The We-Are-Back-In-Business Notes: Week of January 12 - January 16, 2026

Well, howdy, Neighbors!  Welcome to the first "real business" alderman blog post in a few weeks!  Thanks for joining me here.

I know you probably forgot how this goes since it's been so long... but I'll give you a rundown of all the scheduled meetings this Committee Meetings Week and I'll ask for your feedback and comments throughout.  Please, though, let me know any time you see something about which you have questions or concerns.

Here we go!

Monday, 01/12/2026

Municipal Services Committee - 4:30pm  First on the list of items to discuss and potentially approve is a request to renew a slate of "sole-source" providers for equipment for the city's traffic signal and control equipment.  This request is generally renewed annually and allows the city's traffic engineering department to procure from a small selection of qualified vendors without having to present a sole-sourcing request for each item procured.  I believe this to be a wise way to operate so long as pricing is regularly evaluated on these procurements to ensure that taxpayers' money is not being overspent.  Also on the list of items to discuss/approve are the following requests:

• To make permanent some parking changes on Pacific Street which were under temporary evaluation
• To approve a cost agreement between the city and Outagamie County outlining changes and maintenance requirements for the I-41/Ballard Road interchange
• To approve some quit claim deeds that the city is to execute to allow the state Department of Transportation (WisDOT) some small portions of land around the I-41/Wisconsin Avenue interchange for rights-of-way for the on-/off-ramps and traffic signaling, etc, there
• To allow the short-term occupancy of a dumpster for some renovations that the Copper Leaf Hotel downtown plans to undertake
• To designate/mark (in exchange for a fee) a parking space in the city's Red Ramp for parking specifically for a business tenant in an adjacent building
• To allow the discontinuance of a portion of the public right-of-way of Canal Street (which is mapped but not in use and instead is land used in part for the Newberry Trail there) by request of an adjacent parcel owner for the purposes of maintaining their private driveway that currently exists in that right-of-way

And for a bit of good news, there is one more item to approve: a revision of the state/municipal agreement for the reconstruction project of the Olde Oneida Street Bridge over South Mill Race.  The previous iteration of this agreement showed the city portion of the project at an estimated $2.09M.  The latest version up for approval would reduce that cost to the city by ~$438,000 due to increased state funding available.      

Finance Committee - 5:30pm  There are two items up for approval by this committee.  The first is a new six-year lease for golf carts at Reid Golf Course.  The proposed lease cost is $57,175 annually -- just below the city's 2026 budgeted amount of $60,000 -- for a few more carts than had been leased in the past.  The increase in number of carts seems warranted as 62% of the rounds played at Reid last year included cart rental as compared to 54% in earlier years.  Provided the course recoups these lease costs with cart fees, it seems like the renewal is an easy yes vote. 

With a much larger price tag is the next item up for potential approval -- a contract for ~$1.39M for repairs and maintenance for the city's downtown parking structures in 2026.  The approved budget for these projects is $1.4M.  (A coincidence, right?)   Yes, the city's parking utility is an enterprise fund (separate from general fund tax payer dollars).  But whew.  That's a whole lot of money for only the small downtown portion of the city, isn't it?            

Parks and Recreation Committee - 6pm  This meeting has been cancelled. 

Tuesday, 01/13/2026

Fox Cities Transit Commission - 2:50pm  This meeting has been cancelled.

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

Wednesday, 01/14/2026

Board of Health - 7am  Early-riser board members will be thrown right into things with the first item on their agenda -- an appeal hearing for a Cease and Desist order on a local tourist rooming house (TRH, also known as a short-term rental) licensee.  Way back in mid-2025, the owner of a TRH on College Avenue downtown was informed that the rental facilities in question were not up to code per city and state requirements.  This owner's TRH license with the city then was not renewed by the applicant (in July when it came up for renewal).  The city offered the applicant a temporary conditional license if the owner agreed to get the TRH areas up to code... but the owner did not reply to the city regarding this temporary license and is now appealing the Cease and Desist order which essentially shuts this TRH down unless and until the code violations are corrected.  I'll be interested to hear why this TRH owner did not work with the city to continue operations temporarily and to hear how and if the code issues have been addressed to this point.  

From there, the board will move on to approval of several new policies and procedures and several updates to existing policies and procedures within the city's health department.  Some of these look to be unnecessary layers of additional government make-work.  For example, one proposed policy is blank but for a link to a procedure.  Then the procedure, too, is up for approval.  Why two steps?  I guess no one knows... except that it's government!  If you're interested, take a look and let me know what you think.  

City Plan Commission - 3:30pm  The first item on the agenda for this commission is a public hearing on something "major."  No, really.  The item up for consideration is literally termed a Major Update to Planned Development Overlay.  The owners of the parcels referred to in this Major Update request (Lawrence University and Park Place Holdings) want to add additional uses to the buildings already on the ~13.5 acre parcels along East River Street and South West Avenue.  The proposed additional uses include "day care, adult; day care, group; and recreational facilities, non-profit."  It looks like the word "major" might be a bit of overkill here as the staff report for this item states that the proposed additional uses are consistent with the surrounding areas and do not conflict with the city's Comprehensive Plan.  I expect that the commission will approve this.

Other items on this meeting agenda include the requested approval of an annexation of a couple of parcels owned by the same owner from the Town of Grand Chute into the city at the owner's request and another request for approval of the Canal Street discontinuance and vacating of a portion of the public right-of-way as mentioned above. 

Community Development Committee - 4:30pm

Safety and Licensing Committee - 5:30pm  The start of this meeting will include liquor license violations hearings for four license holders: Capitol Center, El Jaripeo, Appleton Motomart, and Wisconsin Avenue Marathon.  All received demerit points for serving alcohol to a minor and all license holders are expected to explain how their establishments will work to eliminate this issue in the future. (District 13 neighbors know, though, that there will likely not be anyone present for the El Jaripeo hearing since that restaurant is now closed.)  None of these establishments is near the demerit points threshold for the loss of their liquor licenses as yet. 

Then, in what seems to be the hundredth time there will be discussion in this regard, the committee will again take up the potential licensing of some electronic amusement devices in a couple restaurants/bars (Houdini's Escape and Mad Elephant).  The last time these license applications were discussed, the committee voted to deny the licenses due to the nature of the proposed amusement devices and the potential for cash payouts at this establishments (which would render these devices "gambling machines" which are illegal in the city and per state law).  The item went forward to the council for denial... but was referred back to the committee for even more discussion.  This week, I expect that the committee will hear more from the establishments' attorney (yes, both are represented by one attorney) regarding the issue and how these applicants might promise not to allow these machines to "go illegal" on their premises.  I am skeptical at this point since we all know that countless businesses in the city illegally use these devices.  But we do need to hear them out to be fair.  What are your thoughts?

Other items to be discussed and potentially approved include

• A renewal of an inter-municipal fire equipment sharing agreement between the Appleton Fire Department (AFD) and many surrounding municipalities' fire departments
• A new beer-only liquor license, two new reserve liquor licenses (the more expensive licenses as the city has reached their state-required quota for regular liquor licenses), a late renewal of a resale/secondhand dealer license, and a couple of temporary beer licenses for events coming up at a local church

There are two more liquor license holders listed with reported violations for dispensing alcohol to a minor (Oneida BP and Missfits Tavern) and the city clerk will also give a quick update to the committee regarding the upcoming spring elections (when those who live in even-numbered districts in the city will be voting on who will be their alderman to serve them in the next two years).

Human Resources and Information Technology Committee - 6:30pm  First on the agenda for this committee is a small city policy update.  Then comes a request for the addition of a new position for Valley Transit (VT) -- an administrative support specialist whose focus will be working in finance support, particularly with federal and state grant administration and regulatory compliance.  The memo for the request of this new position states that there are funds available in the VT budget to fund this added position.  And last on the list of things this committee will be asked to approve this week is a sole-source request for an emergency response system at City Hall (in the amount of $30,000 where $35,000 is budgeted).  Sole-sourcing is requested since the particular system that the city would like to implement is only available from one local authorized dealer of the equipment.  This last item, though, will require an annual contract fee of $950 which is a little bit of a concern to me as it's a commitment that future city budgets will need to maintain (though a small amount in the grand scheme of the entire city budget).  

The meeting will conclude with a review of the requested creation of yet another VT position -- a part-time (non-benefit eligible) recruitment sourcing coordinator to help VT keep finding new bus drivers -- and a brief summary of the city's website traffic/online engagement numbers since the launching of appletonwi.gov last year.  

And after all of that... we're done for this week.  I hope you enjoyed reading a few more lines than you've read from your alderman in the last few weeks' blog posts.  Please reach out to me any time you have any questions or concerns about anything city government-related.  Have a great week!  See you back here again next week!