What you may not know: Week of April 25

A new council year is underway, and this week the Appleton Common Council has its first full slate of committee meetings scheduled. This year I'm honored to be serving in the following groups:

• Chairperson of the Safety & Licensing Committee (third year on committee, second year as chair).
• Member of the Finance Committee (third year).
• Member of the Fox Cities Transit Commission (fourth year).
• Member of the City Plan Commission (second year).

I'm honored to be back in all of these roles, and grateful to the mayor and my colleagues for giving me this slate of opportunities for another year. I'm also hopeful to remain as the Finance Committee's representative on the Central Equipment Agency Review Committee. That appointment will be made this week.

This week's committee schedule includes a variety of housekeeping-type items, including electing vice chairs for each committee, setting committee schedules and the like. Beyond that, one item likely to be of some interest is on a pair of agendas:

Parks & Recreation, Monday, 6 pm
Municipal Services, Tuesday, 6:30 pm

Appleton's municipal bicycle infrastructure, mainly bike lanes, has been one of the most hotly debated topics during my 3+ years on council as we've faced challenges at every opportunity to find a way for moving cars, parked cars and bikes to share the roads and build a network of bike-friendly routes across the city. 

Some of that debate will likely come up again this week as two committees are asked to consider a resolution submitted by Alderman Joe Martin calling for the city to have a shared employee between the Parks & Recreation and Public Works departments to develop new bicycle programs, seek and apply for grants and continue work to make the city a more bike and pedestrian friendly community.

We're still in the very early stages of this conversation, so a lot would need to be ironed out in terms of how this position would work. I think it's an interesting conversation to have, though, and I'm looking forward to the discussion.

You can see agendas for all of this week's meetings and the full schedule at the city's Legistar page.

Keeping you informed on issues that may impact you around the city is one of my primary goals as an alderman. Good governance happens in the open, and I remain committed to raising awareness on the issues coming before us.