August 29, 2007

Campout Gala '07


The Girls Scouts of the Fox River Valley are holding their Campout Gala fundraiser at the Grand Chute Girl Scout Program Center Saturday, September 8. The event starts at 6pm and is $75 per person. According to their Web site, the event will include a "fun-filled evening of camp-themed activities, gourmet camp-inspired cuisine and s'mores with an elegant twist await. Pair your sequins with your khakis and your tux with your t-shirt for an event like no other. No tents, no latrines, no sleeping bags…just a few hours of fun to relive the best of your childhood camping experiences."

Organizers are still looking for volunteers. Opportunities include assisting with fun activities, supervising silent auction tables, and kitchen duty. An orientation will be held on Thur., Sept. 6 at 5 p.m.

The Girl Scouts of the Fox River Area, serves girls and adults in Outagamie, Winnebago, Waupaca, Shawano, Menominee and part of Calumet Counties. This is the biggest fundraiser of the year.

For tickets or to signg up as a volunteer, contact Kelly at 920-734-7079, ext. 27 or kmundell@gsfra.org

August 23, 2007

Solar/Wind power ordinance update

As you may know, the wind/solar power ordinance has been sent back for further investigation by the Plan Commission. The challenge surrounding this ordinance is the fact that a state statute supersedes any town ordinances. The following is a Wisconsin state statute that must be the basis for the town ordinance regarding alternative solar and wind energy:

66.0401 Regulation relating to solar and wind energy
systems. (1) AUTHORITY TO RESTRICT SYSTEMS LIMITED. No
county, city, town, or village may place any restriction, either
directly or in effect, on the installation or use of a solar energy system, as defined in s. 13.48 (2) (h) 1. g., or a wind energy system,
as defined in s. 66.0403 (1) (m), unless the restriction satisfies one of the following conditions:
(a) Serves to preserve or protect the public health or safety.
(b) Does not significantly increase the cost of the system or significantly decrease its efficiency.
(c) Allows for an alternative system of comparable cost and
efficiency.

In addition, new subdivisisons are not allowed to ban such alternative energy sources in their restrictive covenants.

So far, residents that choose to use these types of power sources must follow the regular setback lines (usually 6 feet) and height restrictions of approximately 2.5 stories.

The Plan Commission and Community Development are working to create an ordinance that complies with state laws, protects health and public safety of town residents while allowing residents the right to alternative power sources.

August 22, 2007

August 17 meeting minutes available

Minutes from the August 7th town board meeting have been approved and can be downloaded for viewing.

August 21, 2007

Fire station cost breakdown

I've had requests for a cost breakdown of the fire station. This is public information and available at the town hall. The project is capped at the $4.496 million amount. If you, or someone you know would like to bid on this project, contact the Town Hall for more information.

Formatting here does not allow for tables, so please excuse the alignment issues.

Estimates
Building Construction Costs
Excavation & Backfill $ 109,000.00
Temporary Fencing $ 12,000.00
Concrete $ 283,146.00
Rebar Material $ 35,000.00
Precast Concrete $ 16,100.00
Masonry $ 327,150.00
Miscellaneous Steel $ 82,001.00
Carpentry $ 111,722.00
Joint Sealing $ 25,000.00
HM Frames/Doors/Hdwe $ 72,868.00
Overhead & Coiling Doors $ 58,000.00
Aluminum Doors/Wdws/Glazing $ 46,250.00
Drywall/Studs/Building Insulation $ 156,100.00
Tile $ 19,800.00
Acoustical Ceilings $ 28,000.00
Carpet/Vinyl/Athletic Flooring $ 45,244.00
Painting $ 50,000.00
Specialties $ 37,934.00
Lockers $ 26,815.00
Operable Partition $ 19,440.00
Main Entry Canopy Allowance $ 55,000.00
Pre-Engineered Metal Building Frame $ 400,000.00
Plumbing $ 100,000.00
Fire Protection $ 37,500.00
HVAC $ 375,000.00
Electrical $ 300,000.00
General Conditions $ 348,530.00
CM Services $ 135,400.00
Subtotal $ 3,313,000.00

CM Fee $ 93,000.00
Building Construction Subtotal: $ 3,406,000.00


Other Project costs
Site Utilities $ 25,000.00
Asphalt Paving $ 80,000.00
Site Paving/Concrete $ 75,000.00
Landscaping $ 25,000.00
Plymovent Exhaust System $ 150,000.00
Furniture/Fixtures/Equipment $ 145,000.00
Electric Generator $ 70,000.00
Technology $ 120,000.00
Architectural and Engineering Fees $ 300,000.00
GCFS Owner Contingency $ 100,000.00
GCFS Subtotal: $ 1,090,000.00

Total Project Cost: $ 4,496,000.00

August 16, 2007

Grand Chute Kiwanis

Grand Chute Kiwanis recently held a brat fry to raise funds

The following post is a shameless promotion for an organization of which I am a member. It's the Grand Chute Kiwanis. The Kiwanis mission is to serve the children of the world. Locally, our chapter achieves this through organizing Parks Day, volunteering at events, and raising money to purchase equipment for charitable causes like Camp Sandy Wheels or donating to fundraisers like the Backpack for Kids campaign.

The Grand Chute Kiwanis meets every Tuesday at Noon at the Golden Corral on Westhill Blvd. Meetings include speakers discussing a wide variety of topics, and planning our next events. If you are interested in joining this organization, please contact Ron Toshner at toshner@fvtc.edu for more information.

Sorry the posts have been a little sporadic these last two weeks. I'm currently building a house in Slinger and have been away from a computer.

August 13, 2007

Free-standing Solar Collectors and Small Wind Energy Generators

The Planning Commission was to review Zoning text ammendment Z-06-07 relating to the Free-standing Solar Collectors and Small Wind Energy Generators at the July 17, 2007 meeting. The Planning Commission deferred giving a recommendation to the Town Board until more information could be gathered based upon residents' concerns. The draft was sent back to the staff for futher review.

The Town Administrator informed me today that Mick Sagrillo will be speaking to the Planning Commission at the August 21 meeting. Mr. Sagrillo is a founding member of the Midwest Renewable Energy Association and is considered a leading expert on wind technology. Mr. Sagrillo will be answering questions from the Commission and residents at the Planning Commission meeting at 6pm.

If you have a question for Mr. Sagrillo and are unable to attend the meeting, please email your concerns or post in the comment section. I will be happy to relay them to Mr. Sagrillo. The Planning Commission is scheduled to re-look at the ordinance at the September 4th meeting. Their recommendation will be forwarded to the Town Board for vote at the September 18th meeting.

August 9, 2007

July 17 meeting minutes available

Minutes from the July 17th town board meeting have been approved and can be downloaded for viewing.

August 6, 2007

National Night Out


Grand Chute is participating in National Night Out tomorrow evening. The event will be 7-9pm at Arrowhead Park. This year's theme is throwing a "going-away party for drugs and crime." The Grand Chute Police Department will be on hand along with McGruff the Crime Dog, Grand Chute Citizen's Police Academy and other local organizations. National Night Out events promote neighborhood spirit and police-community partnerships in our fight for safer communities.

NATIONAL NIGHT OUT is designed to:
  • Heighten crime and drug prevention awareness;
  • Generate support for, and participation in, local anticrime programs;
  • Strengthen neighborhood spirit and police-community partnerships; and
  • Send a message to criminals letting them know that neighborhoods are organized and fighting back.
According to Matt Peskin, the executive director of the National Association of Town Watch, this year, 11,000 cities are participating in all 50 states, and an expected 35 million people will attend neighborhood events.

Hope to see you there!

August 3, 2007

Trails plan


A greenway trails system is also proposed. The plan is to link all parks and points of interest within the community. Approximately 16 miles of trails are proposed in the plan including the existing bike and pedestrian crossings of USH 41 near the Technical College and again at CTH A to Town Hall. Click the above map to zoom in on the trail map.

The overall scheme for trail locations is to incorporate the Town of Grand Chute trails with the Fox Valley trail system. The greatest opportunities for connections are from the Town of Menasha CTH CB Trail to Bubolz Nature Preserve and Bubolz Nature Preserve to the City of Appleton Apple Creek Trial, and Plamann Park. To achieve this goal, the trail designations in the Town are:

Backbone—High Priority Trails
Arrow Head Park to CTH CB Town of Menasha Trail
CTH A (Lynndale Drive) to Bubolz Nature Preserve via Warner Estates
CTH A to Apple Creek City of Appleton Trail via Elsner Road
Gillett Street to Plamann Park via Art Lecker Wilderness Park
Bubolz Nature Preserve west from the preserve to Town of Greenville via stream to the west.

Neighborhood Loop/Spur Trails
A number of neighborhood loops and spurs are planned to serve developed and developing neighborhoods. These loops or spurs would connect to the entire Fox Valley system. Some of the planned neighborhood loops and spurs are:

Capitol Drive Area
Gillett Street Wetlands
Cedar Crest Neighborhood
Michaels Drive Spur
CTH A extended south of Capitol Drive

August 2, 2007

Future parks in Grand Chute

According to the Parks Commission Plan, key sites should be preserved for future park purposes. New parks are proposed in several places. These include:

Northwest Neighborhood
McCarthy Rd. north of Capitol Drive. Developer easement has provided the start for this park location.

Town Hall Municipal Complex Neighborhood
The Town has ample land for providing a neighborhood park for the development around Town Hall.

Gillett Street Neighborhood
North of USH 41. Developement is progressing in the neighborhood and subdvisions on the east side of the stream should be required to dedicate parkland to serve the neighborhood.

Warner Creek Neighborhood—Appleton Alliance Church
The church will be constructing a neighborhood park with addtional sports fields by 2008. The town has authroity to install a parks shelter and restrooms on the site.

Brookview Park
Developer dedication has provided the start for this small neighborhood park.

Long-Term Future Community-Wide Parks
The town will continue to grow to the north of USH 41. In addition to the neighborhood parks needed to serve these new neighborhoods, community parks will also be required for larger-scale parks that will include multiple sports fields and other recreational priorities. the general location of these community-wide parks are:

Community park—CTH JJ between STH 47 and Gillett Street
This park could be used as a buffer area between the commercial and industrial along STH 47 and residential singl-family planned. there are mulitiple streams and wetlands that could be used to increase public open space in this area of town.

Community Park—N. McCarthy Road
This park could be used as a buffer from the single-family development planned for this area and Bubolz Nature Preserve. There are multiple location sthis park could be located along the west side of Bubolz.

Existing park improvements

The following are park improvements recommended by the Parks Commission to be completed by 2012.

Carter Woods park
Construct temporary restroom facilities/screening to serve the soccer field
Install additional landscaping
Install security lighting

Patriot Park

Parking lot addition
Replace plaground equipment

Grand Chte Lions Park
Install walkway security lighting
Install additional landscaping
Install an accessible playground

Arrowhead Park

Boardwalk benches
Install security lighting
Possible expansion to the west

Prairie Hill Park

Install security lighting
Install additional landscaping
Northside—Picnic Pavillion
Northside tennis court
Nortside road, parking utilities
Northside playground
Install Interpretive Signs around pond and open house

Art Lecker Wilderness Park
Develop trail connection through park from Plamann Park to Bubolz Nature Center. Prepare concept plan for the eventual development of this site. Develop per plan for possible archery range and/or dog park.

August 1, 2007

Exisiting and undeveloped park lands


Currently, there are 1,435 acres of public and private recreation or open space in the Town of Grand Chute. The Town owns 5 parks containing 105 acres of land. Outagamie Couonty owns Plamann Park, which contains 258 acres and is located in the northeast part of the Town. The County also operates a dog park of about 12 acres at the northeast corner of French Road and Northland Avenue. Grand Chute is also the home of Gordon Bubolz Nature Preserve. This is a 775 acre independent, nonprofit wildlife preserve and environmental education facility. Click on the above map to zoom for park locations.

Town residents may be interested to know there are also four plats of land that are designated as undeveloped park lands. They are:

Art Lecker Park (number 11 on map)
the undeveloped 42.2 acre area, which occupies the town's former landfill site north of CTH JJ between CTH A and STH 47, provides an opportunity for expanded recreational lopprotunities in the town. the landfill operation was limited to well less than half the site; it is estimated that nearly three quarters of the tract remains in its wooded natural state. One potential use of the site may be as an archery range or a dog park.

Brookview Park (number 23 on map)
This undeveloped 2.6 acre peice was dedicated as part of a multi-family housing project.. The park could be expanded to about 5 acres with additional parkland dedication in a subsequent subdivision process. The parkland borders a stream on the south side and the park could serve as a neighborhood park.

Appleton Alliance Church-park easement (number 6 on map)
when Appleton Alliance Church proposed to construct their new facilities on the southwest corner of CTH A and Grand Chute Bld., the Town and church representatives worked to provide open space and a neighborhood park as part of the development. The church owns about 10 acres of land on the west side of their property. The church will be constructing 2 soccer fields, 2 ball fields and a playground by 2008. The facilities will be open to the public and serve as a neighborhood park.

Northwest Park
-park easement, partial (not shown)
On the northwest side of the Town, near the corner of McCarthy Road and Cobble Creek Drive, the Town has accepted a park easement for part of a future park. The area is in the Outagamie County Airport Overlay Zone, and lot sizes are a minimum of 1-acre. The developer offered about 1-acre in the subdivision as a park easement. The plan would be to add additional acreage with a subsequent subdivision process.

Tomorrow's post will highlight the committee's recommendations for existing park improvements, along with future parks and long-term future community-wide parks.