Parks and Recreation Committee - Regular Meeting

All right. We'll call to order the meeting of the Parks and Recreation Committee for Monday, June 8th. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. Roll call of membership. We'll note for the record that all members are present. And move on to an approval of the minutes from our previous meeting. Do we have a motion?

Motion to approve. Second.

We have a motion to approve in a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, we'll vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes 5-0. We have no public hearings or appearances this evening. And we have one action item, 260432, resolution 2R26, supporting vegetation analysis and advancing a data-informed mowing reduction strategy. Do we have a motion?

Motion to approve.

Second. We have a motion to approve in a second. I do see that we have someone here to speak on this item. Did you want to speak on the record?

I'm really just here to answer questions.

You're right in front of me. OK, great. Should we start with Project and Resilience Manager Schrage? Director one? All right, there you go.

Yes, if you have any questions to ask about this process and what the resiliency and the committee has done and what they're doing or what they need, Mr. Schrage is here to answer any questions on behalf of the committee.

Okay, I'll actually get started. In the resolution, there are some items about supporting the vegetation analysis and such. Are those things that require the council's approval? Are they in process? Does this need to pass for this work to continue? Can you just give us a little bit of how these work together with the operations?

Sure. With the Appleton Sustainability Advisory Panel, we have several initiatives that we've been working on, and one of them is the Natural Solutions Initiative. We've been working on that for a couple years now, and... Last year, we started with a vegetation survey because we need to know kind of where we are before we can put together a plan to see where we want to be. So a couple of the members have been updating it, putting it on a GIS page. So we're getting that survey in, getting all the data there. And then once that data gets all entered, then the group is going to sit down with the parks and rec department.

Can you just clarify which group? Cause there's a couple different groups that we've got going on right now.

I'm sorry. That's okay. The Appleton sustainability, the advisory panel.

Should we call that ASAP?

ASAP.

ASAP. Okay.

Yep. So that's, so ASAP is working on that. And once that's completed, the, ASAP is going to meet with the Park and Rec Department, and they will be discussing with staff what their thoughts are, and it's just going to be a collaborative effort from there to try and come up with a plan for improving vegetation, such as habitat for pollinator, um, mowing, any mowing reduction strategies that would help, um, save the department, um, time and money. And then, um, any kind of invasive species, um, removal that we'd want to do. And then any sort of planting that we would do once those are removed. So it's kind of, we're at the beginning, we're at the very beginning phases of this. So we got to get that survey done and then we'll be working on, um, the ASAP will be working on recommendations based off of that survey.

Okay. I think maybe we should also hear, since there's been some amendments from the authors, did you want to add anything in particular?

Thank you, Chair. Sure. You know, this was introduced... Oh, not at all. I've been working with the committee off and on for a number of years, and up until very recently, that committee had a lot of preliminary work doing carbon studies and vegetation analysis, basically trying to lay the groundwork for sort of determining what projects the city might undertake moving forward. And I felt that we were getting to that point where some data collection was near completion, and then some suggestion that the committee would like some direction on what to do with that data, essentially. Now, I understand that things are moving forward with the work the city's doing already. that these conversations have been ongoing, that we've already seeded a couple of pollinator plots in some of our major city parks. So the work is happening. The relevancy of this resolution is essentially to put an ask in front of ASAP and say, we knew you were doing all this great work. Now we'd like you to do something with the data. We would like you to sort of look into this and give you some direction on how to move forward. I gather that that was well received by ASAP, and I don't think anyone on that committee had any issues with getting that direction from Common Council, and I felt like that's part of our job as council is to lean into the expertise of that committee and then ask them to bring some things forward. So I didn't have any issues with the initial one, but I thought some clarification and just sort of stripping out a bunch of additional language just to make it pretty simple, which is what it is now. I guess I'd like to hear from Ron Jones, who sits on the committee, what his take is on this resolution. And the question is, does passing this or not passing this do anything to the needle as it relates to the committee's work? Does this help the committee move forward in a certain direction? Does it do nothing to direct the committee to do the work they're already doing? That's essentially the question that the chair is asking. So I'd like an answer to that. I think the answer will be yes.

And I think if you would like to step to the podium and answer that question, if you just maybe want reestablish it for Mr. Jones.

Ron, I was just wondering if you could speak on the relevancy of this resolution. How did the committee take it? Were they eager to move forward, accept it, and take on that challenge? Was it something that was worthwhile to bring forward?

Sure. Ron Jones is the name, a member of ASAP.

And I'm sorry, could you just state your address for the record, please?

1125 North Briarcliff Drive in Appleton.

Thank you. Go ahead. Yeah.

And... I've been working along with somebody else from ASAP on inventorying the parks. We started off trying to look at the invasive plants primarily was our initial thoughts with this, identifying different land use types. And along the way, we thought we would start identifying areas that would offer them opportunity to mow less better yet, to convert to native plantings. If you look at turf grass, it is really a monoculture, almost a biological desert. There's very little benefits for pollinators. you look at the pollinators in Wisconsin, up to 90% of them are what they are called specialist pollinators, meaning they need native plants that are native to Wisconsin in order for you to for pollinating. And so it's really important that if we can convert some of our parks, the lesser used parks, areas that actually offer some beautification to native plantings. So I see that this resolution provides the backing of the council for this initiative. For ASAP, it brings awareness to it. And also I think it provides a better position for it to be included with the master planning effort that is ongoing right now.

OK.

Thank you.

Thank you. Yeah. Director Flick, when we talked about, you and I talked about this today, I had asked if there was any concern about it being included in the master plan, in the sustainability master plan. And it was my understanding that this is already going to be a chapter in the planning. Can you just talk a little bit about that? Like what specifically will be included? Or is there anything in regard to this vegetation analysis that is planned to be excluded?

Nothing would be excluded that's being presented in the resolution. Pretty much everything that's mentioned in here will be included in the final document the master plan that ASAP is putting together. So unless there's some specific questions on what they're putting in there, the vegetation analysis, the recommendations for, or improvements, the selection of the turf or whatever we want to put in a no mole, how enabler that'll all be included in the master plan.

Okay. Does, Did any of the authors have anything to add to that? Alder Meltzer, what microphone do you have? District 9. District 9.

Go ahead. Thank you. So if I can just direct a question to Director Flick. So basically, if this resolution were voted down by council, how would that impact the inclusion of these items for pale blue dot? How would that impact the work that your department and the ASAP is working on?

If the resolution is not passed, I don't believe it would impact the outcome of the master plan. Because everything would be included in there that... was explained that they're working on right now between the inventory, the analysis, the recommendations for acreage and property, and then what to turn that property into, whether it's a no-mow, pollinable, or habitat. That will all come out of the master plan, with or without the resolution.

Did you have a different understanding, Aldermiltser?

I guess, I do feel that having that support and backing of council as we move forward with these things is important. I do think that that's part of our role as older persons is to have that sort of oversight and input. I also, I signed on to this resolution because I thought that it was an important way to elevate the work that ASAP is doing, make that more visible to the community and show the connection between ASAP and city council. So I think that while we have this exciting process going on with Pale Blue Dot, I think it's also important to show that the city isn't siloed in how these things happen. One of the big relevancies I see with this resolution is to achieve that unsiloed state of things moving forward instead of, oh, well, Parks and Rec Department is great. We just always trust them and let them do their own thing. And it's wonderful when we have wonderfully trustworthy people like Tom Flick as our wonderful director and Steve Schrage doing your amazing work and all the individuals on ASAP. But it's not our job to just take those things for granted. It's our job to cross the T's and dot the I's, and this resolution makes it very clear that that is exactly what we're doing, and I feel that without this resolution, it is very hard to bring that narrative to the community. Thank you.

Thank you. I think what I struggle with is I have a hard and fast rule about not supporting resolutions that aren't going to change the outcome in any way. But what I hear also is that there is a question about how we are making the community aware of the work that's being done and how that works in relation to Parks and Rec holding their end accountable. Is that, if you don't mind, Alder Meltzer, can you talk a little bit about that? Am I understanding that correctly? Because that's something I think that we could definitely work on.

Yeah, and I think that even before I came on council, things like our, like, being one of the founding members of the Green Tear Charter and stuff like this, there's all of this amazing work that Appleton has been doing over the years that's really been very invisible and has not been really known or understood by the community at all. I think that there's always kind of this pressure from the community that like, hey, why don't why doesn't the city ever do anything? How come the city never does enough? And then we have to go respond to that with saying, well, we're doing this and we're doing that. And the community and community members are like, wow, well, how come the how come there's no effort to actually let this be known? How come there's not any by leadership to shine a light on this stuff better. So even when we go back to things like when we were redesigning our website, it was like, okay, here's an opportunity to give things a bit more visibility. And so I think that that piece of how we use our seats on council and we use the resolutions that come before us to provide appropriate oversight to work that we know is great, but work that the community doesn't even know is happening. I think that that's a very important part of what this resolution is doing. Thank you.

Thank you. I agree with the second part about showing the work being done by our volunteers and how that actually fits in with the master plan as a whole and holding everyone accountable for the work that we expect to be done. I this amended version that we have here has not procedurally been amended by substitution yet. Is that correct? Attorney Barron's? It wasn't. Okay. Okay. It wasn't the last meeting. Because my intention would be to focus more on the part of the awareness of the work, the inclusiveness of the sustainability panel, I don't think that this resolution as amended does this, but I would love to see it say that, yes. Alder Schultz.

Yeah, I would just say that since the introduction of the resolution, and it's been floating around now for a couple months, that conversations with ASAP sort of suggested to me that focus did change a little bit. It did have an impact in that, given this direction from council, the committee sort of said, well, we'd like this direction, and we might focus ourselves a little bit differently to getting that data collection done sooner than later, and then also focus in on what we're gonna do with that data. So it has already done some good work, in my opinion, and it may be shifting conversations with Pale Blue Dot and the inclusion of this as part of that comprehensive plan. So it's doing good work. I think because it's already been part of that process, it needs to sort of be memorialized that this is how this came about, that it was an introduction and that ASAP welcomed this direction and then has taken it from there and is already moving forward with sort of the intent of the resolution.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but I didn't gather that anything has changed from the introduction of the resolution. I thought the one thing we resolved is that everything had remained the same. Alder Meltzer, maybe you could help me understand better.

Well, it's my understanding that ASAP is working on many, many, many things. And they have a couple people who have been primarily working on this. So as they have a whole ton of things on their plate, a whole ton of wonderful things, we still have to prioritize. And showing council support with this helps prioritize this. And to Alder Schultz's point, can help not only finish that data gathering process more quickly, but gives them direction for how that data is being used. So it helps them to be more efficient and effective in the work that they're doing. Instead of having everybody's fingers in a bunch of different pies, they can put some of those pies on the back burner and focus on the ones that are going to yield the best immediate results with this master planning process with Pale Blue Dot.

Director Fleck, how does the department work with the advisory panel in a way to ensure that they are focused on the things that are most important or need to be implemented with the department? Go ahead. Oops, sorry, there you go.

Mr. Schroger and I, we work pretty close together on their goals and efforts and agendas. And then he represents our department with with ASAP with their monthly meetings. From reports back from our representation on there, I think we're meeting all the expectations that we're supposed to with the master plan and what the outline is for Pale Blue Dot.

That doesn't really help me answer that question. Maybe project and resiliency manager Shrage, can you give me a little more information about why something like this would be helpful in helping the panel determine their priorities?

Yeah, thank you. As was stated before, we are working on a lot of different things. When we get, say, a request like this comes in that this is important to council, this would help prioritize this to maybe put more effort into this and less effort on a different initiative that we're working on because this is important for the council community and such. this would help move it along faster than it would probably normally be because we're getting an official request from council. I guess, going back to your original question, is our interface with the group. So I lead the meetings every month, and I just try and give as much support to the committee to the advisory panel as I can. Any help they need, I provide as much support as I can. And there's a lot of very, very smart and talented people on there. So I try and get them what they need to be successful in the initiatives that they're working on.

So when we're saying right now that the Common Council is supporting prioritizing this project over other projects, what are the other projects? Like, what are the other things that we are saying are lesser priority?

I'm not going to say that the other stuff we're working on is lesser priority, but this would help focus a little more effort into this one. So we have three major initiatives that we're working on and then a lot of other. sub initiatives that we're working on so um we have a lot of stuff going on but um if we get direction that something we need something sooner than later then we would focus a little more on that well how would the other how would council members as a whole find out what this

group is working on so that we can be more in tune with the prioritization?

Every year at the end of the year, we do a presentation to council and we discuss all the stuff that we've been working on from the previous year and then what we'll be working on the following year. So typically it's the last council meeting in December. We go through that.

Okay. Yes, Director Flick.

I would just add that periodically throughout the year, our marketing manager coordinator would put out projects of interest and updates. So under park projects and on social media, we'd provide updates on what ASAP has been up to and, and, uh, steps that they've taken and how we get to the final master plan. So periodically meeting, maybe three times a year, we might provide updates on social media.

Okay. Um, Alder Meltzer, I saw you reaching, were you reaching for the microphone? Oh, can Alder Schultz or Alder Meltzer provide us with what the other projects are that we are, if council is choosing, we are choosing this as the prioritization, or give us any background as to why this is the one that is most important to move forward with? Alder Meltzer, is it nine? Well, for example, one thing that we've been working on is

our carbon and our carbon footprint. And I feel like that is a much bigger, longer-term project that certainly is still important to them. But completing the inventory and the data that is referred to in this resolution would be prioritized over those kind of more long-term efforts. determine priorities, you're deciding, okay, what needs to happen in more of the immediate sense as opposed to what's going to take a long time anyway. So that's one example.

Do any other Alders in the committee have questions for staff or the authors? Alder, which microphone do you have, please?

you chair there you are so i'm looking at and i'm i'm really happy that uh project manager shruggy reminded me of the meeting tomorrow and i do see that the meeting and the agenda is is on the uh calendar which they aren't always but if i go to the city's website and look at the um and look at the sustainable Appleton area, there's definitely an area for the sustainability advisory panel, and it has the members, but when I see the current initiatives, I'd like to see more visibility of, I mean, I look at the sustainable ecosystems, and again, this is not to be critical of the panel, or of any city staff who is working on this. But I see some stuff that was, the last thing I see about the climate resilience is from the 2024 work plan. So I think it would help all of us to kind of be more engaged in that area. It's something that the average person might click on and see what's going on. as opposed. I'm not opposed by definition to the council absolutely doing something in support of these initiatives. I think it's super important.

I'm sorry. I apologize. I was listening, but there was a... That's okay.

That's okay.

So... I think I agree with you, and I think that's something I'd like to see added to the resolution process. is to work on the communication of what's happening, because I feel like I can't just say, yeah, this is the thing I support of all the things that you're working on, when I don't know what all of those things are. And I think that's an indictment of us not having the awareness of these projects. Alder Schultz, I saw you.

Yeah, thank you, Chair. I don't bring this up too much longer. You know, for me, the community, you know, is the first one in the States to establish the Nomo Mae initiative. We evolved into a different process, Lomo Soma, and that sort of leads, led us into looking at parklands for planting native reproductive pollinating plants and speciation in places that can that it works and so having done a couple of those plots it's it was sort of the next phase is okay well we've done a couple of these we are a highlight community in the united states for for moving into the next phase of trying to help pollinators to me this was sort of the next i won't call it low-hanging fruit but in in my sense yes we because of the highlight because of the attention that the city has already And the fact that we're already moving in this direction, to me it just felt like the national next move that we should actually focus in on this data collection and then bringing up some recommendations to do this morning reduction strategy. It just feels like the next process. And what I was fearful of is if we let a year or six months go by while we do the pale blue dot, you know, it's another year. six to eight, I'm not sure what the timeline is, but it's another year goes by before that comprehensive resiliency plan comes forward. And then we're going to look at those projects and determine what to do. So for me, it was like, I didn't see the need to wait. And I thought a lot of data is being collected. They're in the process of doing that. Why not give them some direction to do something in the near term versus waiting for the next cycle of adopting this resiliency plan and seeing what those recommendations are.

So that was the imperative of the resolution.

And again, it's already done some work, I think, to sort of move the needle a little bit in that direction. But I would love to see this voted in and memorialized as the council's first directive to ASAP to you know, concentrate on something that we as a community think is important, based on how we accepted and have moved through the normal May initiatives.

I think it's helpful understanding that you intend this to be an extension of the next level of normal May and that I definitely appreciate and I appreciate the sentiment of this resolution. I have a hard time when I'm being told that this is not something that was going to be left in the dust. This is something that is already planned. But I also do see that there is some capability to possibly adding more of an awareness or an education or more of a process of how these groups work together, because I do see the disconnect that Alder Meltzer is referencing, particularly when we're talking about prioritization of their support of the prioritization, but I don't understand what the other priorities might be. Any other comments from others on the committee or questions?

Okay, none, all right.

Well, we have a motion to approve on the table already and a second, correct? So any other comments or questions, I guess, before voting? Hearing none. All right, we'll go ahead and vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed would be me. So just opposed. And hopefully, I'll just note that prior to council, I would hope to put something more substantial down that could hopefully bridge this gap. That motion passes four to one. We don't have any other action items, just the information item 260782 for Reed Golf Course. the revenue and expense report. Any questions or comments on the report from all those present? Hearing none, we'll go ahead and vote, or I'm sorry, we'll go ahead and move on to number eight.

Move to adjourn. Second.

We have a motion to adjourn and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. We are adjourned. Thank you.