The Parks and Recreation Committee met 09/20/2021. Committee members Joe Martin (District 4), Nate Wolff (District 12), Joe Prohaska (District 14), and Alex Schultz (District 9) were all present. Alderperson Katie Van Zeeland (District 5) was excused.
They voted on an item related to the WE Energies Trail which will go in on the south side of Appleton, reviewed the Reid Golf Course revenues, and also discussed various projects including a setback to the David and Rita Nelson bridge.
The one action item they took up was a vote to “Award Design, Engineering, and Permitting Services for the WE Energies Trail to KL Engineering for a contract amount of $134,912.58”
Parks and Recreation Director Dean Gazza was excited to bring this project to them because they had been talking about this trail for something like 20 years. It has met with some resistance in the past, but he thought they were in a different time now where people were more welcoming to the idea.
The trail project will have two phases. The first phase will go from South Oneida Street to Lake Park Road. That is what the contract they were voting on would cover. The second phase will go from Lake Park Road to Eisenhower Drive which is the area of the South Point Commerce Park which the city owns. Director Gazza said they hope that someday the trail head will be on that Eisenhower Drive end of the trail.
The city got to proposals. Direct Gazza said that they were professional service proposals as opposed to bids for which they have to take the lowest price. When they scored and rated the two proposals, they ended up picking KL Engineering even though they were slightly more expensive. This was due to the amount of experience they have dealing with the types of agencies they will have to work with as compared to the other company. The $7,000 was a small difference in cost, and it was obvious that they were the right choice.
The final project is expected to cost around $1.2 million, but Director Gazza noted that they did get a DOT TAP grant of about $516k of that, which will pay for a good portion of the project.
The design will start now and part of that process will involve working with the neighbors, doing public presentations, and getting buy-in from the public. By 2023, they can finalize the design and estimating, and in 2024 construction can happen. The DOT dictates what year the grant can be used in, and they have told Appleton the grant funding will be available in 2024.
Alderperson Martin was very excited about the project.
Alderperson Schultz was also excited both for the project in general but also because the Fox Cities Pollenablers were being asked to give some input on the design so that they could incorporate some pollinating seeding and create a space that was educational in that respect.
Alderperson Prohaska was not aware that the Pollenablers had been brought in for that, but he thought it was a fantastic idea. He asked if that was on the city’s website.
Director Gazza said it was not on the website because the project was not underway. He confirmed that they had been talking with the Pollenablers for a while to help have a natural landscape with an educational aspect. They also thought the Pollenablers would help increase the chance of getting more grant funding.
There was no further discussion and the item was approved unanimously.
The committee then moved on to the two information items.
The first information item was the Revenue and Expense report for Reid Golf Course.
Director Gazza said that as of the end of August they were at $777,357 for total revenue. That was an increase of $114,000 compared to last year and is the best year they’ve ever had thus far. He said they always have a dream of hitting a million dollars in revenue. He’s not sure they’re going to hit that this year, but they will get close. September has been a great month weather-wise and it looks like people could still be golfing into November which has happened before.
They were currently repaving the golf course parking lot. He had been concerned that that repavement project would slow business down, but that concern has not been born out. The day of the committee meeting had been a $2,000 day which was a significant day. [I was in the neighborhood earlier today and the street next to the golf course was lined with parked cars.]
Over 30,000 rounds have been played. Cart rentals are up over 2,000 as compared to last year. The driving range is up by almost 1,000 more buckets of balls as compared to last year.
Alderperson Prohaska commented that the one good thing to come out of Covid was that it pushed people outside to outdoor spaces where they could still socially distance from each other.
Alderperson Wolff asked about the state of the irrigation system and whether it was still in good shape.
Director Gazza said that because the crew took such good care of it, it was still in good shape. Normally, if you looked at the lifespan of an irrigation system, the golf course’s irrigation system would probably be near the end of its life, but they have no plans to replace it any time soon.
Alderperson Martin said the revenue numbers were shocking in a pleasing way. It was nice to see these numbers after years of planning and organizing to make Reid a city-owned course again. I have to jump in and make a few comments in reference to the numbers. He complimented the entire staff, particularly Jeff Plasschaert.
Director Gazza praised Jeff highly and said that he served both as a golf course superintendent and manager and performs both those roles at a very high level, so the city saves quite a lot of money by not having two high salaried positioned there.
They then moved on to the final information item which was the Department Project Update.
Director Gazza said there were some key projects he wanted to update them on.
The Universal Playground – They finished that construction, but there was a group of concerned individuals who felt that there were a few items on the playground that could be improved. They have worked with that group and found their recommendations to be excellent. All of those changes have been implemented except for a swing that is backordered.
The Reid Golf Course Parking Lot – That project is ahead of schedule due to the excellent weather. They may be finished with the excavation by 09/22/2021 and then next week on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday the paving could happen, and then they will be done.
Memorial Park Repaving Projects – They are currently tearing out the pathway from the Scheig Center parking lot down to the park pavilion by the pond. They will also be repairing all the concrete underneath the pavilion. They also replaced the parking lot in front of the Appleton Family Ice Center building.
Lundgaard Park – At the next Parks and Rec Committee meeting they will probably have some conceptual designs to present. Those will be based on feedback from meetings with the Fire Department, the Lundgaard family, and meetings and surveys with the neighborhood.
Soldier Square Civil War Monument – The Civil War Monument restoration has started. All the pieces that are missing will be restored and the entire work will be cleaned. They’ll also be hiring someone to fix all the grout lines on the bottom.
The David and Rita Nelson Bridge – This update was not as positive. The bridge was going to go across the Fox River near the Neenah Papers property. Neenah Papers, however, has decided to close down and sell their property. Neenah Papers essentially has control over the waterway rights where the city wants to build the bridge and the city would need for them to submit and get approval for the city to be able to build the bridge they want to build. Because Neenah Papers has decided they want to sell, they put that permitting process on hold and told the city that they will have to deal with the new owners whenever that happens to be. The city is, therefore, shifting gears and hopes to move some money over to the Ellen Kort Peace Park to complete the elevation and install a trail and lighting through the park. They only have a limited amount and they want to continue to make progress toward the master trail plan. If they’re not working on one trail, then he wanted to be working on what they were able to work on. But at least I don’t want that money to go unused. That still needed to be brought before the Finance Committee however.
Alderperson Wolff confirmed with Director Gazza that Neenah Papers was selling their building and property. He asked if they were not willing to sell the thing that Appleton wanted to buy.
Director Gazza said it wasn’t something the city could buy. Rather, they hold some sort of license or permit for the rights within that waterway. It was somewhat convoluted and complex, and he had a staff member who could explain it better. Basically, Neenah Papers owns the rights to the waterway and now that they are moving, they don’t want to modify those rights while they are in the process of selling.
Alderperson Schultz wanted to have a better understanding of what was happening with the waterway rights. He wanted to clarify that they were talking about putting the David and Rita Nelson crossing on hold and that the waterway they were talking about included the space between the flats and Pullmans.
Direct Gazza said, yes, from the Lawe Street bridge and the crossing by Pullmans. There was an island they wanted to build on. [A visual aid would have been really helpful. Looking at a map I think I know what island they’re talking about, and I did confirm on the city’s property view that that island is owned by Neenah Papers, so I’m guessing that’s the island they’re talking about, but I’m not 100% positive.]
Alderperson Schultz said he understood that there were issues with that land and it couldn’t be developed on.
Director Gazza responded that his understanding was that it is significantly contaminated so people stayed away from it.
Alderperson Schultz wondered if the city was in any position to offer to purchase that land because it probably doesn’t have a lot of a value to a developer.
Director Gazza said they haven’t discussed that.
Alderperson Martin who was chairing the meeting reminded them that they were running out of time.
Alderperson Schultz thanked Director Gazza for the update on the Ellen Kort Peace Park and on the shifting of funds. He asked if the funds that the Community Foundation had committed for the David and Rita Nelson bridge were on hold or if that would also shift to the Ellen Kort Peace Park project.
Director Gazza said that he had notified the Community Foundation of what has occurred with Neenah Papers and David Horst, the Environmental Grants Manager at Community Foundation, was going to have some further conversations. Director Gazza also submitted another grand request to the Community Foundation for funding for the Ellen Kort Peace Park, but he has not received a response back yet on that.
Alderperson Schultz also wanted to know what the schedule to put a dog park in Arbutus Park looked like.
Director Gazza could not remember where that project sat in the city’s current 5-Year Capital Improvement Plan. He said they were hoping to find a grant for that but have not been successful at this point.
There was no more discussion and the committee adjourned.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=890283&GUID=3DDBA468-7B87-47CE-9F18-C4E347917761
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