The Notes: Week of January 15 - January 19, 2024

Happy Packers Sunday, Neighbors!  (Go, Pack.  GO!)

I hope y'all toughed out the latest blizzard all right and are surviving the bitter cold this week.  Oy.  The winters in Wisconsin make us hearty, don't they? 

This week is Full Council Week in City of Appleton government. So there are only a few meetings scheduled and not a great deal to expound upon in this week's blog post.  Thank you, though, for joining me here today for a summary!  Let's roll!

Monday, 01/15/2024

CDBG Advisory Board - 11am This board is to help guide the city's Community and Economic Development Department (CEDD) to best allocate the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds each year.  There are public services grants and non-public services grants to be allocated and this board will vote on whether to affirm the CEDD staff's recommendations as follows:

2024 Non-Public Services

Estimated Amount Available (will vary based on the next approved federal budget): $300,350

Recommendations: 

Habitat for Humanity: $152,000

Rebuilding Together: $67,000

Pillars: $56,000

WWBIC: $25,350

2024 Public Services: There are no funds available for 2024 as all have already been allocated to the city's Health Department and Appleton Police Department for the funding of a new health department position to assist with guiding the city's most in need to the services available for the needy - a Community Resource Navigator.  This amount in 2024 is $86,550 and the position was discussed here and has already been approved.

2023 Public Services: Carry over funding remains available in the amount of ~$29,000.  

Recommendations:

Leaven: $15,000

Building for Kids: $13,981

More information on the recommendations and which applicants are on the denial list (per the recommendations) can be found here on the board's agenda for this meeting.  Board members could also vote to make changes to these recommendations (but I doubt they will unless one of the denied applicants makes a plea to the board).     

Tuesday, 01/16/2024

Library Board - 4:30pm  In what looks to be a rather innocuous agenda for this meeting, board members will look to approve the bill register and cash flow for the library and a small budget amendment for December 2023.  A building project update and a library website redesign project will also be discussed.

Wednesday, 01/17/2024

City of Appleton Common Council - 7pm  It seems as though the full council has not met in ages!  The last full council meeting was on 12/20/2023.  We've been through a couple of Committee Meeting Weeks since then but there are still only a few items which will likely garner extra council discussion on this week's full council agenda.  Here are the highlights:

• From the Municipal Services Committee: The resolution regarding a parking utility management study was amended in committee and is now up for approval as amended.  (Mentioned here and here in earlier alderman blog posts.)  The removal of references to the potential sale or lease of parts or all of the parking utility was the gist of the amendment.  I am glad to see that this resolution is up for approval by the full council.  The city continues to lose revenue through through the parking utility and I feel that it is not appropriate for the city's property tax payers to continue to fully subsidize the downtown parking utility without a review of whether everything is being done to curb financial losses.  However, I disagree with the amendment and want the resolution to be approved as written. 
  
  I believe that it is important to know an independent consultant's opinion of all of the options available to the city regarding the parking ramps/meters/lots.  Taking the options of sale or lease of all or some of the utility's assets off the table leads to an incomplete picture upon which the council and the utility management might act.  In fact, I would be happy to see a consultant's finding that the potential sale or leasing of some or all of the parking utility assets would not be beneficial for Appleton.  Then we would know for certain whether those avenues should be pursued.  Without that information, though, we will not truly know and will continue to question it... and perhaps pursue avenues that will not fix the problems of a parking utility which continues to bleed taxpayer funds.  
  
  Many residents/taxpayers and business owners in the city have the feeling that selling or leasing all or some of the parking utility would be detrimental to the users of the parking utility and/or downtown businesses.  But that is, at this point, just a feeling.  I would like to act upon facts, not feelings.  As such, I will push to have this resolution approved as-is so that the city's Department of Public Works (DPW) will have all of the answers for the council to discuss and perhaps act upon when the study concludes. 
  
  Please let me know your thoughts in this regard.  I'm interested in hearing from you on this topic. 
  
  
• Also from the Municipal Services Committee:  There is a sole-sourcing contract up for approval for $68,200 for design and construction-related services for the repair and maintenance of all three of the city's parking ramps.  This consultancy fee is only the tip of the iceberg as far as those repair and maintenance expenses projected for 2024.  There is an estimated $1.4M of ramp structural repairs and maintenance budgeted for 2024.  Here... right here!... is reason enough to approve of and proceed with a full consultant's review of all options for best practices for the city's parking utility... not limiting ourselves to only a handful of options that our feelings tell us are "safe."
  
  
• From the Finance Committee:  All of the contracts mentioned here were approved by this committee last week and are up for full council approval today. Of note is a $200,000 contract for "library signage."  
  

And that is really about it.  There are, of course, some other items up for approval.  But they are much more run-of-the-mill city business so will likely not garner more discussion.  

If you have any questions or concerns about anything above, please reach out to me so that we can discuss it.  I am always happy to hear from District 13 neighbors on any issues in the city of importance to you.  So... please do contact me! 

I'll close by sending you all warm and positive thoughts so that we can make it safely through this cold snap... and so that perhaps the Packers will be successful today in moving forward in the playoffs.  Until next week....!  Best wishes from your alderman.