year service agreement. The total credit is $128,000, which would cover nine to ten months of service.

Have a great week (I will if the temperature goes up 10 degrees),

Denise