Common Council notes for the week of 4/4/22

Hello Neighbors! The Common Council is back in action this Wednesday, but the agenda is short on major topics beyond the more typical council actions. So I'll share a couple of other notes that you should be aware of. 

Spring Election

As I've shared the last few updates, the Spring Election is upon us on Tuesday. On the ballot will be Calumet County Board races, including District 5 where I am a candidate, four seats on the Appleton School Board and district Court of Appeals race. Here are the polling locations for people who live on the southside in City Council District 15 and County Board District 5.

• District 15 Appleton  - Hope Lutheran Brethren Church 415 E. Hoover Ave.
• District 5 Appleton - Prince of Peace Lutheran Church 2330 E. Calumet St. 
• District 5 Harrison - Harrison Village Hall W5298 State Rd. 114  

A sample ballot for the Spring Election on Tuesday

Bird Scooters are back 

Bird Scooters are back for a second trial run this year. Their area of use has been expanded beyond just the downtown area, to the majority of the city. Last year about 100 scooters were available for use, though not all at one time. This year about 300 are part of the trial, with no more than 200 out at once. 

A Bird scooter in Houdini Plaza downtown

Speeds were also reduced for the scooters from 15 mph down to 12mph to try and address some of the concerns on the College Ave. corridor. Bird also brough it's latest version of scooters with better GPS technology onboard and better kickstands to help lessen the chances of parked scooters tipping over in the wind.

More information on this trial is available at Appleton.org. I have already heard from a few residents voicing similar concerns to what we heard last year as the biggest complaint,  scooters being improperly parked. Please share your feedback as at the end of the year we will likely be voting on whether or not to make the scooters a permanent program in the city. 

I voted to approve pilot programs last year and this year, but I am concerned about the lingering issues from last year that I hope to see improved upon this year. I also want to see the city be able to generate some revenue for allowing the scooters in our community, beyond just recouping our costs involved with the program. That will be part of the discussion later this year. 

DPW Service Changes

As I mentioned in last week's blog as well, changes to large item overflow collection took effect April 1st. Other changes will come later this year. This chart helps explain again, the changes that the Council approved last fall. 

Information about Public Works Service changes for 2022

Infrastructure Issues

In last week's blog I wrote about my concerns over the city's growing infrastructure problem. In short, the city is falling further behind on maintaining our roads and the infrastructure underneath it. As shown in the graph below, in 2005, the City of Appleton paid the equivalent of cash for 86% of its road projects. By 2020, we borrowed for 79% of road projects. Why? Because general fund dollars (the city’s “cash”) were spent on other services instead of roads and utility infrastructure.

We all know that when we borrow money we pay it back with interest, and the city's finances are no different. Sometimes it makes sense to borrow for long-term capital projects, but that's not always the case. What's more, Appleton has reached the point that not only do we borrow for more of our road projects, we are doing fewer of them each year. This leads us down an increasingly bumpy road, in more ways than one. This is about much more than road reconstruction and will lead us to a philosophical discussion about what the city should be prioritizing with the limited dollars it has. In my mind, it's the two biggest expectations residents have and priorities ONLY the city can provide. Namely, infrastructure and public safety.

Slide from a Municipal Services presentation in fall of 2021. 

Last week I met with the mayor, Public Works Director and Deputy Public Works Director to discuss my concerns over these issues and share a proposal that I plan to bring forward soon. I am still working through the details of the proposal with the staff and will share more on that soon. 

What I can share for now though is that the meeting was productive and I think the mayor and staff shares the same concern I have. This problem started long before Mayor Woodford took office, but the borrowing trend has continued and the number of projects being done have dropped in recent years. Staff has been looking at possible solutions, but have not found one to bring forward to council. 

I will say right now that this problem is going to require some major sacrifices in other areas to get us back on top of a maintenance and replacement schedule that we should be at. One option the council will be looking at at some point is a transportation utility and related transportation utility fee. It would be replacing the wheel tax and the idea is it will generate more revenue than the wheel tax that will go specifically toward infrastructure. 

I don't believe this would be the sole solution unto itself. The problem is already too big. I also don't know if I support this option. I do support bringing this issue to the forefront so the council starts to take a hard look at how to solve this problem. My proposal will also start us down that path. Stay tuned for more on that next week. 

Get In Touch

I am always available to answer questions at district15@appleton.org or (920) 419-1360. As always, agendas can be found on the agenda and meetings page of the city website. Meetings can be viewed live on the website or watched at a later date. Meetings are also open for anyone to attend in person and all meetings take place in the Common Council chambers on the 6th floor of City Hall, unless otherwise noted.