The Appleton Common Council met on June 17, 2026, at 7:00 PM in the Council Chambers. The meeting covered key items including the Driscoll Street reconstruction design, a truancy ordinance review, a mowing reduction strategy resolution, and a grant for police technology. After extensive debate and multiple amendments, the council approved the original Driscoll Street design (narrowing with sidewalks) and referred the truancy resolution back to committee. The balance of the agenda was approved unanimously.
That's one of the reasons that we do not want to error. Those of us who live there know that some of it will come off of Driscoll really fast, and I I don't know why. But by narrowing it, that can create a bottleneck, it can create a hazard. Um these people come around and they end up in the middle of the street. Um if there is a child or somebody coming out or parked with cover, and that person is not seen, that is a great. So very concerned about that. Um and then the there's this existing two sidewalk um narrowing policy, it's not new, but yet complete street was adopted after that. So if those were already in place, um doesn't seem like Continent Street was necessary. Not vehicle friendly. Hey, we have a microphone. Uh we're we're not gonna cut off your time, so just just sit tight. Uh Alder Doherty, we we were having an issue with the microphone. It seems we we have that restored now. So uh if you don't mind, just uh remain on mute uh until you're recognized to speak. And uh with that, if you don't mind, Lisa, just pull that microphone down. Uh yep, there you go. That's fine too. Uh just pull that whole thing down. There you go. With gusto. Okay. Go ahead and continue your comments. I'm sorry for the interruption. That's okay. Um Appleton does not have a large mass transit system like other large cities do. We don't have a large population that uses it. There are some, not a lot. Um, so adding sidewalks on South Driskle doesn't really help out access to any bus route. Um and there's been talk about the um the bus stops and there's a bus stop on Perkins that could be utilized not only by the public buses, but perhaps by the other buses. And I understand um that there's concern about people who need the sidewalks. Um, but sidewalks don't necessarily need to be needed by everybody and they don't necessarily come connect a community. Something that really bothers me personally is the assumption that elderly and people with disabilities rely on sidewalks. There are many types of physical mobility challenges. Many mobility device users use they drive to get around. They don't actually use the sidewalks. So keep that in mind because categorizing people with disabilities as vulnerable over sidewalk access is can be very inaccurate and actually discriminatory, and we do not want to do that. So um pursuing fairness and equities is noble, but forcing unwanted policies on residents can breed division, discrimination, destruction. Because someone will always be slighted. We don't want that. Requiring current residents of South Driscoll to install sidewalks simply places them in the same unfair category of people who had to shovel for decades. Yes. We will become part of that group. And you know, we've I don't mind if we have to sh well we have to shovel, but um things are not always fair, and I you know we try to keep them as fair as possible. Um if another mid neighborhood wants to make different decisions about their street, they should be allowed to do so. So it's been implied that South Driscoll residents are asking to be treated in a special manner, but we're really not. Um we're asking to look specifically at our street. Time has expired. Oh, sorry. You can finish that thought and then keep it. You can finish that thought, and then um, just to keep that in mind because other neighborhoods may be affected, will be affected, and we don't know what neighborhood is next.