The Notes: Week of January 23 - January 27, 2023

Hello, again, dear neighbors!  We are headed into a brand new Committee Meetings Week and there seems to be a bit of a lull in the action this week with many meeting cancellations.  Here is a rundown of the meetings which will not be held this week due to a lack of action items:

• Parks and Recreation Committee (though I'll speak more on a Parks and Rec issue in one of the district's neighborhoods later in this post) 
• Utilities Committee
• City Plan Commission
• Community and Economic Development Committee
• Safety and Licensing Committee
• Human Resources and Information Technology Committee

Instead of working in order of date/time with the balance of the meetings agenda items, I'll post about things in reverse-date order this week... so bear with me!

Tuesday, 01/24/2023

Fox Cities Transit Commission - 3pm  Commissioners will look to approve the November and December 2022 payments and review the financial and ridership reports from the same periods. And to the tune of a half a million dollars for 5 years, the commission will look to approve a new vendor for the Valley Transit system's on-board dispatch/automatic vehicle location system.  Federal grants will cover 80% of that cost and the balance will come from the participating municipalities in the Valley Transit system.  This new system will include, among other things, a bus-tracking public website which will be helpful to those who are regular users of Valley Transit and which most major market cities have for their bus systems.  

And now we go back in time to...

Monday, 01/23/2023

Municipal Services Committee - 4:30pm  A couple of street occupancy permits for gas pipeline markers along a utility easement and an awning over the College Avenue walkway are on the docket for this committee.  And a permit for the "Avenue of Ice" event downtown on the weekend of February 17 is also up for discussion and approval.  But of particular interest are one action item and one information item.  

• Action item of interest: There are some proposed clarifications to the city's municipal code as it pertains to driveways.  The proposed changes do not create any new regulations but include:
  
  1) Removal of language requiring paving of gravel driveways: Wisconsin Act 55 prohibits time-of-sale language requiring said paving in municipal code so Appleton will remove that language (as it's unenforceable). 
  
  2) Clarification of the language requiring flaring of driveway extensions to avoid vehicles driving over city terrace property.  This has always been a requirement at the time of permitting but has not, to this point, been called out in formal municipal code language.
  
  3) The inclusion of diagrams to clarify what's allowed as far as driveway extensions.  Here is the new diagram to be included.  Note that it includes visuals as to how the driveway should be flared (as mentioned in #2 above):
  
  
  
  
  
• Informational item of interest: The introduction of a potential plan for lane reconfiguration of College Avenue from State Street to Drew Street.  In the memo included in the agenda packet, the Department of Public Works (DPW) Director briefly explains the proposed plan:
  
  
  
  

  
  I'm a bit confused by the verbiage "two lanes in each direction" as that's what College Avenue currently has... but I'm sure that what's presented at this meeting will clarify that.  I will share more information with you as I receive it. 

I am interested in *your thoughts* on these items of interest.  Please let me know if you have opinions or ideas or feedback in this regard.  

Finance Committee - 5:30pm  Committee members will discuss and look to approve a contract for floor epoxying in Fire Station 1 and... a $1M grant (from the city's American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars) to RISE Apartments LLC for a 48-unit affordable housing community in downtown Appleton.  If you're a regular blog reader, you have already read my thoughts on this council's already approved uses of the ARPA funds (many of which I refuted) and how I would prefer that the city's growing and pressing infrastructure (roads, water, sewer) issues be addressed with this funding instead (as was the intent of Congress upon their approval of ARPA).  But I am interested in your thoughts on this particular grant.  I am concerned that this grant is being made to a developer who already has a preexisting development agreement with the city for this project.  According to the memo in this meeting agenda, this $1M grant "will be used to keep the project financially solvent considering escalating construction costs due to inflationary pressures."  The developer has already been awarded a WHEDA tax credit for this project and is, no doubt, receiving other very generous taxpayer aid.  Can this project not be scaled back a bit (just as the city just did with the library project -- see more on that below!) to remain within the original budget proposed in the development agreement?   What do you think?

The third action item on this committee's agenda requests the approval of a contract for emerald ash borer remediation in Vosters Park.  I'm sure, if you're a neighbor to Vosters Park, that you've already heard about the proposed plan and about many neighbors pushing back against it due to the dramatic loss of woodland.  This park's wooded area is 75-80% dead or dying ash trees which require removal for the safety of all those who visit the park.  And that will of course change the face of Vosters Park for those who live around it and enjoy it.  If you have not read about this issue, please see this post and, if you are a member of the Neighbors and Friends of Apple Creek Estates Facebook group, see this post.  I've also posted about the issue on Nextdoor. 

In the days since I posted this initial information, much has come to light regarding neighbors' concerns for this park and I have asked city staff and fellow aldermen on this committee to support placing the approval of this contract on hold so that I can host a neighborhood meeting to discuss it further.  I have received assurances from the chairman of the Finance Committee and from the Director of the Parks and Recreation Department that this item will be held and I will be attending this meeting to ensure that the committee knows how important this is to the Vosters Park neighborhood.  I'm certain that the committee members will have no trouble agreeing to the hold as neighborhood feedback is a priority to all council members! 

Meanwhile, I am planning a neighborhood meeting to discuss the future of Vosters Park.  The meeting will be held within the next week or so in a nearby location (not downtown as I want it to be convenient to interested neighbors).  As soon as I have more specifics, I will post an invitation to you on this blog, on my alderman Facebook page, and share it on the relevant Facebook and Nextdoor neighborhood pages.  (I encourage you to like and follow that Facebook page to stay as up-to-date as possible on this!)

I am happy to personally speak with any of you who want more details in this regard, so please contact me.  I look forward to seeing many of you at the meeting.  

The last item I'd like to quickly bring to your attention -- if you've not seen or heard about it yet -- is the latest iteration of the plan for the Appleton Public Library.  City leadership (staff and the mayor) have done a lot in the last month or so to work with the architect and contractor to scale back the original grandiose plans for the library reconstruction.  Last week, the latest plan was submitted to council members.  If you've not yet seen the latest proposed drawings or seen how the plan has been scaled back, please review this article and this post for good synopses. 

I am very pleased with the scaled back plan as it takes into account all of the needs of the community for a library space and looks to best serve our community, all while remaining within (or at least getting much closer to) the approved budget for this project.  This is what Appleton has needed all along... a refreshed and renewed library with a manageable construction budget!  I hope to see new budgetary specifics soon as, in the presentation of this scaled back plan, we were told it is not quite yet at budget.  I expect that we will hear more about this and how private funding (through the Friends of the Appleton Public Library) will supplement the project to keep the city to its budgetary promises.  What are your thoughts on the latest in the library project?   

I always look forward to hearing from you, neighbors.  Even if we are not always in agreement on certain issues, I take listening to your thoughts very seriously.  Thank you for always being open and honest with me.  Have a great week and I'll be back with more information on all things related to this post and other city government action soon!