September 30, 2008

New fire station officially completed


Keys are being turned over to the Fire Department today for the new Fire Station located at 2250 Grand Chute Blvd. The dedication ceremony will take place Saturday, October 11 at 1pm. Please refer to the press release for more details.

September 26, 2008

August 25th Police Advisory Panel Minutes

Minutes from the August 25th Police Merger Advisory meeting are available for download. As a reminder, minutes will be posted after being approved at the following meeting. Minutes from the September 23rd meeting will be posted after the October 28th meeting. I will have a brief summary of the last meeting online early next week.

September 22, 2008

Agenda for September 23rd Police Advisory Committee meeting

The next Grand Chute Police Advisory Committee meeting is tomorrow evening at 6:30pm. The meeting will be in the Town Board room at the Town Hall. The agenda for tomorrow's meeting is as follows:

Appleton – Grand Chute Police Merger
Citizen Study Committee Meeting
September 23, 2008
6:30 P.M.

Agenda

A. CALL TO ORDER

B. APPROVAL OF AGENDA/ORDER OF THE DAY

C. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES – Approval of the August 26, 2008 meeting minutes

D. NEW BUSINESS
1. Present and discuss initial data collection summary. This will be baseline information to be used for future discussion by the Committee.
a. Historical growth and growth projections
b. Historical call volume and call type
c. Current police services and policing philosophy (i.e. crime prevention education, accident response, DARE, Neighborhood Watch, bike rodeos, retail theft, MEG, community intervention, prevention education, etc.)
d. Current staffing and scheduling
e. Current organizational and management structure
f. Current police costs compared

2. Compare differences and similarities in police activity between the current Appleton and Grand Chute Police Departments based on population, equalized value, density, call volume, call type and services provided.

3. Identify union contract issues.

4. Other matters, questions, discussions.

E. ADJOURNMENT

September 19, 2008

September 2nd Town Board meeting minutes

Meeting minutes from the September 2nd, 2008 Town Board meeting are available for download.

September 16, 2008

Scenes from Parks Day 2008


While this year's Grand Chute Parks Day turned out to be a little drizzly, it was still a lot of fun and raised money for a great cause. The car show attendance was down a bit, due to the inclement weather. However, the raffles, craft show, and food tent all generated plenty of people. Proceeds from Park's Day go toward enhancing the town's parks. An example is the generous donation toward the handicap accessible playground equipment at Lion's Park.
Here are a couple snapshots from Park Day 2008.


September 15, 2008

Meeting notice

Tonight's Citizen's for Democracy in Grand Chute meeting at the Legacy Supper Club has been posted as a town board notice. Attendance by more than two supervisors may be present, prompting a meeting notice. No town board action will be taken. Residents will have a forum to voice their opinions directly to Town Supervisors regarding the proposed police merger. The meeting starts at 6pm. The Legacy Supper Club is located off Hwy 47, one block north of Hwy JJ.

September 9, 2008

Behind the Vote: Casaloma West urbanization project- Part Two

The following is a compilation of the most frequently asked questions I've received from Casaloma West residents.

When will the road reconstruction begin?
The project will not begin until next spring. However, the town is soliciting bids this fall to lock in competitive rates for spring.

How will residents be assessed?
There are two different scenarios that will be brought before the board. The first is that each homeowner will be assessed the same amount. The other is assessments based on lot frontage. The town board has not voted as of yet.

Will the road be concrete or asphalt?
The curb and gutter will be concrete. The center road will be asphalt.

Will this take care of drainage issues?
Absolutely. The storm sewer will run underground and carry rain water all the way to the creek on the east side of the subdivision.

What if I have more questions?
Feel free to email or call my home phone number. There will be an information meeting for Casaloma West residents as well. The town will send out notification when the meeting is scheduled.

September 6, 2008

July 15th and August 5th Town Board meeting minutes

The July 15th and August 5th Town Board meeting minutes are now available for download.

September 4, 2008

Behind the Vote: Casaloma West urbanization project- Part One

The Grand Chute Town Board, based upon recommendation from the town's Department of Public works, has voted to move forward with full urbanization of the Casaloma West Subdivision. This includes repaving roadways, installing storm sewer and providing curb and gutter. The Post Crescent covered this decision in an article printed after the town board meeting. The situation in this town area is really more involved than has been reported in the media. The following is a detailed account of the process whereby I came to a determination in favor of full urbanization.

The Casaloma West area is located on the west side of Grand Chute and encompasses around 100 residential homes. Streets include Goldenrod, Wildflower, Casaloma and others. This area, built in the early 80s, has its share of problems with poor drainage of rain water. Several resident's sump pumps have overflowed, resulting in flooded basements. The drainage problem has been so bad, some residence have threatened to sue the town. Currently, almost 20% of service calls and repair calls to our public works department are directly related to the Casaloma West area.

The town has looked into replacing this road for about three years. The current road has deteriorated so significantly, that it cannot simply be ground up and resurfaced. The aggregate mix commonly used in the 80s underneath roadways needs to be replaced with a stronger aggregate mix as well.

Earlier this year, I made a successful motion directing the public works department to evaluate all possible options for this road repair. Engineering professionals cored the roads and examined different scenarios. They were to report back with findings and a detailed report with recommendations to the Town Board. In the report, the town engineer explained the need to reconstruct aggregate under the road and keep repair of heaving culverts to a minimum.

There were four scenarios the town engineer presented to the Town Board:

The first scenario was a simple resurfacing of the road. This would cost about $3600 per household. Unfortunately, this is a band-aid solution and would only last one to two years. The deteriorating aggregate (underneath) part of the roadway would not sustain resurfacing. The frost would also continue to heave culverts, and simple resurfacing would do nothing to solve drainage issues or eliminate standing water. This could not be considered an option due to lack of road stability and no resolution of standing water.

The next option focused on repairing the road and solving drainage and standing water issues by lowering existing ditches. This option was estimated at $6,110. Ditches would be lowered four to five additional feet in some areas in order to correctly pitch drainage. Roadways would still be torn up to reset new aggregate and repair culverts. Road life expectancy would be 10-12 years. However, the public works department would continue having the burden of cleaning and maintaining ditches. This includes unthawing ice dams in culverts during winter months to allow proper flowing. Steep ditches were also viewed as a serious deterrent for safe lawn care and parked vehicles.

Because of the above drainage vs. ditch issues, the public works department ultimately recommended replacing ditches with storm sewer. The proposed storm sewer would allow sump water and the standing water to be sent directly down the creek via PVC pipe. Installation of storm sewer and reconstruction of the road way was estimated at $8,000 per household. Life expectancy of the roadway with gravel shoulders would remain at 10-12 years, or increase only slightly.

The final option was to include curb and gutter with the storm water system and reconstructed road. This option was estimated at $8800 per household. Curb and gutter increases life expectancy of the road to 20-25 years. Curb and gutters eliminate damage from vehicles parked on gravel shoulders that tear edges, creating spider cracks. These cracks eventually widen when water enters and seeps into the aggregate. The final benefit to curb and gutter is that when roadways do need repair, the surface can be skimmed and a new level of asphalt laid at a fraction of the cost. Adding curb and gutter for an additional $800 was seen as maximizing production of roadways for a minimal dollar amount. Both by preventing a second (probably even more expensive) assessment after a 10-12 year period, and cost effectively solving drainage issues.

In conclusion, based upon recommendation by Tom Marquardt, Director of Public Works, the Town Board agreed the best solution to maximize the expectancy of roads and eliminate or reduce future work orders was by full urbanization of Casaloma West.

Coming up: Q & A on Casaloma West Urbanization (I've been answering a lot of them...send me your specific topic), Report on Urbanization Workshop

August 19th Town Board meeting minutes

Minutes from the August 19th Town Board meeting are available for download.

September 2, 2008

Behind the Vote: Casaloma West urbanization project

Coming soon: An indepth look at the Casaloma West urbanization project. There is an item on this evening's agenda concerning this roadwork.

Following the path toward an eco Grand Chute

I just got back from this morning's meeting with Director of Community Development, Allen Davis and key proponents of municipal sustainability. Actually, I sat out of the main meeting, as Chairman Marsden and Supervisor Pluess also attended. Since there wasn't a public meeting notice posted on the town's web site, the three of us would have constituted a illegal quorum. Supervisor Pluess graciously offered to return home, but I encouraged him to stay. Being an advocate of green building and attending conferences both for building and sustainability, I've had many hours of research on the topic. I felt it was important for Sup. Pluess to listen to the experts and get excited about this opportunity. I was able to catch up with Allen Davis afterward.

The meeting went very well, and sustainability leaders presented a strong concept. They will be working with Allen Davis to formulate a 10-minute presentation at the October 7th Plan Commission meeting at 6pm. The Plan Commission can give their recommendation on whether to proceed further. The Town Board theoretically could take a vote based upon the Plan Commission's recommendation at that night's Board meeting, if the subject is placed on the agenda. A starting point could be the formation of an ad hoc committee involving Grand Chute residents as well.

September 2nd Town Board meeting agenda

The agendas for tonight's board meetings are available for download.