The Board of Health met 10/13/2021.
They received a presentation from Jennifer Parsons of Samaritan Counseling Center of the Fox Valley regarding the Wellness Screen Program. Either Jennifer’s microphone was not working or she wasn’t speaking directly into it because a third of her presentation was not captured by the video. It sounded like the same program that they’ve presented to the Appleton Area School District Board of Education.
After that presentation, they moved on to the other items on the agenda.
The first item was the Weights and Measures Fee Increase Proposal
City staffer Eric Maggio reviewed the changes that were laid out in the memo to the committee. This year they decided to update the gas pumps and vehicle tank meter feeds. They have not updated those feeds for a few years. Their current petroleum pump fee is $20. The average fee in the state and neighboring communities is $34.40. Staff is recommending increasing Appleton’s fee by $2 to $22. He noted that Appleton has 870 pumps.
Staff is also recommending increasing the vehicle tank meter fee from $40 to $45. The average fee in other communities is $81. Appleton has 110 devices.
He said that the city cannot make any money on this program and raising our fees to be comparable to other cities would take us well over what Appleton needs for the program. They worked with the Finance Department to determine how much time and money the program takes as well as their equipment calibration costs. They also check what the consumer price index is showing for increases this year and they decided to go up by 3.7%
Board member Dr. Lee Vogel wanted to confirmed that the fee increases they were proposing would cover the expense of the program.
Eric stated that it would.
Committee Chair Cathy Spears wanted to know if the committee needed to take action on the item. It was listed as an information item, but she believed that in the past they did need to vote on these changes. She wondered what procedural steps they should take.
Eventually the attorney recommended that if they needed to vote on it they could bring it back on a future agenda as an action item.
Chairperson Spears reiterated that the program is self-funding and she also noted that Appleton can provide these services at a lower cost for the people within the Consortium. She then asked Eric to give an update on the consortium.
Eric reported that back in April he was contacted by the city of Neenah who asked Appleton to take over their Weights and Measures Program. He has been working for Appleton for almost 15 years and during that time Neenah has had 7 or 8 city sealers. Neenah’s program has not been as large as Appleton’s so they have split that position between a meter person who goes around and checks meters in addition to handling weights and measures. It’s been a difficult position to fill. When their most recent sealer left, Neenah contacted Appleton and asked them to take over their weights and measure program. Appleton had conducted a survey of Neenah back in 2012 or 2013 and not much has changed in that time.
Chairperson Spears asked if they could absorb that workload with current staffing levels or would they need to add staff?
Eric answered that he would not have to add staff. A positive that came out of the pandemic was that they were able to streamline a lot of processes. When the pandemic started, they were doing weights and measures and also helping with contact tracing. They decided to change how they set up their schedules, and the city having Microsoft Teams has also been made life easier for them. He added that a new staff member came on board last year and has taken on a lot of tasks that had been pushed onto Eric after Act 10 was passed and the city lost a lot of administrative staff.
He reiterated that they have the staff and time to do this. He lives in Neenah so it will be a special point of pride for him.
Mayor Woodford wanted to highlight was a great program it is. There is a lot of talk in the Fox Cities of looking for ways for local governments to collaborate and share resources and services across municipal boundaries. This is one way the Fox Cities and Appleton is doing that. He was very grateful to Eric and his team for the work they are doing and was glad that there was another member in the consortium.
Chairperson Spears asked how Appleton’s wages compared to those in other communities for the position of sealer. She was wondering if Appleton might lose staff as time goes on or if wages were at market value.
Eric said he would have to find that information for her because he didn’t know if off the top of his head. He noted that there have been a lot of changes within the State’s weights and measures program over the last few years as well as in various municipalities. Obviously, the city of Neenah just contract their program out to Appleton. The amount of people he could compare himself to was thinning.
Chairperson Spears said that was her concern moving forward. They had to be nimble with that type of information in order to maintain and retain good staff.
Mayor Woodford said that the Human Resources Department regularly works with Appleton’s departments and divisions on matters of compensation and this is certainly an area of focus for the city, particularly in an inflationary environment where the cost of doing business is increasing. They definitely pay close attention to that.
They then moved onto the Covid-19 Update. Honestly, there wasn’t a lot of new information. Emergency Management Coordinator Cassidy Walsh reviewed the various numbers. Appleton is still in the “Very High” category for burden.
There were pleas for people follow mitigation strategies such as masking, maintaining a 6-foot distance, and getting vaccinated.
There were no updates on the percentage of breakthrough cases.
Dr. Vogel cautioned people against seeking to acquire natural immunity through infection.
There was worry about the number of hospitalizations, but Dr. Vogel stated she thought hospitalizations peaked a little over a week prior to the meeting. But the hospitals were still stressed. She noted that in Wisconsin only 0.5 per 100,000 children were hospitalized with Covid, but even that 0.0005% chance of hospitalization for children concerned her because she views this a preventable illness.
Cassidy reviewed the fact that the city has a testing and vaccination facility at the former Best Buy at 2411 S. Kensington Drive. They provide PCR testing from 9-5 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. They only provide vaccinations on Thursdays from 9AM-12PM and 1PM-5PM and on Fridays from 7AM-12PM.
There are currently no plans to provide mass vaccination clinics like they did last year but if the need arises, they would be able to start those up again.
View full meeting details here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=879510&GUID=AC7D793E-2EE6-422E-A4CF-067E24636408
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