The Municipal Services Committee met 10/25/2021. Alderpersons Bill Siebers (District 1), Brad Firkus (District 3), Denise Fenton (District 6), and Joe Prohaska (District 14) were all in attendance. Alderperson Chad Doran (District 15) was excused.
At only 13 minutes, it wasn’t a long meeting. They did however take up several items including the potential extension of the lease for “The Collective” sculpture on College Avenue. ***SPOILER ALERT*** It’s probably not going away quite yet.
Before taking that up they voted on the request from Professional Services Industries, Inc. for a permanent street occupancy permit to install three monitoring wells in the alley adjacent to 306 W. Washington Street.
Staff had nothing to add to the information in the agenda packet, and none of the committee members had any questions. The item was approved 4-0 with no discussion.
They then moved onto the request to extend the lease for “The Collective” through “April 31[sic], 2022”.
Alderperson Alex Schultz (District 9) attended the meeting not in his capacity as an Alderperson but as the Executive Director of Sculpture Valley. He said that the original two year lease as approved by the Common Council and the Department of Public Works ended on November 7. However, Sculpture Valley has “had some challenges getting that artwork moved.” They had a purchase agreement with the son of the individuals for whom the sculpture was originally sponsored. He lives in Bozeman, Montana. Alderperson Schultz worked with two different shippers to move the piece to Montana, but both of them were allegedly charging too much for their services. Per Alderperson Schultz, “People are trying to make a trip out of moving the piece and charging us too much.”
At this point, it’s too late in the year to ship it because show is flying in Montana and the buyer no longer has time to prepare his site for the sculpture. He requested that Sculpture Valley find a shipper that is cost effective and deliver the big head in early spring.
Alderperson Schultz noted that he has two other sculptures from the most recent Acre of Art exhibition that he thought were going to go home this season but that are still here.
Director of Public Works Paula Vandehey added that the city did not have a chance to notify the neighborhood of the request to extend the lease. She also noted that the request to extend the lease was also going to appear before the Public Arts Committee in early November. Staff was recommending that language be added to the lease extension making it clear that there would be no more extensions, so that there could be a certain end date to the sculpture display.
Alderperson Schultz said that typically if Sculpture Valley requests a lease extension, they request it for an additional year, “but I understand that this piece has a certain level of community back and forth associated with it”. He was fine with extending the lease by only 6 months. That would give them enough time to move the sculpture and if the buyer wasn’t ready to install it, at least they could get it out to Montana. He said he could also store it somewhere until it could be shipped and was willing to do that now, but that was a little bit challenging because he was already currently storing two other works ahead of getting them reinstalled someplace.
A 6 month lease extension worked for him. He said that he would reach out to the neighborhood and, given the history of the sculpture, let them know that it was going to be there a little bit longer. He did not want to “inadvertently anger them some more–or more than we already have”. He had not notified them yet, however, because he was waiting for direction from the city and the staff.
Alderperson Prohaska wanted to clarify that voting yes on the item would extend the lease to April 31, 2022.
Director Vandehey confirmed that was correct.
Alderperson Fenton asked the question I had been wondering the whole time which was that she assumed they actually mean April 30th.
There were chuckles all around.
Alderperson Fenton also wanted to confirm that extending the lease would not cost the city anything and they didn’t have another piece slated to go in that location. The only issue was potential conflict with the neighbors caused by the lease extension.
Alderperson Schultz answered that from Sculpture Valley’s standpoint that was correct. They were not pursuing another piece at that location, and he didn’t foresee putting another piece there in the short term. It is a great spot but they would need to have a conversation about it.
Alderperson Firkus made the amendment staff was recommending to clarify that this was the only lease extension for this piece. “I think it’s alright. I don’t think we’re really in a pressing issue. I would imagine a lot of the emotions that were expressed when this was first being placed have probable subsided a little bit. I’m sure there are some people out there that hate it just as much as they did the first day it was set and some people that love it just as much as well. but I think the alternatives–I mean, correct me if I’m wrong, but if we were to not extend this, it’s gonna probably be the city’s money that’s gonna be required to go out there, collect this thing, move it.”
Alderperson Schultz corrected his understanding and said that if the lease wasn’t extended then Sculpture Valley would remove “The Collective” aby the end date of the lease. The cost would be on them.
Alderperson Siebers seconded the motion to amend.
The amendment was approved unanimously. Then, the amended item was approved unanimously.
So, barring something coming up during the Public Arts Committee meeting or during the Common Council, Appleton is looking at hosting the big head sculpture until April 30th (or is it 31st) of 2022. Then, after that, it will presumably be Bozeman, Montana’s problem.
They then moved on to the request from Blue Sky Contractors for a street occupancy permit for four parking stalls (CAW 310, 312, 314 & 316) for the commercial development project at 318 W. College Avenue be approved from June 14, 2021 through October 29, 2021 (except for September 24th and 25th).
Director Vandehey clarified that the request was to extend an already approved street occupancy permit through the end of April 2022.
Alderperson Prohaska asked what the reason for the extension was.
Director Vandehey answered that Blue Sky still needs their crane and equipment at that location. The project is moving forward and they’re doing a great job, but it’s taking longer than they anticipated.
The item was approved 4-0.
The committee then moved on to the discussion about the 2022 budget.
Director Vandehey did not have anything specific to go over with them. She noted that her department had been receiving some great questions and she had been trying to answer those and respond to everybody. She thought she was all caught up on questions. The purpose of the agenda item was to provide an opportunity for questions and discussion ahead of Budget Saturday.
Alderperson Siebers, who is the chair of the Finance Committee, said that he has been collecting all the questions and answers alderpersons have been asking. He will have a compilation of all those questions and answers available for the alderpersons on Budget Saturday. He said he had 30 pages of questions.
There was no further discussion and the committee adjourned.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=897658&GUID=09916D2F-0FB8-4EE6-B229-B4B9C71D6388
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