On 05/26/2022 from 6PM to 7:30PM at Wilson Middle School, the City of Appleton is holding a Neighborhood Program Spring Meeting. Participants must reside in a neighborhood registered through the city’s Neighborhood Program.
You can learn more about the Neighborhood Program and view a map of the registered neighborhoods here: https://www.appleton.org/residents/neighborhood-program. [Sidenote: the picture on the webpage for the Neighborhood Program is of a street that is not located in one of the areas participating in the neighborhood program.]
During the 05/11/2022 Community and Economic Development Committee meeting, they discussed this meeting as an information item.
Economic Development Specialist Matt Rehbein told the committee that they hold neighborhood meetings twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall. The speaker at the upcoming meeting on 05/26/2022 was going to be Appleton Area School District Chief Financial Officer and future Superintendent Greg Hartjes. He was going to be speaking to neighborhood leaders about the upcoming referendum. Part of the reason that it was being held at Wilson was so that they could showcase one of the schools that they were proposing significant improvements and changes to.
Mr. Hartjes’ presentation would be the first part of the meeting.
The second part of the meeting would be what the city always does with the neighborhood meetings which is that they would have the neighborhood leaders share the neighborhood building practices they have been working on. He said that in some neighborhoods those practices were very robust and engaging and in other neighborhoods it was more along the lines of sending a newsletter out of having a Facebook page. He said the difference was nice because not every neighborhood had the same level of engagement and availability of time amongst residents. In the meeting, they would share what they were doing, share some successes, share best practices, and encourage communication among leaders.
Alderperson Maiyoua Thao (District 7) thanked him and another city staff member for their work on this. She had just learned more about the Neighborhood Program and thought it was beneficial. She had signed up to attend the meeting and was working with two areas in her district to enact the program in those places.
Alderperson Kristin Alfheim (District 11) said she attended the meeting last year virtually. She was not sure people realized how important it was to get the energy of a neighborhood going in a positive way. She liked that neighbors themselves were taking ownership of that without the city haven’t to do things. She thought perhaps eventually they could have a coordinated effort where each weekend something would happen in a neighborhood that would be featured by the city.
Director of Community and Economic Development Karen Harkness noted that one of the things they discussed when they put in place the registered neighborhoods was that it was not City Hall’s place to define the neighborhoods and their geographical boundaries. Rather, the neighborhoods needed to define themselves because they were the experts.
Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) asked if notice of this meeting would be available though City Hall’s Facebook page or something.
Director Harkness answered that it went out to all the alderpersons and to all of the registered neighborhoods. They also did a press release with the Communications Coordinator, and press releases usually end up on Facebook.
Alderperson Vaya Jones (District 10) asked if the meeting was just for those who were neighborhood program leaders or for the residents as well.
Matt answered that it was geared toward the neighborhood leaders. The idea was that the neighborhood leaders could then distribute information to their residents. However, if someone showed up who wasn’t a leader they would not be turned away, but the idea was that the audience would be the neighborhood leaders because they were best positioned to participate in the discussion about planning and managing neighborhood events.
Meeting details here: https://www.appleton.org/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/17486/20
Learn more about the Neighborhood Program here: https://www.appleton.org/residents/neighborhood-program
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