The Notes: Week of August 14 - August 18, 2023

Hello, again, folks!  Welcome back for another Full Council Week rundown of meeting(s) in City of Appleton government.  In addition to the council meeting, there is a Library Board meeting and special meetings of a couple of committees as well.  There's also an update on trail options for Vosters Park that I'd like to present to neighbors for your feedback.  So skip to the end of this post if you just want more information on that.  Anyway... here's what you can expect this week:

Tuesday, 08/15/2023 

Library Board - 4:30pm  Board members will look to review and approve the July 2023 bill register and cash flow statement.  The latter shows that the expenses YTD to 07/31/2023 were ~$1.9M while the revenues were ~$650k.  A small budget amendment and reports from the library board's nominating committee and personnel and policy committee will also be reviewed.  In information items, there will be a building project update, a hiring process update, library statistics review, and a grant-funded program summary.  

Wednesday, 08/16/2023

Finance Committee - Special Meeting - 6:30pm  Last week in their regularly scheduled meeting, this committee authorized the city's finance director to issue general obligation promissory notes for 2023.  (Here is a link to the presentation that the committee reviewed before this authorization vote.)  In this special meeting, the committee will vote to approve a resolution for that authorization and will receive and review the final interest rates and other details of this authorization.  The special meeting is required on this date as the full council will vote on the same later in the evening.

Safety and Licensing Committee - Special Meeting - 6:45pm  This special meeting will be called to approve one temporary liquor license for a summer event that would otherwise not get approval (by this committee and then later in the evening, but the full council) in time for the scheduled event.  

City of Appleton Common Council - 7pm  And then here we are with the full council meeting for the week!  The mayor will get things started with a request of the council to approve an alternate appointment and a new appointment to the city's Board of Review.  It's a bit of a surprise that there are no resolutions to be presented at this meeting... but we soldier on!  The council will take up most of what was discussed last week (and earlier in the evening) by committees.  Here's a refresher for you if you are interested and missed it last week.  Below are some of the highlights as well:

• From the Municipal Services Committee: Potential approval of new parking restrictions on the 400W and 500W blocks of College Avenue.  The intent is to restrict parking on the south side of the street on these blocks to 15-minute only so that rideshare vehicles (such as Uber and Lyft) can pick up and drop off folks here without blocking the now one lane of moving traffic on College Avenue.  What are your thoughts on this potential change?  Let me know if this will impact you substantially.  I think this would be a positive change for the safety but I know how challenging downtown parking already is. 
  
  
• From the Safety and Licensing Committee:  After much discussion and a referral back to committee on the contract, a vote on a slightly amended version of an agreement between the Appleton Fire Department and Gold Cross Ambulance.  The original agreement between the parties was amended by the committee to include an every-six-months reporting of the findings/statistics of the use of Gold Cross in the city to the Safety and Licensing Committee.
  
  
• From the Finance Committee: The potential approval of a contract for the start of the Lundgaard Park construction.  Here is a succinct rundown of the committee discussions with some detail from the Parks and Recreation Department regarding the $2M city budget for the 2023/24 construction.  It is my understanding that we are only talking about a "first phase" of construction for the park with this $2M city budget and the contract on the table for approval.  I believe that there is still an ongoing fundraising campaign for more funds to grow the park with an additional phase (or phases).  More information regarding that fundraising campaign can be found here.  I will be asking at this full council meeting what items on the proposed plan will be in additional phases if not everything will be included in this contract.  I'll report back to you all when I hear more.
  
  
• Absent from discussion at this full council meeting is any talk of the resolution that was to be discussed at last week's Community and Economic Development Committee meeting regarding "bird-safe glass."  I attended that committee meeting and was met with a committee recommendation to hold discussion on the resolution and the responses from the mayor and city attorney until the September 13 meeting of this committee.  Two of the three authors of the resolution were not present for the committee meeting and the third was unaware that the committee was to be taking up the item at that meeting.  (Maybe they should read my blog for regular updates on what will be presented at all of the meetings each week!)  I had hoped to ask the committee to approve an outright denial of the resolution (as I mentioned last week) but with those authors missing and unable to defend their resolution, the committee thought it best to wait for further discussion.  I have heard from quite a few of you in this regard but would love feedback from more of you!  What are your thoughts on this initiative, the mayor's and city attorney's response, and/or my thoughts in last week's blog post?  
  

And those are your highlights on this week's city meetings.  Thanks for hanging in there through all of the above if you only came here to read what's next!

Vosters Park Trail Options

After all of the ash tree removal and regrading of the Vosters Park wooded area, I am personally pleased with the results and glad that the neighborhood came together to make the requests of the city that we did!  I hope that you are generally pleased as well.  We are still expecting to see the temporary grasses (planted only to fend off soil erosion) die off and a more permanent annual wild grass seeding in the open areas between trees yet this fall.  The city is also still in communication with WE Energies regarding how much they will agree to help with the reforestation efforts in that area.  The trees for the  reforestation effort (small, bare root seedlings for the most part) will also be planted in the fall so we will see a bit of activity in that area again soon.  

The final item on the list of things to do in the wooded area of the park is decide on how to (or even if to) carve out a walking/biking trail through the wooded area.  (Of note: The sidewalks approaching that wooded area were removed due to the removal of the raised boardwalk.  That was a decision brought on by the city complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).  No disability-accessible sidewalks can just end in non-accessible areas.)  

The choice for neighbors is 1) to raise private funds to pave an asphalt path through the wooded area or 2) to allow the city to either lay down gravel or simply mow a rustic pathway through the wooded area.  The former would mean private fundraising of at least $100,000 for an approximately 800-foot long horseshoe trail (roughly where the old boardwalk was, excluding the leg of the boardwalk that ended on the west side of the park).  The latter would mean that any remaining carry-over funds in the city's budget after reforestation would go to either a gravel pathway (which would likely become overridden by weeds and grasses coming up all along the way) or a practically free option of a mown pathway that is regularly mown by city parks staff.

What are your thoughts?  How wedded is the neighborhood to a "formal" pathway through the wooded area?  How many of you are willing to contribute significant funds to an asphalt pathway project?  And who among you would step up to manage a private fundraising campaign?  Let me know your thoughts.  

The more I think about it (and as I see the wooded area as it is now), the more I think that a simple mown pathway would be more in keeping with that area.  It could be considered both a rustic walkway and a fat-tire bike trail through the old growth trees and the new ones that we will see planted soon and that future generations of North Appleton folks will enjoy.  But I look forward to hearing what you think.  

I'm always happy to hear from you, no matter what the subject.  Thanks again for tuning in for this update.  I hope you all have a beautiful rest of your weekend and a lovely week ahead.