The Common Council met 09/06/2023. In addition to the items related to the Clearwater Creek rezoning and fourth addition which took up much of the meeting, the Council voted on two other items that had been separated out from the rest of the agenda. The first was a request to install a streetlight on W Weiland Lane at the cost of $4,673. The second was a request to approve a sole source contract for $406,000 to cover two Electratherm PowerModule Organic Rankin Cycle Generators to be installed in the wastewater treatment plant. Both items were approved unanimously.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download.
The request to install a street light on W Weiland Lane seemed like a routine request. Per the memo, there was a gap in the placement of the streetlights along that street. It looked like one of the lights that should have been installed had been missed at the time the neighborhood had originally been constructed. It was approved unanimously by the Municipal Services Committee with no discussion.
At the Common Council meeting, Alderperson Nate Wolff, the alderperson for District 12 where the neighborhood was located, asked for the item to be separated out so that he could let his fellow alderpersons know that he did have one constituent object to the installation of the street light. The person whose house the light would be placed in front of did not want the light installed; however, that person did not appear in person at the Council meeting to voice their objections. The Council voted 13-0 to approve the installation of the light.
The purchase of two Electratherm Organic Rankin Cycle Generators garnered somewhat more discussion both at the Common Council meeting and at the Finance Committee meeting at which the purchase was initially approved. These generators would be installed at the wastewater treatment plant and would allow them to take the methane gas that currently collects in the biogas boilers and is flared off and utilize it as a renewable electricity source for the plant.
Alderperson Denise Fenton (District 6) separated the item out because she wanted to highlight the benefits of the purchase. She said that the project was going to generate 504,000 kilowatt hours per year which was enough energy to power 46.8 average Wisconsin homes for a year. It would also reduce the city’s biogas generation from 12.4 tons of CO2 to 0.8 tons of CO2. Additionally, she said that WE Energies would reduce its CO2 emissions by 214 tons as a result of the City of Appleton needing less power because it would be generating its own through this equipment.
The total cost of the generators was expected to cost $875,000. $498,000 of that was covered by a 2022 Public Service Commission Energy Innovation Grant and an additional $57,000 was covered by another grant. The remaining $317,263 plus a $33,000 contingency would be covered by money left over from another project. Alderperson Fenton thanked staff for getting those grants.
At the Finance Committee meeting, Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) had expressed some concerns about this being a sole source contract. At the Council meeting, Alderperson Fenton said this technology was evolving rapidly and the equipment was leading edge; however, staff did not have “a whole lot of concerns” that getting equipment from only one source would be a problem.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1114838&GUID=98D146C3-542F-4487-93F3-233C8103D43D
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