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HomeMy WebLinkAboutweekly newsletter Date: June 22, 2012 To: Mayor & City Council From: Mark A. Rohloff, City Manager WEEKLY NEWSLETTER Subject: FISHING SHANTY UPDATE 1.: Please find enclosed a letter addressed to the City Council and me from the Oshkosh Memorabilia Club regarding the group’s support for preserving the fishing shanties along the Fox River near the former Michigan Avenue railroad bridge. This letter is consistent with other requests from historical groups, requesting that the city look at the historical significance of these structures before any action is taken to remove these structures from the public riverfront. Council will recall that I directed staff to suspend any actions to enforce, litigate, or negotiate the removal of the fishing shanties pending an historical review. I reported this to both the City Council and the RDA, and staff has not taken any action regarding the fishing shanties since that time. Staff continues work on the construction for the River Walk in this area, which began this week. RDA Board Member Ben Schneider recently contacted me to request that the city reconsider negotiating with some of the fishing shanty owners. I reiterated my position based upon the input we had received from various historical groups such as the Memorabilia Club, the Landmarks Commission, the County Historical Society, and the Fox/Wolf Heritage Corridor organization. Mr. Schneider indicated that he would like to bring this item back for discussion at a future RDA meeting. Should the RDA ask that we begin negotiations with these groups, it would be against the pledge that I gave to these historical groups, and would put us in the difficult situation of reconciling the opposite opinions of public boards and commissions. The Landmarks Commission has already requested some staff time to investigate the historical significance of the fishing shanties, but this review may not be completed this summer. My inclination would be to continue holding any action until the appropriate historical reviews may be done. If any Council Member would like to discuss this item at a future meeting, please advise me and I will place it on the Agenda for discussion in the event that the RDA makes a recommendation that is counter to the opinion of these historical groups. In the meantime, please contact Community Development Director Davis or me if you have any questions. Weekly Newsletter June 22, 2012 Page 2 STRATEGIC PLAN UPDATE 2.: Mr. Fitzpatrick and I have been interviewing potential candidates to help facilitate our strategic planning process. Based upon Jackie’s survey of Council th Members, it appears as though Monday, July 16, will work for the majority of Council Members and Department Heads. In our discussions with potential facilitator candidates, we are planning for a full day retreat at a local site outside of City Hall. Although this will be a retreat, the meeting still qualifies as a public meeting, and will be noticed appropriately. In the past, a member of the press and one citizen may have attended some of these Workshops. The public and press are certainly welcomed to attend, however, this process does not require any public input. Once we select a facilitator for this process, we will be handing out “homework” assignments to Council th Members and Department Heads so that we can hit the ground running at our July 16 retreat. I have this item on Tuesday’s Agenda for discussion. If you have any questions or suggestions, please let me know in advance and I will try to get answers for you prior to that time. REVIEW OF POSSIBLE EXCESS GARAGE FEES 3.: When the Council approved the automated refuse program this past spring, I indicated to Council that staff would be proposing a system in which we would develop a pricing system for additional refuse that did not fit into the new cart. Staff has been working on this costing system and I wanted to provide you with a brief update. Staff has surveyed various municipalities regarding their system for charging for refuse that exceeds the capacity of a cart, including the reasoning that goes behind the pricing system. Most communities have tried to make the pricing formula as simple as possible for the public. One thing we have learned is that the demand for additional refuse containers is fairly limited and st our public response has been similar. As of the May 1 deadline for selecting refuse containers, only 25 property owners city-wide expressed an interest in an extra refuse container. Our belief is that most people figure that they can fit their refuse into a 64 gallon or 96 gallon container with relative ease. At the same time, staff also recognizes from the experience of other communities that we want to discourage the use of excess bags that will require our drivers to dismount the truck and manually put a bag in a container to collect excess refuse. This additional step in the process is costly from a time and safety standpoint. Our experience with automated recycling is that virtually all of the workers compensation claims that we’ve experienced on automated recycling occur when an employee dismounts a truck. Therefore, we want to avoid this type of situation as much as possible. The goal is to price any sticker for excess refuse high enough to discourage people from using them, and consider other alternatives, such as having a larger cart to begin with, asking neighbors to use excess capacity in their cart, taking the items to the landfill themselves, or ultimately, purchasing a second cart for themselves and paying an annual fee for this extra service. This is the thought process that staff is going through as we are working on final recommendations for excess refuse. With all that said, I believe that the initial response of only 25 requests for an extra cart is indicative that the residents believe that they can have their refuse collection needs easily met through a single cart. We plan to bring this issue before the Council sometime in July. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please contact Public Works Director David Patek. Weekly Newsletter June 22, 2012 Page 3 BICYCLE REGISTRATION FEES 4.: In the last couple of months, the Police Department has observed an increasing number of bikes that are collected throughout the city that do not have a registration sticker on them. The lack of a registration sticker means that the Police Department has limited ability to reunite a bicycle owner with his/her bicycle, but also places an administrative burden on the Police Department to inventory and maintain a storage facility for the increasing number of bicycles that are collected by the Police Department in their routine operations. The Police Department has suggested that it may be beneficial to provide some limited free registration so that we increase the number of bicycles that are registered in the city. As the registration fee of $3.00 is so nominal, the loss of revenue will be more than offset by the value of having bicycles registered city-wide. On the other hand of this discussion, the Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Committee has been discussing ways in which funds can be raised for future bike and pedestrian improvements. The Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Committee has discussed the possibility of actually increasing the registration fee so that this fund’s resources can be increased. Because of these conflicting viewpoints, the Police Department has held off on bringing the free bike registration concept to the Council for the time being. The Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory th Committee has asked the Police Department to attend their next meeting on July 19 to collaboratively discuss the issues regarding bike registration. After staff and the Advisory Committee meet, we will have a better idea of what we may want to propose to Council. DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS & UPDATES 5.: Other items I’m enclosing with today’s Newsletter include the latest issue of the FOCUS newsletter, published by the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, which features an article on June politics in the State of Wisconsin. Insofar as th minutes are concerned, I’m enclosing the following: The minutes of the June 13 Parking Utility th Commission meeting; the minutes of the June 12 Traffic Review Advisory Board meeting; and st the minutes of the May 21 Housing Authority meeting. th UPCOMING MEETINGS 6.: Meetings I have scheduled for the week of June 25 include the th following: On Tuesday, June 26, at 7:30 a.m., I will be meeting with Mayor Tower to go over the Agenda for Tuesday evening’s Council Meeting. At various times from Tuesday through Thursday, Community Development Director Davis, Economic Development Specialist Kelly Nieforth and I will be interviewing prospective consultants for the Economic Development Study. Following these interviews, I expect that we will be reporting to Council on a selected consultant th in July. On Thursday, June 28, at 7:30 a.m., I will be attending the Chamco Executive Committee meeting. At 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, I will be meeting with Human Resources staff and Consultant Charlie Carlson via phone to discuss the appeals associated with the Class & Compensation Study. If you have any questions regarding my attendance at any of these meetings, please do not hesitate to contact me. MAR/jdc Enclosures