The Parks and Recreation Committee met 06/06/2022. During the meeting they received an update on various ongoing/upcoming park projects. Director of Parks, Recreation, and Facilities Dean Gazza told the committee that a lot of these items go through the Finance Committee because there are contractor bids that need to be approved, but he thought it was important from time to time to update the Parks and Recreation Committee on these things also.
ELLEN KORT PEACE PARK – They were going to construct a trail to connect Jones Park to Ellen Kort Peace Park and eventually to Vulcan Heritage Park. The project was anticipated to begin around June 9th and would hopefully be completed in August.
There was a retaining wall and WE Energies fence along Water Street that didn’t look very attractive. The fence was going to be taken down, the wall removed, and everything levelled off. That would make the park much more accessible and usable as a park.
Last year they had budgeted to build a bridge across the river from Ellen Kort Park to Pullmans, but they hadn’t been able to move forward on that because Neenah Paper, which owned the rights to the waterway, was in the process of selling their property there and did not want to sign off on any project at that time.
The city still had a $500,000 commitment for that bridge from the David L. and Rita E. Nelson Family Fund within the Community Foundation. They also had $300,000 from the county on standby. That was $800,000 available, so he hoped that they would be able to complete that project once they received approval.
Alderperson Alex Schultz (District 9) asked if there were any updates on the ownership of the Neenah Paper property.
Director Gazza responded that the only thing he had heard was that the ownership should transfer sometime this fall. His understanding was that the company that was buying the property had some connection to Neenah Paper, so he hoped that would make it easier for the city to get approval to build the bridge.
THE WE ENERGIES TRAIL (PHASE ONE) – Phase one was intended to run from Oneida Street to Lake Park Drive. The city held an open house the week before the meeting which 30-35 people attended a lot of whom were couples. There were probably about 185 homes in that area, so representatives from around 15 properties came to the meeting mostly to voice their displeasure at having a trail in their backyard, although there were 3 or 4 people who were very supportive of a trail being built.
He said they took time to listen to the residents’ concerns which included worry about theft and troublemaking. He did, however, note that unlike with trails in other parts of the city where the trail runs directly against the lot line, in this situation there was a 100-foot corridor between properties and the city would be taking about 12 feet of that to build a trail. So, most properties would still have up to 40 feet of natural grass between the end of their property line and the edge of the paved trail, although due to topography and having to move around the utility poles, the trail would end up closer to some properties than others.
Director Gazza told the committee that he had never convinced a person before a trail was built that concerns about trouble would not be born out. He mentioned that residents by Highview Trail had similar concerns which did not materialize. In the case of the WE Energies trail, currently kids run around there and ride motor bikes back there. A homeowner reported that people were having things stole. But, when an actual trail is installed and the area cleaned up, people who are thinking about stealing things go elsewhere because the area becomes too visible and there are too many other people on the trail. Generally, if one were to take a stroll on one of Appleton’s trails, it would be rare to see somebody engaging in suspicious or illegal activity. Instead, families are out for strolls and riding their bikes. He noted that the city doesn’t get complaints anymore from the Highview Trail area and that was true with some of the other trails as well.
Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) asked if there would be lighting on the trail.
Director Gazza answered that WE Energies would not allow them to install lighting. During the community feedback session, someone had asked if it would be possible to put restricted hours on the trail, given than there would be no lighting. The question was also asked if the city could build a fence along the trail, but that would be prohibitively expensive for the city to do.
There were also concerns about irrigation, but Director Gazza said the design would actually improve irrigation because currently there was none back there. Residents also wondered if they would be allowed to plant trees. Director Gazza said that WE Energies allows sumacs to be planted on their property because they only grow to a certain height. He thought some of those things would ease people’s concerns.
The city still had to submit a report to the DNR, and that report had to include every comment that was provided to the project consultant, negative or positive. When the report was finalized later in the year, it would be brought back and shared with the committee.
Alderperson Schultz asked when the next public hearing for the project would be. Would there be one before the city received something from the design firm?
Director Gazza responded that there wasn’t a meeting scheduled at this point. They anticipated the next time for public input would be closer to budget time because, if the city needed to budget design dollars for 2023, then they would need to make sure that people knew the project was out there so that they could come and speak for or against it. There was, however, a change that dollars would not be requested until 2024 in order to line up with a grant the city had been awarded. That grant had been for $500,000, and the city would have to come up with an estimated $700,000 in additional funds. Director Gazza noted that a private company had reached out to the city. That company had a strong interest in naming rights and creating some sustainability enhancements on each side of the trail that promoted more pollination. So, it was possible that the trail would be 100% funded by non-city entities.
Alderperson Schultz said that the Pollenablers organization wanted to develop a memorandum as well. He wondered if it would be appropriate to get some feedback from that organization prior to the next public hearing.
Director Gazza said definitely. The consultant the city was working with had mentioned that one of the outcomes of the project was to bring in the Pollinablers and do plantings. Right now, some of the property owners were mowing all the way up to the WE Energies towers. He noted that one of the things residents had expressed was a desire that the area would be enhanced in such a way that it looked nice. Currently WE Energies doesn’t do a good job of maintaining the property. At one point they had said they would come out and cut it 5 times a year, but at most they have been cutting it two times a year. If the trail was installed, the city would be required to take over the maintenance alongside of the trail. So, he thought the standard of care would increase because of that. The city wouldn’t do anything more than what they do on any other trail, but at least they would mow each side of it so that it looked neat. They would also have benches and waste containers along the trail.
LUTZ PARK SHORELINE REDEVELOPEMENT AND TRAIL DESIGN – A Request For Proposal (RFP) would be sent out in mid-June because the city wanted to hire a consultant to complete the design.
The shoreline of Lutz Park had experienced significant damage and continues to wash into the waterway, so this has been on the city’s radar for a while. They hoped construction would begin next year. They also wanted to install a trail to go to the park. [It wasn’t clear to me what this trail was and if it was going to connect Lutz Park with Pierce Park or go someplace else.]
They were also hopeful that they would be able to solve the geese problem. Right now, there was nothing stopping the geese from coming up into the park from the water. It was likely that there would be a significant barrier of stone installed similar to what the DNR had required the Appleton Yacht Club to do because geese don’t like coming up over that.
He said the city had tried everything to deal with the geese. Year ago, before his time, they had hired a dog that would be brought in a van. They would open the door and the dog would run out and chase the geese which would run away like crazy.
Alderperson Nate Wolff (District 10) joked that they could make that happen for free. All it would take was a memo telling people to bring their dogs to a certain spot.
Director Gazza went on to explain that the geese got so smart that they could hear the van coming and started to take off before the van could open the door.
The city had also tried using a spray that was visible to geese but not humans. The geese would land on it and eat it and it would burn or irritate their throats. The hope was that they would move to a different place to find food.
They also tried oiling the eggs so that they couldn’t hatch. That was what the DNR recommended. However, it was difficult to find enough eggs to make that a worthwhile practice.
Finally, the DNR had been holding geese round up where they gather up a hundred geese and taken them away to a “very special place” where they could be “more comfortable”. The entire committee burst into laughter at that and make jokes about the geese living out their days in happiness at a farm up state.
Even with all those different efforts, the city still wasn’t winning against the geese.
He also said the Yacht Club was planning to dredge the area of the river where the boat slips are located. They had thought that with projects happening upstream that there was dirt and sand washing into that area; however, they hired somebody to take a look at what was happening there and it was discovered that there was a buildup of zebra mussels. The buildup was so high that boats couldn’t even get in because there was less than two feet of water out in the river.
Alderperson Schultz asked how many feet of zebra mussels there were. Director Gazza wasn’t sure, but said it had to be significant and would be several feet.
EINSTEIN PARK – The city demolished the existing restroom building which was in poor condition. The demolition was completed in-house which saved the city significant money. The city and the Appleton Area School District were jointly replacing a parking lot that serves the school and the park. Construction was scheduled to begin June 20th.
He noted that Einstein was the only neighborhood park that had a parking lot. Every other neighborhood park only had on street parking. Half of the parking lot belongs to the city and half to the school district. When it came time to replace it, the city indicated that they didn’t need it, but it did provide some benefit because of the baseball diamond at the park, so the city was willing to contribute some money, but only $50,000 of the over $200,000 cost to repave it.
PIERCE PARK – The project there was being finalized. Once they pulled out about a week after the meeting, the grass would hopefully be able to take off. There had been huge improvements to the walkways and trail in the park, and the parking lot had been replaced.
PICKLEBALL COURT – Excavation happened the week prior to the meeting. Unfortunately, the soil wasn’t as good as they had anticipated so they had to over-excavate, but that was just something they had to deal with as part of the project.
Alderperson Schultz asked if the problem was the soil aggregate itself or if there was something in the soil that had to be remediated.
Director Gazza answered that it was the thickness of the topsoil. It was too thick so they had to remove more than they had expected and then had to bring in some crushed stone and put down some fabric. The court was expected to last 20 years, so it had to have a substantial base which would hopefully prevent a little bird bath from forming in the middle, although that always happened to some degree in our climate.
He went on to say that when it was ready to open, Mary Beth Nienhaus, the donor who supplied to funds to build the pickleball court, wanted to hold a significant grand opening community event and have several people that she knew provide free instruction on how to play pickleball.
He said there were some local representatives that also wanted to showcase the court because they knew it would be something of a regional draw. It would be the only 8 court, lighted pickleball complex in the area. While there were 8 courts elsewhere, those were not lighted.
Alderperson Schultz said they should do an aldermanic pickleball playoff, which Alderperson Hartzheim immediately expressed interest in. Director Gazza joked that they could do that for the next election, and Alderperson Israel Del Toro (District 4) joked they could do that if there needed to be a tie-breaker.
[All in all, it was a very wholesome meeting, and I left it feeling like the Lutz Park and the pickleball court updates both had a serious small midwestern town feeling to them. I mean, the ongoing battle with the geese (particularly city employees setting a dog loose on them), the 2 feet of zebra mussels, and a potential aldermanic pickleball tournament all had serious “Waiting For Guffman” vibes.]
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=978107&GUID=69EB25F7-88A5-4E96-90D7-044683247FE0
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