The Municipal Services Committee met 01/20/2025. It lasted just shy of 7 minutes and during that time the committee unanimously approved all 4 action items on the agenda.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
REQUEST TO ACCEPT WISCONSIN DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION SIGNALS AND ITS STANDALONE PROGRAM (SISP) GRANT IN THE AMOUNT OF $576,000 – Back in August of 2024, the committee approved a request to seek a grant to help cover the cost of a traffic signal at the Richmond Street/Ridgeview Drive intersection. The intersection is just north of Northland Avenue and south of Capitol Drive and Highway 41. Due to the expected impact on traffic caused by the expansion work on Highway 41, the state will be installing a temporary traffic signal at that intersection. The grant would help cover the cost of installing a permanent signal at that intersection.
The grant was approved so staff needed authorization from the city to accept it. Traffic Engineer Eric Lom told the committee that later on they would be coming back to the committee for approval of an inter-municipal agreement with the Town of Grand Chute related to installing and paying for the traffic signal.
He briefly outlined the timeline for the traffic signal installation, telling the committee, “So, this year, 2025, Ballard Road interchange will be closed for reconstruction, and the temporary signal will be in place at Rich—Ridgeview and Richmond. That’ll stay throughout the calendar year of 2025, and then in 2026 when Richmond Street interchange is closed for reconstruction, when the traffic is down in that area, because of that, we’re going to go ahead, take the temporary down, and build the new signal while under a four way stop condition at that time.”
APPROVE PARKING CHANGES ON EMMERS DR AND SCHAEFER ST BY EAST HIGH SCHOOL (FOLLOW-UP TO A 6-MONTH EVALUATION) – These changes include prohibiting stopping/standing/parking along part of the east side of Schaefer Street and prohibiting parking on a section of Emmers Drive. They were approved unanimously by the committee without any discussion.
APPROVE PARKING CHANGES ON LIGHTNING DRIVE BY FIRE STATION 6 (FOLLOW-UP TO A 6-MONTH EVALUATION) – These changes prohibit parking and stopping/standing/parking along various sections of Lightning Drive in order to make sure that Fire Department vehicles are able to safely pass through the area. They were approved unanimously by the committee without discussion.
APPROVE HILTON APPLETON PAPER VALLEY PERMANENT OCCUPANCY PERMIT AND SIGN PERMIT – The hotel wants to place some signs on the Superior Street skywalk indicating that public parking is available in the parking ramp.
This item was held at the last Municipal Services Committee meeting in order to give city staff an opportunity to speak with hotel staff about it. They wanted to make sure that hotel personnel were aware that the city was planning to update its downtown signage within the next year which (a) might obviate the hotel’s need to install signage and their own expense and (b) might result in the signs installed by the hotel needing to be removed only a year from now.
Director of Public Works Laura Jungwirth told the committee that she had talked to hotel staff and was told that they still wanted to proceed with the sign installation. They understood that they would granted the occupancy permit under the condition that it might be revoked depending on the results of the Parking Utility Wayfinding, Marketing, and Strategic Planning study and the signs may have to be removed at the hotels expense in the future.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1274609&GUID=F0C27E0B-56B0-4310-9AAD-5B59841CF1FC
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