The Notes: Week of September 16 - September 20, 2024

Neighbors!  Welcome back for another alderman blog post for a Full Council Meeting Week!  Besides the regular Wednesday night meeting, there are a few other meetings scheduled this week as well.  Here is what you can expect:

Monday, 09/16/2024

Joint Review Board (Winnebago County) - 1pm  Just like last week's meeting of the Outagamie County Joint Review Board, this board will meet to review the annual report on the city's one Tax Incremental District (TID) in the county.  They meet annually, primarily for this purpose.  If you are interested in the 2023 report for TID #7, you can find it here.  

Tuesday, 09/17/2024

Library Board - 4:30pm  Board members will be asked to approve their usual slate of items like the recent bill register for the library and most recent financial statements.  Then they'll review the building project update (which includes a short note that the fundraising project has raised $11.2M of the $12M needed.... which is, of course, still $800,000 short), updates on the library website and branding, and the appointment of the city's new poet laureate, Cathryn Cofell.  She will be formally introduced in the city on Friday, 09/27/2024, at the Scheig Center.  (See the flyer here.)  

Wednesday, 09/18/2024

Finance Committee - Special Meeting - 6:45pm  Last week when this committee met, the director who manages the city's facilities was absent and therefore unable to answer the questions that committee members (including your alderman) have regarding the seemingly excessive cost of the two workstations proposed for new positions at the police department.  The item was held until the next scheduled meeting of the Finance Committee and then this special meeting was called due to the timing of the request for the funding for these workstations.  I am interested in and intend to ask how two workstations can possibly add up to ~$48,000.  I intend to vote against this unless there is some breakdown of the costs that will justify to me that this is not exorbitant government waste.   

City of Appleton Common Council - 7pm  As usual, the mayor starts the meeting rolling with proclamations (two this week) and some mayoral appointments for confirmation by the council.  There is one scheduled public hearing for the rezoning of some commercial property on South Schaefer Street and then we move to the items up for full council consideration after last week's committee meetings.  There are very few items of contention from last week, so I don't know that there will be any questions or further discussion by the full council on any one item on this week's agenda.  The major question will be on the item from the special meeting of the Finance Committee noted above.  But other than that... it could possibly be a very short council meeting.  *knocks on wood*

If you have any questions or comments of concerns about anything mentioned above or in any previous alderman blog post, please reach out to me. 

I hope that your mid-September week is a great one!  Let's see how long this prolonged summer of 2024 will last for us...!