The Notes: Week of September 7 - September 11, 2026

Howdy, Neighbors!  Happy holiday long weekend!  

This week is a Committee Meetings Week in City of Appleton government.  But due to the Monday holiday, there are a few cancellations.  Also, there's a special event of note on Friday, September 11, to commemorate the losses we experienced on 09/11/2001.  So see below for all of the details:

Monday, 09/07/2026

Labor Day 2026

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

Finance Committee - 5:30pm  This meeting has been cancelled. 

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

Tuesday, 09/08/2026

Library Board - Appleton Public Library Cornerstone Conference Room - 11:30am  The board will spend most of their time talking about the 2027 budget for the library.  They will discuss and look to approve a working document spreadsheet that will help to solidify the library budget as a part of the city's upcoming budget discussions (with Budget Saturday coming up on Halloween day).  

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

Utilities Committee - 4:30pm  The one action item on this committee's agenda is a request to approve the City Forester (and city's forestry department) applying to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) for a cost-share grant for urban forestry catastrophic storm projects.  Knowing how many trees were lost in the July tornado here, I support this application by the city and hope that this area receives some assistance from state DNR funds for the replacement of trees lost.  

Wednesday, 09/09/2026

Board of Health - 7am  Early-riser board members will review the latest Health Department newsletter and the Q2 Health Department report.  And the one action item for this board is the discussion and potential approval of a new resolution regarding the presence of dogs in taverns without food service.  In response to the resolution, the Board of Health will be asked to approve new administrative rules and regulations proposed by the city health department to allow dogs in non-food serving taverns.  Are you on board with this administrative change in the city?   

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

Community Development Committee - 4:30pm  This committee, too, has only one action item on the agenda.  They will look to approve an offer to purchase for some city-owned land in the Southpoint Commerce Park.  It's a full-asking-price offer; but the city counter-offered to include some verbiage in the agreement that will disallow the buyer from using the property for a data center (no size limitation noted).  Since the buyer has already agreed to this provision, I am ok with this particular approval.  But I do not like that the city is jumping ahead of itself regarding data center development in the city. 

You will recall that there is a resolution that has not yet been discussed in council regarding a moratorium on "large" data centers in the city.  I would like to hear the discussion on that resolution and have some greater discussion on what "large" means in this respect before the city jumps ahead and requests that any potential purchasers of property in the city's commerce/business park be disallowed from doing whatever they wish on that land (so long as it complies with the standard covenants and restrictions of the business park).  What are your thoughts?    

Safety and Licensing Committee - 5:30pm  In the last committee meeting of the week, this committee will take up the following:

• A demerit point violation appearance request for Home Burger Bar for dispensing alcohol to a minor.  
  
• A request to deny a bartender license for an applicant with a battery charge (with a "use of a dangerous weapon" modifier).  This offense on the applicant's record makes it impossible for the city to grant him a bartender's license and does not allow the applicant to claim "rehabilitation" for the offense.
• Potential approval of several amendments to the municipal code regarding 1) fire inspections (reducing the currently required "twice per year" to a lesser requirement of "at least once per year provided the interval between inspections does not exceed 15 months"), 2) referencing the 2024 International Fire Code (rather than the 2021 version as is currently referenced), and 3) changing the recreational fire permit process for residents (allowing a permit to be valid for 365 days from issuance rather than being a non-prorated annual permit from January 1 through December 31).
• A request to approve a renewed shared service agreement (2026 - 2029) between the Appleton Fire Department and Gold Cross Ambulance.
• Several liquor licenses and changes to the same for potential approval. 
• And a revisit to a resolution regarding oversight for the city's future Automatic Plate Reader (ALPR) and other surveillance technologies is up for further discussion since it was held in this committee in late July.  Be prepared to hear more public comment in this regard!  There are a number of proposed amendments that were submitted by Alderman Meltzer (but which were more than likely authored by a group of "interested citizens") for this resolution.  I can concur with most of these amendments.  However, I do not see a need for the last suggested clause: a moratorium on the city's acquisition of any new technologies referred to in this resolution/proposed amendments.  The resolution and all the amendments but for the moratorium clause (should they be approved) are enough to satisfy me that the city would be in a much better place to safely employ and use these technologies... which renders, in my mind, a moratorium unnecessary.  Please take a look at both documents referenced here and send me your thoughts on this important issue! 

This committee will also review the results from the most recent Appleton Police Department (APD) Community Survey.  Pages 12 and 13 are a good summary of the findings from this survey.  However, only 1,194 community members (of this community of nearly 75,000 people) took the survey (offered in late June/early July).  That's not, as you might guess, a representative sample of the community served by APD.  But please take a look at the results presentation document and let me know what you think.  

Human Resources and Information Technology Committee - 6:30pm  This meeting has been cancelled.

Friday, 09/11/2026

9/11: A Day to Remember Ceremony - American Legion Post 38, Don Hawkins Field - 5pm  It's not a city government meeting, but I thought it important to share information on this commemoration ceremony that will be presented by the Scarlet Guard with the cooperation of the City of Appleton and the Town of Grand Chute.  Please see the flyer below and consider attending this memorial: 

That will do it for this week.  I hope you've already had a great holiday long weekend and that a positive vibe continues for you through the duration of this week.  As always, I ask you to please let me know if you have any thoughts, questions, or concerns on anything contained in this blog post or anything else city-government-related.

Until next week...!