The Notes: Week of September 4 - September 8, 2023

Happy Labor Day to you all, Neighbors!  I hope yours has already been a safe and enjoyable one and that today is a great wrap-up day to your long weekend.  

We are in a Full Council Week here in City of Appleton government so there is just the full council meeting on Wednesday...  and a special committee meeting right before that.  Here's what you can expect:

Wednesday, 09/06/2023

Safety and Licensing Committee - 6:45pm  This committee will look to approve a temporary liquor license for a fall church festival and a full liquor license for a bar on Wisconsin Avenue.  It's interesting to note that the city is almost out of liquor licenses to grant for any more businesses wishing to open and serve liquor in the city.  This particular liquor license application on the agenda is for a "reserve" license of which the city has a very limited number and for which an applicant must pay a state-mandated fee of $10,500.  By state law since the 1990's, the city only has a certain number of "regular" liquor licenses available to grant businesses.  All of those licenses have now been granted (during the current license period until annual license renewal time) and the only licenses remaining are the limited number of "reserve" licenses.  Once those are all issued, the city will no longer be able to grant any other establishments the ability to legally serve/sell alcohol in the City of Appleton.  There seems very little the city is able to do to "take back" liquor licenses from establishments that are no longer in business or actively using their liquor licenses (at least until renewal time for these licenses).  And the only other option for the city would be to "buy" available liquor licenses from nearby municipalities in order to allow for more businesses to open and obtain a liquor license in the city. While I understand that the state legislature must have had specific (likely safety) reasons for limiting the number of licenses a city is able to issue, I have a real issue with the city potentially having to turn away any new businesses wishing to start up and serve/sell liquor in Appleton.  What are your thoughts on the so-called quota system for liquor licenses?  

City of Appleton Common Council - 7pm  The mayor kicks things off with a whole bunch of Mayor's Business which includes eight -- count 'em EIGHT! -- proclamations, a request for the appointment of a new member to the Appleton Public Arts Committee, and an update on the 2024 budget process which officially comes to the common council for review and action in October.  Two public hearings follow -- one for the street vacation of a block of Circle Street between Durkee and Drew Streets (mentioned here), and one for the rezoning of an addition to the Clearwater Creek subdivision (north of CTH JJ and just east of Haymeadow Avenue).  The latter may have some speakers from that neighborhood as the neighbors are not fond of new construction of homes behind their homes in what is currently vacant land.  They are also concern that there is no park in their neighborhood as of yet and only one current roadway as access to their subdivision (until the city completes the improvement and paving of Spartan Drive to the west of this subdivision).  However, the landowner/developer is doing nothing wrong or illegal and thus, the city could only preclude this usage of that land by the land owner/developer under the risk of a potential lawsuit.  It will be interesting, though, to hear what might be done to help assuage the concerns of some of these neighbors.   

The balance of the agenda deals with most of the other items that passed through committee meetings two whole weeks ago.  Here are some highlights:

From City Plan Commission:  The annexation of a small piece of land adjacent to the current Ballard Road location of Prospera Credit Union from the Town of Grand Chute into the City of Appleton is on the table.  It's interesting that this little plat of land is not already in the City of Appleton... but I expect it will be at the conclusion of this common council meeting. 

From the Finance Committee:  The multiple-action-items plan for the city to take advantage of some grant funds to use some otherwise off-burned waste heat from the Appleton Wastewater Treatment Plant (AWWTP) and convert it to electrical power is also up for full council approval.  This was discussed here.  My concerns on this are not that the city would not be doing a great thing -- converting waste heat to power -- but the wider (beyond Appleton) concern that there is only one supplier of the equipment to make this conversion.  That seems like a failure in the free market in the United States and does not set municipalities up well with competitive pricing to do important things like this waste to power conversion.  Let me know your thoughts on this plan.    

From the Finance Committee and the Municipal Services Committee:   Both committees have recommended that the full council approve the city's Department of Public Works (DPW) applying for a grant from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WiDOT) for new traffic signaling in a portion of the city.  The grant will not pay completely for the replacement of the many traffic signals in the city which are reaching a point of being non-serviceable; but it will pay for a great deal of this replacement plan... which will save City of Appleton taxpayers (but uses grant money from the state budget coffers which just means Wisconsin taxpayer money from a different "pot").  

Please take a look at the last committee meetings blog post and let me know if you have any questions, thoughts, or concerns about anything else there which will be coming forward to the full council this week.  

I'm sure you all also received your property reassessment mailing this past week.  Please check the city's website (this page!) for important information regarding this reassessment and contact me should you have any questions in this regard.  There is a very helpful calculator on that site with which you can see how the changed assessment would affect your portion of the citywide 2022 tax collection.  (Note that this just compares what you did pay in property taxes for last year with what you would have paid with the newly assessed value.)  Some homeowners will see that there is actually an adjustment down -- lower taxes -- with this new assessment.  This is because the citywide reassessment levels the playing field for all property owners in the city.  Some homes in the city have been undervalued (compared to others in the city) and have therefore been assessed less than a fair share of the city's tax burden and some homes have been comparatively overvalued and have therefore been assessed more than a fair share.  

The numbers generated with this calculator, though, are not reflective of what you *will* pay for property taxes this coming winter.  Your upcoming tax bill will take into account all new spending in the 2024 City of Appleton budget to be discussed and approved in October/November 2023.  So watch for future blog posts here regarding that proposed budget and whether we can expect to see increased property taxes in the coming budget year!

Again, please let me know if you have any questions... regarding anything the meetings information noted above, regarding the reassessment, regarding anything city government that's been on your mind.  I'm happy to listen and try to help.

Thanks for tuning in and I'll see you here again next week!