The Notes: Week of September 22 - September 26, 2025

Hello, Neighbors!  Thanks for joining me here again on a Sunday for another alderman blog post.  We are back in a Committee Meetings Week and we have lots to talk about this week.  So let's get right down to business:

Monday, 09/22/2025

Municipal Services Committee - 4:30pm  The last time this committee met, there was a public hearing regarding the proposed designs for the reconstruction projects on Badger Avenue from College to Memorial, Sixth Street from Memorial to State, Eighth Street from Pierce to Badger, and Rankin from Commercial to Wisconsin.  A few folks came forward last week at the public hearing with some questions and concerns.  But most seemed to have been answered.  This week, the street design proposals are up for formal approval by this committee.  There is also an update to the Signs in the Public Right-of-Way Policy up for review and potential approval.  

Finance Committee - 5:30pm  A budget amendment for the city to receive funds for the snowflake decorations and banners for Wisconsin Avenue and Richmond Street light poles (mentioned here and here) -- since the city will pay for them with these donated funds -- is a first item up for approval.  Next, the Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) is requesting a sole-sourced purchase of two pumps due to increasing maintenance issues.  The sole sourcing is requested since the pumps are in line with others of the same brand/design and they can only be purchased from this one local distributor.  The last two action items on the agenda are resolutions to allow the city to apply for grant funds to for a citywide bike and pedestrian plan and the construction of a trail in the southern part of the city (called the Southpoint Powerline Trail).     

Parks and Recreation Committee - 6pm  Weeks ago, this committee approved an amended version of the city's Park Renaming Policy which essentially allowed for anything of any sort to be submitted by the public for the renaming of a park.  The amendment essentially said that the renaming process would consider "ideas and concepts that don't technically fall within the city's Naming of Public Parklands Policy."  I was very concerned about this and offered, at council two weeks ago, an amendment to return the policy to its previous standards.  My amendment failed at that time. 

The amended version that came out of this committee (the one that allowed for anything that didn't fall within the existing policy) was subsequently approved by the majority of the full council.  I believe that there was some confusion by some members of the council when the item was approved, though.  Apparently, some thought that unless this amended policy was approved, the "old" Veterans Park would not at all be renamed.  However, that was not the case and it led, I believe, to an inappropriate approval of an amended -- essentially wide open! -- policy.  

This last week, that council approval was opened for reconsideration and subsequently sent back to this committee for further discussion.  I hope that the policy gets restored to its former self so that there are at least some sort of minimum requirements for suggested new park names (for any future renaming but currently for the potential renaming of the "old" Veterans Park).

What are your thoughts on this?  Should anything and everything be considered for a park name in Appleton?  Or should there at least be some "guard rails" on this process?    

Tuesday, 09/23/2025

Fox Cities Transit Commission - 2:50pm  This commission will vote on approval of the July and August payments for Valley Transit first.  Then they will hear more on the following information items: 

• A presentation of the 2024 audit for Valley Transit
• The financial reports from July and August 2025
• The July 2025 ridership report.  The August report is not yet available as Valley Transit is working on "data integration with the new fare system" which has made ridership reporting temporarily unavailable. 

Utilities Committee - 4:30pm  There are no action items for this committee.  There are, though, a couple of informational items on the agenda.  The usual water main break reports (July and August) will be discussed.  But perhaps more importantly and of importance to my District 13 neighbors, there will be a presentation and discussion of the recent results of the Providence Trails Drainage Study.  I have not been made aware of any initial information in this regard so I will be present at this meeting to hear what will be disclosed about this study and what the next steps for the city might be.  I hope that, if you are interested, you will join me to hear more on Tuesday!   

Wednesday, 09/24/2025

Joint Review Board (Calumet and Winnebago Counties) - 11am  Just as the Outagamie County version of this board met last week, board members for Calumet and Winnebago Counties will meet this week to review and discuss the annual reports on the Tax Incremental Financing Districts (TID) located in these counties.  You can review the reports here as well. 

City Plan Commission - 3:30pm  There are a number of municipal code text amendments up for approval by this commission.  They reviewed them in an earlier meeting in an "informational items" portion of their agenda.  There is also one other item up for approval: a resolution stating that the city supports a "shared vision for West College Avenue."  Information on the latter can be found here.  It involves the Town of Grand Chute, Outagamie County, and the East Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission and future planning for the West College Avenue corridor.    

Community Development Committee - 4:30pm  This meeting has been cancelled. 

Safety and Licensing Committee - 5:30pm  This meeting might be a long one!  The start of the agenda calls for five demerit point violations appearances for the following establishments for Dispensing Alcohol to a Minor:  Richmond Citgo, Camelot, Antojitos Mexicanos, Appleton Axe, and Lumberjack Johnny's.  All but the last one have only this violation on their demerit-point record.  Lumberjack Johnny's, though, was assessed a total of 120 points for both the underage service of alcohol and having no licensed operator on the premises.  

In action items for this committee, we will see the following come up for discussion:

• The potential denial of a liquor license for a local sports card dealer (BB Sports Cards).  State law prohibits the granting of a Class "B" liquor license for a premises where "any other business is conducted in connection with the premises" (with some exceptions like hotels and bowling centers).  This establishment does not apparently meet any of the allowable exceptions.  So the city clerk is recommending denial of this licensure. 
• The potential denial of amusement device licenses for two games requested at Mad Elephant (formerly Taste of Thai).  The Appleton Police Department (APD) reports that the games applied for licensure are considered illegal gambling machines in the State of Wisconsin.  As such, it is recommended that the amusement device licenses for these games be denied.  The applicant has secured an attorney to argue against this, though... so we shall see how this one goes!
• The continuing saga of the resolution to add back a truancy ordinance in the City of Appleton.  Where we last left it, I had submitted an amendment by substitution to get an ordinance on the books per state statutes and that the city request some materials from the Appleton Area School District (AASD) in regular updates to the Safety and Licensing Committee to allow this ordinance to remain in place until July of 2027.  There was an amendment to my amendment also submitted.  And it's become a bit of a twisted process.  So at this meeting, we can expect a lot more discussion on these amendments and... who knows what else!  I do hope, though, that it comes down to the city allowing for a reinstatement of a truancy ordinance for at least a trial period while it can and will be thoroughly evaluated for success.  If you haven't already weighed in, please let me know your thoughts on this.
• Several new alcohol and tobacco licenses and temporary liquor licenses.  

Human Resources and Information Technology Committee - 6:30pm  This meeting has been cancelled... which is fortunate since the Safety and Licensing Committee meeting is bound to be a late-ending one.

And that wraps up this week's summary of what you can expect to hear about this coming week.  One note from last week's meetings: a 2.5% increase for alderman elected in or after April 2025 was approved last week despite my request to further discuss this item at another Human Resources and Information Technology meeting.  At the council meeting last week, one of that committee's members, Nate Wolff, objected to the refer back to the committee for further discussion and another committee member, Patrick Hayden, seconded the objection.  Hayden stated to me later that he thought that there had been "more than enough time dedicated to this" after one committee meeting -- at which he and one other committee member were not present -- during which the item was held for later discussion and after a less than 15-minute discussion on it the next Committee Meetings Week when he refused to allow a hold of the item for further discussion closer to budget discussion time.  He later stated that "waiting on the budget for such a small impact doesn't make sense because the impact is negligible."  My reply to him was that the dollar figure should not dictate the amount of committee time dedicated to an item.  For instance, the truancy ordinance discussion in the city has taken countless committee hours thus far and will not cost or save taxpayers money.  It's just important enough to give it a good and full discussion.  (FYI: Wolff is up for re-election in April 2025; Hayden is up for re-election in April 2027.) 

I hope that your week ahead is a good one as we officially head into Autumn 2025.  I hope to hear from you should you have any questions or concerns about anything above or anything else city-government-related.  "See" you back here again next week for more on what's happening in our city government!