The Abbreviated Notes: Week of March 27 - March 31, 2023

Welcome to Fifth Week in Appleton city government, Neighbors!  (Fifth Week is explained further here.)  Since there are no meetings scheduled this week -- none, nada, zero, zilch! -- I'll share with you today a brief update on some of the items discussed this past week and, once again, ask for your feedback on these items.  

Last week Monday was, as I predicted last week, a busy one in the Municipal Services Committee.  The committee meeting went a bit past the scheduled one-hour mark and not all items on the agenda were fully discussed.  

After a bit of public input regarding the questionable safety and necessity of Bird scooters in the city, the committee did vote to move a new one-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the city and Bird forward to a full council vote at the next full council meeting (Wednesday, 04/05/2023).  I have mixed feelings about the scooter program in the city.  I am not a fan of abandoned scooters scattered throughout the city and do have concerns about public safety when scooters are ridden by riders under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs or when scooters are ridden recklessly.  But these things can and do happen with scooters privately owned by citizens of Appleton as well as those contracted by the Bird company.  The redeeming factor of this relationship between the city and Bird is that the city does recoup a small fee from Bird for the privilege of having their scooters allowed in our city.  Does that make up for the negatives brought on by Bird scooters in the city?  Perhaps not.  But there is no real added cost to the city to allow for the presence of Bird scooters... so perhaps we can "live and let live" on this one...?  Please share with me your thoughts on this.  

The committee also voted to move the proposed downtown College Avenue lane reconfiguration plan ahead to the next step.  I posted the timeline for this proposal last week and the full council will vote on this first step next week.  There will also be a second step (another vote by committee and council) on the project.  If you have any questions or concerns about this proposed plan, please let me know so that we can chat about it!  As I mentioned in last week's post when I referenced "the squeaky wheel," I only wish that as much focus was put on growing the city in District 13 through new streets/infrastructure as was put on the highly vocal concerns of downtown Appletonians.  Let me know if you have another perspective or share my same thoughts.  

Then, as the end of the committee's one-hour meeting approached, some members of the public spoke about retaining the No Mow May policy in the city.  Since there was not enough time for alderman discussion on the topic, the pending resolution to eliminate No Mow May was tabled/held until the next time this committee meets (Monday, 04/10/2023).  Please take a look at last week's blog post for my thoughts on this.  I would love to hear more from each of you in this regard as well.  Here again, there seems to be a "squeaky wheel" phenomenon where the loudest voices seem to get the most attention.  This is the kind of thing which almost requires a referendum question posed to all voters in Appleton to get a true taste of how folks really feel about this program and how it affects neighborhoods and neighbors.  

How do you feel about these issues in this city we share?  I am always happy to take any questions from anyone regarding these or any other city business so please contact me any time.  I look forward to hearing from you!

I hope that our mountains of new snow thaw quickly this week.  I wish you the best... until next week when we "meet" here again.