The Notes: Week of January 17 - January 21, 2022

Hi Neighbors!  Welcome to the first Full Council Week in 2022.  This week's post would customarily be a fairly short one as most everything on a full council meeting agenda comes from last week's committee meetings.  But this week, we have some additional items of interest to our district that I'd like to share with you.  I'll break this blog post into three separate sections so that you can read whatever section(s) interest you.  Here's what you can expect as you read on:

1. Full Council Week -- review of the City of Appleton meetings scheduled for this week
2. Snow Removal in District 13 -- a review of some recent neighbor complaints, response from our city's Department of Public Works, and thoughts on potential improvements.
3. Outagamie County's Proposed Solution for the French Road/CTH OO (Northland Avenue) Intersection -- a review of the information presented at this past week's presentation of the plans to the public, a critical assessment of the plan, and a request for your opinions on the plan.

Full Council Week:

While the full council meets (as per usual) on Wednesday night, there are two other city meetings also scheduled this week.  The Board of Zoning Appeals (one of my favorites!) meets on Monday, 01/17/2022, at 7pm to discuss two variance requests for Saint Bernadette Congregation on Lourdes Drive to install a third sign on their property (where municipal code only allows two signs) and for that third sign to be closer than the code-required fifteen feet from the front property line.  The size of the lot (over 13 acres) and the fact that the buildings are set back very far from the street (making directional signage nearer the street very important) lead me to believe that this property qualifies for both variances.  But... as I always say... we shall see what comes up at that board meeting!  

The Library Board meets on Tuesday, 01/18/2022, at 4:30pm.  They will discuss some of their usual items like the bill register and budget numbers from the previous month.  But of real interest on this meeting's agenda is the announcement of a temporary library location for the time period during which the current library structure will be renovated.  The city has secured a lease for 25,000 square feet in the former Best Buy location on South Kensington Drive.  The $12,500/month lease is said to be about half of the lease amounts for the other proposed temporary locations that staff investigated.  And the memo from Dean Gazza  (the city's Director of Parks, Recreation and Facilities Management) states that the cost to maintain this temporary library location is less than the cost to operate the existing library... so there is no negative budget impact with the leasing of this temporary space.  The lease will be from 03/01/2022 to 08/31/2023 though we've not been told exactly the timeframe of plans for moving the contents of the library to that new location as yet.  I'm sure we'll find out more about that in coming weeks.  

Then comes the first full Common Council meeting of 2022 on Wednesday, 01/19/2022, at 7pm.  The meeting kicks off with the mayor's request for approval of the hiring of a new health officer for the city.  Since the retirement of the city's former health officer, Kurt Eggebrecht, this spot has been vacant and the duties have fallen to Deputy Director Sonja Jensen.  It has been a long search for the city to find the right candidate for the position but it looks as though the city's human resources department and the mayor are in agreement on this hire and I have no objections based on the mayor's recommendation and the candidate's resume.  We will likely approve and welcome Charles E Sepers, Jr, as the new Health Director here.  

After a couple of mayoral proclamations and an updated COVID report for the city, we move on to potentially approve all that went through committee this past week.  Of note is an item that we won't see on this week's full council agenda (mentioned in last week's blog post): the approval of the proposed contract for consulting services for the new branding of the city.  This item was held in the Finance Committee due to many unanswered questions by committee members and other council members.  My own concern about this proposed consulting company grows the more I hear about the process that led staff to choose this company (the third-ranked company in initial proposal reviews) and the company itself (a small company comprised of some members who've been through multiple iterations of different company names and different leadership).  At this time, I'm concerned enough to ask that the Finance Committee send this process back to staff for a second shot at the Request for Proposal (RFP) process -- a "do-over."  We will know more about the direction this will take when the Finance Committee convenes again next week. 

All else mentioned in last week's blog post should sail through the full council without issue including the honey bee-keeping municipal code amendments and the plans for the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)-funded lead/galvanized service replacement program in the city.

Snow Removal in District 13:

Many of you have expressed to me concern and dismay over the state of our neighborhood roads after the last major snow event here in the city.  I feel the same concern as much of my own neighborhood's streets have been snow-packed icy-ness since Christmas week... except when Mother Nature was nice enough to give us a cold-snap break day or two above 30-degrees.  I want you to know that I've expressed this concern (for myself and for those neighbors from whom I've heard) to the city's Department of Public Works (DPW) director.  After some discussion with her, it has become clear that the city's standards for snow removal have been satisfactorily met... but are those standards high enough for our citizen's satisfaction?  

The Snow and Ice Control documentation for the city's DPW states the following explicitly:

"The Department of Public Works strives to maintain adequate traction for vehicles properly equipped for winter driving conditions.  This does not mean bare, dry pavement should be expected after each snowfall.  Furthermore, this does not mean that he streets will be free of ice and snow." 

In other words, the idea that's built into the city's snow and ice removal program is that the DPW is to make our residential streets "passable," not bare-pavement perfect.  Should city residents want to "up" this standard, this snow and ice program would have to be explicitly amended by city council action.  And... that action would have to take many other things into account such as excess salt usage contributing to waste (excess salt in our waterways and in the environment and the excess tax dollars needed to support that) and more tax dollars spent on personnel and equipment needed to make more passes and remove more snow and ice from roadways. 

Here are the standards by which our DPW operates for snow and ice events:

Though it seems as though we, "Northsiders," are unfairly disadvantaged as non-arterial or collector streets and seem to be "the last streets to be plowed," the plow operators throughout the city are all adhering to the above guidelines while operating in any part of the city.  The chances are good that if District 13 neighborhood streets are looking awfully "ice-rink-like," so are neighborhood streets in District 5 in Calumet County or in District 9 near Fox Crossing and Menasha.  Then it's simply a fact of an unfortunately timed snow event followed by extremely low temperatures at which additional salt would do no good.  This is exactly what happened to us most recently.  

I want the safety and security of bare-pavement roadways as much as the next District 13 neighbor... but I'm afraid that we have to recognize the impacts that reaching a bare-pavement standard have on the city budget and on the environment. 

DPW's Director Vandehey made it clear to me that she empathizes and wants the best, most clear and safe roadways for all citizens.  She and her department personnel are open to suggestions and constructive criticism of the methods the plow drivers of our neighborhood streets employ.  Your suggestions are always welcome and you can feel free to share them with me at any time.  

However, it becomes a matter of how to best serve the city as a whole within the current confines of the standards noted above.  Director Vandehey emphasized to me that, subsequent to a snow event and the plowing operations that follow, any clearly icy and unsafe intersection in the city would be of immediate priority for her department.  We simply need to call those issues in to the city and ask for additional care to make those clearly unsafe areas safer for drivers.  But calls to the DPW to make residential streets bare-pavement ice-free can't be accommodated as the department's directives call out "passable" roads, not perfectly snow- and ice-free roadways.   

If there's enough call for changing these standards, the matter could be brought to the common council to make a change to this policy and actually call out a bare-pavement policy.  But with an initiative like that will come all of the arguments against it such as the added expense and the added potential negative impact on the environment.  

Please continue to let me know should you have concerns or questions in this regard.  I will listen to your suggestions and push to try to do what's right and best for District 13 neighbors.  You know best what works and what doesn't work for you... so sharing that with me will help me continue to be in touch with DPW leadership to facilitate any changes and tweaks that can be made within the confines of the current policy... or help me to push to make a change to the policy if it comes to that.  

Outagamie County's Proposed Solution for the French Road/CTH OO (Northland Avenue) Intersection:

If you were unable to attend last Wednesday's public involvement meeting regarding the upcoming plans for this intersection, never fear!  I found out about the meeting after last week's alderman blog post was written and shared; but I attended the meeting so I can share here what the county presented.  As regular drivers of the area know, this intersection is often quite unsafe and prone to serious back-ups at certain times of the day.  There are a lot of situations where multiple lane crossing is required (for example, when southbound traffic on French Road turns west onto CTH OO and must cross two lanes to get into the lane needed for the entrance ramp to Highway 441 South). 

After traffic study and applying for federal transportation grants, the county has decided to add four-way traffic signaling to that intersection and the project is moving along quickly!  According to the project management team and the project summary page, construction will begin in earnest in the spring of 2023, the project will cost $530,000 and be funded by a federal transportation grant, and only single lanes and roadway shoulders will be closed at any one time during construction (so the roadways will never be completely closed to drivers).  Here's a snapshot of the project:

Some neighbors had expressed wanting to see a roundabout at this intersection.  But that would be cost prohibitive (approximately $2M instead of the proposed $530,000 for signals and lane modifications) and a roundabout would still not stop traffic from backing up onto French Road or from the 441 interchange east on CTH OO.  Cars would simply be trapped in the roundabout rather than at that t-intersection!  While traffic lights might not be the ideal solution, the plan is to link the traffic signals to the traffic signals for Highway 441 and time the lights appropriately to best control traffic smoothly through those intersections. 

Overall, I'm pleased with the proposal and can't wait for construction to begin so that we can have much better and safer traffic flow through that area!  The county's project management team is asking for comment from those interested.  Here is a link to the public comment form should you wish to let them know your thoughts.  You can also email your comments directly.  Please let me know if you have any questions you'd like me to ask or concerns you'd like me to pass on for you.  Even though this is Outagamie County business, it does directly affect District 13 residents and I'm happy to be a link between county and city governments.  (That's just one reason I have chosen to run for the District 22 Outagamie County Board of Supervisors seat in April 2022!) 

As always, I look forward to your feedback and to hearing your thoughts and concerns about any other city (or county) happenings that are impacting our neighborhoods.  Please feel free to reach out to me at any time.  

I hope you will rejoin me here next week (when perhaps we'll know more about the Packers and their road to the Super Bowl!) for more on what's happening in local government.  Until then... have a great week!