The Notes: Week of July 20 - July 25, 2026

Thank you for being patient for this week’s alderman blog post, Neighbors!  A family annual vacation has now begun… so thanks for granting me some grace to enjoy the first weekend of it.

This week is a Committee Meetings Week in City of Appleton government so there are quite a few items on quite a few agendas this week.  Here is the usual rundown of what you can expect for this week:

Monday, 07/20/2026

Municipal Services Committee - 4:30pm This week, this committee will vote on whether to accept the city staff/engineer’s design plan for the reconstruction of a downtown stretch of Franklin Street.  A few weeks ago, the committee held a public hearing on this proposed design.  During that hearing, the fact that this plan calls for the removal of some bicycle lanes on Franklin Street was discussed and city staff brought forward a map showing the redundancy of bike lanes in much of the downtown area.  As such, the proposed removal of bike lanes on this stretch of Franklin Street was justifiable.  Without any other significant feedback, I suspect that this project will be easily approved here in this committee meeting and move forward to the full council for final approval.  

Other items on this meeting agenda include the proposed approval of 1) a revision to the state/municipal agreement for items related to the Highway 41 reconstruction project which includes a reduction in the investment needed from the city (yay!), 2) a temporary permit for placement of a construction dumpster on Baldeagle Drive, and 3) all of the traffic control/intersection markings for the Mission Ridge subdivision that’s currently under early infrastructure construction.  

Finance Committee - 5:30pm This committee will look to approve the receipt of some substantial grant funds from the state Department of Transportation (WisDOT) for some signal rehabilitation at the intersection of Badger Avenue and Highway 47 (Richmond Street).  This grant (of just over $1M!) will alleviate a large portion of the traffic signaling budget needed for the current reconstruction project for that stretch of Badger Avenue.  Also of note on this agenda is a proposed revision of the city’s purchasing policy which looks to raise all of the limits for purchases with and without competitive bidding requirements.  While I don’t like that there will potentially be higher limits under which purchasing without competitive bidding would be allowed, I understand that the natural effects of inflation have necessitated some of this limit increase.  Still, it concerns me that this proposal would remove many instances of requiring competitive bidding which could raise the prices to taxpayers on many items to be purchased.  Take a look at the proposal and let me know your thoughts. 

Parks and Recreation Committee - 6pm  The two proposed new installations of art in the Ellen Kort Peace Park — a peace pole and the “used” kinetic sculptures from downtown Appleton — are up for approval by this committee after passing muster with the Appleton Public Arts Committee last week. Committee members will also review the minutes from the latest meeting of the Appleton Sustainability Advisory Panel and the latest revenue and expense report from Reid Golf Course. 

Tuesday, 07/21/2026

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

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

Wednesday, 07/22/2026

City Plan Commission - 3:30pm  This meeting has been cancelled.

Community Development Committee - 4:30pm  This meeting has been cancelled.  Apparently since the majority of the council approved the Thrivent TID last week — much to this alderman’s dismay — there’s not much more for this committee to do at this time.  

Of note: The Thrivent TID/TIF still requires one more level of approval from the Outagamie County Joint Review Board.  This is a board made up of representatives from each of the taxing entities which will be impacted by the TID and incremental financing (the County, Appleton Area School District, Fox Valley Tech, etc).  They will meet on Thursday, July 30th, at noon in the council chambers if you are interested in the ultimate fate of taxpayer assistance to a multi-billion dollar private company.  

Safety and Licensing Committee - 5:30pm  This committee, though, is always busy.  They will first hear from a liquor licensee with demerit points totaling 160 (where 150 points and above requires license suspension unless one of the demerit incidences is serving alcohol to a minor).  The latest violation is, of course, for serving alcohol to a minor.  The licensee will be asked to show the committee how the establishment will work to avoid future violations.  

Then come the items up for discussion and voting by this committee:

• The city sealer’s request to deny a commercial solicitation license for Fox Pest Control.  This operation has been operating (door-to-door soliciting) for months without a license in the City of Appleton and has incurred several complaints from Appleton residents.  A reminder to all of you, Neighbors: If you answer your door for a commercial solicitation, always require that the person soliciting show a copy of his/her City of Appleton commercial solicitation license.  They cannot legally sell door-to-door without one!  Also note that you can always post a “No Soliciting” sign on your front door and it must be honored by licensed solicitors.
• Likely the item to garner the most attention and discussion: The referred-back resolution regarding public oversight of all automated license plate readers (ALPRs) and related mass surveillance technologies in the city.  I appreciate the work that went into the writing of this resolution.  But I also recognize that this is a currently sensitive issue with many Appletonians.  I expect that there will be a number of amendments to this resolution presented at this committee meeting.  I look forward to seeing which of them will be approved by this committee and come forward to the next council meeting.  When I know more, I will write more about it (likely in the next alderman blog post if this resolution comes out of committee this week and to the full council next week).  But in the meantime, please share with me your thoughts on the usage of ALPRs in the city (not including Flock brand as they have serious data issues that we Appletonians obviously cannot accept).  
• A schedule of deposits policy update.  This is a proposed update to the fees and fines for municipal code violations in the city.  
• Various and sundry other license and premises amendments for approval.

Information items on this committee’s agenda include the mid-year report for the Appleton Police Department and the Legal and Administrative Services Department. 

Human Resources and Information Technology Committee - 6:30pm  This committee, which has not met for quite some time, has two organizational chart change requests on their agenda this week.  One is for the Utilities Department and it is a job title and description change which will require no additional salary dollars.  The other is the addition of a new position with a corresponding elimination of another in the Community Development Department.  This one will require some additional salary dollars due to the new position being created one salary grade above the position to be eliminated.  The department has some unused salary dollars to support this change in this budget year; but future budgets will require a bit more in salary dollars to support the requested change. 

And to wrap up this week, both department heads (the Human Resources Director and the IT Director) will each present their mid-year departmental reports to this committee.

If you read anything here that is of concern to you, please reach out and let me know.  I am always happy to hear from you, Neighbors! 

I hope that you enjoy your week and that no weird weather adversely impacts us (as it sometimes does this time of the summer).  Please join me back here again next week (hopefully back on a Sunday as that’s the day you’ve become accustomed to seeing an alderman blog post).