The Notes: Week of February 23 - February 27, 2026

Hello again, Neighbors!  Happy Sunday!

It's Committee Meetings Week again in the City of Appleton and it looks like it will be quite a busy week.  Check out a summary of what will be discussed and let me know if you have any questions, comments, or concerns:

Monday, 02/23/2026

Municipal Service Committee - 4:30pm  This committee will look to approve a number of parking changes that come with some street reconstruction projects on Bell Avenue, Alexander Street, Melrose Avenue, and Lawe Street.  They will also look to make permanent a trial all-way-stop control at Durkee Street and Florida Avenue.  Lastly, they will discuss and potentially approve an agreement between the state Department of Transportation (WisDOT) and the city for the reconstruction and maintenance of  stormwater detention ponds near the Highways 41 and 441 interchange (which will undergo some changes in the coming years as a part of the state's Highway 41 expansion project).      

Finance Committee - 5:30pm  The first item on this meeting agenda is a discussion and potential approval of a budget amendment which will allow the city to receive a $150,000 grant from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) for the assessment of a site that the city recently conveyed to the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center (adjacent to the PAC).  The site has some history of being perhaps contaminated and the site assessment will evaluate that.  Then another budget amendment -- this one transferring funds from a recoating project on the city's Matthias Water Tower to a now more urgent recoating project on the city's Lindbergh Standpipe (for water storage) -- is up for approval due to a reprioritizing of these projects this year.  Next, committee members will be asked to approve some carryover funds from the 2025 budget for a wastewater digester construction project.  Then there are the potential approvals of a couple of under-budget contracts followed by a sole-sourcing request (which is required due to the sole source being an authorized distributor for the equipment needed).  Last, the committee will discuss the city's Facilities and Construction Management Annual Review for 2025.       

Parks and Recreation Committee - 6pm This meeting is cancelled. 

Tuesday, 02/24/2026

Fox Cities Transit Commission - 2:50pm  Commissioners will look to approve the January Valley Transit payments, a data management system subscription extension, and a contract to replace data routers and GPS antennas on Valley Transit busses.   

Utilities Committee - 4:30pm  A contract for the recoating of the Lindbergh Standpipe (as mentioned above in the Finance Committee section) will be the only action item for these committee members.  But in information items, there will be a discussion on a regional stormwater pond to be constructed (through mutual agreement) at Riverview Gardens (RVG).  RVG will grant the city an easement for the pond and maintain the city's access to it; but the city will be responsible for maintaining it.  And in an interesting tidbit, the December 2025 water main break report is included in this committee's agenda.  It shows that there were a total of 66 water main breaks in 2024 but... a total of 90 in 2025!  Yikes!   

Library Board - Appleton Public Library Cornerstone Conference Room - 5pm  December and January's bill registers are first on the board's agenda for review and approval.  Board members will then look to accept the 2025 Department of Public Instruction Library Annual Report and approve 1) the report of last week's meeting of the library board's Personnel and Policy Committee meeting (which was conducted mostly in a closed session), 2) the 2026 performance goals for the library director, and 3) a proposal for how to allocate the library's 2026 collections budget.    

Wednesday, 02/25/2026

City Plan Commission - 3:30pm  The rezoning of some property recently annexed into the City of Appleton is the main item on this commission's agenda (with a public hearing followed by the action to approve the rezoning).  As per usual, the property was annexed into the city as zoned Agricultural but really, it's residential land with a single-family home already existing on it.  So the rezoning requested is to change it from AG to R-1B.

Community Development Committee - 4:30pm  Last week's discussions of the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Advisory Committee becomes the topic of conversation for this committee this week.  The advisory committee slightly altered the staff recommendations last week and advised allocating a bit more to Pillars and a corresponding amount less to Habitat for Humanity.  So this is what the preliminary recommendations up for approval by this committee look like:

Also up for approval by this committee are some additions to municipal building code addressing water service requirements for duplexes (which, surprisingly, were not previously addressed specifically in the code).  

Safety and Licensing Committee - 5:30pm  Two demerit point violation hearings start out this committee's meeting this week.  Representatives of Quinto Sol Supermarket are to appear due to two violations (one for no licensed operator on the premises and one for failure to display their liquor license).  This license holder now has 130 demerit points and 150 demerit points means the license is subject to suspension.  Representatives of Fronteras are to appear due to numerous violations.  The latest gives them an accumulation of 160 demerit points -- over the threshold for suspension.  So we'll see what happens there. 

I am becoming increasingly concerned about the number of liquor license holders in the city with repeat offenses and a growing number of demerit points.  Perhaps the city needs to look into changes to the municipal code to allow for fewer slip-ups on the part of license holders.  After all, the city only has a limited number (quota driven) licenses of certain types available for establishments.  If an establishment cannot do an excellent job of following the rules, everyone could benefit from more new business owners -- who might take holding a liquor license more seriously! -- having access to that limited number of licenses.      

The next item on the agenda is a bit vague.  There is a Special Event Application which was filed only 37 days before the desired date of the event (where 45 days is required) on the docket.  The application was automatically denied per the city's policy due to the late submission.  But the memo regarding this agenda item says that there is not a staff recommendation at this time.  This committee will likely be asked to approve an exception to the 45-day requirement.  My primary concern about this anticipated event, though, is that the organizers of this "No Kings 3" event state that they would like no police presence, would like to barricade College Avenue themselves (with private vehicles), and their evacuation plan is "will ask people to calmly return to their vehicles."  Given the current political climate and some recent goings on in the Midwest, I do not see this plan as a safe one for citizens of Appleton.  Temperatures could easily rise and things could easily get out of hand.  With no police presence requested and no real plan for evacuation in the case of emergency, I have serious concerns.  Do you have any thoughts on this?  What would you propose the city do in this case?  Let me know what you think should be done here. 

The committee will then be asked to approve a proposed new section of municipal code calling for the impounding of vehicles used in reckless driving offenses.  This impounding practice has apparently been used in other municipalities to assist in addressing reckless driving.  I see no reason not to have this practice adopted in the City of Appleton.  Those charged with reckless driving would have their vehicles impounded at the time of an arrest for the offense.  An impounded vehicle can then be released upon payment of all outstanding costs related to the process of impounding and any fines or forfeitures for reckless driving offenses.  The vehicles stay off the road for at least a little while and the reckless driving offenders suffer a bit in their pocketbooks for the offense.  This seems a fair way to help curb the practice of reckless driving in the city. What do you think?     

Human Resources and Information Technology Committee - 6:30pm  This committee will look to approve two changes to the city's tables of organization (one in the Appleton Police Department and one in the Wastewater Utility Department) neither of which has any financial/budgetary impacts (just positions reporting to new bosses essentially).

So there you have it: a week's worth of a lot of discussion... but nothing too earth-shattering.  Again, I ask that you send me any feedback or questions you might have regarding anything you've read here.  I am also happy to take your feedback or to answer questions on anything else city government-related.

I hope that you have a wonderful last week of this crazy short-but-seems-too-long month.  Hopefully, we won't have too much "in like a lion" goings on as we move forward into March next week.  "See" you here again next week!