The Notes: Week of November 10 - November 14, 2025

Hello again, Neighbors!  Welcome to an unusual Committee Meetings Week.  It's an odd one due to the plan for the formal adoption of the 2026 city budget.  The meeting for that final approval (including any amendments) will be held on Wednesday night and will, of course, include the participation of the full council.  Due to this special meeting schedule, there are a number of cancellations of committee meetings this week.  Members of the following committees will get this week off of committee duties:

• Finance Committee
• Parks and Recreation Committee
• Community Development Committee
• Safety and Licensing Committee
• Human Resources and Information Technology Committee

There are, though, a few committees which will be meeting this week.  Here is the rundown of what you can expect this week:

Monday, 11/10/2025

Library Board - Personnel and Policy Committee - 3pm  This committee of Library Board members will take up discussion on the end-of-year performance review of the library director and look to approve two new policies and an amendment to an existing policy for the library.  They are 1) a new display policy, 2) a new Freedom to View policy, and 3) an amended version of the library's sensory room policy.  If you are interested, you can view these policies here.   

Municipal Services Committee - 4:30pm  There are five items up for approval by this committee:

1. To approve the use of new seasonal light pole decorations on Richmond Street (from Northland Avenue to College Avenue) and Wisconsin Avenue (from Badger Avenue to Ballard Road).  These decorations will be purchased by the Appleton Northside Business Association but will be changed out by city (DPW) personnel seasonally.  This item has already been approved by the Appleton Public Arts Committee, the Community Development Committee, and the full common council.  But since there is another city policy that governs the use of signs in the public right-of-way, this committee, too, must approve it.  Yikes... this is some excessive governance for some snowflakes on some light poles!
2. To approve the repaving project for an alleyway called Marston Alley (from Spruce Street to Summit Street).
3. To approve an amendment to a contract between the city and a material testing contractor.  The proposed amendment is quite an increase (from $100,000 to $150,000); but there are apparently budget dollars to allow this and the need for these services is increased due to some railroad crossing requirements for upcoming Badger and Kenilworth Avenues reconstruction projects. 
4. To approve the general street design plans for Glenmore Reserve here on the far north side of District 13 (near Apple Hill Farms).  
5. To approve a long term temporary occupancy permit for dumpsters and other construction items at 111 W College Avenue.   

Tuesday, 11/11/2025

Fox Cities Transit Commission - 2:50pm  Commissioners will be asked to approve a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the city and CS Appleton LLC, a developer being contracted for a preliminary design for the mostly federal-grant-funded proposed downtown transit facility.  The city has received the grant award... but no grant funds as yet.  According to the MOU, the city will pay the developer no more than $100,000 for this initial design work.  I have not heard much about this particular company -- CS Appleton LLC -- so I am curious about how this developer was chosen.  I am also concerned that $100,000 could be lost while the city awaits actual grant funds.  But the MOU is very straightforward and will likely be approved. 

 
The other action item up for approval is the assignment of a new marketing/public relations firm for Valley Transit -- Affirm Agency -- effective 01/01/2026.    

Utilities Committee - 4:30pm  While a revisiting of the flood mitigation plan for Providence Trails is up again for discussion by this committee, there will likely be another hold on this item.  The item was initially committee-approved -- a $330,000 upgrade to the stormwater management system mostly along the back side of homes along Fallcreek Lane (along the Apple Creek Trail) -- but was referred back to this committee for further discussion on some potential minor alterations to the plan.  These potential alterations require discussions with TC Energies which owns the natural gas lines that parallel the trailway.  But the city is still awaiting communication from TC Energies.  As such, I suspect (hope!) that this item will be held as we wait for that communication.  If you are interested in this item, you are welcome to attend this meeting to hear more about it and/or encourage the committee to hold the item for a bit longer.   

One other action item -- another contract amendment requiring more funding from the city -- rounds out this committee's agenda.  This one is for more stormwater management plan reviews for the city.  The reviewing contractor charges on an hourly basis for work completed.  But the city's Department of Public Works (DPW) would like to increase the overall contract by $40,000 in 2025 to keep current projects moving forward.  The increase is apparently needed due to some recent new subdivisions being developed in District 13 and District 7.  The only question I have on this one is "where id this additional funding coming from?"  

Wednesday, 11/12/2025

Board of Health - 7am  Early-riser board members only have one action item up for approval: the renewed approval (required annually) for the succession plan for the city's Health Department.  The Deputy Director of the department is named as "second in command" and the Environmental Health Supervisor is named as the "third in command" on this succession plan.  The balance of the agenda for this meeting includes review of the third quarter health department report, a wastewater virus surveillance report (yes... apparently we're still doing that), the latest health department newsletter, two dangerous animal declarations, and the latest health director-approved noise variances.  

City Plan Commission - 3:30pm  A preliminary plat map for Glenmore Reserve -- a new subdivision near Apple Hill Farms -- is on this commission's agenda for approval.  The plan is for two phases of development here to increase zoned-single-family inventory in the city by 126 lots.  The preliminary plat calls out three outlots -- two of which seem to be trailways and one which is most likely to be dedicated as park land to the city.     

City of Appleton Common Council - Special Session for Adoption of the 2026 Budget - 6pm  As is done every year, this special meeting is called on an "off week" for the full council to gather to approve the upcoming year's budget.  The first item on the agenda is the approval of the minutes from Budget Saturday (that special meeting of the Finance Committee).  Then the rules of council are suspended so that the whole council can go into what's called a "Committee of the Whole."  This Committee of the Whole just means that the full council essentially becomes the Finance Committee to take up, amend if desired and approved by the majority, and approve each section of the proposed 2026 budget (just as only the members of the Finance Committee did on Budget Saturday).  There are a few small amendments needed to correct the mayor's budget as some minor administrative errors were discovered in the budget review process.  These amendments result in an overall net-zero (no increase or decrease in the overall budget).   

I expect that there will be few -- if any -- additional amendments to the budget as there has been little contention on anything contained in the mayor's proposed budget thus far.  If there are any amendments presented during this meeting, they will likely be small and not make a large impact on the proposed 1.6% tax levy increase across the city.  You can make calculations on the expected property tax increase for your property by reviewing this previous blog post.  While I'm not thrilled that there is a projected increase ahead, the good news is that the increase will be relatively small.  A proposed 3% increase in all non-union employee salaries is the top driver of this increase.  And it's difficult to deny city employees at least a nominal cost of living increase in these inflationary times.  

Please do let me know if you have any questions or concerns about the proposed 2026 budget.  I always appreciate hearing from my neighbors.

And that's all there is for this week's alderman blog post.  I appreciate you being here to read it and look forward to hearing from you on any of the above items... or anything else city-government-related.  Until next week... have a great one!  And try to stay warm as we head into the cold-weather season!