During the 12/21/2022 Common Council meeting, Mayor Woodford presented a Certificate of Appreciation to retiring Community and Economic Development Director Karen Harkness. Below is a transcription of his statement of appreciation and her acceptance speech.
Mayor Woodford: Karen E. Harkness, you became Appleton’s Director of Community and Economic Development in 2008. You are one of the few department heads in the city’s history to have first served as an alderperson, a role which you held from 1997 to 2005. Hired at the outset of the Great Recession, your work supporting the economic development and growth of the city was exceptionally complicated. Despite the circumstances of those early years, the list of transformative projects you’ve been a part of is impressive. Brownfield redevelopment, such as River Heath and Eagle Flats fostered the continued reengagement of the city with the Fox River. The Fox Cities Exhibition Center and the Champion Sports Center represent tremendous inter-municipal collaboration and provided important facilities for our communities. Industrial Park development and the Northeast Business Park and South Pointe Commerce Park have supported economic growth in the city. And your work has contributed to developments from health care to affordable housing.
During your tenure, the city has created five tax increment districts, closed three, and it’s grown significantly in equalized value. Over 280 housing rehab projects have generated more than $5.1 million in revolving loans during that time. 426 acres of land have been annexed into the city.
However, you yourself said it is not about the projects. It’s about the people, the community, the support and the impacts. Time and again, you have demonstrated your care for people. Whether it was personally assisting someone experiencing homelessness well after regular business hours, or sending a colleague a note to celebrate a milestone or mourn a loss. Your compassionate nature is a signature of your leadership. As you embark on your next chapter, you leave the city a better place than you found it. We thank you for your service and we wish you well. Congratulations, Karen.
Karen Harkness: Unfortunately, I have a really bad cold and not much of a voice. So, I’ll try and make this really short. But as I look around here, I have so many friends and mentors. Bill [Siebers], you were on Council when I came here. Doug Swanson was one of my mentors. He gave me some really sage advice that first night on Council which was to sit and listen, learn a little bit, get the lay of the land. And I’ve tried to do that with every step I’ve taken.
One of my proudest moments professionally has been able to serve as the Director of Community and Economic Development, and to help move this community forward. And I’m not going to stop as I go into retirement. I told Jake, and I’ve told many others, we really need to come up with another word for retirement.
Retirement is a word that the federal government invented 1935 when Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill bringing our federal retirement system into being. That time in 1935, life expectancy was 61 years old, and you could start to draw retirement at 65. So, they were kind of already hedging their bets, right?
Nowadays, many people are retiring at 62 or 65. And our average life expectancy is 82. So, I hope that all of you have other plans for your retirement and are not relying on your social security to get you […] I’m certainly not doing that. So, I’ve created a consulting firm, and I hope to be able to continue working with our community and with all of you in the future. So, thank you all. It’s been my pleasure and an honor to serve with you all. Thank you.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1064885&GUID=23157F67-0079-435B-BD93-2236F2BF0F43
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