What you may not know: Week of October 14

Before I start, I wanted to take a moment tonight to thank the Appleton Police Department. As I write this they're currently involved in a standoff outside a home on the south side, and have been for several hours. A gunman locked himself inside his home with two children earlier today and while the children have since been released, the situation is ongoing. This comes just days after the PD was also involved in an incident on the north side where they arrested a man who was repeatedly ramming cars.

We shouldn't need it, but this week's events have been a remarkable reminder of the dangers our officers can face while working to keep us safe. I'm monitoring reports from the scene of tonight's events and hoping for the best possible outcome: A quiet, safe resolution.

It feels secondary at this point, but the Appleton Common Council will also meet on Wednesday night, coming together early for a brief organizational meeting at 6 before our usual session at 7. This week's big topics are the same ones I wrote about last week, and all five passed committees by unanimous votes last week so they're likely to pass the full council without major incident.

You can read more about the items in last week's post, but here are the basics:

• A proposed stormwater project in the West Wisconsin neighborhood passed Utilities by unanimous vote last week. It's a potentially costly project (over $13 million) but would also greatly reduce flooding issues in that section of town.
• A new design plan for the section of Glendale Avenue between Ballard and Roemer Rd, calling for the addition of bike lanes and sidewalk on the north side of the street, also passed unanimously at Municipal Services. 
• Finally, a new mutual aid agreement for police departments across the Fox Valley was approved by the Safety & Licensing Committee. The new agreement updates several existing agreements and adds coverage from Neenah and Menasha.

Keeping you informed on issues that may impact you around the city is one of my primary goals as an alderman. Making the council's activity as accessible as possible to as many people as are interested is part of my goal to make it easier for more people to get involved with issues that matter to them.