The Appleton Common Council met 06/01/2022. One of the items they took up was Resolution 6-R-22, the Soldier’s Square Resolution. The resolution was recommended for denial twice by the Municipal Services Committee, and the Common Council ended up also denying it by a narrow 6-8 vote. Although it was denied, even some of the alderpersons who voted against it expressed support for the overall project and the private fundraising efforts.
This resolution has had a somewhat protracted committee journey since it was originally introduced.
- At the 04/25/2022 Municipal Services Committee meeting, the committee reviewed 3 potential design options and voted to hold the item to give staff time to provide some cost estimates.
- At the 05/09/2022 Municipal Services Committee meeting, the committee reviewed the cost estimates and then recommended that the resolution be denied because they did not want to use city funds for the project and did not want to put an unfunded project in the city’s 5-year Capital Improvement Plan. They were, however, supportive of private fundraising efforts.
- At the 05/18/2022 Common Council meeting, Alderperson Alex Schultz (District 9) referred the item back to the Municipal Services Committee.
- At the 05/23/2022 Municipal Services Committee meeting, the committee voted again the recommend the resolution for denial after determining that denial would not interfere with the ability of private groups to fundraise or bring forward a new resolution in the future should they meet their fundraising goals.
Although the discussion about the resolution at the Common Council meeting lasted for over 20 minutes, I wouldn’t say that much was added to the previous discussions.
Alderperson Schultz, the main sponsor of the resolution, started out by asking to amend the final “Be It Further Resolved” clause of the resolution to remove the statement “and move with reasonable speed to initiate the RFP process to begin the design phase for revitalizing Soldier’s Square,” so that the final clause instead simple read, “Be It Further Resolved that the City of Appleton immediately add the ‘Revitalization of Soldiers Square’ project to the 5YR CIP.”
He explained that, because it had been established during the Municipal Service Committee meetings that any redesign of the square would be done in-house by city staff and would not involve bringing in outside firms, he wanted to make this amendment for the purpose of clarification so that when the final vote was taken it was clear that those votes weren’t based on a mischaracterization of what the resolution was attempting to do.
This amendment passed 10-4 with Alderpersons William Siebers (District 1), Kristine Alfheim (District 11), Chris Croatt (District 14), and Chad Doran (District 15) voting no.
Alderperson Schultz also requested a “Notwithstanding” vote which essentially meant that an “aye” vote would be to pass the resolution and a “nay” vote would be to deny the resolution even though those votes would typically have been reversed due to the recommendation from the Municipal Services Committee to deny the resolution.
Alderperson Israel Del Toro (District 4) who was the other sponsor of the resolution said revitalizing Soldier’s Square was a way to make sure Appleton’s veterans were respected and adding the project to the city’s 5-year CIP was something that was important to stakeholders. Adding it to the CIP would show those groups respect and indicate that the city stands behind them.
Alderperson Denise Fenton (District 6) said she was going to reluctantly vote against the resolution. It broke her heart to walk through a memorial to Appleton’s veterans that was in the middle of the parking lot, but there was no funding for the project. She was going to work as hard as she could as a private citizen to help with the private fundraising effort and hoped that the Soldier’s Square revitalization project could be brought back in the future once private funds were available as had happened with the pickleball complex at Telulah Park.
Alderperson Schultz said that in 2019 the Council had passed a resolution (Resolution 5-R-19) which asked for future consideration to be given to revamping Soldier’s Square when the parking ramp area underwent reconstruction. At the time, they had thought that when that happened, an opportunity would be present to redesign Soldier’s Square. Since that resolution was passed nothing came from conversations regarding the space primarily because the square was usable in its current and didn’t need to be redone at this current point in time. As a result, they brought forth the current resolution 6-R-22 because the action that they had thought might happen right now when the parking ramp was being reconstructed were not happening.
He said that even if the resolution was denied the project would be brought back again, and he was confident that the people pushing for this project would have significant funding as well as some solutions to the challenges with parking. “So, I’m confident we’ll be back. It’s really a question of whether we direct the city to add it now and look at that the funding later or if we wait and do it in a few months and we have the conversations all over again.” He encouraged them to not let this project disappear from their minds.
Alderperson Kristin Alfheim (District 11) said that the previous resolution had promised a discussion, and this was that discussion, so she did not feel the city wasn’t fulfilling the previous resolution. She thought they had to trust the staff and their recommendations, and when the staff was telling them that doing a project made no sense because what was currently there was in too good of shape to tear up, they should take that seriously. She didn’t think it was right to tear up the Square because it was in good shape and the city was currently fighting for dollars to fund infrastructure projects. As much as she would love to revitalize the square, doing that now would require them to take a different project out of the CIP. She hoped they’d be able to do something with the square in the future.
Alderperson Vaya Jones (District 10) said she reached out to her constituents. Of the feedback she received, there were no “no’s”, a majority didn’t really care, and the few people who support it were wildly passionate about it. She did want to respect the opinion of staff, but she had to represent her constituents and they had told her they wanted her to support it so she would be supporting it.
Alderperson Vered Meltzer (District 2) said there were very passionate people who really wanted the project to happen. If the city put this project in the CIP right now, they would be providing a placeholder for that passion to have a path forward. Although there were understandable concerns about putting something in the 5 Year CIP for which there was no funding, there were community members who wanted to fund the project and adding it to the CIP would make doing that accessible to them.
Alderperson Schultz pushed back against Alderperson Alfheim’s comments. The conversation had been around the utilitarian use of the space it is currently exists. However, although it was functioning properly as a back alley, parking lot, service corridor, and dumpster station, it was not functioning well as a memorial plaza in the heart of the city to remember veterans which is what it had originally been designed to be and what Amos Lawrence had intended for it to be. He thought they needed to do something to recapture some of that original purpose and that adding it to the 5 Year CIP with no funding as a placeholder was a way to give momentum to push the project forward. He understood that funding was an issue, but he was extremely confident that the square could end up like the pickleball court where the project was entirely funded by private dollars. [It should be noted that the pickleball complex did end up costing more than the $500,000 that had been donated and the city ended up having to shell out some of its own funds for it.]
Mayor Woodford stepped in with some clarification about philanthropic supported projected and the process of how that worked. In the case of the pickleball complex, a pickleball court had originally been identified as desired project by the Parks and Recreation department based on community input; however, due to budget constraints it was not on the short list of projects the city would get to. They got in touch with a potential donor who had generously supported lots of different efforts and initiatives across Appleton and the Fox Cities. Once the donor and funding were identified then the project was moved into the Capital Improvement Plan. Prior to funding being identified, they had not put it in the CIP and an unfunded project. Appleton was blessed to have generous donors in the community who were willing to support projects, and he was confident that there were folks in the community who would support a revitalization of Soldier’s Square.
[Side note: I thought a huge driving factor behind big donations was so that the donor could get their name on buildings etc and be recognized in the community. As a result, I thought it was kind of funny that nobody mentioned the name of the donor in question. For the record, Mary Beth Nienhaus was the person who provided $500,000 toward the pickleball complex in Telulah Park.]
Alderperson Katie Van Zeeland (District 5) said that when she voted for Resolution 5-R-19 in 2019, part of what was brought up in that discussion was a promise of fundraising. Not seeing that fundraising was a problem for her. She understood that some of those issues had been resolved and there was a group that was now pursuing fundraising, but she was going to vote against this resolution because the lack of fundraising didn’t reflect what she thought was going to happen when they voted for the first Soldier’s Square resolution in 2019.
Alderperson Nate Wolff (District 12) said that regardless of how the vote went he thought that having the conversation helped the effort regarding the Soldier’s Square project.
Alderperson Alfheim thought it would make more sense to bring forward a resolution in the future, perhaps one that asked the city to pursue private donors as happened in the pickleball court situation. She believed the funding had to exist first in order to move forward with a project. She didn’t think anybody was saying they don’t want a Soldier’s Square project done. It was just a matter of using the proper process to accomplish it. If the city could help orchestrate that process that would be beneficial and perhaps, they would end up with what they all wanted which was to not tax the 5 Year CIP budget but still find funds so they can return the area to a more respectful atmosphere.
Alderperson Maiyoua Thao (District 7) said she was very proud of Alderperson Schultz and really respected him. She appreciated the hard work he had put into the Soldier’s Square project. She also thought that it was important to have the funding in place before moving forward with the project, but she didn’t want Alderperson Schultz to give up. She would be happy to support a future effort if the funding was available.
Alderperson Schultz said that a fundraising endeavor had been started in 2019 shortly after Resolution 5-R-19 had been passed, but it had not been put full speed ahead because of all the unknowns. They didn’t know what was going to happen in that space, so they let donations kind of trickle in. To date Every Soldier’s Square project had sold 500 pavers at $40 a piece [which works out to $20,000, which is less than 1/10th of the cost of the long-term, ultimate design option that had been discussed during the committee meetings.] Funds had been raised but it had not been an active endeavor because, for 3 years they didn’t know what was going to happen in that area or if a project was going to go forward.
Regarding the pickleball court, he pointed out that the pickleball complex had been identified as a need and the city then found a partner to make it happen. By contrast, right now the revitalization of Soldier’s Square was not identified as a need by the city even though some community members saw it as a need and were very passionate about rectifying history. He didn’t fault Council members or staff members for saying that this was not the way the city typically did things and he acknowledged it was a strange situation to try to move forward on a city project that wasn’t a priority for the city but was a priority for the citizens. “We’re gonna figure out how to do this, and the funding will surface.” When that happened, they would be back. “I appreciate everybody’s comments and support and I know you’re all backing the notion that we want to support our veterans.”
There was no further discussion and the Council went on to vote 6-8 to deny the resolution.
Those voting in favor of the resolution were Alderpersons Meltzer, del Toro, Joss Thyssen (District 8) Schultz, Jones, and Wolff.
Those voting against were Alderperson William Siebers (District 1), Brad Firkus (District 3), Van Zeeland, Fenton, Thao, Alfheim, Christopher Croatt (District 14) and Chad Doran (District 15).
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=964880&GUID=33504F12-B5EB-45EA-B60F-29CFA54A0CD4
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