Parks and Recreation Committee - Regular Meeting

All right, I'd like to call to order the June 22nd Park and Recreation Committee meeting. I'll rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Roll call of membership from my left, please.

Adrian Stancil-Martin, District 11. Josh Lambert, District 1.

Alex Schultz, District 9. Let the records reflect that Chair Katie Van Zielen is joining us remotely, and I believe our other member is excused. Is that correct? I don't actually know.

That's correct. Yes, that's correct.

Thank you. Okay, approval of minutes, 26-0819. Moved. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion, corrections? Seeing and hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries 4-0. We have no public hearing or appearances this evening, so we will jump to our action items. The first of which is 26-0821, approve the U.S. venture to hold private special event. Motion to approve.

I'll second that.

All right, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion on this one, staff? Do you have anything to... Director Flick, please.

I would just add that per the Jones Park rental policy, all private events have to come before Park and Rec Committee.

Okay.

Any other... Alderman Hartzheim.

District 13. All right.

Thank you, Chair. Could I direct to Director Flick? Is this a paid, then, item? It's just the fact that policy requires this extra step. Correct. Excellent. Thank you.

Thank you. If there's no other discussion, I would like to take a vote. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries 4-0. Next action item is 26-0826, approve the Milo Music request to extend alcohol sales. Move to approve.

Second. Second.

I have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion on this one?

Director flick? I would just add that per a park ordinance that consumption and sales are 10 PM. So mile music, mile music is asking to go to 10 45 and 10 15 respectively per their request.

Do you have any sense of what it was in the past where we had 10 o'clock previously? Is this a change essentially in what they've typically been? Okay.

Yes, this is a request to change for additional time. Mile Music has talked to the Appleton Police Department, and they're supportive of it.

Okay. Alder Heitzarm, do you want to?

Thank you, Chair. I might address Director Flick as well.

Please do.

Director Flick, is it an actual ordinance that requires this, or are these park rules that require the 10 p.m. change?

It's an ordinance that states sales income.

So we would be actually, assuming it comes out of committee as an approval, we as a council would be actually approving a work around through an ordinance? And I'm curious. Okay, so an exception is a possibility just based on this vote? Correct. Okay, thank you.

Sorry, I was just taking a moment to look at the request for Houdini Plaza and Jones Park. And staff has no issues with these extensions of 45 minutes in Houdini and 15 minutes in Jones?

No issues. All right. Anything else from committee? Chamber.

Okay. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries for zero. The third action item on the agenda is 26-0827 to approve the Veterans Memorial Concept Plan. Do I have a motion? So moved.

I'll second that.

We have a motion and a second. I'll toss this one to Director Flick.

Thank you, Chair. Pretty exciting for Veterans Memorial Park. Before you tonight is an extension of the existing Veterans Memorial that's at the Scheig Center. So as stated, the existing memorial out there has a dry riverbed with blue rocks, some reflection benches, a large stainless steel American flag, a lot of landscaping, and then a plaque that would tell park patrons that this is the Veterans Memorial. and how it originally got established when the Scheig Center was built. We renovated that facility probably four to five years ago to what it is today. So over the last year, we've been working with a nine-member committee from the Fox Valley consisting of all veterans, along with the Fox Valley Veterans Organization and Rettler Corporation out of Stevens Point to work on an expansion of the existing Veterans Memorial. So before you tonight, you'll see in the, in the green is what we're proposing for extended use of property. That's around the parking lot in the sheik center. Uh, the areas on the left hand side of the, to the plan or to the west where it's more, uh, light colors, that's the existing Memorial that's out there today. Um, this is just the concept plan. So of course, as memorials come forward, fundraising is completed. individual projects will come forward between committee and council for approval and hopeful adoption and then implementing, uh, hopefully many more war memorials. So any questions? Glad to, glad to ask anybody on committee.

I just want to say that I appreciate that this work has been happening. I know that as we went through the process of renaming Veterans Memorial Park, there was a lot of conversation around wanting to see more or do more with our veterans to recognize them. And so I just really appreciate the work that y'all are doing to really bolster and grow that footprint that's in the park. Thank you.

Alder Hartzheim.

Thank you, Chair. I agree wholeheartedly with that sentiment from Alder Lambert. My question, though, is have we budgeted funding for some of these changes? If not, is there going to be fundraising done? Is this external to the city as far as support for these changes that are proposed?

Director Flick, I think you could probably answer some of those questions. Currently, we do have a 2026 CIP for implementing of memorials within this area if it's adopted. Um, it's in excess of a hundred thousand dollars. Uh, the committee has been talking about working on the Vietnam Memorial and bringing, um, there's a gentleman on the committee that has an existing wall and he'd like to donate that to the city. So there's been some conversations with this group, uh, to reconstruct that and bring that into the park. So, um, that's all the plans that are current right now. I know that once this plan is hopefully adopted, I think then the committee is going to get a little more aggressive on, on fundraising. And we'll just have to see how it goes between fundraising and city support.

But it will be a combination of city support and private funding. Yes. Excellent. Thank you.

Anybody else in the chamber? Okay. I have a few comments. Disclosure, I do sit on that Veterans Committee. And I've been pleased to be able to take part in the process of developing the new Memorial Park for veterans. I was also part of that redesign when we shifted the River Memorial from where it used to be in front of the Cheyenne to its new location, and was pretty pleased with how that turned out. Just general comments about the layout, and maybe I can get some feedback from Director Flick. I appreciate that this is a concept, that we're proving sort of a concept, and that as we move forward with actual monuments, this might shift slightly to accommodate those memorials. And so I would just want to make sure at least publicly stating that that's the intent. If you think about the Vietnam Wall or the Korean War Memorial with a bunch of soldiers in a field, obviously you couldn't design that space prior to those monuments being built. And so the space is built around the monuments. And I think we just have to keep that in mind as we sort of set this design out there as being approved, but then making sure we're not getting too far ahead of our skis and as Alder Hartzheim suggested, getting some funding and getting some actual monuments in the process and getting them designed and sort of actualized for these spaces. So I just want to make that clear if the public's looking at this and they think this is going to be sort of the final design of that space, that it's really contingent upon both the number of memorials that we end up sort of identifying that could fit in this space and also what they might look like. Director Flick, I might have some more comments, but please go ahead.

Thank you, Chair. For this process, we're using this title as a concept plan instead of a master plan. So using a term master plan is a little more solid and concrete. Concept plan allows you to wiggle and move as things come forward, and maybe one site is larger than the next, and the concept plan will adopt as we move forward.

I appreciate that. You know, when I look at it and I see the circles, you sort of have this initial sort of thought in mind where you go to a spot and there's a statuary, and that's sort of the monument for that space. But we don't, you know, we want to make sure that we leave it very open to whoever we might entertain to create these monuments and memorials where it may not be in that circle. So just, again, I want to make that sort of point really clear that conceptually this is what we're looking at, sort of the number and the spacing, and also sort of thinking strongly about the separation among all those memorials. We don't just want to walk into a field of memorials in a flat space. So if you think about how those things are staggered in a much larger space like the mall in Washington, D.C., there's a lot of space for those things to breathe. So we're going to cram a lot into this space potentially. We also have to think about what that landscaping looks like and what the softscaping looks like to separate those monuments so they can all have their own sort of space. But Yeah, very happy with where we are. I love the fact that we're mirroring sort of the redesigned space for the river. I like the way that sort of shelter and center ring is positioned. And there is talk of an eternal flame in that pond. If that would ever come to be, that would be just kind of an ideal layout. So all these things are great. Happy that we're at this point. And hearing nothing else, if there's anything else, I would entertain the vote. All those in favor? of approving the concept, say aye. Aye. Opposed? That motion carries 4-0. All right, let's get back to the agenda. Oops, one second. Now we're on to information items. The first is 26-0822, minutes of the June 9th, 2025 Advisory Panel on Sustainability and Climate Resiliency meeting. Director Flick.

I would just add that this is something new that we're adding to our park and rec agenda. And within the minutes you'll see, uh, future meetings for ASAP.

So I am, uh, I think speak for a lot of us and incredibly grateful that, um, we're starting to see some of this information shared, uh, park and rec agenda and other agendas. So for that, I, I guess I would thank Katie Van Zeelen for stepping forward and sort of pushing that notion and getting this stuff more in front of the public to see what the panel's up to and how we're supporting their work. Take us to the next one, 26-0828, the Appleton Sustainability Advisory Panel. Yes, Alder Heitzarm. I'm sorry, Alder Van Zeelen, if you'd like to speak.

Thank you, Chair. I just wanted to point out in the minutes that there is a smart cycling presentation that's happening at the Appleton Public Library on July 30th from 12 to 1 for people ages 16 and older who'd like to learn how to better cycle. That's part of our transportation initiative. Thank you.

Thank you for that. Appreciate it. We'll move to that action item, or sorry, information item. The Sustainability Advisory Panel support for resolution number 2R26.

Steph, I'll just add, uh, you know, the title kind of says it all. ASAP took the initiative to provide a memo to park and rec saying that they support, uh, two dash R dash 26. Um, there's some items within that memo that spell out direction, uh, for projects or initiatives or any questions that funnel through our project and resiliency manager, Steve Schrage, um, and then bring forward as needed.

Excellent. Thank you. All their hearts are.

Thank you, Chair. I'm wondering how these two information items affect or will affect future action, council action on Resolution 2R26. Do you have any?

From staff's end, we see it as none. Thank you. Alder Van Zielen.

Alder Van Zielen.

Go ahead. Thank you, Chair. I had just wanted to have the previous resolution held at council so that we could have the presentation take place. But it doesn't look like anybody's there to do a presentation. So I'll just say that in the future, what I had asked for is for these recommendations to come forward from staff as an action item and that there would be a specified action from staff. So that way there is action on the recommendation based on the staff's recommendation.

Thank you. All there? No. Okay. Anybody else?

Okay.

Then we'll move on to the third, which is 26-0823, the 2026 Bird City. Sure.

I mean, sorry. Thank you chair. I'm just going to say a huge kudos to the city of Appleton and all the people that were involved to put together this application to be awarded bird city USA. A lot of people put in a lot of effort towards this. So kudos to them and kudos to the city.

Can you give us information on how many years we've had? I know we may have missed a year, but we've been a bird city for,

I do not know that number, sorry.

Okay. Alder Hartzheim.

Thank you, Chair. I noticed when I was reading this that as Bird City, Wisconsin, is there also a national level of that as well, or is this just always what we've been as a Bird City, Wisconsin?

I'm just... I do believe there are two. I am not familiar with the national one.

Thank you. Okay. Okay.

And I would echo those sentiments that, you know, this is hard work to get these certifications. We just went through the process of getting Bee City certified again. And, you know, it takes a little time and energy from somebody to sit down and run through the application and get these things certified. So much appreciative. Anything else on that action or information item? Okay. Is there anything else for the committee? If not, I'll entertain number eight. Move to adjourn.

Second.

Motion to adjourn in a second. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carries 4-0. We are adjourned.