The Common Council met 06/04/2025. The bulk of the 1 hour 38 minute meeting was taken up discussing the request to not renew the alcohol license for Tandem Wine and Beer, a recap of which should be posted tomorrow. (Spoiler Alert: the license was renewed with some additional requirements attached after the owner who has 3 OWI convictions and a read-in charge of cocaine possession sold his interested in the business’s LLC to his wife for $1 in between the time the Safety and Licensing Committee voted to recommend the license not be renewed and the time the Common Council took the item up.)
Other than the Tandem item, the Council did separate out three other items for individual votes, the 11.1796 acre Hartwig Annexation near Northland and 441, the special event permit for the Summer Shootout soccer event, and the request from McFleshman’s to provide alcohol sales at the Farmer’s Market on July 12, 19, and 26. Additionally, a member of the public tried to give public comment on something that was not listed on the agenda.
Each of the above listed action items was approved unanimously by the Common Council.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
PUBLIC COMMENT – A member of the public named Benji signed up to speak during the public comment section of the meeting with the intention of talking about a homophobic hate crime that happened at his residence. Council rules allow members of the public to only make public comment on action items on the agenda. There was no pertinent action item, so Mayor Woodford did not allow Benji to speak, but he did ask Benji to connect with him either after the meeting or by calling his office so that he could hear what happened and look into it.
HARTWIG ANNEXATION – This annexation was recommended for approval by the City Plan Commission. It consists of 11 acres of land along Northland Avenue just west of 441. It was part of the Town of Grand Chute but the developer requested that it be annexed into Appleton. The developer intends to build three different properties on this land which would be served by City of Appleton utilities and municipal services. A representative of the developer attended the meeting, and, while she did not have anything to say, she did make herself available if the Council had any questions.
The Council approved the annexation request by a vote of 14-0.
SUMMER SHOOTOUT SPECIAL EVENT PERMIT – The permit for the special event taking place June 20-22 had been administratively denied after the application was submitted a few days late, but it was then recommended for approval by the Safety and Licensing Committee. Although representatives of the WI United Football Club had been able to attend the committee meeting, they were not able to attend the Council meeting because they had games going on at that time.
Alderperson Chris Croatt (District 14) strongly requested that everyone vote in favor of the permit, saying, “The only reason it was before the committee was because they were appealing a automatic decision to deny based on language in the new policy that says if it’s late, it’s automatically denied. […] Questions were asked about is Appleton in the departments ready for this based on that shorten timeline? And the answer was yes. It’s a great event. You’ll see support from the hotel downtown, and it brings a lot of people to our city, drives a lot of economic impact. I strongly support approving this special event license application.”
Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) said that she had been a bit concerned about why the application had been submitted after the deadline, but after discussing that with the applicants she determined that was the result of the city having transitions to a new special events permitting process “that we knew that we would have some growing pains as a city to go through.”
The Council voted 14-0 to approve the special events permit.
MCFLESHMAN’S REQUEST TO SERVE ALCOHOL AT FARMER’S MARKET IN JULY – This was not singled out for discussion at the Safety and Licensing Committee meeting, although it had been recommended for approval. McFleshman’s wanted to operate a beer garden during the Farmer’s Market on July 12, 19, and 26. Carissa Gliniecki, the Events Director for Appleton Downtown Inc, who manages the Farmer’s Market spoke during public comment and said that ADI would like to test pilot the concept of including a beer garden at the Farmer’s Market; although she stressed “First and foremost, we want to maintain the integrity of the event as a family friendly experience.”
The beer garden would be set up on Morrison Street between College Avenue and Johnston Street. It would be run by McFleshman’s, whose idea it was, and McFleshman’s would hold the license and the liquor liability.
There was a small snafu during the vote on this item. Alderperson Alex Schultz (District 9) abstained from voting on the item due to a conflict of interest arising from his connection to the business, but he seconded the motion to approve it. They had to hold the vote again in order to correct the issue.
The Council approved the item by a vote of 13-0 with Alderperson Schultz abstaining.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1289902&GUID=8303096B-1EB5-4694-B5B9-9BA1AC30FCDC
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