The Appleton Common Council met on December 20, 2023, at 7:00 PM in the Council Chambers. The meeting included recognition of retiring Utilities Director Chris Shaw, presentation of Christmas parade awards, an update from the Fox Cities Chamber/Regional Partnership, public comments, and votes on several key items including ARPA funding for Flock license plate cameras, parking utility budget amendments, and alcohol license approvals.
Good evening. I now call to order the Wednesday, December twentieth, two thousand twenty-three meeting of the Appleton Common Council. Tonight's invocation will be delivered by Alder Crope. Good evening, everybody. We gathered today together to listen and share, learn and educate, and to be granted wisdom and grace as we move Appleton forward in the best interest of our community. Roll call of Alders. And all are represented with the exception of Alderpersons Fenton, Hayden, and Jones, who are excused. Roll call of officers and department heads. And all are represented. Okay. Approval of previous council meeting minutes and a motion to approve the minutes. We have a motion and a second to approve the minutes. Any discussion. All right, hearing none, uh, please cast your votes. Motion passes twelve to zero. The minutes have been approved. All right. Uh we're on to business presented by the mayor. Uh we have three items this evening, and if there are no objections, just gonna amend the order a little bit uh and we'll take up the uh downtown Appleton Christmas Parade Awards first. All right, hearing no objections. Uh Corey, come on up. Happy holidays, everybody. Uh thanks for having us. We had our uh 52nd downtown Appleton Christmas Parade on November 21st, and we had perfect weather. We had a huge crowd, and it was a huge success. It was our biggest parade ever, 85 units. Uh, and I can probably tell you that it will never be bigger than eighty-five units because we barely got it inside our broadcast window, but uh it was a great night. I want to thank the common council and the mayor for all of your support. I want to thank all the department heads. Uh it really is a team effort, uh, especially APD. Uh lots of hours go into the planning and um the security of the event. So thank you. We are here to award uh three trophies. We went to this uh fancy cup, traveling trophy. Uh I do need these back next year. Um some of you have had them before and uh want to hang on to them, but I do need them back at least temporarily. So let's begin with the Appleton Downtown Incorporated Best Commercial Entry. I saw Jennifer Stefani come in and I asked if she wanted to present, but she's got other Do you want to come up? She'll always come on. Um FRV is a great partner with the parades of soas Appleton Downtown Incorporated, uh Jennifer Stefani and Megan Warner, especially. So this award goes to for the second year in a row with this trophy, and they've won many more before this, Alliance Industries. Here's Kevin from Alliance. Good to see you. Bernie Perlman is one of the founders of the downtown Appleton Christmas Parade fifty fifty-three years ago, actually, because we did miss one. Um and uh Bernie is a legend in the downtown uh history, and we are really proud to give this to uh one of our most popular units of the last 15, 16 years, as long as they've been in the parade, the Fox Valley Ballooners. Congratulations. Our final award tonight is the Christmas parade trophy. It goes to the best non-commercial entry. And this year it was a collaboration between the public and the private. It goes to the Appleton Public Library and Bolt.