The Common Council is meeting 08/20/2025 at 7PM.
They had a full slate of committee meetings last week, most of which I did not recap because I was on vacation. In briefly reviewing the videos, it appears that most meetings were fairly short and there was not a lot of discussion on most items before committee.
One item that can be expected to be separated out for an individual vote is the design for the reconstruction of Oklahoma Street. The street is currently 32 feet wide with parking on both sides. City staff is requesting approval to reconstruct the street at only 26 feet wide and remove parking on one side. The neighbors submitted a petition signed by almost 50 residents requesting that the street be reconstructed at 32 feet wide and parking to be maintained on both sides even though this will result in the loss of 13 trees that could otherwise be saved. During the 08/11/2025 Municipal Services Committee meeting, the committee voted to amend the design to maintain the 32-foot width; however, it then failed to recommend the amended design for approval. Given the strong feelings neighbors have about the item as well as the strange way it came out of committee, it is basically guaranteed to be separated out for an individual vote.
Another item I could see being separated out for an individual vote is the approval of a labor agreement with the firefighter’s union for 2026-2028. This item was not contentious, but it could be separated out as a way of highlighting the new agreement.
Additionally, the Mead Pool recoating and ADA upgrades project which has been put off for a number of years was recommended for approval by the Finance Committee, but its costs were higher than expected and it will, in part, need to paid for by putting off a Veteran’s Memorial Park parking lot pavement project and transferring that money to the Mead Pool project. This was, again, not a contentious item, but I could see it being separated out for an individual vote in order to highlight some of the financial and logistical considerations that went into the decision.
View full meeting details here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1328001&GUID=12824D44-7AC7-4861-BA69-311C377EBDED
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