Common Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. I now call to order the Wednesday, 01/01/2026 meeting of the Appleton Common Council. Please rise for the invocation, which will be delivered by Elder Hartzheim.

Thank you, chair. Hearkening back to the days of yore, we gather together to listen and share, learn and educate, and to be granted wisdom and grace as we move Appleton forward in the best interest of our community.

Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and one

nation, God,

road road. And And

exception of Alderperson Heffernan and Alderperson the Jones who are excused. Alderperson Crota is joining us virtually.

All Roll call of officers and department heads.

All are represented.

All right. Need a motion to approve the minutes of the previous meeting. Anybody willing to move? All right, thank you. I don't know what happened there. Okay. We have a motion and a second to approve. Any discussion of the minutes? Hearing none, please cast your votes. All right.

That motion passes 13 to zero. Minutes have been approved. On to business presented by the mayor. This evening, I've invited members of an organization in the community that's been doing some work in Appleton and the Fox Cities now for a few years fostering trying to foster a stronger community and better connectivity, especially connecting across difference in Appleton and the Fox Cities. And so at this time, I'd invite representatives of common ground to come on up to the podium here and share a few words.

Thank you, mayor and honorable council and city staff for allowing us to come and update you on the crucial work of Common Ground. Just as a bit of background, Common Ground grew out of an attempt to help the community get communities of faith in times of health crises engaged along with other resources. And we served as the way pastors and other clergy would connect with the main issues that required all institutions to grab an oar and resources and take part. And that's why we were always part of the community plunges that ThetaCare, known as CHAT, put on. And we helped out, of course, during the COVID responses too.

Common Ground was the vision of Doctor. John Milky, who saw that churches and other houses of worship were simply not at the table often enough when leaders were addressing community wide issues. John asked a small group of Valley clergy to bring all the different houses of worship together to the the table with one primary goal. Let's join with other community leaders on making the Fox Cities a healthy and safe place to live. Founding board members were Doctor.

Melke, Dennis Episcopo from Alliance Church, Roger Berchhausen from the Unitarian Universalist Congregation, and Will Bledsoe from First English. Past funding partners that have supported our work have been ThetaCare, the Community Foundation, Kimberly Clark, and various faith groups. Our present board members seated behind me are myself, Jerry Zabronski, who's the president of Moses Motifior Synagogue, and he's also a member of the Audigonort Gaimie Board of Supervisors Gene Fisher is a member of the Baha'i congregation, Fiona Kisembo, who directs the Newcomer Project, and Chantel Biseki, who is the director of Hope and Help Together. Starting in 2022, we transitioned from coming alongside other institutions, as I mentioned in our earlier years, to offer community conversations, as we called them, which were held two to four times per year around divisive topics utilizing dialogue circles led by well trained facilitators who directed dialogues enabling understanding, empathy, and relationships across differences, and thus reducing polarization in our area. One example was the event that was around immigration and refugees in our area at Appleton North High School that was in partnership with the New Voices Choir and Hope and Help Together in consideration of in partnership with presentation of Fiddler on the Roof, which most of you know was involving Jewish Unitarian I mean, Jewish Ukrainian refugees.

Also, another example is across the political divide in partnership with WISAC, which is the Wisconsin Alliance for Civic Trust, in the past. And we conducted a number of other events that were community wide inviting people to those kind of dialogues, which is very different than debate, as we're familiar with. In 2025, we revised our approach even further, wanting to focus our on divisive topics that were more locally relevant and personally actionable. So we redesigned our vision and mission to reflect this adjustment, which we will now share with you.

So the Common Ground mission is we bring people together across differences to build meaningful relationships, engage in open dialogue, and create initiatives that strengthen the well-being of the Fox Cities. And then our vision is Common Ground Fox Cities envisions a connected and thriving community where people from all backgrounds, faith based and secular, collaborate to foster understanding, well-being, and collective action for the common good.

Currently, our planned initiatives for this year and ongoingly, We have an interfaith group that's been meeting regularly that includes religious entities across the local spectrum, meeting regularly to build relationships and discerning ways we can serve the community. An example of that is a lot of faith entities joined together on a Habitat for Humanity build last summer. We're holding our first interfaith breakfast this coming February 4, where faith representatives can meet, listen to, and discuss possible ways of collaboration and service. And we have planned what we call a localized gathering of geographically similar entities, ward leaders, elder persons like yourselves, and registered neighborhood leaders to come alongside particular divisive issues in that particular local geography, utilizing again our dialogue circle methodology to enhance ongoing relationships with individuals that can have regular contact with one another in those more local spheres. We're also securing our five zero one (three) status.

And our vision and mission, as you just heard expressed, welcomes all residents. So we're not just focused on faith entities, but all residents of whatever kind, whether they have a faith perspective or not, around divisive issues to create a more harmonious and, you know, community of well-being and belonging.

Anything else you'd like to share?

I'll share

a little bit. Okay.

We really just want to let you know that we're looking to grow and increase our board membership and participation, especially in a variety of generational perspectives. And we already have a large amount of diversity, but are looking to increase that diversity and seeking funding, as a lot of organizations are. So thank you for letting us come before you and just update you on our crucial work.

Could you just share the dates again for the sort of neighborhood based opportunities that will be coming up?

We haven't established those yet. They're still in the planning, so we haven't exactly put that together. But we're working, we're going be working with ward, alder persons, and registered neighborhoods or overlap. So that's an upcoming initiative on our part.

Right. So when I heard about that in particular, wanted to make sure that we brought common ground in to talk about what they've been doing over the years, but also what they're doing moving forward. So there'd opportunities for Alders to help engage residents within your districts and within neighborhoods in your districts in these kinds of opportunities because it is so important to facilitate connection among our residents. So thank you all for the work that you're doing in the community. Appreciate

You're welcome. Any questions you have, please reach out. We're glad to engage them.

Yeah, thank you very much. All right. No further business to present to you this evening, so we'll move on now to public participation. We have two members of the public signed up to speak. As a reminder, Council sets aside thirty minutes per meeting for items that appear on the agenda for members of public to share their thoughts with the council.

Public participation is not a dialogue between members of the public and the council, but council will be listening and taking notes. And if any questions come up during the comments that are heard, we'll do our best to answer those during the discussion of the action item. We ask that you limit your comments to five minutes or less, and I will help you keep track of time. With that, we have two members of the public signed up to speak. The first is Lois Peterson.

Good evening council members. My name is Lois Peterson and I reside at 620 North Tonka Street. I'm just here to address the second item on the Municipal Services Committee minutes that came through from the meeting last Monday. I want to thank everybody for all their effort and work on that, particularly our older person who has been very involved in it. We are happy with some of the changes that have been made with the parking on the Thousand Block of East Pacific.

It has made a difference to the residents that are in that block. The issues in question from the restaurant that is in our neighborhood still exist, though, when the remaining five or four at minimum blocks that are still affected, the five hundred and six hundred block of North Tonka Street, the 900 block of East Pacific, and on East Vine Street. So these are older neighborhoods, smaller narrower streets, particularly with Vine Street being 23 feet wide and Tonka Street, where I live, being only 22 feet wide. The extra parking and other issues that go on because of having a working restaurant in the neighborhood are very difficult to deal with. The loading zone that was initiated in East Pacific has helped with some of the delivery, but we still probably have at least 50% of the delivery trucks not addressing that parking not addressing the fact that they're supposed to be parking there.

Just saw one yesterday that was coming out of Vine Street decided to return towards downtown by backing out of Vine, backing down Tonka Street, backing onto Pacific, and turning around and going back west on Pacific. All of this backing was blind because the building's in the way. So it's that type of thing that we're still facing that does certainly bring up safety issues in our area. I also wonder whether some of the emergency services vehicles, fire trucks, ambulances, that should they ever need to come into our neighborhood at times when streets are parked full would even be able to make it through. Snow removal, I know, has been an issue in past winters.

So I'm hoping that in future with maybe other steps forward, with help from the Common Council, with help from the different municipal services committee members and or traffic experts that we can address some of these. So thank you for your time. Appreciate everything you're doing so far.

I know it's not an easy job. Thank you. Next is Larry Wright.

Good evening. Thank you for letting me speak this evening. I'm also speaking, as Lois did, on the parking change on 1000 Block Of East Pacific Street. And I'm here to voice my approval that it does get recommended. I personally, my wife and I personally benefited from that because we live on the South Side Of East Pacific.

And there were numerous occasions when patrons to the restaurant would park over our driveway apron which we called in to the police department. We appreciated the efforts of the police department in responding, well as community service officers, in responding to our calls. I guess my recommendation for approval of the parking change comes with a caveat or a request that if at all possible that increased monitoring of our calls can occur because this parking has been a disruption to the neighborhood. I've lived there for nearly forty years. And this has been the biggest disruption throughout our entirety of living there.

Also, I don't know if there's anything that common counsel will do to ask of the owner of the restaurant if there's anything, any effort he can make in regards to posting a notice or a sign in his restaurant, posting something on his Facebook page or on his website, or handing out a leaflet to his patrons to inform them of the city ordinance about parking. Because there are numerous blatant violations. In fact, was one just the other day on Vine Street which is narrow itself. Someone parked right in front of a no parking sign on the wrong side of the street. I would not have known what would have happened if someone was parking legally on this other side of the street.

I don't know if any car would have been able to come through. I called that in. Don't know if it was responded to. If it was, fantastic. The one thing that was disturbing to me, but I don't know if there's any way that they could look back at the frequency of tickets issued in the 1,000 block or in that neighborhood since that restaurant opened And to what was issued before that time, I think it would be a great indication of what has been transpiring.

But as I was informed, the frequency of what might be occurring could even be higher than the tickets issued because it's only counted as a violation. Just by us calling in doesn't mean it's getting recorded or getting documented as a violation. So I know that there have been several times where either my wife or I have called in and because of other calls that the community service had to make, they were unable to come out in time before the patrons left. But I voiced my approval that this got recommended. I appreciate all the work that was done in coming up with this solution to the problem.

But again, the issues are ongoing. Thank you.

All right. That is it for folks who signed up to speak before the meeting. But I just want to check and see, is there anyone else who'd like to speak on an item that appears on the agenda? Right hearing none we'll close public participation. We have no public hearings. We do have a special resolution which will be taken up under consolidated action items in a moment. So we'll establish the order of the day. Alder Krotz, did I see you trying to okay. Alder Meltzer.

Thank you. I would like to separate item 20 six-forty seven from municipal services, the Pacific Street parking changes.

Okay.

Alder Schulz. Thank you. Mayor Fromm, Board

of Health, item 20 six-eight, approve the Milk Depot procedure as identified in the attached document, as well as the next one, six-nine approved the overdose education naloxone distribution program policy.

Okay. Any others? All right. Hearing none, we'll move along. First, we're going to get started with the item from Municipal Services Committee. This is item 20 six-forty seven, request to approve parking changes on the 1000 Block of East Pacific Street. This is a follow-up to a six month evaluation. Looking for a motion. We have a motion and a second to approve. Right.

And we'll open the discussion. I'll just note before discussion gets going, there were a number of issues raised during public participation, not directly related to the action item before counsel. So I just want to make note of that as we get into discussion and and just for members of the public who shared their feedback. When when common counsel is discussing issues that are before them, we try to focus on the action item before us. Does not mean that your feedback wasn't heard or registered. So I just want to make that very clear before we get into discussion. Alder Meltzer.

Thank you. I want to start with sharing some comments from some additional constituents who were not able to show up tonight. And to tie things in together, I think that some of the other issues raised are very contextually relevant. So the trial and the attempt to find solutions for some problems is dealing with a bigger picture. So some of these other issues that are brought up, I think, are relevant to the action item because it's letting us know what did this action item not address.

So we did a trial, tried to see how much it helped. The things that aren't necessarily directly what we're voting on right now are still information about what the trial did not successfully address.

Alder Meltzer, I'll just also note that as you're reading comments from your constituents, Whatever your constituents have shared in their comments will be germane, for purposes of you you sharing the feedback that they've provided just as it would be if if they were providing public comments. So I'm I I will not I not cut you off as you read your feedback from constituents. Please go ahead.

Thank you very much. I appreciate that. I also appreciate how engaged and vocal and willing to talk about the issues the community has been. I think that it takes time, it takes effort to both experience and make the calls to the police and experience these issues, but then to take the extra step to actually come to counsel to talk about it is something that the neighborhood has worked very hard to put a lot of effort into. So I have three comments to share here.

I'll start. Elise, Krista, Michi, 1004 East Pacific Street. I'm happy that this one change has improved, not fixed, but improved to the parking issue on that one block of Pacific Street. However, a whole slew of other issues continues to persist, and it should not be the neighborhood's responsibility to change for the restaurant, especially since they received special permission to be here, a decision that was influenced by a promise to not negatively impact the neighborhood, a promise I feel has not been taken seriously enough. Next, I have Ray Ann Blom, 1028 East Vine Street.

The change of parking on Pacific has been helpful, I support the change. I live in a quaint little neighborhood on a short, narrow, windy street. It's quiet, off the beaten path, and it's safe for kids to ride bikes in the road. Well, it used to be. It's still quaint, but it's not the same. My street is now a serpentine track of dodging parked cars. The quiet often has background noise of a loud kitchen exhaust fan idling diesel refrigerator trucks and the backup beeping of dumpster trucks. There's also a lot of traffic, four to six nights a week, with parked cars lined up turning two lanes into one and causing blind spots. The street is often blocked for various deliveries, not the best for walkers or kids on bikes. The view from my porch now highlights overflowing dumpsters and the smoke break area.

It sometimes feels like I'm living in an alley downtown. I understand that all this comes with running a restaurant. It's part of the deal when you run a successful business, which is great. It's just not the same neighborhood I chose to live in twenty years ago, and I miss the way it used to be. Maybe there's a better location for a busy restaurant. And Judy Yeager at 619 North Tonka Street. I would like a flashing yellow light for turning right onto Tonka Street because Vine, Tonka, and Pacific are so close. We have kids in the neighborhood, bicycles, cars turning left from Vine. Also, cars parked across from my driveway apron four to six evenings a week make it really hard to back out because Tonka Street is so narrow. So I would like to move into my own comments.

I want to just give immense gratitude to the Public Works Department, especially to traffic engineer Eric Lam, who came up with the actual engineering of the trial that we're voting on tonight. I think that we have gotten I have gotten some very good feedback from residents and from the business owner that these changes solved some issues, mitigated or lessened some other issues is definitely a big improvement to the neighborhood. And I encourage my colleagues to vote in favor of this. I think also this is contextually part of bigger issues. I want to assure the neighborhood that I will be continuing to have conversations with Eric Lom and other members of city staff to see what else can be done in the area to address these issues.

And again, just really appreciate everyone taking the time to have deep conversations about this and share their input so that we can have a clearer understanding of what the problems are so that we can look for ways to address them. Thank you.

Any further discussion? Seeing none, we have motion and a second to approve. Please cast your votes. Alder Croak votes aye. Motion passes 13 to zero. That item has been approved. Right. Moving along to the items from the Board of Health. First of which is 20 six-eight, approve the Milk Depot procedure as identified in the attached document. We need a motion.

We have a motion and a second to approve. Any discussion? Alder Schulz.

Thank you, Chair. I just separated out because there was a couple of questions I'd like to ask staff. I watched the minutes or the meeting of the Board of Health and staff moved pretty quickly, so there wasn't much discussion about these things. But just one question, I guess, for this one in particular is how many young mothers are taking advantage of the Milk Depot? Has it been a success to date? I think this was instituted in the beginning of 'twenty five. Is that correct?

Health Officer Seapers, any comments on utilization? Which mic do you have? Okay, go ahead.

Yes, it is a program that does get a lot of use. I would say we probably have between one to three drop offs per week. A drop off could consist of a small amount to an entire freezer full, right? And so many of the latter type

in that Sorry to put you on the spot. You know offhand how many mothers are using the program?

Let's see. Total counts of data, I have those data. I can follow-up on

that. Okay, appreciate that.

And just to be clear, we serve as a depot for the program, so there's an organization that administers the broader program. So Appleton is a collection point and distribution point, but there's an organization that manages the program Okay, I

appreciate that clarification.

All right, Alder Meltzer.

Thank you. I just want to share that I actually got to take a little mini tour of the Milk Depot and see the freezer. And this is just such an amazing resource for our community. I hope we'll all unanimously vote for this. Really impressed with the work that the health department has done on this.

Any further discussion? Hearing none, we have a motion and a second to approve. Please cast your votes. Croats, gotcha. All right that motion passes thirteen-zero. The item has been approved. Next is also from, the minutes of the Board of Health. 20 six-nine approve the overdose education and naloxone distribution program policy as identified in the attached document. We have a motion and a second to approve. Any discussion? Alder Schulz.

Thank you, Chair. Here again, another similar question. Curious to know how we're doing on distribution of kits. I know there's a couple of different types in the community. How does the city feel we're doing on getting these kits available to businesses and individuals who could use them?

Health Officer Seapers, any comments?

Yeah, this program has been in place now for about a year. We've ordered our second sort of set of or cycle of test kits or sorry, the naloxone kits, right? And so with the first year, I believe we ordered 20 cases. We're up to 40 cases in year two. And so with the leave behind program, other things, there's a lot of good partnerships in terms of getting these out.

Thank you. I appreciate the work the health department is doing on this front.

Any further discussion? Hearing none, we have a motion and a second to approve. Please cast your votes. Motion passes 13 to zero. That item the balance of the agenda has been approved. All right. On to consolidated action items. This is oh, I'm sorry. I got ahead of myself. A little rusty after a few weeks. You know, motion on the balance. All right, we got a motion and a second to approve the balance of the agenda. Any discussion on the balance of the agenda? All right. Please cast your votes.

Alder Krott, thank you. All right. That motion passes thirteen-zero. Now the balance of the agenda has been approved. All right. On to consolidated action items. This is 20 six-fifty eight. This is a consolidation of items 25 dash one five three seven, twenty six dash zero zero five four, and twenty five dash zero zero five six, all related to street vacation for a portion of Canal Street. We have a motion and a second to approve. Any discussion?

Hearing none, please cast your votes. Alder Crow, thank you. Alright. The motion passes 13 to zero. Consolidated action items have been approved. We have no items held. Need a motion on the ordinances. We have a motion and a second to approve. Any discussion? Hearing none, please cast your votes.

Alder Crow, thank you. Motion passes 13 to zero. Ordinances have been approved. License applications and communications referred to committees of jurisdiction. All right. Resolution submitted by all other persons referred to committees of jurisdiction. Have there been any resolutions submitted? Submitted?

Yes, there have. Today we have Resolution 1R26 calling for the removal of street parking on College Avenue. This was submitted by Alderson Schultz and Alderson Smith. It reads, whereas College Avenue continues to serve as a primary travel corridor into Downtown Appleton and has recently been reconfigured from two travel lanes to one lane in each direction, and whereas the transition from two lanes to one lane into the primary downtown corridor creates conditions that require clear sight lines, predictable traffic flow, and additional safety measures for motorists, cyclists, and pedestrians. And whereas on street parking anywhere along this corridor contributes to congestion, sudden lane changes, reduced visibility, and increased risk of collisions during the critical transition zone.

Now therefore be it resolved that the city of Ableton remove on street parking along College Avenue and the affected transition zone, primarily between the College Avenue Bridge and Drew Street, to improve traffic safety, reduce conflicts, and support the safe and efficient movement of all users entering downtown. Okay.

That'll be referred to the Municipal Services Committee. Is there any other business? Right. Alder Lambrecht.

Just as a reminder, I sent a message. And thank you to the directors for already taking the video. I'm going to be heading to our sister city, Kanoji, Japan, leaving on Saturday. And so to celebrate their twentieth unification with some local municipalities they have, I'm going to have an opportunity to be a part of that ceremony. And so if you would be willing, any of the elders, to shoot a short video with me afterwards, I would really appreciate sending a message of congratulations to those folks.

We've also been scheming about little gifts we can send along. Every time they come and visit, they bring us gifts. So we'll make sure to send you with a few things. All right. Alder Smith.

Just to all about the Kananji partnership. Did it go? Yeah. Okay. Be good. Also adding a note to what Alder Lambrecht was saying, I'm glad that it's fantastic that he will get to visit Kananji and take some of our greetings. I will be sending out to alders a note about the Kananji program. And we're trying to find Appleton high schoolers who are interested in going. And if you don't know, this is a longstanding sister city program that we have here in Appleton. It was officially voted on back in 1987 with Mayor Dorothy Johnson.

Was and why Kenongji? It didn't work out that way because Kenongji is just a city that's a lot like Appleton. But people who owned Far East restaurant over near St. E's, their son they had a relative in Kanonji. And their son back in the late '80s went to visit them. And there were letters exchanged between the mayors. And then this was officially voted on by common counsel back in 1987. So it is a longstanding program. And we appreciate whenever they when their students come, they visit with the mayor. And it's been a really good experience.

But people are nervous about travel these days, especially for sending out high schoolers and so on. And I'll send an email to each of you just with our flyer and stuff like that. So if you know anybody or channels to let people in Appleton, we really want Appleton students, high school students, to be able to take advantage of the program. So you'll see a note from me. Thank you.

Thank you.

All right. There's no other business. All right. We do have a closed session on our agenda. And so I'll ask if Alder Hartzheim would do the honors of making the motion and reading the full text. Alder Hartzheim.

Thank you. I move that the Common Council goes into closed session pursuant to state statute section 19.85 sub one sub e, deliberations or negotiations on the purchase of public properties, investing in public funds, or conducting other specific public business when competitive or bargaining reasons require a closed session for the purpose of discussing a potential development agreement and investment of public funds related to the redevelopment of the Thrivent Financial for Lutheran's Appleton campus and then reconvene into open session.

All right. We do have a motion, and we have a second to go into closed session. So at this time, I'll ask the clerk to please call the

roll. Alderperson Lambrecht. Aye. Alderperson Meltzer? Aye. Alderperson Perkus? Aye. Alderperson Smith? Aye. Alderperson Van Zeeland? Aye. Alderperson Benton? Aye. Alderperson Hayden? Aye. Alderperson Schultz? Aye. Alderperson Stancell Martin? Aye. Alderperson Wolf? Aye. Alderperson Hartzheim? Aye. Alderperson Crow?

Aye.

Alderperson Dougherty?

Right, the ayes have it. So at this time we will go into closed session. What this means is at this time we'll ask members of the public to please step out. You're welcome to rejoin us after, but there will be no further business on the agenda. We will reconvene into open session and adjourn. So at this time, we'll clear the council chambers. And Alder Krott will also bid you farewell per council rules. So thank you for joining us.

Thank you, Mayor. I'll catch up with you or the attorney's office on this matter.

JAMES Sounds good. JAMES Thanks. JAMES Thank you.