The Notes: Week of October 21 - October 25, 2024

Hello again, Neighbors! Thanks for stopping in for a read of the weekly alderman blog.  We are in Committee Meetings Week once again and there are a few meetings with some interesting items up for discussion.  I'll summarize below (as per usual!).

Monday, 10/21/2024

Municipal Services Committee - 4:30pm  There is only one action item on the agenda for this committee: a request from the Boldt Company/Lawrence University/Trout Museum to extend their current street occupancy permit for construction at College Avenue and Drew Street.  Here is the verbiage on the extension request: "College Ave parking lane, sidewalk, and bike lane remain closed with sidewalk routed into street until 6/1/25. Drew Street hill opens to two-way traffic with barrier on west side of street until 6/1/25. Kimball Alley remains closed until 8/4/25."  I would expect this extension to be granted; but it does negatively impact a lot of the College Avenue traffic around the construction site.  

Finance Committee - 5:30pm  There are a number of items on the docket for this committee, including the following:

• Accepting the report of the CEA Committee to purchase an identification unit trailer for the Appleton Police Department (APD)
• Committing the balance of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) "local economic recovery" funds -- $985,000 -- to a project to revamp the Fox Cities Exhibition Center with better acoustical management (so it's not so echo-y in there) and to hire a consultant to develop a strategy to attract a new and better management company when the current management contract expires on 12/31/2025
• Renewal of a contract for hauling biosolids from the Appleton Wastewater Treatment Plant (AWWTP) to agricultural fields in the surrounding area as a part of the AWWTP Biosolids Program.  The renewal includes a rather large increase for the first year of the new contract (from ~$463,000 in 2024 to ~$580,000 in 2025) due largely to rising fuel costs. 
• Sole-sourcing for 1) the purchase of a plunger pump for the AWWTP and 2) a contract for engineering services for design, bidding, and construction management for a new lift station at Summer Street (to convey sewage to the AWWTP).  Both requests provide sound reasoning for sole-sourcing the work -- limited suppliers for specific products and a pre-existing thorough knowledge of the city's AWWTP system.
  

If you have any concerns or questions about any of the above, please let me know.

Parks and Recreation Committee - 6:15pm  There are no action items on this committee's agenda this week.  But since it's near budget review time, there is time scheduled for discussion of those budget pages related to parks and recreation and Reid Golf Course. 

Board of Zoning Appeals - 7:30pm  The owner of a property at the corner of Stratford Lane and Haymeadow Avenue is requesting a variance to have a six-foot high fence one foot off the sidewalk  along Haymeadow Avenue (where there is a 20-foot setback requirement and a limit of three-foot fence height).  The lot is of an odd shape with two front yards (abutting two streets).  However, the owner has not, according to the city staff report, proven that there is a hardship here as code still permits the owner to put up a code compliant fence (which, by the way, is already in place on this property).  The property is also twice the size of the minimum size of a lot in this zoning.  So, the owner wanting a larger fenced-in area does not constitute a hardship for the granting of a variance.  I believe that this one should be denied... but we shall see what the board members think and what potential alternatives are hammered out in this meeting.  

Tuesday, 10/22/2024

Fox Cities Transit Commission - 2:50pm  Commissioners will discuss approval of September payments and the September financial and ridership reports.  They will also look to approve the recertification of Valley Transit's Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan.    

Utilities Committee - 4:30pm  The one action item for this committee is a pretty big one -- the request to increase the wastewater rates in the city by 9% effective 01/01/2025.  The utility staff notes that this 9% increase is required to meet the needs of the utility as far as cash flow, operational needs (such as increasing fees for waste hauling during digester maintenance/replacement so that the utility can maintain pollution discharge permit limits established by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WiDNR)), and debt coverage/repayment.  This increase will amount to approximately $6/quarter on the average residential customer's bills but will provide $1.3M in additional revenue for the utility.  How do you feel about this proposed rate hike?  Let me know your thoughts or concerns.

As an interesting informational item, there is a memo detailing the formulation of a new joint mission statement for the city's water and wastewater utilities.  I find this interesting as this new mission statement was discussed, defined, and developed internally by water and wastewater utility staff and a costly outside consultant was not needed for this process.  Wouldn't it be nice if this could be said for all of the rest of the departments in the city and for the city itself (which will be using some ARPA funds to pay a consultant to help develop a "new" mission and vision for the city)?  (See here for information on the $45,000 Strategic Plan initiative which your alderman voted against.)    

Wednesday, 10/23/2024

City Plan Commission - 3:30pm  This meeting is cancelled due to lack of agenda items.

Community Development Committee - 4:30pm  This meeting is cancelled due to lack of agenda items.

Safety and Licensing Committee - 5:30pm   A couple of held items (well, one is technically a referred-back item) will start off this committee's meeting: 

• The liquor license for an establishment called "Delaires" on College Avenue.  I'm not sure exactly why but this item was referred back to this committee for further discussion after it was approved by the committee a couple weeks ago.  But I expect to hear more about it this week.  (On a side note, this application is one requiring the excessive $10,600 license fee due to the city having limited liquor licenses available at this time.)
• The newly proposed Special Events Policy (to be effective 01/01/2025).  This item was held for more discussion the last time it came before this committee.  I and a few other aldermen had questions but were unable to attend the last meeting.  See here for the earlier mention of this item.  Take a look at the items included in this meeting agenda regarding the proposal and let me know if you have any questions that you'd like me to bring up at this meeting.  

Human Resources and Information Technology Committee - 6:30pm  Since the last scheduled meeting of this committee was cancelled due to a lack of attendees, the same item that came up last time -- a request to approve a $69,000 consultant contract for a staffing study for the Appleton Police Department -- will finally be discussed.  My thoughts on this have not changed since the last alderman blog post regarding this action item.  I'm interested in your thoughts on this, though.  So please let me know what you think.  

So there you have it -- this week's chatting points in city government.  I would love to hear from you on any of the items listed above or on any other city-government-related issues.  Please contact me and let me know your thoughts.

As always, I wish you a wonderful week ahead (in this little warming trend and on into when the weather turns back to what we usually can expect in late October).  Happy Packers Sunday!