The Notes: Week of June 28 - July 2, 2021

Hi, Neighbors!  Sorry for the slight delay in my weekly posting.  The good news is that there are no meetings in city government this week since we are technically in the fifth week of June.  Who's with me the "Unable to Believe that Independence Day is This Coming Weekend" club?!

Don't let the lack of meetings this week fool you, though.  Your alderman is still workin'!  I've been fielding a lot of questions about the proposed (and modified-proposed) fall leaves/yard waste/bulky item collection/city sidewalk snow removal plan from the city's Department of Public Works (DPW).  Some are very concerned about the changes -- especially what seems like a elimination of a free service -- and I'd like to try to address those questions with a re-visit of the big picture and how DPW proposes to address them all in a very complicated, many faceted plan.  Bear with me through the whole story and then I'll be more than happy to answer any more questions you might have.  

This all began with guidance from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) expressing that our city's current method of fall leaf collection is contributing to a contamination of waterways.  In essence, the leaves in the roadways prior to pick-up lead to a leaching of phosphates into our waterways.  And since it's important that our city be good stewards of the environment (and because the city would lose some grant opportunities for not complying with DNR guidance), the plans began to change our leaf collection policies to eliminate this issue.  

The proposed plan is to ask residents to rake leaves into the terrace (between the sidewalk and the street) rather than into the streets.  From there, the city will retrofit some equipment (and eventually purchase some new equipment) to vacuum-suck the leaves from the terrace.  There is an added equipment cost for this, which will be budgeted for and the cost spread out over five years. Good solution to help Wisconsin waterways but still get our leaves collected, right?  

It is... except... residents currently put twigs and other yard waste and Halloween jack-o-lanterns and the like right in with their raked leaves.  The vacuum units will be unable to suck those items up during collection... so those items will have to be bagged and picked up separately.  This means we'll need more separate yard waste collection dates (and spread out our current DPW staff to make these collections) throughout the city to help residents continue to maintain their yards.  As a solution to that tricky situation, DPW's first proposed plan came up with a once-a-month yard waste collection... but in order to do that, they needed to move staff away from the city's free weekly bulky item overflow collection!  You see where this is going, right?  There are only so many people and pieces of equipment and budget dollars to do everything!

The first proposed solution offered by DPW was to take staff and equipment that would ordinarily be scheduled for bulky item pick-up and move them to once-per-month yard waste collection.  Bulky item collection would then be once-per-month with a $10/item charge for each bulky item.  Based on initial alderman and constituent feedback, this fee-for-service plan was just untenable.  So DPW went back to the drawing board and came up with the modified-proposed plan for an every-other-week (opposite your recycling pick-up week) no-charge bulky item pick-up.  But!... because staff would still be spread thin for this, a two-item limit is proposed.  What this means is that, with the current modified-proposed plan, each household is allowed the no-charge pick-up and disposal of a total of four bulky items per month (two items every other week).  

• DEFINITIONS: Bulky items are items too large to fit in our curbside garbage containers and include "typical home furniture, recliner, couch, bed frames, doors (not patio), tables, TV stands, rugs, carpet (cut to 4 feet and bundled), small metal (4 foot or smaller), tires. each item weighing less than 50lbs."  Items that are not included in this bulky item definition and therefore not to be put out for pick-up include "appliances, electronics, mattresses, sofa-sleepers, glass doors, bay windows, hot tubs, pools, trampolines, exercise equipment, basketball hoops, tractor tires, construction/remodeling/building materials."

The modified plan with some continued free bulky items is sounding better now, right?  There is no longer an option for free, unlimited bulky item pick-up.  But at least there's no longer a proposed fee per bulky item!  This seems a decent compromise, considering all of the circumstances.  

In the meantime, there is another problem on DPW's radar: city sidewalk snow removal during the winter months.  The city currently contracts out the snow removal for all city-owned properties and that contract ends this year.  The company we have been using will no longer be offering this service going forward (due to the retirement of the owner) and there have, in years past, never been any other competitive companies available for this service.  DPW really has no other choice but to take this service back in-house and do the work ourselves.  This is good news in that it will help the city to better utilize DPW staff which would otherwise have been laid off in the winter due to less work at that time of the year *and* it will save the city some money by eliminating the contractor costs.  But it makes the winter months more complex for scheduling workers and equipment which would otherwise be needed for bulky overflow pick-up and late-fall yard waste pick-ups.     

I know you likely have questions and I'm happy to chat with you about them.  Also check this document to see if your question has already been answered by DPW staff.  And here are the Cliff's Notes on this whole TLDR issue:

Change is well known to be the hardest thing for human beings.  I think that the modified-proposed plan is an overall good solution to all of the issues facing the city's DPW.  It's perhaps not ideal.  And since Appleton -- and District 13 in particular -- is chock full of very intelligent people, I welcome any other alternative solution ideas that would help us solve all of the issues before us all while balancing the need for robust services for our residents.  Call me (920 570-2873) or email me with any questions or concerns or creative solutions you might have to share.   

I'll meet you back here in July!  I wish you all a safe and happy day of celebration of the freedoms we are granted in this great nation of ours.  God Bless America!