The Municipal Services Committee met 10/10/2022. Although City Hall had indicated on its Facebook page that the meetings this week would not be streamed or recorded, it turns out that audio is available at least for some of them.
The Municipal Services Committee meeting was brief clocking in at under 10 minutes.
The committee voted to hold the street terrace policy modifications until 10/24/2022. This was done at the request of city staff. The committee had discussed this back on 09/12/2022 and eventually decided to hold it until 10/10/2022 to give staff more time to work on clarifying the language of the policy, but staff was not quite ready with their modifications, hence the further 2 week hold.
A staff member told them they were close to completion. They were working on reformatting the policy so that it was easier to read, but they had also had several internal discussions on “sight distance” issues. [Honestly, I don’t know what was being referred to by that.] They were confident that they would be ready to present the policy to the committee in two weeks. Director of Public Works Danielle Block had particularly wanted to be available for that discussion, but she had not been able to make the 10/10 meeting.
The committee also voted to approve the reconstruction of Rankin Street from 200 feet south of Alton Street to College Avenue. The plan which they approved had been modified somewhat from the plan that had been brought before them 2 weeks earlier during the Public Hearing for the project. Perhaps it’s editorializing a little to describe this as “shocking”, however, I think it’s fitting.…Shockingly, residents along that street had appeared at the meeting on 9/26/2022 and requested that their street be narrowed more than the original plan had called for. I can’t say I’ve ever seen that before; residents typically want their streets wider than any given reconstruction plan calls for. Less shocking, the residents had also wanted to preserve some of the trees that had been slated to be taken down.
The updated reconstruction plan had been able to accommodate both of those requests.
The committee also received the September Bird E-Scooter Report.
Although not a member of the committee, Alderperson Vered Meltzer (District 2) was in attendance and asked when the item regarding whether or not to renew the Bird E-Scooter program would come before the committee for a vote.
City staff did not have a specific date, but it was definitely something that would occur prior to the end of the year. The current plan was for the scooters to be removed before the “Santa Parade” [I’m assuming that was a reference to the Christmas Parade.]
Prior to the scooters’ removal, staff would start discussions with Bird regarding a new agreement. Currently, staff’s plan was to bring another one-year agreement forward to the committee and Council, but, if the committee or Council preferred to enter into a longer-term arrangement, that could be discussed as well.
View full meeting details and audio here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=983001&GUID=5539890D-BE5E-449B-8007-BABB59C12BA3
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