Appleton Common Council District 6 Update for August 10, 2026

Greetings District 6 Neighbors,

At last week’s Common Council meeting, we got a bit of an update on the progress of the recovery from the July 27 storms from Mayor Woodford.

As of last week, the Department of Public Works had collected the equivalent of THREE YEARS’ worth of debris.

A handful of City of Appleton building inspectors have joined the City of Menasha’s team. They’re supplementing their inspections team to help with inspecting structures that are being repaired and rebuilt, allowing folks to return to their homes and businesses. The two cities signed an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) to allow for our team to join theirs for the foreseeable future.

Debris collection started today for the areas most affected by the storm – the parts of the city west of Richmond and north of Northland.

Preparation Guidelines

• Tree sections must be cut to 8 feet or shorter and no more than 12 inches in diameter.

• Smaller branches (up to 2 inches in diameter), twigs, and yard waste must be bundled or placed in lawn bags, each weighing less than 45 pounds.

Public Works did say that crews wouldn’t be out with tape measures, but sticking pretty closely to the guidelines will greatly increase the efficiency of the collection.

For City of Appleton residents outside of the most affected area, crews will be removing City-owned terrace tree debris from ALL city streets in the coming weeks. Tree debris from private trees will not be collected curbside.

The council also approved a one-month extension of the state of emergency declared by Mayor Woodford on July 27. The extension is in accordance with Wisconsin state law and is necessary to allow affected residents to qualify for any potential state or federal aid.

The biggest item on the regular council agenda was the resolution to extend the truancy ordinance for an additional school year. The item failed with 7 votes for and 6 against with 1 abstention. According to Council Rule 9, eight votes are required for an item to pass (a majority of the council, not of voting members). I have stated my reasons for voting against the extension of the truancy ordinance in a couple of these newsletters, so I won’t go through them again, but I will say that I made my decision only after careful consideration and a lot of reading and listening to constituents and others in the community.

The only other items separated for individual votes were for the installation of a Peace Pole and the installation of the kinetic wind sculpture that were once in front of City Center in Ellen Kort Peace Park and the changes to the purchasing policy from the Finance Department. Alder Schultz abstained from the votes on Ellen Kort, likely due to his position with Sculpture Valley, and Alder Hartzheim, who had missed the last Finance Committee meeting, had some questions about the increased purchasing thresholds (departmental discretion purchase threshold increases to $10,000) in the updated policy. The policy was last updated over 10 years ago, and the increases coincide with state policy and (sadly) current reality.

Moving to this week’s meetings:

Municipal Service Committee – Monday, August 10, 4:30 p.m.

The committee will take up a couple of long-term temporary occupancy permits, one of which is a standard request for a dumpster. The other is for terrace plantings that do not comply with the city code (plants taller than three feet, etc.). The homeowner is willing to pay the $40 fee to keep the native plantings.

The committee is also being asked to revoke the parking permits for 12 stalls in the Red Ramp for BMO Harris Bank, which has not paid the invoice after multiple notices.

The final action item is a request to change the policy regarding exchange of recycling containers to charge the $100 fee even if the request for the smaller container is made more than 24 months after a previous request. Fees don’t apply to containers exchanged for maintenance, repair, or an exchange for a larger recycling container.

Finance Committee – Monday, August 10, 5:30 p.m.

The committee has two contracts for the wastewater treatment plant to consider:

·       Purchase of two new recirculating pumps for the primary digesters (LAI, Ltd. - $57,640). One of the pumps recently failed and was replaced by a rebuilt spare. The original pump was determined to be unrepairable. Two new pumps will allow a spare for each digester. The purchase is sole sourced because LAI is the local supplier of this pump. The cost is within the utility’s operating budget.

·       Truck scale paving project – replacing the concrete around the digesters and paving the truck scale road (Vinton Construction Company - $384,566.98). There was only one bid received but it was within the project budget.

We will also be considering the proposal to change in the funding strategy for eligible capital equipment acquisitions by transitioning from the current levy-supported Central Equipment Agency (CEA) replacement funding model to financing through short-term general obligation debt. If approved, this funding approach would be implemented beginning with the 2027 budget and incorporated into the City's annual capital financing plan. In the past, all city departments paid into the CEA and replacement equipment was financed through the operating budget through the tax levy. As all costs rise for the city (side note: when I was first elected in 2019, I was astounded by the fact that a fire ladder truck cost $1 million; now it’s closer to $1.5 million. A standard police hybrid SUV purchased in 2026 was $67,750). Using short term debt for financing some equipment purchases (like a car loan, but at the very favorable rates the city gets by virtue of our excellent bond rating) would free up some of the departmental budgets previously allocated to the CEA for other operating expenses. Our financial advisors do not believe that using some short-term general obligation debt for equipment would have an adverse effect on the city’s bond rating.

When all expenses for the city are rising (I shudder to think about the fuel line item in the 2027 budgets) and our levy limit law constrains our operating costs, this seems like a viable solution for a potential 2027 budget shortfall.

Per the Finance Director: “The total amount of levy capacity that could be made available for the 2027 operating budget has not yet been finalized. That amount will depend on the final equipment replacement plan, the amount and timing of equipment financed through debt, the resulting CEA departmental chargebacks, debt service requirements, and completion of the City's overall 2027 budget development process.”

Parks and Recreation Committee – Monday, August 10, 6:00 p.m.

The Committee does not have action items on their agenda, but they will review the mid-year reports for the Grounds Division, the Recreation Division and Reid Golf Course. They’ll also review the Reid revenue and expense report for July 2026.

Utilities Committee – Tuesday, August 11, 4:30 p.m.

The committee will take up a contract amendment for Donohue and Associates, Inc. which would make Donohue the “engineer of record” for the Utilities Department Network System Upgrades Project. Donohue performed the initial design work and prepared the bid documents for the contract that was awarded to Van Ert Electric. The additional services provided by Donohue increased the contract amount by $169,445.

Information items include a preliminary engineering update on the Bellaire-Northland Flood Study and Northland design https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/gateway.aspx?M=F&ID=ffa167e8-37ce-45a0-b3ac-a43778e0b128.pdf

The committee will also review the water main break reports for April, May and June. The good news is that we are considerably behind 2025 in the number of breaks reported YTD.

City Plan Commission – Wednesday, August 12, 3:30 p.m.

The commission will vote on a request from a property owner to have property currently in the Town of Grand Chute annexed to the city in order to connect to water service.

They will also vote on the final plat for Wilden Portfolio Park (the Thrivent property development). The plat shows the placement of new streets including the extension of Evergreen Drive from N. Meade to N. Ballard.

Per Appleton’s plat approval authority for property located within our extraterritorial jurisdiction, the commission will vote on the preliminary plat for Clarity Ridge subdivision located in the Town of Grand Chute.

The Fox Cities Transit Commission, the Board of Health and the Community Development, Safety and Licensing, and Human Resources and Information Technology committees will not be meeting this week.

I will be participating in the Library Board Strategic Planning Workshop on Friday afternoon from 1:00 to 4:00.

For those of you following the automatic license plate reader issue, the resolution I submitted with Alder Van Zeeland was held until the first Safety and Licensing Committee in September. We know that Alder Meltzer plans to have amendments proposed (he does not sit on the committee and would not be able to directly submit amendments) that would align with part of the “Community Drafted Ordinance” that has been discussed by citizens of Appleton and neighboring communities. A scheduled meeting with Alder Meltzer, the City Attorney, the IT Director and the mayor (I had asked to be included in this meeting) was canceled in the wake of the July storms and has not been rescheduled. The proposed amendment language is very technical, and I need an understanding of what is possible and reasonable in order to support these amendments.

My ultimate goal is that whatever comes out of the resolution protects citizen privacy while still giving the police department access to what they believe is a valuable law enforcement tool.

Flock was to have removed all their cameras from Appleton by the end of July. Note that this covers the 19 cameras that were under the City of Appleton contract with Flock. Many private businesses in the area still have Flock cameras in place.

Have a great week as we head toward the end of summer. My Arkansas grandchildren went back to school today!