The Notes: Week of August 30 - September 3, 2021

Welcome to the waning days of August, Neighbors.  I hope you've all weathered the rains and your backyards are not too flooded for lawn mowing (unlike mine which is a swamp right now!).  Let's pray that this week brings drier conditions not only for us but for our neighbors in the Gulf states as well.

In Appleton city government this Full Council Week, we have two meetings scheduled -- a short meeting of the Safety and Licensing Committee and the meeting of the full Common Council to follow, both on Wednesday, 09/01/2021.  

The Safety and Licensing Committee did not meet last week but have a few items on the agenda for their 6:45pm meeting.  There are a couple liquor licenses up for approval.  And assuming their approval by the committee at this meeting, these licenses are also up for approval by the full council later the same evening.

The full council meeting commences at 7pm.  Of note on the agenda are the following:

• Mayor Woodford will present his slate of nominees of aldermen for the city's Redistricting Committee.  I asked the mayor way back in late July to be appointed to this committee.  He has expressed that the committee will consist of the Council President (Matt Reed, District 8), Council Vice President (Katie Van Zeeland, District 5), and three "at large" aldermen.  I hope to be chosen as one of the three to be able to witness and help oversee this once-a-decade redistricting process in the city.  Fingers crossed!  
  
  
• The resolution (amending city ordinance) regarding the scavenging of solid waste/recycling that I mentioned last week and the week of August 9th will be up for full council approval.  With the amendment approved at the last Municipal Service Committee meeting, I have no problem voting to approve this.  The city will still prohibit folks from digging in curbside garbage and recycling cans but, with this amendment, folks can lawfully "repurpose" someone else's curbside large/bulky items (thus hopefully keeping a lot of items out of our landfills).  
  
  
• Assuming full council approval, the Stairway to the Stars sculpture will remain in Pierce Park for another ten years. 
  
  
• Also assuming full council approval, The Boldt Company will become the Construction Manager for the city's library construction project to the tune of $1.2M.  They will help the city to manage, source out materials, and bid out the construction elements competitively (pre-design) and help the city to close out the project once it's complete (post-construction).   
  

So, there you have it, folks.  Not a lot of scintillating city government action will take place this coming week. 

This past week, there were a couple online listening/community input sessions in the city.  One was in regards to the current status of the library project.  If you were unable to tune in, please check out this site for some artist's renderings of the current plan.  The largest issue discussed during this input session was parking around the library.  As you can see, the proposed expansion of the library building to the south would remove a great deal of the library parking currently available.  The city plans on utilizing the Yellow Ramp (the parking structure that's just to the east of the library).  However, that solution is not a viable or convenient one for those with special needs and many families with young children.  The parking conundrum is something that will need to be addressed promptly as it's of utmost importance to most library patrons.   More information and a recording of the online presentation can be found here.  You may also submit your feedback regarding the current status of the project using a link found on that page.  Or share your thoughts with me and I will pass them on.

There were also two listening sessions regarding how the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds that have been granted to the city should be used.  These listening sessions contained some information from the city's Finance Department about how the federal government says these funds can and can't be used.  We also heard a lot from community agencies/foundations which would like the funds to be used in conjunction with their efforts to support their causes.  One of the key takeaways was that ARPA funds come with restrictions: 

I look forward to hearing more from the mayor regarding his proposals for the dispersal of these funds in the city and will definitely share those with you when I know more.  

Until next time... please feel free to submit your feedback about this blog or about anything else city government-related to me any time.  I hope your September begins beautifully!