Good evening, and now call to order the Wednesday, October sixteenth, two thousand twenty-four meeting of the Apple and Common Council.

On Sunday, I attended the memorial service for a dear friend and felt fellow salvage warrior Tom Grotty.

Offering a eulogy as an invocation seemed a bit bad form, but hopefully that's not you guys hear this.

Instead, I wanted to share a few of my own thoughts about what made Tom such a great community leader, one that will be dearly missed by those in Manash in the wider Fox Valley.

To recognize Tom, the artist all I do is look around the cities for any colorful works of paper machine.

In fact, we had had some here in City Center.

I don't know where they are now, but we'll find them.

But you can find them in the Apton Medical Center, Champion Sport Complex, Apple and Public Library, Fox Cities Exhibition Center, and the Atlas Science Center, where perhaps one of our own kids looked like mine were taught by Tom to make paperworks of art from Colored Pulp on a Discovery Center field trip.

Like us, Tom's an alderman, only for the City of Manasha for roughly about as long as and during the same period that I have been.

He served on the planning landmarks commissions among others.

He was instrumental in saving what the one-of-a-kind bank columns from the first national bank demolition in Manasha and led the re-envisioning process to have them placed on the shoreline closer to the original location.

For context, I met Tom on the site of the Senson Brenner Mansion demolition in 2001, where I came in late to the scavenge and only managed to pull a couple of French windows.

We instantly clicked over our mutual desire to save historical architecture and to salvage things that you simply cannot buy in the modern era.

His zeal and enthusiasm were infectious from the get-go, and despite him being 15 years my senior, I always felt like a stodgy old man whenever I was in his company.

When the call was put out to consult concept the plan for the aforementioned columns, I submitted one that would have placed each of the four columns at the furthest cardinal points of the menasha boundary with lit globes displaying words to describe community.

Now I thought it was a pretty good idea until Tom pulled me aside and said that while he liked it, the commission thought they should stay together and be placed downtown to make a bigger and more meaningful impact.

This was hard for me to hear because I was part of this column salvage and other finds from the bank demo that we pulled out together, and I naively thought the decision to choose my concept was going to be a no-brainer.

But Tom sensed that.

And after that decision, he spent weeks and a few more than a few discussions with me until we both got on the same page, and he convinced me that both the commission and he was right.

And he always spent the time to not just to tell you what was happening, but the rationale for why and more wouldn't rest until he knew you were at ease and comfortable with the outcome.

I believe that's why he was such a good community leader and was so endearing to his fellow alders.

He not only had the passion it takes to serve with enthusiasm no matter what the agenda, but he also had the I'm sorry, he not only had the passion, but also the compassion that's necessary from time to time when you have to make difficult decisions that affect the very livelihoods of your constituents, even when your heart wants to do the opposite.

Sometimes this job sucks, and it can be hard to stay up eat when you're trying to resolve a constituent complaint and know that you really can't offer up a good remedy or airtight rationale that will appease.

But Tom could.

This was his magic.

And so I resolved to remind myself at the start of every council meeting or meeting of city business to serve like Tom did with passion and enthusiasm for the work at hand and compassion for the people who are affected by it.

I hope you'll do the same.

Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

For which it stands.

All are represented with the exception of Alder Person Smith.

Alfheim and Jones, who are excused, and Alder Wolf is on his way.

Roll call of officers and department heads.

All are represented.

A motion to approve the minutes of the previous meeting.

We have a motion and the second to approve.

Any discussion.

Hearing none, please cast your votes.

Okay.

And got him.

All right.

Motion passes 11 to 0.

The minutes have been approved.

All right.

I have no business to present to you this evening, so uh we'll come to public participation.

Uh and we do have a member of the public here to speak.

Uh we'll ask that you limit your comments to five minutes or less and uh keep your comments concise and within the time limit.

And uh with that, we'll invite uh Cindy Reed up.

Cindy, welcome.

I'm Cindy Reid.

For those of you who do not know who I am.

I'm in an appeal process for my operator's license, and I would like to take this opportunity to address you all to hopefully clear up some misunderstandings and or conclusions that may have been unjustly reached or assumed.

I would like to begin by saying I'm not here asking you to renew an operator's license.

I am here because if you do not renew my operator's license, you are effectively putting me out of a job, which is my means for survival.

I typically make my living as a cashier in a convenience store, grocery store, these types of things.

They all sell liquor, we're all required to have an operator's license.

I attend bar two days a week, part-time at night to help make ends meet.

If you do choose not to renew my license, I am not going to be allowed to do either, and I am and will be unemployed.

I usually work two jobs, as I stated, to make my ends meet.

I am a functioning part of this community.

I pay rent, taxes, utilities, and insurance, all of which are made possible through my employment.