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HomeMy WebLinkAbout09.04newsletterCity Manager • Mark A. Rohloff City Hall, 215 Church Avenue P.O. Box 1130 Oshkosh, WI 54903-1130 920.236.5002 http://www.ci.oshkosh.wi.us DATE: September 4, 2020 TO: Honorable Mayor and Common Council FROM: Mark Rohloff, City Manager SUBJECT: Weekly Newsletter 1. HEALTHIER CITY RESERVES COULD CUSHION THE BLOW OF COVID-19: The City Council recently approved revisions to the City’s Fund Balance Policy. As part of the discussion leading up to revision, the City Council and the Long Range Finance Council discussed the value of a healthy Fund Balance. Attached is an article published by the Wisconsin Policy Forum citing the need to maintain a healthy fund balance, especially in light of the current crises of dealing with COVID-19. The article will give you a snapshot of fund balances for the largest communities within the state and illustrates how Oshkosh compares to them. The article concludes that communities that have the ability to build their unassigned fund balances will be better equipped to navigate the uncertain times ahead and to take care for a prolonged recession or unknown future challenges. The Wisconsin Policy Forum is a statewide nonpartisan, independent policy research organization. Their research and facilitation activities are to encourage elected officials and community leaders to find effective, data-driven solutions to pressing policy challenges, and promote productive discussion among the public and private sectors. 2. TEAM WORK RECOGNIZED: The Winnebago County Child Abduction Response Team (CART) received its national certification this year from the U.S Department of Justice. To receive this certification, the team must comply with nationally established guidelines and standard. Receiving this certification clearly demonstrates that this CART is prepared to respond if a child goes missing, endangered or is abducted within Winnebago County. The City of Oshkosh has provided many of its officers and some of the city’s Information Technology staff to this team who were instrumental in obtaining this certification. We are one of only twenty-five teams nationally certified and employees from the City of Oshkosh contributed a great deal to this success. Congratulations! 3. RECOGNITION PRESENTATION: On Wednesday, September 2, 2020, Officer Mike Wissink was recognized by State Senator Dan Feyen and Representative Michael Schraa in honor of his National Award of Valor for his heroic actions and bravery during the incident at Oshkosh West High School on December 3, 2019. Also in attendance during this recognition was Representative Gordon Hintz. Congratulations Officer Wissink! Weekly Newsletter 4. JACKSON STREET CORRIDOR AND SAFETY STUDY UPDATE: The Planning Services Division is currently in the process of developing a Multimodal Traffic Safety and Quality of Life Study from Church Avenue to Murdock Avenue (Area 1) and a corridor plan to guide land use and mobility development from Murdock Avenue to Interstate 41 (Area 2). Ayres Associates and RDG Planning & Design are facilitating the planning and design process. This project consists of two areas:  Area 1, from Church Avenue to Murdock Avenue, serves an urbanized, residential area featuring older historic homes located near several community parks and schools.  Area 2, from Murdock Avenue to the Interstate 41 interchange, provides access to a wide range of residential, commercial, and industrial properties. The planning process kicked off in late 2019 and is planned to be finished in fall 2020. The first meeting was held on December 11th, 2019 and gathered input from the interested parties and neighborhood residents. The second meeting on March 4th, 2020 summarized the input from the first meeting, identified evaluation criteria, and reviewed corridor improvement options for Area 1 and Area 2. The consultant reviewed three different street alternatives, one was minimal change keeping the roadway the same, the other two included variations of a roadway reconfiguration incorporating two drive lanes and one center turn lane. Residents offered comments and opinions to City staff and consultants. City staff has met with the consultants through the summer to review the outcomes of the meeting, fine tune alternatives and plan the remaining public participation with COVID. The final public input meeting is now scheduled for September 21st 2020 at 5:30 PM. Staff is encouraging virtual participation, but an in-person option is available at the Oshkosh Convention Center. If one chooses to attend in person, face coverings will be required and social distancing measures will be monitored. The virtual invitation link will be added to the project page closer to the meeting date. For questions about the planning process contact Associate Planner, Alexa Naudziunas at anaudziunas@ci.oshkosh.wi.us. For more information, follow the link below to view the plan webpage: https://www.ci.oshkosh.wi.us/PlanningServices/JacksonStreetCorridorPlan/Default.aspx 5. CITIZEN GIVES BACK: You might have seen Rodney Frazier of Rodney’s Café & Catering cooking brats and hamburgers at Festival Foods throughout the summer. Rodney wanted to show his support and give back to the community so he partnered with Public Affairs Officer/Crime Prevention Officer Kate Mann to fundraise for the Oshkosh Police Department’s Santa’s Workshop program. The Santa’s Workshop program provides gifts and personal hygiene items to families in need during the Christmas holiday season. If you missed Rodney, there’s still time to catch him at Festival Foods through the month of September. The Oshkosh Police Department wants to sincerely thank Rodney for his kindness and generosity and for working to build a better Oshkosh! Weekly Newsletter 6. OPD IS HIRING!: The Oshkosh Police Department is actively recruiting for Police Officers to join our team! A new recruitment video was launched on Tuesday, September 1, 2020, on our Facebook page. The video highlights the various career development opportunities and special teams the department offers for Police Officers who are hired by the City of Oshkosh. If you know someone who is looking for an exciting career with great benefits, send them to our website at: www.oshkoshpd.com and click on Employment/Application to apply! 7. COVID-19 RESOURCE LINKS AND INFORMATION: o Citizen Covid-19 Information Site: https://www.ci.oshkosh.wi.us/covid19.aspx o Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: https://www.cdc.gov/ o Wisconsin Department of Health Services: https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/ o Winnebago County Public Health Department: https://www.co.winnebago.wi.us/health/divisions-program- areas/communicable-disease/covid-19-coronavirus/wchd-covid-19-situation 8. MEETING MINUTES FOR BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS: All meeting minutes are uploaded to the website upon approval. Please follow the link below for the most updated information & meeting minutes: https://onboard.ci.oshkosh.wi.us/. 9. UPCOMING MEETINGS: As a reminder City offices are closed on Monday September 7th. Among the meetings I have scheduled for the upcoming week include the following: At 11:00 AM on Tuesday I am meeting with Mayor Palmeri to go over Tuesday's Council agenda. At 11:30 AM on Wednesday I will be meeting with the BID Board regarding their annual payment to offset public parking expenses in downtown parking lots. At 7:30 AM on Thursday I am attending the GO EDC Executive Committee meeting. At 11:30 AM I will be making a virtual presentation to the Professional Women’s Connection. At 1:30 PM I will accompany Allen Davis and staff to DePere, to tour a Riverside development with the Morgan Partners group. This week also begins the operating budget meeting process. During the course of the week, I will begin meeting with department heads regarding their 2021 operating budgets. If you have any questions regarding my schedule, please contact me.