What you may not know: Week of September 5

Hopefully everyone is back from a safe and happy holiday weekend. The Appleton Common Council will hold our regularly scheduled meeting this Wednesday, and here are some of the highlights from our agenda:

2018 Special Assessments

As I mentioned in my last update, work continues to establish a policy for special assessments for the city's street and utility work for next year. Special assessments for street reconstructions were eliminated when the city's Vehicle Registration Fee (aka "Wheel Tax") was implemented three years ago, but assessments and the related policies remain for the construction of new streets and underground utility work.

Two weeks ago the Finance Committee voted unanimously to approve a proposal that includes one significant change related to homes located on commercially zoned property. Those properties will now be treated the same as R2 (multifamily) properties in regards to assessments. This change was made in response to issues experienced along N. Fair Street following last year's assessments.

Library Process

Also last week the Finance Committee voted unanimously to recommend approval of a request for the Appleton Public Library to proceed with work on a Request For Proposals (RFP) for a future mixed-use library. Assuming council votes to proceed with this process, we are expected to see and vote to approve the final RFP before it goes out.

Southside Regional Park

A proposed regional park for an underserved area of the city on the south side has been in discussion for a long time but, for a variety of reasons, has never quite come to fruition. The process of rectifying that issue took a step forward two weeks ago when the Parks & Recreation Committee voted to recommend that staff begin negotiations with property owners to attempt to acquire space for the proposed park. As noted in Madeleine Behr's Post Crescent story, any final agreement or decision to purchase land would require another council vote to approve. However, this represents real progress on a longstanding issue for the first time in a long time and I'm excited to see it moving forward.

You can see all of this week's meeting agendas 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.