The (Last Week of Short) Notes: Week of January 5 - January 9, 2026

Happy 2026, Neighbors!  Thanks for tuning in for another alderman blog post.  Since the last couple of weeks’ posts have been pretty uneventful (but for the holiday greetings), I’m glad you clicked in for the post this week.

This week is supposed to be a Full Council Meeting Week in City of Appleton government.  But for the last few years, the first council meeting of the new year has been cancelled.  2026 is no exception.  Despite the fact that there is no full council meeting agenda about which to write, there is one other meeting on the calendar.

For your reading pleasure: (Maybe? Maybe not?)

Wednesday, 01/07/2026

Appleton Public Arts Committee - 8am  These lucky ducks get to wake up for an early morning meeting the first “work day” back after the holiday weeks.  They will be re-discussing the artwork that they already chose for re-use in the Houdini Plaza Welcome Tower.  What seems like ages ago, they met and collaboratively picked their ranked favorites of all of the artwork the city still has in its possession from previous displays in the tower.  These top choices then went to the city’s Parks and Recreation Committee for approval for re-use in the tower.  One of those committee members referred this item back to the public arts committee over concern that permission might not have been garnered from the submitting artists for the re-display.  This is the respectful and right thing to do, of course.  But I do wonder why the question of continued permission from these submitting artists was not discussed in the initial selection meeting of the public arts committee.  ‘Good thing the city is apparently not under a time crunch to get a “new” display into the Welcome Tower.     

So there you have it - city government back in full swing!  Thanks for reading all the way to the end of this post, Neighbors.  That took dedication. 😁  Please join me next week for a post on the first Committee Meetings Week of 2026.  That is sure to be a longer and more exciting post than today’s.  

Have a great first full week of January!  Stay warm!!