The Municipal Services Committee met 04/07/2025. Most of the meeting was taken up with discussion about the Trout Museum of Art’s request to turn two on-street parking stalls into a loading zone, but there were two other action items on the agenda, a request to award a $68,855 consulting contract to raSmith for design and construction engineering of traffic signals at Richmond Street and Ridgeview Drive and a request to approve a $62,400 contract with Star Protection and Patrol for parking ramp security services. Both items were approved unanimously.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
RICHMOND STREET AND RIDGEVIEW DRIVE TRAFFIC SIGNALS ($68,855) – The memo from city staff indicated that work on this project was scheduled to take place in 2026. Upon completion of the project the Department of Transportation would reimburse the city of 90% of the costs. The Department of Public Works requested proposals from five qualified consulting firms located in Wisconsin but raSmith was the only firm that submitted a proposal.
City staff had no comments to add the memo and the committee members did not have any questions. The item was approved 4-0.
PARKING RAMP SECURITY SERVICES ($62,400) – Star Protection and Patrol currently provides overnight security services to the city and patrols the city parking ramps from 11pm to 7am on Wednesdays through Fridays. Their current contract ends near the end of April. The city requested proposals from Star as well as two other security firms, but only received a proposal from Star.
The agreement sets a cost of $30 per hour for a total of $62,400 for one year of service and also includes the option of 4 one-year extensions with set cost per hour increases.
Deputy Direct of Public Works Pete Neuberger told the committee that Star Patrol had done good work for the city over the last two years. Staff believed their presence helped deter crime which was beneficial given that ramp usage was going to increase as more housing was built in the downtown area.
Alderperson Vered Meltzer (District 2) asked whether there were other firms that provided this service. Deputy Director Neuberger said that city staff had reached out to a company in Oshkosh as well as to a national company that had an office in Appleton. He had expected them to submit proposals, but they did not. He had not yet called them back to find out why they had opted to not submit proposals. He noted that the city had specific requirements related to third-shift work and also related to electronic logging and reporting, and he wondered if those might have deterred the other companies.
The committee voted 4-0 to approve the contract with Star Protection and Patrol.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1294102&GUID=DB620D0D-7918-45DE-8F21-0ADFCDFBBB45
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