The Notes: Week of April 20 - April 24, 2026

Hiya, Neighbors!  Thanks for joining me for another alderman blog post.  This week will be a bit of a strange one for the City of Appleton Common Council.  It's supposed to be a Committee Meetings Week... and it will kinda be... except for a couple of meetings of the full council thrown in there!  Since it's a "new" council -- to be made up of the same exact council members as the last council year since all members won re-election in the recent April election -- the "new" council must convene to go through both informal and formal organizational meetings this week.  See below for more information on what to expect this week:

Monday, 04/20/2026

Municipal Services Committee - 4:30pm  Official public notices of this committee's meeting went out long ago to the owners of properties along several streets up for reconstruction in 2028.  As such, this meeting could not be cancelled or put off.  So the members of this committee from the "old" council will meet and look to approve the city's proposed designs for the reconstruction of these streets.  I suspect that more than a couple of homeowners on these routes will be present and object to the narrowing of their streets, proposed new parking restrictions on their streets (due to this narrowing), the loss of terrace trees along their streets due to the construction process, and, for a couple of these streets, the addition of sidewalks along the roadways. 

Yes, the city does have some streets along which there are not sidewalks.  But the newest iteration of street planning in the City of Appleton -- called "smart streets" -- calls out adding sidewalks to all streets currently without them during reconstruction to accommodate and encourage safe pedestrian travel in the city.  I will be interested to see whether any of these homeowners' arguments will convince this committee to send some of these proposed designs back to the drawing board.  That is unlikely... but we shall see! 

Besides the street reconstruction plan reviews and potential approvals, this committee will also be asked to approve a temporary occupancy permit for a construction dumpster and a revision to a city/state maintenance agreement for the I-41 Richmond Street interchange and Meade Street overpass.  From the looks of the information posted regarding the latter, the city is looking to shed some of the boilerplate maintenance responsibilities such as street sweeping through the new diverging diamond interchange to be built there.   

Finance Committee - 5:30pm  This meeting has technically not even been scheduled due to the new council convening this week. 

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

Tuesday, 04/21/2026

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

Utilities Committee - 4:30pm  This meeting is on the calendar but without a posted agenda.  I suspect that the meeting is technically cancelled.  But one can't be certain without that notice posted online. 

City of Appleton Common Council - Informal Organizational Meeting - 6pm  As the council does every year at this time, they will gather first in an informal setting -- still following Robert's Rules of Order but without formal time limits for discussions, etc -- to review and look to amend or re-adopt all of the current rules of the council, the code of conduct, and committee and departmental functions.  I do not expect any changes to the rules to be proposed at this time... though I am interested in suggesting adding a rule regarding a less casual dress policy to the council rules.  I suggested this a year or two ago as I started to see more and more baseball caps and sweatpants on some council members making their way into the council chambers.  My suggestion was rejected at that time and likely would be again.  I just see no reason for council members to not take seriously dressing appropriately for the business of running the city.  It doesn't require three-piece suits and women in dresses.  But a step up to perhaps "business casual" would go a long way in showing respect in council chambers.     

Wednesday, 04/22/2026

Appleton Public Arts Committee - Special Meeting - 8am  This committee has been working for the past few weeks on readying and approving the images to be placed in the Houdini Plaza welcome tower.  Weeks ago, they chose to go with a Year of Houdini theme and there were many stock images of Harry Houdini from which to choose their favorites.  I believe that they've finally narrowed them down and this week will be final approval by this committee before the whole thing goes on to the Park and Recreation Committee for another approval... which means it will also go forward for one more approval by the full common council.  That's a lot of government layers for a simple set of photos!  But it is the current procedure.  If you're interested in the images that are up for "final" approval by this committee this week, see here.  

City Plan Commission - 3:30pm  This commission will look to give approval on the final plat map for a small subdivision located in the Town of Grand Chute that in process by the Greater Fox Cities Habitat for Humanity.  The city (through this commission) has some say in this as it is an "extraterritorial" subdivision near the city limits.  The only other item on the agenda is a informational item: the presentation and early discussion of some proposed draft amendments to the city's building code to address solar energy systems.  

Community Development Committee - 4:30pm  This meeting has technically not even been scheduled due to the new council convening this week. 

Safety & Licensing Committee - 5:30pm  This meeting has technically not even been scheduled due to the new council convening this week. 

City of Appleton Common Council - Formal Organizational Meeting - 6pm  In a more formal setting, the council will again address all of the items discussed the evening before at the Informal Organizational Meeting.  Also at this formal organizational meeting, the mayor will present his choices for committee assignments for council members and his choices for committee chairmen.  The council will then elect a Council President (who presides over the common council in the mayor's absence) and a Council Vice President (who is next in line if the mayor and the council president are both absent).  Since the make up of the council remains as it was in the last council year, I do not expect many changes from last year to this.     

Human Resources and Information Technology Committee - 6:30pm  This meeting has technically not even been scheduled due to the new council convening this week. 

Next week, which would normally be a Fifth Week of no city government meetings, will likely see some of these cancelled (or not even scheduled) committee meetings rescheduled.  But never fear, dearest reader.  I will continue to keep you up-to-date with next week's alderman blog post. 

If you have any concerns or questions or comments on this week's projected proceedings or anything else city-government related, please let me know.  

Have a great week!  See you again soon!