The Notes: Week of January 9 - January 13, 2023

Hi, again, Neighbors.  Thanks for joining me back here for a week of what amounts to some semblance of regularity as far as city government meetings is concerned.  This week is Committee Meetings Week and we have an almost full schedule.  Here is a rundown of what you can expect:

Monday, 01/09/2023

Municipal Services Committee - 4:30pm  Members of this committee will be asked to approve a 2023 "blanket" sole-source provider agreement for traffic signals and street lighting.  Sole-sourcing means just what it sounds to mean -- that one source, instead of competitive bidding, will be used by the city for the supply of these traffic control devices.  Normally, this would not be a good practice for a municipality as competitive bidding ensures the best pricing for city purchases.  But as a memo from the city's traffic management department notes, there is little ability for most municipalities to go out for competitive bidding due to the lighting/traffic control manufacturing industry.  

This committee will also hear from the Department of Public Works (DPW) regarding their Sidewalk Poetry Program in 2023.  Since this presentation is an informational item, no action will be taken by this committee in this regard.  But I will be speaking this week with the DPW director in this regard as there is currently no public oversight (via open/public hearings) regarding the poetry chosen each year for stamping into new sidewalk concrete provided by taxpayer dollars.  I believe that since public dollars support this program, public input should be allowed.  And it has not been to this point.  If you have thoughts in this regard, please let me know so I can also take them to the director when she and I discuss this.  

Finance Committee - 5:30pm  There is only one action item on the agenda for this committee -- a request to award a contract for numerous sanitary and storm sewer construction projects which appears to be nearly $200,000 over budget.  I will be following up with the DPW in this regard as we need to know where the shortfall will come from on these projects.  I am saddened to see this trend in city projects and hope that this is not a sign of more of these to come in 2023.  I will let you all know what I find out when I know more. 

Parks and Recreation Committee - 6:30pm  This meeting has been cancelled for lack of agenda items. 

Tuesday, 01/10/2023

Fox Cities Transit Commission - 3pm  This meeting has been cancelled for lack of agenda items. 

Utilities Committee - 4:30pm  For the Appleton Wastewater Treatment Plant (AWWTP), it was an eventful week or so between the Christmas and New Years holidays.  You may have seen or heard about an "incident" at the plant.  If not, here and here are just a couple of the new articles about the issue.  During this meeting, committee members will be asked to approve 1) the purchase of a new flow pump to replace one of the two pumps at AWWTP which failed and 2) a contract for some additional repair work on the impeller on the existing failed flow pump.  Though the polymer incident noted above did not cause the pump to fail (it did so in November 2022), the incident did cause an expedited need for this flow pump which has a manufacturer's lead time of five months and for the associated repairs.  The mayor approved an emergency purchase authorization of this new flow pump (for ~$133,000) during the holiday break but full approval of the purchase is required from this committee and the full council.  The treatment plant would have required this purchase sometime soon, whether or not the polymer incident had occurred.  But the incident pushed the timeline for this expense forward. 

The committee will further review and ask questions regarding the polymer incident in the informational items portion of the meeting and review the November 2022 water main breakage report (which shows a total value of the month's loss at ~$220,000).  A memo detailing the polymer incident and showing a diagram of current operations due to the incident can be found here.  But there is little more detail in this memo/and diagram than what has already been disclosed to the media.  I expect that the financial loss to the city will be fairly significant, especially in the loss of the methane-produced heat for the digesters and the 17 campus buildings at AWWTP which has had to be supplied by outside power since the incident and will continue to be provided by outside sources until operations get back on track there.  I will keep you up to date on further details of the expenses of the incident and, hopefully, the causes and expected controls which will be put in place to make sure another similar incident such as this will be avoided. 

Wednesday, 01/11/2023

Board of Health - 7am  This meeting has been cancelled for lack of agenda items.   (Lucky board members can perhaps sleep in a bit!)

Appleton Redevelopment Authority - 9am  This meeting has been cancelled for lack of agenda items.

City Plan Commission - 3:30pm  This meeting is the first public hearing regarding proposed changes to the city's "subdivision ordinance."  This ordinance outlines the rules and procedures which will be undertaken by city staff in working with developers of new subdivisions in the city.  The requested amendments are to the general text of the ordinance but also include the following staff-recommended changes: 

• inclusion of park/trail needs in all pre-plat-submittal discussions between a developer and city staff,
  
  
• a newly proposed square-footage-per-dwelling unit requirement for land dedication for parkland/trails as shown below.  This means that a subdivision developer must dedicate (give) to the city this total square footage of land in his/her proposed subdivision for parkland/trails.    
  
  
  
  
  
• a newly proposed fee-in-lieu-of-land schedule as shown below.  This means that, where parkland/trail dedication is not possible or feasible (to be determined by vote of the common council), the developer must pay the city a fee instead of dedicating land.  The city will then keep those funds in an account used solely for acquisition of future park or trail land. 
  
  
  
  

The current ordinance calls for a percentage of the total subdivision land to be dedicated instead of a square-feet-per(-proposed)-dwelling unit calculation and for a fee schedule requesting much lower fees-in-lieu of land dedication.  While I understand that these fees and land dedication acreage amounts have not been reviewed or revised in many years, I am concerned about the additional acreage requirements and higher costs being seen as prohibitive to developers and therefore stymying new subdivision development in Appleton.  I am also concerned about those developers with pending subdivisions (developers in discussions with the city at this time) and how these changes might affect them.  I expect to ask these questions at this meeting.  If you have any thoughts or concerns in this regard, please let me know so that I can bring them up at the meeting as well.    

Community and Economic Development Committee - 4:30pm  Committee members will be asked to extend a purchase date for the Blue Ramp property (just north of City Hall) from February 2023 to September 2023.  The development group who has expressed interest in this purchase asks for this extension as they have experienced higher interest rates and supply chain and labor challenges in recent months (since beginning the earlier phase of this project just to the east of the property in question).  Here we have yet another challenge the city is facing, though indirectly this time, with supply chain issues and increased costs.  The delay of this purchase is likely... but at what additional cost to the city in the delay period?  This is the type of question I will continue to ask.   

Safety and Licensing Committee - 5:30pm  Residents of Appleton's District 12 will likely have a new polling place after this committee meets (assuming the full council also approves the following week).  Since the sale of the previous polling place, a new one is needed and this committee will be asked to approve the change.  The balance of this committee's meeting agenda includes requests for approval of a liquor license and a couple of cigarette licenses.  

Human Resources and Information Technology Committee - 6:30pm  This meeting has been cancelled for lack of agenda items.

And with that, the week's committee meetings will be behind us and we'll move towards the first meeting of the full council in the 2023 calendar year.  It was a pleasure and an honor to serve you all in 2022 and I look forward to the work needed in 2023.  Please always feel free to connect with me regarding anything you read in this blog or anything else of concern to you in city "inner-workings."  I am truly happy to help in any way in which I can! 

Have a great week!