Plan Commission - Regular Meeting

Hey. Good afternoon, everybody. It is four zero four, and I'm alder Henrico Camacho representing District 15. Can everybody hear me? Yeah.

Representing District 15 up by the hospital.

Amanda Roddy, community member.

Mike Crowley, community member.

Andrew Adams Ward, community member.

Mike Anderson, District 10 alderman.

Bob Ford, Ford Construction.

May 20 was it May 9? That's weird because on yeah. Mine says 2025. May 28, 2025.

Second.

Thank you. Any comments or Aye.

Yes. So I'm Jeff Fortin, economic development project manager for the city. Robin Grahams who used to run this has left us for a different job. So I'm taking over this year with our anticipation of whoever we hired to replace Robin will end up doing this committee in the coming years. But I used to do it in the past so hopefully bear with me if there's any if I need any assistance.

So as an overview the city of Waukesha is a we're an entitlement community, means that we meet the qualifications and the size to, receive federal HUD, community development block grant funds. We have an agreement with Waukesha County where they do our admins. They deal with the feds. They also deal with all the nonprofits that apply for these funds every year but we also get a chunk of those monies that are dedicated to the city for city projects so unlike a lot of communities where someone like say Habitat or the Hebron House would come to the city and apply they go to the county. So with our funding that we get we have this committee the advisory committee and it's consisted of citizen members and aldermen and your role really is to look at these requests and we'll kind of get into the two different types of requests and make some determinations on where you want to recommend that the council do their allocations.

So this meeting will have a presentation from the various people that represent the departments that applied for the funds. You can ask questions of them and then we kind of go through and try to work the committee can kind of work on what they think the council should approve for these for the allocations for 2027. And in the past, usually the council takes whatever this board comes up with and that's what they approve. I've never seen switch it around or anything. So with that I guess we can move on to the if there's no I don't know if there's any other questions about it or about the process of the board.

So I guess so for 2027, talk to Waukesha County, our allocation has gone down, went down for 2026 and now for 2027 it's expected to stay at the 2026 level which is shown here. Our expected allocation is a little over it's 233,749, dollars $233,749 Of that, the way this works is we have two separate buckets of money and they can't be mixed together. Facilities, housing and economic development, that's 85% of that allocation must be used for those. And with that, that leaves about 198,687 thousand for those programs or for those projects. And the programs, they're capped at 15%.

The reason they're capped at 15% is because of the agreement we have with Waukesha County programs tend to fall under admin money. So that's where that's why that number is a little lower since the counties don't all our admin and working with all these nonprofits. So that leaves about 15% for city specific programs. And then with that I guess we can move on to next part of the agenda. Next item.

Yep. You could do it or the committee could choose to take what you hear today and then come back a different day. In the past for years we would do it as a two meeting. We do presentations and allocation. The last couple of years it's been pretty close.

So we've tended to just have one meeting I think maybe the last two years maybe three. However this year we've got a lot more requests than money so it's up to the board if you think you want to work on that today have discussions on today. We did make staff recommendations but it was really just kind of based on trying to make equal cuts across the board but it's up to the board if they want to take this information and then come back to a second meeting to make the actual allocation decisions. Yeah. Okay.

I'll let yeah. Yep. You can go ahead. It's just on. Alright.

Good afternoon. Darren Wolford with the city of Waukesha. I'm the traffic engineering consultant for the engineering department. And before you is the application for improving the Grand View Park crossing, from the west side to the east side. The crossing itself on Grand View Boulevard there, if you're unfamiliar, in between North View Road and Summit Avenue and Grand View Park there is on the East side with a more scoped in view on the west side. You can see the the crossing there.

Go to the next slide.

The reason for the upgrade and update, the traffic signal that is currently laid out there right now is 36 old. In general, a traffic signals serviceable life is about twenty five years. So this is well past its service life and there has been numerous issues with this location over recent years with some of the antiquated wiring and everything else associated with it, with it going into flash and then it losing power and everything else. It's been a bit of a a maintenance nightmare for the individuals over at City Garage. And even the pedestrian crossing itself to cross Grandview Avenue is not ADA compliant.

So the proposed improvements that we had for this location was to completely remove the traffic signal itself, but upgrade it to kind of the current standard for this type of crossing, which is a pedestrian hybrid beacon, not a traffic signal, a pedestrian hybrid beacon. I'll have example on the next slide. And then to improve the crossing itself, we would do some pedestrian bump outs in order to shorten the cross crossing distance for the pedestrians and then obviously improve the crossing itself and making it, ADA compliant with the detectable warning fields and the slope of the ramp and everything else. If you go to the next slide, the just very preliminary sketch of the bump out on the left side of your screen there that our engineering department came up with in order to shrink the cross section of the roadway to minimize that crossing length, but still needing to have the travel lane wide enough for standard purposes to accommodate a vehicle and a bicycle to share the roadway itself. And then on the right side is just an example of what a pedestrian hybrid beacon is where it's a three section traffic signal had with two reds on the top and a yellow on the bottom.

And then there's a very particular sequence in order of flashing of the indications to alert drivers for when a pedestrian has pressed the pedestrian push button to alert the driver that a pedestrian is present, be aware, slow down, now stop, pedestrians crossing, you know, flashing red, clear, you know, you can cross the crossing if no pedestrians are now present and then it'll go back into dark and then traffic can proceed through the intersection once again. So with that, keep it short and sweet for you if you have any questions.

Thanks, Derek. Just a quick question on the bump How much are we reducing the crossing of the road?

Yep. So currently right now the approximate distance from face to curb face to curb is about 40 feet and we'd be able to take it down to about 31, 32. And that's very preliminary, you know, we didn't not for construction.

Okay. Thank you.

So obviously we would make City Garage very well aware of the change in the cross section of the roadway at that location. And we've as I'm sure you're aware, we've done other bump outs throughout the city and numerous locations, Summit Avenue, Delfield Street and provide the awareness ahead of time and they know it. They adjust to the change in coming around with their scoops on the plows and and this one would be much more easy compared to much more slight in comparison to some of the other bump outs that are more stark, I would say. I think this is just kind of unfortunately one of those that may have just kind of slipped through the cracks just because it's a very nontraditional traffic signal because it's it is controlling a pedestrian crossing and it's not in the sense a traditional traffic signal where it's controlling an actual intersection, but it hasn't been until more recently within the last two, three years where those maintenance issues really have come to light and there's been a, unfortunately, a couple of knockdowns that really have sparked the interest of improving location as well.

Hi. Thank you so much for this. I drive Grand View every day. I live across the street from this park, and I see the usage of it. I'm familiar with these lights.

Mhmm.

But right now, I'm not envisioning where we have this type any other place in Waukesha and

We do not. No. There there is no pedestrian hybrid beacons within the city limits now. So the example I have on the right actually is the one that's right outside Milwaukee County Zoo.

Yes. Yep. That's where I've seen it. Yep. Okay. I was just I I couldn't place in my head if there's if I'd seen something like this off in Waukesha knowing that the high school was up the road and we got high school drivers up and down that way. Myself and my family crossing the street there. The trash cans that are with from opposite side of the park where the the homes are and stuff. So I had a similar thought to you with put the plows in the trash trucks and the school buses that go down that way every morning. So it I I guess it's more so a statement, not necessarily a question too. But I I mean, I appreciate looking into it and and trying to improve the safety for all in that space. Thank you.

I think we would still work to be budget conscious to try and see if we can fit it within the program with whatever we're allotted through the CDBG program. Program.

Afternoon. Thank you. I'm Melissa Lipska with the Park Rec Forestry Department. So the project we have for you, today, Buckner Park Playground resurfacing. We bring one or two of these projects to CDPG every year for a request.

The resilient surface makes the playground 100% accessible 100% of the time versus like wood chips fiber where after even five minutes, of playing, they they become on level and are no longer considered compliant. So this year the project we're working on is Greenway Terrace, and next year we're proposing to look at Buckner Park. It's one of the older playgrounds in our system. We have 32 playgrounds and this one I believe is a 2,002. So looking to get it replaced.

This one also experiences very heavy usage due to the other amenities in the park like the pool, the tennis courts, the ball field, things like that. So our projected project cost is 250,000. That does include, you can see a little bit, on the close-up and on the aerial. If you're familiar with Buckner Park, there is a switchback trail that goes from the shelter up to the playground that would be replaced as well to maintain ADA compliance so that's why the project cost and the request is a little more this year because it includes sidewalk as well as the surfacing. Any questions?

We would likely request it but the project may be scaled back and not include the full ADA sidewalk replacement. Thank you. So this project is a little unique. Some of you may be familiar, Frame Park Formal Gardens are currently undergoing a renovation, which includes some of the interior pathways on the sunken garden portion, installation of an irrigation system, and storm water drainage, improvements. As the sunken garden, becomes a sunken pond occasionally and we have some even light rains.

So that is what's going on currently. The project we're looking at for next year would be replacement of the flagstone pathway underneath the pergola. So there is a picture on your left there. It actually looks much more flat in this picture than it is. The stones are very uneven.

There are large gaps of soil and, other debris in between them. As far as we can tell, those are original to the gardens, that were built in 1928. So that we want to honor the historic significance, we'd still like to do some upgrades and make it fully accessible for all. And then in addition to that with the historic side of the formal gardens have been constructed in 1928. Also in that picture, see stone pillars and we are looking at having those restored and tuck pointed along with the retaining wall along there to make sure that everything stays structurally sound for another one hundred years.

Entertain any questions?

So you talked about an irrigation system with this since we had a lot more flooding this year. How did that impact what's going on? Did it harm it all as it was or is it still functional? I guess is question.

This spring because the project was still not completed we had the clear stone exposed so the gardens did not get flooded so it did not impact any of the beds that we're looking at planting for the spring.

Sorry it's still functional. Okay thanks.

Hi. Thank you so much for the information. I don't know if you have this answer. I'm just curious. These gardens, they can be rented out for private use. Correct? Correct. Of those fees, do you happen to know where those fees go to?

Those fees go back into our special revenue account to offset items such as we have a formal garden attendant that is hired to monitor the gardens. As you can imagine during wedding season, prom season, people get very particular about their photos and their ceremonies. So we do hire an attendant to be down there as well. The garden fees are fairly minimal. Off the top of my head, I cannot recall but I can look that up.

I knew back in the day too, don't worry about it.

So that is where a chunk of the fees do go back.

Okay. So it's it's goes into a special fund nothing is allocated towards the maintenance or well in a way it is.

In in a way it is with the attendance but the the fees are not as such that that we would be able to pull a significant amount for maintenance at this time.

Thank you. You're welcome.

I just have a comment. My mom graduated from Waukesha High School in 1950 and she took what were kinda like her senior pictures right along this picture you show here.

Oh, in the that would be so neat to see.

Technical question. Yes. On page one and page two, there's two different addresses listed. Is there really such thing as 0 East Moreland?

Yes. So that is the official unofficial address for Frame Park in its kind of proper format for the park overall. So when we work with for example fire for inspections, things like that, backflow inspections. So that is the address we put down. That address specifically is more we look at that more specifically for the restrooms off of Moreland there next to the playground because each backflow needs to have its own address for licensure reasons. So it's probably more than you wanted to know. But yes.

That helps. Yeah. There's just a zero East Moreland and a zero in Moreland. I'm assuming they're both

They're both the same. Yep.

Okay. Thank you. Yes. There are no further questions. Thank you for your presentation.

Next up is community development, Landmark Commission Paint and Repair Grants. We have Charlie. Alright.

So I'm sure you're all familiar with the Paint and Repair Grant program, but just to recap it quickly, the Landmark Commission has been administrating the program since the late since at least the 1990s, serves the owners of residential properties in the city's historic districts also individually designated local landmarks. Most of those properties are in the city's low to moderate income census tracts. Although as of this year, the program isn't restricted to the ones that are in low to moderate income areas. Many of them are modest homes, which are attractive to first time buyers. And both because they're historic and also just because they're all old houses, they have higher upkeep costs.

So the Pay in the Perrier grant program is intended to help offset some of those costs. Grants typically cover about 15% of the cost of a project up to a maximum of $3,000 but the Landmark Commission has flexibility to approve grants that are larger for very good projects or different amounts based on fund availability or any other reason that might come up. There are reimbursement grants. So the work has to be completed, and then the homeowner has to provide a paid invoice and some kind of a proof of payment before the we can send the money out. And in 2025, the Landmark Commission approved 12 grants for a total of $25,350 So that was the 2025 allocation was $25,000 And then the 3 and $50,000 was from a project from 2024 that was not completed.

So they reallocated that money to a different project. All but two projects were completed by the end of the year. So we had some money that was carried over. One of those two has already been completed and had the grant money paid out. And the other one, they're hoping to get it done sometime this spring.

So far in 2026, they've approved five grants for a total of $10,485 out of their $25,000 allocation for this year. And we do have a change to the program as of this year. In the past, it had been restricted to the low to moderate income census tracks, but any property, any basically any work on the historic properties in those tracks was eligible. For this year, they've changed it. I guess it's a change to the way the CDBG regulations work.

But the monitors, the people that we work with at the county have told us that we should change the category to slum slum and blight prevention rather than the base the area basis. So any historic property in the city, any designated historic property in the city is potentially eligible, but the work has to be the Landmark Commission has to determine that the work is is slum slum or blight prevention on a spot basis. So that doesn't mean that the house is currently in ablated condition. It just means that it's that the work that is being proposed would prevent future blight conditions. So typical work like roof replacements and painting certain types of siding would qualify.

But anything that's purely aesthetic probably wouldn't. So the ask this year is for $25,000

Thank you. Questions? Go ahead, Alderman.

Thanks, Charlie. Is there a limit to how often a single homeowner can apply or get granted a grant, I guess?

Yes. The Landmark Commission has generally tried to do not more than two grants for one homeowner on like a rolling five year basis. So if you had one in 2021 and 2025, then you wanted one Units away.

Yes.

Generally, we try to push them towards if somebody is doing work, they should approve a grant. We want to get the money spent. And if people are working on their homes, we want to get it out to them. Thank you.

Thank you. Go ahead, Bob.

Hi. Hi. Do you when the person applies for a grant, do you give them some kind of list of contractors that they could use or have you as endorsed or you on other projects? So they have contractors that know what to do, know what the paperwork to do, get it done?

Well, there's for the paint and repair grants, there isn't the Davis Bacon requirement. So it's a lot simpler for the as far as the paperwork goes. We can't recommend contractors, but we can tell people these are contractors that have done work that was approved by the Landmark Commission in the past. Some types of work, especially window repair for windows that are original, there really aren't very many contractors that do it. So we end up letting them know the same people kind of over and over. But we can't we can't say,

you know No. I understand. You do help them through the process.

As much as we can.

Yeah. And just hey. They've done a lot of window jobs. They really know what hot the city likes to see and

Right.

They know how to do the paperwork and we're not endorsing it but here's a list of potential people to help you out. That kind of thing. That's good. I'm glad to hear that. That's it.

Are there further questions? Thanks very much. Thank you. Next up is downtown and central city wayfinding and placemaking. Yeah.

Think we have public art before that one. Sorry

about that. Public art.

I guess I'll do this one. So in the past, the CBG has funded the public art fund and what this is is takes our downtown which is a low to moderate income area and a neighborhood revitalization strategy area as defined by HUD. And we've been trying to do public art projects to enhance our downtown, bring people downtown and add to what we have. Each year we've been trying to do a couple of different items. A lot of the items that will be coming this year using this year and last year's funding will be for the Friedman Alley plan which was adopted by the common council a couple of years ago.

We're implementing that with various forms of public art, utility box wraps, murals and some other artistic elements there. We've also done the one hundred and twenty fifth anniversary sculpture. So what we intend to do with these funds is likely use it for additional art to finish up this Friedman Alley which most of the actual physical improvements will be done this year but there's a lot of room for additional art there. So that's our intention with that is to do something in or near Friedman Alley with the public art funding.

Questions? None, then thank you. Now we'll move on to downtown and Central City Wayfinding and Placemaking.

Okay. So the Wayfinding and Placemaking as part of an economic development program, the city started this back in 2015, think is our first year where we requested way finding money. And really what this was to help, the city initially did a rebrand of our downtown. After the bid dissolved, we wanted to have a new brand image for downtown. You can kind of see the banners throughout downtown. We also partnered with Carroll University to do banners around their campus, co branded banners. So what we're looking to do with this, after a few years, these are made out of vinyl. After a few years, they get deteriorated. We did have a back stock of it, but we've kind of exhausted the back stock. So what that would be would be replenishing those.

Also a few streets have been done since our last round of funding for our wayfinding program which I believe was '20 maybe '22. So what we're looking to do is also expand the way finding to some of these streets that never received that treatment. So that can include banners and also different way finding signs, parking directional signs, really just anything to kind of help people get around downtown and to help with our place making efforts downtown.

Sorry if this question is really basic but what is the difference between way finding and placemaking?

So wayfinding is really to help people find their, you know, find directions to things. One of the things we've talked about too in the past is some pedestrian signage, especially now that we have, so there's a hotel opening up, the Cobblestone will be opening up next month. With that, we expect more tourism traffic because we really have the one of the biggest driving forces for that Cobblestone is the wedding venues we have here, be it Rotunda, the Courthouse and even Tuscan Hall, so potentially some directional pedestrian signs. And then placemaking, that's kind of the banners that kind of establishes a sense of place. If you notice, we have three different actually four different banner sets and we're looking to add fifth.

We have the downtown ones, are the red ones. We have East Town, which is things East of Barstow, which are yellow. The north of the river, they're kind of a grayish color. We have Riverwalk ones, just to kind of define a different place around downtown. And we have the co branded ones with Carol. And then two years ago, we approved the William Street plan and then William Street is a short block. Right now there's no actual light poles there because of how narrow it is, but we're reconstructing that next year. WeEnergy this year is in the process of bearing those lines and then we're going be able to have some decorative light poles on William Street. So also it could be used for banners and maybe entrance sign on historic William Street.

Thank you.

Thanks, Jeff. Just maybe an impossible question to answer, but do we have any feedback that people care about these, like the public?

That's a good question. I don't know if we have any feedback. I know initially when we first launched them, we did. We had a lot of positive feedback on it. We basically had public input on the logo, really supportive of that. I think probably hasn't been anything recently because people are just used to seeing them. Really the initial impact we got a lot of good feedback on but now they're just kind of part of

the

downtown streetscape kind of like the new planters, the benches. When we reconstructed the street we came up with all these different elements. I think now that people are used to them probably not as not going to really garner much. But I think William Street by putting them on there that's a new street. Think all those businesses are pretty excited about because that street's got a lot of really cool old historic buildings. It's got some pretty strong businesses there and we're kind of bringing the street up to the standard that are kind of more like downtown spec with the pavers, the lights and really just trying to make that look as nice as downtown does. I think there it'll make I think there you will get positive comments on it because it'll be something new and something they really haven't seen there.

Okay. Thank you.

Jeff, the check one on the first page, new project and continuing previously funded project. Oh,

sorry. It should be well, the new project element of it would be William Street because we haven't done anything there, but it is kind of a continuing project. And we've kind of only asked for funds for this when we know that we have a need for obviously new banners or new areas that need to have them put them in there. So it's not like something like Landmark's paint repair, public artwork coming back every year. It's kind of as needed that we apply for money for this.

And the continuing previously funded project, did we initiate that as CDBG? The city did not initialize the first project.

Correct. The first thing we did, the first banners were funded through CDBG through request for CDBG funds. Yep.

So if we did not fund the full 50,000, if we did half, you get maybe half half the signs?

Yes, we do have the signs, we'd probably be strategic about which ones we replaced and where we put them, scale it back. And then we always seek out alternative funding sources for that. But yes, we'd probably scale back to maybe it becomes a two year, three year program just a little bit incremental each year.

Thank you. Any further questions? Go ahead Bob.

Jeff, do you limit banners that stores want to put up or have put up or?

So we don't let them put them on our post because everyone the big question of equity who gets to put them on our banners. But stores can put up their own. We do allow for flags, flag signs. You can see the one at People's Park sticking out the open sign here, projecting signs. But we don't really let any businesses put them up on these on our public signs.

So if somebody does, happens after that? How does that work?

Does what?

Let's say they do, let's say they put things that shouldn't be there.

On one of our poles, we probably have DPW remove it. Well first we'd reach out to them and say you need to get this off. And they're up kind of high so we obviously don't want people going up there anyways. It's not exactly safe for stormers to be climbing up on ladders and swapping these out, especially on some of our larger, not these poles, but the Sheppard Crook poles. We'd definitely reach out. So if you know of any, let me know they're up

there, get them down. The only reason I say it because the city has spent a lot of money doing this program and you hate to see

haven't had any where they've swapped them out at all that I've been aware of. It's always been our city ones in there. The Carroll ones, we did double sided banners, double sided mounts with theirs. They contributed to they actually paid for their banners and then they did a cost share on the other things. So they kind of did their own banners there. We kind of felt that was a little different because it's profit thing, it's a school. There's kind of its own district. So in that case it was and it was part of the one hundred and twenty fifth that we did that through it because they had Carol one hundred and twenty fifth different theme banners and then they came up with this permanent one recently that's kind of co branded with ours.

So they kind of work with you?

Yes, they work with us and they help fund the ones in their district. They helped cost shares was about fifty-fifty split of cost share on those.

Very good.

One more quick question. You mentioned the picture and I'm just looking at the picture now. The one in front of steaming cup. Is there a need for the double sign?

So initially the doubles we did have the intention of swapping swapping out. Out, Okay, okay say it's it's final live season or it's winter that we could swap out different things. Hasn't really come to fruition the way we thought it would with it's just 1st Street from them to have to go and swap them out every season. So typically for our downtown we'll probably see more of the single sided. Now on William Street the way the banners we looked at is already more like Carroll where it'd be a downtown auction.

The firm we hired to do the placement and plan came with a separate William Street thing. In that case on William Street it'd be double, it'd be the they call it Boulevard pulls. That one would still have two but there's only it's a one block thing so there's maybe going to be eight total banners on four posts for that.

So how many right now? I mean, if we're looking to replace the signs.

Yeah.

Are we looking to replace just in this example both of those signs?

In this case, would because it's up there. It'll look kinda weird if we didn't have both of cause it's a boulevard mount. So it would look kind of strange, but we're not looking to add many more of those downtown. I think we're really and if it's a case where it's one's damaged, maybe we could take it off for those. Thank you.

Any further questions? Okay. Thank you, Jeff. Yep. That completes our facilities projects request. We'll now move on to services programs. And we have the first step is senior activity coordinator.

I think we're

gonna do is we're gonna what can you do first then? Oh, whatever you wanna do. Whoever wants to go first. Okay.

I'm gonna do

the screen. Okay.

Sorry. Specialist first.

Yes. That would be great. Hi, everybody. So nice to see you. Gala Evers, recreation supervisor with the city of Waukesha Park and Rec. Thank you all for your support over the years. A couple years ago, we identified a true need in our before and after school and youth development summer programs for an adaptive education specialist. We really want our programs to be as inclusive as possible. We know that in before and after school, we're partnering with the school district of Waukesha. Next year, we'll be in all of their elementary schools providing both before and after school programming.

We also partner with them during the summer for their summer school program. So the kiddos go to the morning summer school program with the school district, then we get them all afternoon. We also provide full day camps in some of our beautiful parks and at some of our facilities. We know there's a tremendous shortage for quality and, more importantly, affordable childcare, And so we've worked very closely with the school district over the last, goodness, probably close to thirty years now trying to really provide, what's necessary for for our families. So the adaptive and inclusion specialist, is a certified teacher who goes into our programs.

She observes students, working in the programs. She also observes our staff, and she really tries to, help kiddos be successful. So if you can imagine, about thirty percent of our students have identified special needs. During the school day, they have an individual education plan and they have a lot of support. When they come to our recreation programs, they don't have that support.

And so we employ a lot of college age students to work in those programs. We train them very, very well, but they're very green. And so this adaptive and inclusion specialists works extremely closely with both myself and my recreation programmer. She can really identify where kiddos need support, and then she can work with the families, the classroom teachers, and our staff in really helping those kiddos be successful. Since we've been able to employ this part time position, we have noticed a significant increase in kiddos being successful in the program and being able to remain in our program.

It's an extremely important position. So in 2025, in both April and May, our, adaptive and inclusion specialist was able to meet student needs across, both our summer youth development programs and before and after school programs. She also helped me partner with four community, partners to provide additional resources, again, to help kiddos stay successful. Like I said, out of our 650 students, eighty five of them are identified special needs and and need additional support and she was able to offer that. And then about a 130 students, have unidentified needs but still maybe suffering from trauma, anxiety, and and some other learning, disabilities.

And so she really is able to work with with those students and help them be successful. You can go to the next slide. So looking forward to 2026, she will be, working, again in all 10 of the elementary school sites. She will be offering ongoing training to equip staff with tools in order to support every student. We are also working on rolling out a new class in fall of twenty twenty six with the idea of really being able to be inclusive and supporting all learners.

So this class will be students that have identified needs and then neurotypical learners and so truly an inclusion which is amazing. And then again, we'll continue to, strengthen our partnerships to better reach families and meet these students' needs.

Very good.

There any questions?

Yes. Clarity,

you said she's gonna be working in all 10 schools. Is she physically going to every building or is she training people to be available in the

So both. So we have four supervisors, so to speak, our our coordinators dedicated to before and after school. It's an extremely large program. And so each day, we handpick different schools that we're going to go to to help with supporting kiddos or doing observations. And so she really goes where the needs are. And so when staff contact us and say, have a learner who's really struggling with x, y, and z, she's, a part of the the leadership team that can go out and observe and work with the student, work with families and the staff.

Okay. Thank you.

But she also helps me lead trainings as well.

Okay. Thank you. Very good. No further questions. We'll have you present for the Swim And Park Play Buckner's Paraport.

Thank you. That would be wonderful. So this is a a great program. It really, came about because we wanted to sort of help, we know there's a significant learning loss all summer long, and we wanted to be able to keep those little minds active, but we also, identified a real true need for water safety. And we have two beautiful pools in our lovely city, and so we work very closely with our aquatics, supervisor.

So this program, we're able to, in the morning, work with kiddos. We do different enrichment, different academic, activities. We partner with the Waukesha Public Library who comes in and does story time both in English and in Spanish. We also partner with, UW Extension for their nutrition program. So Paula comes in and provides some great nutritional, classes.

And then we have a phenomenal partnership with Saint Vincent de Paul. They work with their volunteers to actually serve a really nutritious, healthy meal to, our kiddos and their entire families. And so it's a great program. They're with us all morning. We're doing fun, enrichment, engaging activities. We walk them over to the pool. Our lovely lifeguards and swim instructors are there to meet and greet them. They get a half hour swim lesson, and then we go back to the park, finish up some cool play, and then, have a have a lovely lunch together. It's a remarkable program. Last year at both Horb and Buckner Pool, we had 22 participants.

A 100% of them improved in their water safety, a 100% at Horb improved in organization perseverance and social skills, and then a 100%, were provided, a healthy meal from Saint Vincent de Paul. Over at Buckner, very similar stats as well. It's been a really successful programs. Our families definitely appreciate it. And, again, just knowing that these kiddos brains are being activated all summer and they're getting some wonderful water safety skills has been phenomenal.

Families do, have to apply, they do have to meet the qualifications of the HUD, to in order to have this be a free program. For families that don't qualify. They can also, we have a fee based program as well and then also our lovely financial assistance program will come into play. So we really don't wanna leave any kiddo, any family out. We really work hard to make sure that if they wanna come and attend this program, they can.

So looking ahead to 2026, we'll continue to build water safety skills for our youth across expand our partnerships for daily meals support during the program. We'll continue to strengthen those social skill development through structured recreation and, we really wanna maintain that 100% participation and improvement benchmarks. Can I answer any questions?

Questions.

If you're ever free during the program, come on out and see us. Lunch is served at 11:30. They love visitors. Thank you all so much again. Oh, and I added some photos because I know a couple years past, someone's like, we wanna see photos. This is our fabulous staff team. They're hardworking group. A lot of them attend, Carroll University and Ethnos three sixty Bible College. A lot of retired teachers come and work for us. So it's a good crew working with our youth throughout the city. Thank you, guys.

Thank you, Gail. K. Next up, senior activity coordinator.

Evening, everyone. Loving kind recreation supervisor with Park, Park and Forestry. So I'm just gonna go over provide a brief overview of the senior activity coordinator position and its role underneath the CPG grant. This is a continuing CBG funded position that directly supports seniors programming for adults 55 and older. The senior activity coordinator plans, coordinates, and facilitates senior activities, manages volunteers and partners, and ensures programs remain accessible, organized, and responsive to community needs.

Funding supports a range of free senior activities, including bimonthly programs such as our concerts, bingo, banco, and other events and offerings that's provided by that. These programs serve as a critical access point for seniors, particularly those living alone or in low low income housing. These individuals face a higher risk of isolationism, which is the main reason why we wanna get them out in these programs. As outlined in the application, these offerings directly support programs, goals of increasing participation, improving social connectedness, enhancing health and wellness, and expanding awareness of our community resources that the city provides. We also have partnerships and collaborations with the aging aging and disability resource center and our Waukesha Housing Authority.

If funding were reduced or limited, this position would no longer be fully supported, and these free senior offerings would need to be transitioned to a fee based programming or possibly discontinued altogether. In summary, funding is essential to maintaining staff capacity, meeting measurable outcomes, and ensuring equitable access to our senior services in Waukesha. So this position has been ongoing for the past several years. Our seniors truly see the benefit of this senior activity coordinator. They get that really connection to social aspect of this. So that position just puts a person inside those programs instead of just someone in an office. So they're very hands on, they're very approachable, and they're really relatable to just the entire program as a whole. Do you have any general questions I can answer?

Questions? Hearing none. Thank you. Thank you very much Logan. Okay.

Well, that completes our presentations of for our facilities and services programs. And the next item on our agenda is a review and possible action on a recommendation of the common council on the 2027 allocation resolution. As chair, I would like to propose, if we can, because we have all committee members present, if we think that we can have a conversation or reach a consensus on allocations, that we try to do that still while we're here this evening. What I would like to do is ask staff. So if Jeff would want to present staff's recommendations to us, we could review that first and then come back to us for conversation.

Does that work with the pipeline? Very good. That's what we'll do.

So

I'll turn it over to Jeff to present SaaS revenue.

Yeah. So ours were just

we kinda basically just trying balance things out and cut things and put around. So not a whole lot of research into other funding source or anything. But for I'll start off with the facilities housing economic development. What we did there was just kind of took 60 recommended 65,000 towards Grand View Park. We did 63,687 towards the Buckner Playground surface as opposed to the Frame Park Formal Garden.

So we looked at that and like thought that maybe that's a priority project serves an LMI neighborhood nearby. Buckner Park while itself is not an LMI area it does it is kind of on the on the north and east is kind of surrounded by one so that's why we kind of prioritize that project but there wasn't that's some reason for that recommendation. Public art fund we cut by 25%. Landmark's paint repair we did leave that 25 that's a program that really helps when you have a historic home and always costs a little bit more to meet those landmark standards that money gets every year gets fully spent. So we left that at $25,000 A way finding we also cut down by 25% to $37,500 So that was really the just trying to make an across the board cut there for these programs.

It's kind of up to the board how they want to really move things around among the facilities housing and economic development programs. Moving to programs a little easier. It's all one department, it's parks doing it. So I just reached out to them. Said here's the expected allocation and then they gave me the numbers that they thought would work best with their programs and alternatives funding sources.

So in that case, these are based on park staff recommendations to us. It's twelve thousand five and sixty two for senior activity, 20,000 for the adaptive education specialist and then 2,500 for the Buckner and or Horro Park swim and play programs. So I would think for the programs that recommendation since it's not competing among different projects would has more of a sound like more thought when to I think just because that's how they think it'll work best for their budget.

Thank you Jeff. Does that conclude your

Yes. I know in the past sometimes we've kind of just put in numbers here and kind of average it out. But if you however you want to approach it, that's fine. We'll kind of work within that.

Okay. I'd like to recommend to the committee is to work on the program services allocation first as that looks relatively easy to address. Just go ahead, Alderman.

Overall question. Just for my own understanding, Jeff, what's the benefit of partially funding everything versus fully funding something?

I guess it's, I don't if it's a benefit or not, it's sort of we just kind of tried to balance it out so we weren't cutting from we did cut from the we'd recommend zero for the Frame Park Formal Garden one but I think in that case that's where we kind of made that decision like the money for those two parks projects we thought it better go into Buckner Park. And then we just kind of we sort of spread across the board. That's really why it just touches more programs. That's why we split it up. But in the past we've had it kind of where what our recommend what the requests were, we're kind of in line with what we actually had.

This is the first year in a while that we've had higher requests than amount of money for the program. So that's the way we did it this time. But it's kind of up to the Board if you'd rather prioritize a single project or two single projects that's kind of in your purview.

And is there any understanding as to why the requests were so much higher this year than?

Well, obviously the cost of everything goes up just maybe some bigger projects. Typically in the past we'd have maybe one ADA project and it's a little bit less expensive or we combine the ADA and resilient surfaces and try to fund it through there. We started just getting more requests this year. And like I said, adding that way finding which we hadn't done in a few years that also added to that.

I'm just curious, thank you.

Yeah, I think it's just opportunity for money people want to apply for it and we want to try to offset cost of taxpayers on these projects through federal funds.

That's excellent question. I'm glad you asked that. As I and Emmy have been on the committee for a long time, I think you're close to a quarter century. Thanks. It's my twenty eighth. And we have and this goes way back to Steve Crandall days Yeah. When he was community development director. And we used to use a chalkboard, and we'd get up there and write our numbers on the chalkboard and always tried to balance it out for fairness. There were reductions in some of the projects and has been explained that they can still complete projects, but not maybe to the extent that they they would like. And it encouraged the applications to continue to come in through the years.

And with the work that staff does leading up to this to come to their recommendations, they've got the best knowledge of how to allocate and get the biggest bang for the buck out of what we have to work with. And this is one of the largest I think this is probably in the top two of the largest requests that I recall. So it makes it a little bit more difficult to prioritize. But all the projects and programs are worthy. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been presented to us. That was another reason why we try to balance it out. I hope that helps.

I'll add a little bit to that. Additionally, sometimes when we have, like, a a bigger project, like, the crossing or the playground surfaces sometimes with the CDB allocation and the council resolution for those allocations in place when it comes to the Community Investment Program budget the five year you know CIP budget, the departments are requesting those could then come to the council and finance committee in the council with the request saying okay next year or we'd like to do Buckner Park playground surface In addition, here's our total request. We also can offset that with X amount of money as CDBG funds. So it does help with our budgeting later in the year for each of these projects. Now you'll get something like Landmark's Painter and Pair and others we recommend $25,000 that's not really anything that the city would ever fund out of our own budget.

So that's why we kind of also left that as it like whereas things like you do wayfinding typically public art too we wouldn't fund that out of our budget. We try to do almost all that with grant money or donations. So those projects tend to be something if we did put in the budget be probably one of the first things cut but some of the other projects it's just a way to kind of help it kind of reduce the cost of it when we get into the CIP planning. Are

there any of the requests involved that would not be able to get funding from any other source?

I would say the Landmark's paint repair is probably the one that would not be able to get funding from any other source in that case. We do have some other loan programs that they could tap into that's not tied to landmarks and that's a loan you have to pay it back. So we have what's called our affordable housing rehab program. There's income eligibility requirements and house value eligibility requirements for that. That's a revolving loan fund that we created using tax incremental finance extensions.

So that could potentially help some landmarks applicants. However, due to income and income regulations, may not help all of them. So there's a little offset there. Sometimes wayfinding could be wrapped into other projects like William Street, There's a budget for that streetscape there so that could probably be offset in a portion that could be offset there. We have the we won't be able to do the full impact but there's additional fundings. And obviously the other ones, the bigger ones would be like the wayfinding would also probably be a CIP item because they're kind of bigger tickets.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. So again, going back to the programs portion with the three applications. I'll start off our conversation to see if we can make some consensus on this. The one that I disagree with staff on is only partially funding swim or play. That program seems to me as having that fully funded at the request set amount of 4,000.

I would like to do that, and and then what we would do is split that difference of $2,469 being subtracted from the 15 and subtracted from 1,000. That way that someone in park play program would be fully funded at $4,000 for the request. That would just be a recommendation. Open this up for discussion.

Well, I think that, for example, the senior activity reaches more people than the playground program. I'm assuming the adaptive education specialist. I forgot how many she said you had in the program last time. Thank you.

Yeah, think in this case too similar to the stuff above in the facilities. You may want to see with parks what our alternate funding sources to make up that gap are like these recommendations didn't come technically they came from parks if when we told them what the budget was but obviously it's up to the board but you may want to find out what ones are easier to offset that money from. And you said that was 4,000, Mike? Can you tell me talking about?

Yes. They just fully fund that that 4,000 versus the staff recommendation of 25. Is that something could be worked with, or would it be preferred here for those?

We appreciate your support wholeheartedly. With these women park play, we are able to utilize our financial assistance program as well. So which is why I felt comfortable reducing that program a little bit. With the adaptive and inclusion education specialist, we don't really have an opportunity to do that because these are already enrolled in development program. So that's why I decided to reduce the part for play, I thought we could still accommodate at least 45, 50 kittles with the $2,500 knowing that some families may be able to support program fees, and I could use some of that revenue to offset some of that.

Understood. Thank you for that assistance in our conversation. I'll open up to fellow committee members on your thoughts, staff recommendations, or would you have an interest in giving it up a little bit differently? If there's a staff recommendation that one of you would like to make a motion on we can do that.

So just to clarify, they did 25 for each program 25% or?

No, 2,500.

Yeah, think for the 25% was kind of how we made some of the cuts on like the public art and wayfinding we cut 25% from those. That's where that's coming from.

Okay, thank you.

I would entertain a motion for staff's recommendations then for the project our programs portion of our allocation. So as you see Is

that what excuse me, question, is that with your amendment, Mike?

No, no amendment. I open it up just for discussion about the 2,500 versus 4,000 for the request. But with the explanation from Kayla and from Jeff, I am okay with that being funded at 2,500. Okay. Recommending. I'm actually okay with that too, so I can make a motion to pass staff's recommendations.

I'll second.

Very good. Further comment? Hearing none, then all in favor of staff's recommendations as we see. I. Please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Unanimously approved. Thank you. Next up, it gets a little more interesting. If there's any favoring of one project over another. But I will open it up. As as chair, I'll just say that I am comfortable with what staff is recommending for this allocation as well. All Go ahead Alderman.

Just to clarify for the staff recommendations for this part, everybody was had their input and we're okay with the number that was eventually submitted?

I think in this case it was really just us trying to cut it cut sort of across the board whereas in the past these are different departments kind of all submitting so it's a little harder to to do that when this case below they're all parks departments so it's like which one do you guys have funding for. So this one really was just us trying to equalize everything but it's as far as we don't really look at alternative funding sources or anything like that it was just kind of trying to cut to get in the budget. But again the priorities of the board is really what takes precedence here. So if there's ones that you think you have more funding or less or no funding that's kind that'd be your role here. I mean the way finding if you want to cut some out of that that'd be we could manage that and then spread out across more years.

That's an easy one to spread out across a couple of years.

Okay thank you.

Thank you. I do have a question on the Grand View Park Crossing that was funded at $65,000 versus $200,000 would only part of those improvements take place? What they'd probably do is

then submit it for CIP budget with this being the offset. Okay. So here's the total cost of that x amount, whatever you recommend, we'll cover that part of it and then requesting CIP funds to cover the rest of it as a 2027 project.

Excellent. Okay.

Yes. More more I thought about it. More I had follow-up questions to this particular one. The first question is, what is the lifespan of this new light model? I'll ask that first.

I'll have Darren do that. You can maybe address the other funding source part of it too. Didn't realize you're back there still. Sorry.

So your question was the new lifespan for the pedestrian hybrid vegan?

Yes.

It would be at least twenty five years with some of the newer infrastructure that would be in place. It would be more comfortable to say we could that could be extended more to probably thirty years.

Okay. And then what do you know offhand what the cost difference is from what's currently there to what you're proposing? Like, the light that's there now.

Okay.

Like, how much would it be to just replace what's there versus this

new even available.

Or if it's even available. Yes.

So with what is there with what is there now is like a traditional traffic signal, it wouldn't really be the recommended installation for that just because of the type of control that it is. But similarly to

that,

it may be not much cheaper in the grand scheme compared to the pet hybrid installation, maybe 10,015 thousand dollars less in comparison for the infrastructure portion and that doesn't include the crosswalk pedestrian bump out improvement.

So the 200,000 requests includes all of it, the light, the bump out, everything.

That is correct.

You for the clarification.

Was that the budget? That what you're

Darren, one more. For

the budget would that be what you'd be looking to do then if it's not fully funded and go to CIP then for next year?

Correct. Okay.

Going back to the lights, why not something similar to by the courthouse?

So that was an item that was discussed upon. But with what currently exists out there with it being a traffic signal.

Full stop. It

was requested that something similar to the traffic signal, but current practice of a traffic signal be replaced in kind.

Okay. Thank you.

I also think it makes a difference with it mainly being adults crossing at the courthouse, my opinion. Did I miss something on why we have a zero for the formal gardens? The staff We just got

Sorry. That's up to you if you want move around. We just kind of figured that the Buckner Park would be a priority given again the community served I mean obviously everybody uses the formal gardens as well we thought the resilient playground service with additional EDA enhancements serving that low to moderate income neighborhood to the north of there. Obviously of the Habitat Subdivision that's going to be finished this year. So that's why that was our rationale behind it, but that was just trying to make, know, trying to dump the money there and then maybe find a different funding source for the other aspect of it. But that was really the only reason behind it was the impact to the neighborhood between the two projects.

Can you put the screen back up on that?

Yes, sorry I was trying show that cross mark but let's go back. You're talking about this one or the Yes. Yeah.

Okay.

So we need to see the top. Oh no, never mind. Sorry, sorry, never mind.

That's recommendations, the actual request I can scroll up there if I see the request up here.

Go back to staff's recommendation.

Yeah. Thank So

with that, any other comments on the projects and what staff is? You have a feeling one way or the other. And if you're comfortable with staff's recommendations, would someone like

to accept that?

Further discussion staff's recommendation

was the second on that Amanda okay thanks

there are no further discussion and all in favor of staff's recommendations, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Animously approved as recommended. Thank you. That made things very easy to get through. Thanks for your thoughtful comments and questions. We have no further business this evening. So I would just take a motion to adjourn.

Okay.

So motion and second. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Adjourn 05:20.

Thank you. Thank you. So

next up will this be presented in the next time council meeting.

It'll be, I don't think it'll be on council's next week. Think it might be on the first one in June. Okay. Well, I'll shoot an email to the committee when when we have that scheduled for council.