Municipal Services Committee - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon. I would like to call tonight's meeting of the Municipal Services Committee for Monday, September 21st to order. Please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Thank you. I'd like to move on then, please. Oh, roll call of membership. Let the record show that all members are present. Thank you very much. Good job, you guys. Item number 26-1223, approval of minutes from the August 10th Municipal Services Committee meeting. Do I have a motion, please?

Second. Motion and a second. Are there any changes, comments, questions? There being none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstentions? All right, that passes 5-0. We have no public hearings or appearances, so we'll move on to the action items. Our first is item 26-1224, request to approve a relocation order for the right-of-way acquisition associated with reconstruction of Badger Avenue. Could I have a motion, please?

Motion and a second. Deputy Director Neuberger. District 2, look at you. All right.

And correct me if I'm wrong, this is not any kind of city taking it over. We're actually, as a city, offering to purchase these pieces of property.

Excellent, any questions from committee? All right, there being none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? All right, that passes 5-0. Item number 26-1225, request to approve free parking in public parking ramps and downtown metered stalls for Small Business Saturday 2026 with ADI, which is Appleton Downtown Incorporated, providing a financial contribution of $1,600. Could I get a motion, please? I have a motion and a second. Director Youngworth.

Thank you, Chair. So this, just to put it out there, does follow the same format as last year that was approved. With it being that ADI covers the cost for the meters and the city covers the cost for parking in the parking ramps. And then that would allow small business Saturday users to park downtown for free that day. Again, we've always in some form or fashion provided some sort of free parking and we're just following the same format as last year. The one change that we did propose for this year is we have new technology, which is very exciting in the parking utility, and we're hoping to u

New speaker likely not. Yes, we want it tied to Small Business Saturday, not just any transient user. And we really want to promote both visitors of the downtown businesses and, again, promotion for the event specifically. That's part of the reason, too, why we just don't want the arms up. We would like it structured for that event specifically. Okay.

Thank you. Any other question? Oh, Alder Fergus.

Thank you, Chair. So with that in mind, will that information then maybe be, could that be shared with the council? We could help with dissemination then as we get closer to the date. Just make people aware that that's what is expected for getting the free parking is having that QR code then.

Exactly. And this is why we bring this forward now so that ADI has that opportunity to promote, distribute that information. Like I said, they plan on putting that QR code right into their brochures that they hand out and distribute. So yes, that information will be posted out there and we'll do the same on our parking page. And then actually, when we met with chair last week, we discussed after the event, we'll be able to come back and explain to committee here what we saw, what we experienced, how is this working for us, what can we do in the future? So that's something we'll plan on bringin

doing a really good job keeping a pulse on that and seeing what we can do with what we have so really exciting we're excited to see how it goes thank you I'm I'm oh are you no I just just saying it sounds great that's all excellent I appreciate that second portion because I am concerned about we right now have just an estimate of what we think the parking utility will lose as far as the city's contribution to small business Saturday And we may have to adjust our expectations and ask ADI for more if it turns out that we're filling the parking ramp and not compensated appropriately for at least

This will give us that data to evaluate as we proceed.

Are you worried? Is anyone in the parking utility worried at all about this large-scale functionality on a, here we go, giddy up, let's do this on Small Business Saturday?

As far as I understand, we've been doing smaller trials of this, more isolated to, you know, we'll say a conference or just in a smaller setting, smaller group. So I think we're starting to use it, starting to get a pulse on how it'll function, we've done a lot of trials with it. So fingers crossed, we don't have issues. The other perk to this is this hopefully gets folks signed up in Passport and gets a Passport profile set up. Even though if you do scan the QR code, it's not required to set up a user account. You can go web-based to Passport and utilize and log in as a guest, or not log in a

Excellent. Any other questions, concerns? All right. There being none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? All right. That passes 5-0. Item number 26-1232, request to approve a speed limit change on French Road between Evergreen Drive and the South City limits. Do I have a motion?

Motion and a second. This one is close to my heart, because I use this street all the time. Traffic Engineer Long.

I'll say thank you, but I don't mean it. The rest of my constituency will be very angry when I vote to approve this, just because I want it to be a straight shot. I would prefer it to be 45 as well, but I absolutely understand.

All right, there being none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

That passes 5-0. We have no information items, so we'll move on to item number eight. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye.