The Notes: Week of October 20 - October 24, 2025

Happy Sunday, Neighbors!  I'm glad that you stopped in to read another Committee Meetings Week alderman blog post.

We have a couple of cancelled meetings this week -- the Fox Cities Transit Commission and the Utilities Committee -- but the rest of the week is full.  Here is what you can expect this week:

Monday, 10/20/2025

Municipal Services Committee - 4:30pm  A design hearing for an alley reconstruction is first on this committee's agenda.  Thankfully, this reconstruction project will not require any tree removal.  So it will likely not be contended by affected homeowners. 

Next, there is a request for approval of a revised contract between the City and the State/Federal governments for aid for the reconstruction of Lawe Street (between College and Wisconsin Avenues).  An earlier contract shows that the city's contribution to the project would be ~$1.475M.  But the revised contract shows more state/federal funding available and the city's portion shrinking to ~$883,400.  This seems like great news for city taxpayers; but I'm incredulous until I hear how this could be. 

Other items on the agenda include requests for approval of a relocation order for the city to acquire a small corner of a lot at the intersection of Ridgeview Lane and Richmond Street for a streetlight pole construction, a contract amendment to pay a consultant a bit more for some Thrivent property plan reviews, and an extension of a long-term occupancy permit for some construction dumpsters at 318 W College Avenue.

Finance Committee - 5:30pm  First on the list of items up for review by this committee is a request for approval on a contract with a consultant for a total of ~$107,000 for a "Sustainability and Resiliency Master Plan."  This, in my opinion, is wasteful government spending.  I will be voting not to approve this despite the fact that the majority of other council members have already voted for the city to move ahead with this consultancy spending.  What are your thoughts on this?  Should more and more consultancy dollars be spent by this city for this sort of thing... "plans" for the sake of appeasing certain factions of activists?  The funding for this was originally to come from borrowed funds for other capital projects in the city.  But the Finance Director was able to find funding elsewhere (interest earned on invested ARPA funds, I believe) for this.  Imagine what other, more important tangible items for the city this "found money" might be better used for.  

Other items up for approval by this committee include 1) a ~$1.1M contract for renovation project at the Parks and Recreation facility on Witzke Boulevard and 2) a revised Park and Open Space Special Revenue Fund Policy (with no substantial changes, mostly just verbiage changes/corrections).  In information items, there will be a review of the proposed 2026 departmental budgets for the Finance, Legal Services, Risk Management, and Facilities Management departments.

Parks and Recreation Committee - 6pm  This meeting will start off with a "review" of the city's current Naming of Public Parklands Policy.  Since this is listed as a action item, I suspect that some of the committee members might suggest changes or additions to this policy to fit their current agendas.  This policy, though, has served the city well for years.  It was last updated in 1997... which means that for nearly 30 years, the city has followed this simple, fair, and straightforward policy without issue.  Here it is: 

The keyword in the above is "consistent."  Changing the policy now to fit some sort of current desire for a potentially politically-charged new park name should not be allowed.  In my opinion, there is no need to revise or add any additional provisions here.  There are more than enough options in the current long-standing policy to allow for a multitude of potential names for any new city parks (or in the case of the current situation in the city, a re-naming of a park in the city)  Do you agree?  If not, why not?     

After this "review" of the policy, the committee will move on to re-reviewing the city staff proposal for the formal renaming process for the "old" Veterans Park (the smaller one that's been named Veterans Park for decades... but now has to be renamed due to the recent renaming of Memorial Park to Veterans Memorial Park).  When last seen, this process had been approved to completely throw out the above-referenced naming policy completely in favor of "also considering ideas and concepts that don't technically fall within" said policy.  Well, what the heck?  You can't have a policy and then vote to completely disregard it!  Yet the majority of this council did in early September.  (Your alderman, of course, did not vote to approve this.)  This item was then reopened for reconsideration and referred back to this committee for more discussion.    

It is my fervent hope that after this committee meeting the naming/renaming policy remains intact as it stands today and that the original proposal for the renaming process for the "old" Veterans Park remains unchanged from what city staff suggests.  There's no reason -- except for petty politics -- to stray from what we have and what has consistently worked since the 1990s. 

There are several other items on this committee's agenda including approval of the five-year renewal of a lease between the city and Supple Restaurant Group for the patio at Vulcan Heritage Park and approval of an amended policy and fee schedule for the rental of Miracle League Field. 

Wednesday, 10/22/2025

City Plan Commission - 3:30pm  There will be a public hearing and then discussion and action taken on a request from St Joseph Congregation for a special use permit for a seasonal shelter facility (maximum of 40 individuals) in the lower unit of one of the buildings on their campus on West Lawrence Street.  This permit would run with the property and only expire if shelter operations there are suspended for 12 months or more.  There was a shelter in operation at St Joseph's in the early 2000's but the special use permit for that expired in 2010.  There is a true community need for this shelter in the winter months and as long as all city regulations are followed here, this permit should be granted.    

Community Development Committee - 4:30pm  This committee meeting will also start with a public hearing.  This one is to announce the availability of funding for the 2026 program year for the city's Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program.  The committee will act on approval of the current proposal for these funds after the public hearing.  A portion (~$95,000) of the estimated 2026 CDBG block grant funding for the city is available for external non-profit organizations through an application process.  The balance of the estimated funding is already subject to allocation to standing "core projects" (such as funding for the Appleton Housing Authority and the Housing Rehabilitation Loan Program in the city) and "city department projects" as per federal CDBG guidelines.  (You can read more about this in the agenda for this meeting.)  

The other action items on the agenda include the following (each with the potential for the committee to go into closed session for discussions on negotiations of real estate contracts):

• The potential approval of a third amendment to a development agreement for the old "blue ramp site" behind city hall at the corner of Washington Street and Appleton Street.  The official closing for the purchase of this site by the developer has been put off multiple times.  Now, the proposal is for an April 30, 2026, closing date.  There are a number of other changes proposed as well... but the main thing is... can't we get this redevelopment project moving soon?
• The potential approval of an offer to purchase made by Consolidated Construction for a lot in the city's Southpoint Commerce Park.  The offer is for the city's full asking price of $43,000/acre so I don't see any reason to reject it.     

Safety and Licensing Committee - 5:30pm  There are seven scheduled demerit point appearances on the agenda to start this committee's meeting.  They are as follows:

1. The Bar on the Avenue - Serving Alcohol to a Minor (80 points assessed) - Current total demerit points: 80 
2. Badger Mobil - Serving Alcohol to a Minor (80 points assessed) - Current total demerit points: 200  NOTE:  City code states that if any establishment holding an alcohol license accumulates 150-199 demerit points within a 24-month period, the license is subject to suspension for not less than 10 days nor more than 90 days. If any alcohol licensee accumulates 200 or more demerit points within a 36-month period, the license is subject to revocation.
   
3. CVS Pharmacy on Wisconsin Avenue - Serving Alcohol to a Minor (80 points assessed) - Current total demerit points: 80
4. Festival Foods on Northland Avenue - Serving Alcohol to a Minor (80 points assessed) - Current total demerit points: 160.  See the note above!
5. Good Company - Serving Alcohol to a Minor (80 points assessed) - Current total demerit points:  80
6. Hide-A-Way Bar - Serving Alcohol to a Minor (80 points assessed) - Current total demerit points: 80
7. Rascals Bar - Serving Alcohol to a Minor (80 points assessed) - Current total demerit points: 160.  See the note above!

Then, in action items, the committee will discuss the following:

• In yet another appearance on this committee's agenda: the potential denial of mechanical amusement device licenses for some gaming machines at Mad Elephant.  This item was held the last time it appeared on this committee's agenda due to more information being required of the applicant's attorney.  We shall see what, if any, discussion will take place this week.
• A number of new liquor license applications, including two "reserve" licenses for a mandatory license fee of $10,500.  Reserve licenses become the only option when all of the regular liquor licenses in the city have been claimed.  I believe that the city needs to do more to curtail the holding of regular liquor licenses by non-operating establishments.  It is completely unfair to ready, willing, and able establishments to have to pay for expensive reserve licenses when there are regular licenses going unused by non-operational entities.   
  
• A couple of liquor license change of agent requests, a secondhand dealer license, a couple of taxicab company licenses, and a temporary beer and wine license for an upcoming event. 

The proposed 2026 budget numbers for the Legal Services, Fire, and Police Departments will also be on the table for discussion during the information items portion of this meeting's agenda. 

Human Resources and Information Technology Committee - 6:30pm  It's unfortunate for these committee members that during this budget review season there are no other action items for the committee to take up.  As chairman of this committee, I had to call this meeting for informational items only as the budgets for the Human Resources and Information Technology departments should be publicly reviewed by this committee before Budget Saturday (11/01/2025).

And that will do it for this week's meetings summary.  If you have any questions or concerns about any of the above items, please do not hesitate to reach out to me.  I'm also happy to hear from you any other comments, questions, or feedback on anything else city-government-related.  

To wrap things up for this week's post, I was asked to share with you all an invitation for you to visit the latest addition to District 13 -- the newly constructed Apostolic Truth Church at the corners of French Road, Ashbury Lane, Providence Avenue, and Glory Lane.  Below is the official Open House invitation.  I will likely stop by and welcome them to the neighborhood so maybe I'll see you there! 

Until next week's alderman blog post... I hope you have a fantastic week!  Thanks, as always, for your continued interest in your city government.