The Notes: Week of November 18 - November 22, 2024

Welcome to another alderman blog post, folks!  Thanks for tuning in this week for a quick rundown of this Full Council Week.  There are two other meetings besides the full council meeting this week.  This is what we are looking at:

Tuesday, 11/19/2024

Library Board - 4:30pm  There are some small budget amendments and the October payments and financials up for review and approval by board members.  They will also review and potentially make a few small adjustments on the library's naming opportunities policy.  There is a request to use grant money to fund two limited part-time internships at the library (for $15/hour and $17/hour) that board members will then consider.  And most importantly, there is a request for board approval of a contract for another move of the library -- this one, we believe, will be the last for a long, long time -- for $175,855.80 plus a 5% contingency.  The building project update informational item includes a short note that states that the fundraising campaign is still $300,000 short.  I wonder what the plan is if the total $12M required is not reached?  

Wednesday, 11/20/2024

Community Development Committee - Special Meeting - 6:45pm  There is one small action item on this committee's special meeting agenda -- the approval of an extension for the closing on the purchase of the Blue Ramp property (north of and adjacent to City Hall) by the developer, Merge LLC.  I expect this to be approved as there are no real alternatives available but for letting the deal between the city and this developer completely fail... and that is extremely unlikely. 

City of Appleton Common Council - 7pm  The mayor has no "business presented by the mayor" this week.  So the full council will get right to the meat of the agenda at this meeting.  Here are snippets of what will be taken up:

• From the Municipal Services Committee:  Contracts for 2025 repairs and maintenance for the city's parking ramps ($96,370), a doubling of the materials testing contract for the Department of Public Works (DPW) (from $100,000 to $200,000), and the purchase of parking spaces in the Yellow Ramp by Mosaic Health. 
  
  
• From the Finance Committee:  A two-year extension to the contract with Clifton Larson Allen for the city's annual audits ($81,700 for 2024 and $82,500 for 2025).
  
  
• From the Utilities Committee:  Two contracts and a contract amendment (all with Brown and Caldwell) for stormwater evaluations, modeling, and plan reviews.  One contract is specifically for the Northland Creek and Bellaire watersheds where some of the most destructive flooding occurred in the city this past July. 
  
  
• From the Fox Cities Transit Commission:  A contract for a new fare system for Valley Transit with a year one project cost of $168,636, 80% covered by federal grants.  Future years of operating expenses will be 60% covered by federal and state grants and the balance to be supported by local taxpayer funding. 
  

Without much else to discuss and with no real contentious items on this agenda, I suspect that it will not be a long meeting night for council members.  (Fingers crossed and knock on wood.)  

Do you have any questions or concerns on any of the above items or anything else city-government-related?  If so, please reach out to me and let me know.  I'm always happy to receive your feedback.  

Did I mention that this week's blog post would be a quick one?  If not, now you know.  Thanks for stopping in and reading.  I hope you have a great week before Thanksgiving.  See you back here next Sunday!