Okay, good afternoon, everybody.

Um is 404, and my name is Mike Crowley, and I'm chairman of the order.

We do have uh forum uh numbers of California.

Um next up on our agenda is public time.

Any public time before we get into the meeting uh I'm um Alderman Rico Camacho representing district fifteen.

Everybody hear me.

Yeah, representing district fifteen up by the hospital.

Uh Manda Roddy, uh community member, Mike Crowley, community member, and last way, community member Mike Anderson, uh District 10 Alderman.

Bob Ford, uh Ford Construction.

Next up is approval of our meeting minutes from May 9th, 2020.

Um May 20, was it me ninth?

Uh that's weird because on yeah, minus says 2025.

I have the wrong agenda.

Oh my god.

Should be May 28th, 2025.

A second.

Thank you.

Any comments or the May.

Next up is our new business.

We have a C B Gordon presentation.

And Jeff is that uh yes.

So um Jeff Fortin, economic development project manager for the city.

Um Robin Grams, who used to run this, uh, has left us for a different job.

So I'm taking over this year with our anticipation of whoever we hire to replace Robin.

I'll end up uh doing this committee in the coming years.

Um but I used to do it in the past, so hopefully bear with me if there's any if I need any assistance.

But so as an overview, the city of Waukeshaw is a um we're an entitlement community, which means that we meet the qualifications and the size to um receive federal HUD um community development block ground funds.

We have an agreement with Wokashaw County where they do our admins, they deal with the feds, they also deal with all the nonprofits that apply for these funds every year.

Um, but we also get a chunk of those monies that are dedicated to the city for city projects.

So unlike a lot of communities where someone like say habitat or the Hebron House would come to the city and apply, they go to the county.

Um so with our funding that we get, uh we have this committee, uh the advisory committee, and it's can consisted of citizen members and aldermen.

Um and your role really is to look at these requests, and we'll kind of get into the two different types of requests and make some determinations on where you want to recommend that the council do their allocations.

Um this meeting we'll have a presentation from the various people that represent the departments that applied for the funds.

You can ask questions of them, and then we kind of go through and try to um work the committee can kind of work on what they think the council should approve for these um for the um allocations for 2027.

Um in the past, usually the council takes whatever this board comes up with, and that's what they approve.

I've never seen them switch it around or anything.

Um with that, um I guess we can move on to the if there's if there's no if there's any other questions about it or about the process or the board.

So I guess um so for 2027, talk to Walkshaw County.

Our allocation has gone down.

Uh we went down for 2026.

Um and now for 2027, it's expected to stay at that 2026 level, which is shown here.

Our expected allocation is a little over um, it's 233,749.

233, 749,000.

Of that, the way this works is we have two separate buckets of money and they can't be mixed, they can't be uh mixed together.

Uh facilities housing and economic development, that's 85% of that allocation that must be used for those.

Um, and with that, that leaves about 1986,000 for those programs or for those projects.

And the programs, they're capped at 15%.

The reason they're capped at 15% is because of the the agreement we have with Walk Show County.

Um, programs tend to fall under admin money, so that's where that's why that number is a little lower since the counties don't all our admin and working with all these nonprofits.

So that leaves about 15% for city specific um programs.

And then with that, I guess we can move on to the next part of the agenda.

Next item.

Yeah.

You could do it, or the committee could choose to um take what you hear today and then come back a different day.

In the past for years, we would do it as a two-meeting.

We do presentations, then an allocation.

The last couple years it's been pretty close.

Um, so we've tended to just have one meeting.

I think maybe the last two years, maybe three.

However, this year we've got a lot more requests than money, so it's up to the board if you think you want to work on that today.

Have discussions on today.

We did make staff recommendations, but I was it was really just kind of based on trying to make equal cuts across the board.

But um, it's up to the board if they want to take this information and then come back to the second meeting to make the actual allocation decisions.

Um we'll see what I mean.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

It's just on.

All right.

Good afternoon.

Darren Wolford with the City of Waukesha.

I'm the traffic engineering consultant for the engineering department.

And before you is the application for improving the Grand View Park crossing from the west side to the east side.

Um, the crossing itself on Grandview Boulevard, there, if you're unfamiliar, in between Northview Road and Summit Avenue, and Grandview Park there is on the east side with a uh more scoped in view on the west side.

You can see the the crossing there.

Uh go ahead, go to the next slide.

Um, the reason for the upgrade and update, the traffic signal that is currently laid out there right now is 36 years old.

In general, a traffic signal's uh serviceable life is about 25 years, so this is well past its service life, and there has been numerous issues with this location over the recent years with uh some of the antiquated wiring and everything else associated with it with it going into flash and then it losing power and everything else.

It's been a bit of a maintenance nightmare for the individuals over at City Garage, and even the pedestrian crossing itself to cross Grandview Avenue is not ADA compliant.

So the proposed improvements that we had for this location was to completely remove the traffic signal itself, but upgrade it to kind of the current standard for this type of crossing, which is a pedestrian hybrid beacon, not a traffic signal but a pedestrian hybrid beacon, and I'll have example on the next slide.

And then to improve the crossing itself, we would do some pedestrian bump outs in order to shorten the cross crossing distance for the pedestrians, and then obviously improve the crossing itself and making it uh ADA compliant with the detectable warning fields and the slope of the ramp and everything else.

If you go to the next slide, the uh just very preliminary uh sketch of the bump out on the left side of your screen there that uh our engineering department came up with in order to shrink the um cross section of the roadway to minimize that crossing length, but still needing to have the travel lane wide enough for standard purposes to accommodate a vehicle and a bicycle to share the roadway itself, and then on the right side is just an example of what a pedestrian hybrid beacon is, where it's a three-section uh traffic signal head with two reds on the top and a yellow on the bottom, and then there's a very particular sequence in order of flashing of the indications to alert drivers for when a pedestrian has pressed the pedestrian push button to alert the driver that a pedestrian's present, be aware, slow down, now stop, pedestrians crossing, you know, flashing red, clear, you know, you can cross the crossing if no pedestrians are now present, and then it'll go back into dark, and then traffic can proceed through the intersection once again.

So with that, keep it short and sweet for you if you have any questions.

Just a quick question on the bump out.

How much are we reducing the crossing of the road?

Yep.

So currently, right now, the approximate distance uh from face the curb face a curve is about 40 feet, and we'd be able to take it down to about 3132.

And that's very preliminary, you know.

We didn't not for construction.

Okay.

Thank you.

This is in my county board supervisory district, and then I walk past that.

And then I'll uh question on the so obviously we would make you know City Garage very well aware of the change in the cross section of the roadway at that location, and we've as I'm sure you're aware, we've done other bump outs throughout the city and numerous locations, some in Avenue, Delfield Street, and provide the awareness ahead of time, and they know it they adjust to the change in coming around with their scoops on the plows and no, and this one would be much more uh easy compared to much more slight in comparison to some of the other bump outs that are more stark, I would say I think this is just kind of unfortunately one of those that may have just kind of slipped through the cracks just because it's a very non-traditional traffic signal because it's it is controlling a pedestrian crossing, and it's not in the sense a traditional traffic signal where it's controlling an actual intersection, but it hasn't been until more recently within the last two, three years where those maintenance issues really have come to light, and there's been a unfortunately a couple of knockdowns that really have uh sparked the interest of uh improving this location as well.

Um, thank you so much for this.

Uh, I drive Grandview every day.

I live across the street from this park.

Um, and I see the usage of it.

Um, I'm familiar with these lights, but right now I'm not envisioning where we have this type, any other place in walk shot.

And we do not.

We do not.

Nope.

There is no pedestrian hybrid beacons within the city limits now.

So the example I have on the right actually is the one that's right outside Waukee County Zoo.

Yes.

That's where I've seen it.

Okay, I was just, I couldn't place in my head if there's if I'd seen something like this off in Waukesha, knowing that the high school is up the road and we've got high school drivers up and down that way.

Let's put the plows in the trash trucks and the school buses that go down that way every morning.

So it's I guess it's more so a statement, not necessarily a question too.

But I I mean I appreciate looking into it and trying to improve the safety for all in that space.

So thank you.

So the 200,000 hours because there are large number of proceeding.

I think we would still work to be budget conscious to try and see if we can fit it within the program with what with whatever we're allotted through the CDBG program.

Good afternoon, thank you.

Melissa Lipska with the ParkRec Forestry Department.

So the project we have for you today, uh Buckner Park Playground Resurfacing.

We bring one or two of these projects to CDPG every year for a request.

The resilient surface makes the playground 100% accessible 100% of the time versus like wood chips, fiber, where after even five minutes of playing, they they become unlevel and are no longer considered compliant.

So this year the project we're working on is Greenway Terrace.

Um and next year we're proposing to look at Buckner Park.

Uh it's one of the older playgrounds in our system.

Uh we have 32 playgrounds, and this one I believe is a 2002.

Um so looking to get it replaced.

This one also experiences very heavy usage due to the other amenities in the park, like the pool, the tennis courts, uh, the ball field, things like that.

So our projected project cost is 250,000.

That does include uh, you can see a little bit on the close-up and on the aerial.

If you're familiar with Buckner Park, there is a switchback trail that goes from the shelter up to the playground.

That would be replaced as well to maintain ADA compliance.

So that's why the project cost and the request is a little more this year because it includes sidewalk as well as the surfacing.

Any questions?

I'll ask the same question.

We would likely request it, but the project may be scaled back and not include the full ADA sidewalk replacement.

Of course.

So this project is a little unique.

Um, as some of you may be familiar, frame park formal gardens are currently undergoing a renovation, uh, which includes some of the interior pathways on the sunken garden portion, installation of an irrigation system, and stormwater drainage uh improvements as the sunken garden uh becomes a sunken pond occasionally when we have some uh even light rains.

Uh so that is what's going on currently.

Uh the project we're looking at for next year uh would be replacement of the flagstone pathway underneath the pergola.

Uh so there is a picture on your left there.

Um it actually looks much more flat in this picture than it is.

Uh the stones are very uneven.

Uh there are large gaps of soil and um other debris in between them.

Um, as far as we can tell, those are original to the gardens uh that were built in 1928.

Um so though we want to honor the historic significance, uh we'd still like to do some upgrades and make it fully accessible for all.

Um and then in addition to that, um, with the historic side um of the formal gardens um being constructed in 1928.

Also in that picture, you see stone pillars, uh, and we are looking at having those uh restored and tuck pointed uh along with the retaining wall along there to make sure that everything stays structurally sound for another hundred years.

Entertain any questions.

So you talked about an irrigation system with this.

Since we had a lot more flooding this year, how did that impact what's going on?

Did it harm it all as it was or is it still functional?

I guess is the question.

Uh this spring because the project was still not completed, we had the clear stone exposed.

So the gardens did not get flooded.

Uh, so it did not impact any of the the beds that we're looking at planting for the spring.

Sorry, it's still functional in other words.

Okay, thanks.

Hi, thank you so much for the information.

Um, I don't know if you have this answer.

I'm just curious.

And um, these gardens they can be rented out for private use, correct?

Correct.

Uh those fees.

Do you happen to know where those fees go to?

Uh those fees go back into our special revenue account to offset items such as we have a formal garden attendant that is hired to monitor the gardens.

Um, as you can imagine during wedding season prom season, people get very particular about their photos and their ceremonies.

So we do hire an attendant uh to be down there as well.

Uh the garden fees are fairly minimal.

Um off the top of my head, I cannot recall, but I can look that up.

I knew back in the day too.

Don't worry about it.

Um so that is that is where uh a chunk of the fees do go back to okay.

So it's it's it goes into a special fund, nothing is allocated towards the maintenance or well, in a way it is in in a way it is with the attendant, um, but the the fees are not as such that that we would be able to pull um a significant amount for maintenance at this time.

Okay, thank you.

You're welcome.

I just have a comment.

My mom graduated from Waxha High School in 1950, and she took what were kind of like her senior pictures right along the picture you show here.

Oh, and the pro that would be so neat to see.

Um technical question.

On page one and page two, there's two different addresses listed.

Is there really such thing as zero East Moreland?

Yes, so that is the official unofficial address for frame park in its uh kind of proper format for the park overall.

Um so when we work with uh, for example, fire for inspections, things like that, uh, backflow inspections.

So that is the address we put down.

Uh that address specifically is more we look at that more specifically for the restrooms uh off of Moreland there next to the playground because each backflow needs to have its own address for licensure reasons, so it's probably more than you wanted to know.

But yes.

That helps.

Yeah, there's just a zero East Moreland and a zero moreland.

I'm assuming they're both zero.

They're both the same.

Yep.

Okay.

Thank you.

Yes.

There are no further questions.

Thank you for your presentation.

Next up is community development, uh, landmarks commission paint and repair grants.

All right.

Um, so I'm sure you're all familiar with the paint and repair grant program, but just uh recap it uh uh quickly.

The landmarks commission has been uh administering the program since the late uh since at least the 1990s, um serves the owners of residential properties in the city's historic districts and and also uh individually designated local landmarks.

Um most of those properties are in the city's low to moderate income census tracts, although uh as of this year the program isn't restricted to the ones that are in the in the uh low moderate income areas.

Um many of them are modest homes, which are attractive to first-time buyers, and uh both because they're historic and also just because they're all old houses, uh they have higher upkeep costs.

So the paint and repair grant program uh is intended to help offset some of those costs.

Uh grants typically cover about 15% of the cost of a project, up to a maximum of three thousand dollars, but the landmarks commission has flexibility to approve grants that are uh larger for for uh very good projects or uh different amounts uh based on fund availability or or any other reason that might come up.

Um there are reimbursement grants, so the work has to be completed, and then the homeowner has to provide a paid invoice and some kind of a proof of payment before uh before the we can send the money out.

Um 2025, the landmarks mission approved 12 grants for a total of 25, uh 350 dollars.

So that was the uh 2025 allocation was 25,000, and then the 350 was from a project from 2024 that uh was not completed, so they uh reallocated that money to a different uh a different project.

Um all but two projects were completed by the end of the year.

Uh so we had some money that was carried over, one of those two has already been completed and and uh uh had the grant money paid out, uh the other one uh they're hoping to get it done sometime this spring.

Uh so far in 2026, they've approved five grants for a total of ten thousand four hundred and eighty-five dollars out of their uh twenty-five thousand dollar allocation for this year.

Um and uh we do have a a change to the program as of this year in the past, it had been restricted to the low to moderate income uh census tracts, but any uh property any basically any work on the historic properties in those tracks was eligible.

Um for this year, they've changed it.

I guess it's a change to the way the CDBG uh regulations work.

Um but uh the monitors, the people that we work with at the county have told us that we should change the category uh to a slum slum and blight prevention rather than uh the base the area basis.

Um so any uh historic property in the city, any designated historic property in the city is potentially eligible, but the work has to be the landmarks commission has to determine that the work is uh is slum slummer blight prevention on a spot basis.

So that doesn't mean that the house is currently in a bladed condition, it just means that it's that the work that is being proposed would prevent uh future blight conditions.

So typical work uh you know, like roof replacements and painting certain certain uh types of siding uh would qualify.

Um but anything that's purely aesthetic probably wouldn't.

Um so uh the ass this year is for $25,000.

Thank you.

Questions?

Go ahead, Alden.

Thanks, Charlie.

Um, is there a limit to how often a single homeowner can apply?

Um get granted a grant, I guess.

Yeah, uh the landmarks mission has generally tried to do not more than two grants uh for one homeown home homeowner on like a rolling five-year basis.

Uh so if you had one, you know, in 2021 and 2025, and then you wanted one, you know, it's the way, yeah.

Yeah, uh, but generally we try to push them towards um, you know, if somebody's doing work, they should approve a grant.

Uh because we want to we want to be we want to get the money spent, and you know, if if people are are working on their homes, we want to get it out to them.

So okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Go ahead, Bob.

Hi.

Hey.

Do you give them some kind of list of contractors there that they're could use or have you guys have endorsed or use on other projects?

So they have contractors that know what to do, know what the paperwork to do to get it done.

We well, there's for the uh paint and repair grants.

There isn't uh the the um Davis Bacon requirement, right?

Um, so it's a lot simpler for the you know, as far as the paperwork goes.

Um we can't recommend contractors, but we can tell people you know, these are contractors that have done work that was approved by the landmark submission in the past.

Um, some types of work, especially window repair uh for uh windows that are original.

There really aren't very many contractors that do it, so we end up you know letting them know the same people kind of over and over, but uh we can't we can't say you know, no, I understand but you do help them through the process as much as we can, yeah.

Yeah, and just hey, they done a lot of window jobs, they really know what how the city likes to see, and right they know how to do the paperwork, and yeah, we're not endorsing it, but here's a list of potential people to help you out.

Yeah, that kind of thing.

That's good.

I'm glad to hear that.

Yeah, that's it.

Other questions.

Okay, thank you very much.

Thank you.

Next up is downtown and central city wayfinding and placemaking.

Um I think we have public art before that one.

Sorry about that.

Public art.

Um, I guess I'll do this one.

Um so in the past, uh, the C BG has funded the public art fund.

And what this is is takes our um downtown, which is a low to moderate income area, and a neighborhood revitalization strategy area is defined by HUD.

And we've been trying to do public art projects to enhance our downtown, bring people downtown and add to what we have.

Um, so each year we've been trying to do a couple of different items.

A lot of the items that'll be coming this year, uh, using this year and last year's funding will be for the Freedman Alley plan, which was adopted by the common council a couple years ago.

We're implementing that with uh various forms of public art, utility box wraps, murals, um, and some other some other artistic elements there.

We've also done um the 125th anniversary sculpture.

So what we intend to do with these funds is likely use it for additional art to finish up this Freedman Alley, which most of the actual physical improvements will be done this year, but there's a lot of room for additional art there.

So that's our intention with that is to do something in or near Freedman Alley with the public art funding.

Questions.

Then thank you.

Now we'll move on to downtown and central city way finding and placement.

Okay, so the wayfinding and placemaking, um, it's part of an economic development program.

The city started this back in 2015, I think, is our first year where we requested wayfinding money.

And really, what this was to help the city initially did a rebrand of our downtown after the bid dissolved.

We wanted to have a new branded image for downtown.

You can kind of see the banners throughout downtown.

We also partnered with Carroll University to do banners around their campus, co-branded banners.

Um, so we're looking to do with this.

Uh, after a few years, these are made out of vinyl.

After a few years they get deteriorated.

We did have a backstock of it, but we've kind of exhausted the back stock.

So, what that would be would be replenishing those.

Also, a few streets have been done since our last round of funding for our wayfinding program, which I believe was 20 maybe 22.

Um, so what we're looking to do is also expand the wayfinding to some of these streets that never retreat receive that treatment.

Um, so that could include uh banners and also different wayfinding signs, parking directional signs, uh really just anything to kind of help people get around downtown and to help with our placemaking um efforts downtown.

Sorry if this question is really basic, but what is the difference between wayfinding and placemaking?

So wayfinding is really to help people find their you know find directions to things.

Um one of the things we've talked about too in the past is some pedestrian signage, especially now that we have um so there's a hotel opening up, uh the cobblestone will be opening up next month.

Um with that, we expect more tourism traffic because we really have the one of the biggest driving forces for that cobblestone is the wedding venues we have here, uh be it rotunda, the courthouse, and even Tuscan Hall.

So potentially some directional pedestrian signs, and then placemaking, that's kind of the banners that kind of establishes a sense of place.

If you notice we have three different, actually, four different banner sets, and we're looking to add fifth.

Um we have the downtown ones, which are the red ones.

We have east town, which is things east of Barstow, which are yellow, the north of the river, they're kind of a grayish color.

Um we have riverwalk ones just to kind of define the different place around downtown, and then we have the co-branded ones with Carroll, and then um two years ago we approved the um William Street plan, and then William Street's a short block.

Right now, there's no actual light poles there because of how narrative is, but we're reconstructing that next year.

We energies this year is in the process of burying those lines, and then we're gonna be able to have some decorative light poles on William Street.

So also it could be used for um banners and maybe entrance sign on um historic Williams Street.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

Thanks, Jeff.

Uh, just maybe an impossible question to answer, but do we have any feedback that people care about these?

Like the public.

That's a good question.

I don't know if we have any feedback.

I know initially when we first launched them, we really we did.

We had a lot of positive feedback on it.

We basically had public input on the logo, uh, really supportive of that.

I think it probably hasn't been anything recently because that people are just used to seeing them.

So really uh the initial impact we got a lot of good feedback on, but you know, now they're just kind of part of the downtown, you know, the downtown streetscape, kind of like the new planters, the benches.

When we reconstructed the street, we came up with all these different elements.

I think now that people are used to them, probably not as um not gonna really garner much.

Um, but I think William Street by putting them on there, that's a new street.

I think all those businesses are pretty excited about because that street's got a lot of really cool old historic buildings, it's got some uh pretty strong businesses there, and we're kind of bringing the street up to the standard that it kind of more like downtown spec with the pavers, the lights, um, and really just trying to make that look as nice as downtown does.

And I think there it'll make I think there you you will get the positive comments on it because it'll be something new and something they really haven't seen there.

Okay, thank you.

Jeff, the uh check one on the uh the first page, new project and continuing previously funded project.

Oh, sorry, it should be well.

The new project element of it would be uh William Street, because we haven't done anything there, but it is kind of a continuing project, and we've kind of only asked for funds for this when we know that we have a need for obviously new banners or new areas that need to have them put them in there.

So it's not like something like you know, landmarks, paint and repair, public artwork coming back every year.

It's kind of as needed that we apply for money for this.

And then the continuing previously funded project.

Did we initiate that as C D BG?

The city did not initialize the first project.

Correct.

The first thing we did um the first banners were funded through CDBG through request um for CDBG funds.

So if we did not fund the full 50,000, if we did half, you get maybe half the signs basically.

Yeah, we do have the signs, we'd probably be strategic about which ones are replaced and where we put them, scale it back, um, and then we could always seek out alternative funding sources for that.

But yeah, we probably scale it back to maybe maybe it becomes a two-year or three-year program, just a little bit incremental at each year.

Thank you.

Any further questions?

Go ahead, Bob.

Hey, Jeff, do you limit uh banners that stores want to put up or have put up or so we don't let them put them on our post because uh number one question of equity who gets to put them on our banners?

Um but stores can put up their own.

We do allow for you know flags, flag signs.

You can see the one at people's park sticking out the open sign here, um, projecting signs, but we don't really let any businesses put them up on these on our public signs.

So if somebody does how is what what happens after that, how does that work?

Does what?

Let's say they do.

Let's say they put up things that shouldn't be there.

Uh on one of our poles.

We probably have DPW remove it.

Well, first we'd reach out to them, so you need to get this off.

But I mean, they're up kind of high, so we obviously don't want people going up there anyways.

It's not exactly safe for storms to be climbing up on ladders and swapping these out, especially on some of our larger, not these poles, but the Shepard Crook poles.

So we definitely reach out.

So if you know of any, let me know they're up there.

Get them down.

But the other reason I say it because it the city has spent a lot of money uh doing this program, and you hate to see an experience being as far as I'm aware.

We haven't had any experience where they've swapped them out at all.

Uh that I'm that I've been aware of.

It's always been our city ones in there.

Um the Carroll ones, we did double-sided banners, uh, double-sided mounts that there's they contributed to um they actually paid for their banners, and then they did a cost share on the um the other things.

So they they kind of did their own banners there.

We kind of felt that was a little different because it's yeah, it's not a for profit thing, it's just it's a school, there's kind of its own district.

So in that case, it was and it was part of the um 125th that we did that through it because they had Carroll 125th um different theme banners, and then they came up with this permanent one recently that's kind of co-branded with ours.

So they kind of work with you.

Yeah, they worked with us and they helped fund the ones in their district.

They helped the cost share.

So it's about a 50-50 split of cost share on those.

Very good.

Go ahead, Alderman.

Well, one more quick question.

You you mentioned the picture, and I'm just looking at the picture now.

Yeah, the one in front of the steaming cup.

Yep.

Is there a need for the double sign?

So initially, the doubles, we did have the intention of swapping out.

Okay, say it's um you know, finite live season or it's winter that we could swap out different things.

Um hasn't really come to fruition the way we thought it would with because it's it's just you know, first street program to have to go there and swap them out every season.

So typically for our downtown, we'll probably see more of the single sided.

Now on Williams Street, the way the banners we looked at was gonna be more like Carol, where it'd be a downtown walkshop than they had um the firm we hired to do the place painting plan came up with a separate William Street thing.

So in that case on William Street, it'd be double, it'd be the they call it boulevard polls.

That one would still have two, but there's only that's a one block thing, so there's maybe going to be eight total banners on four posts for that.

So uh how many right now?

I mean, if we're looking to replace the signs, yeah.

Are we looking to replace just in this example both of those signs?

In this case we would because it's up there, it'll look kind of weird if we didn't have both of because it's a boulevard mount, so it would look kind of strange, but we're not looking to add many more of those downtown.

I think we're really um and if it's a case where they're it's one's damaged, maybe we could take it off for those, but okay, thank you.

Yep.

Any further questions?

Okay, thank you, Jeff.

Yep.

That completes our facilities uh projects uh requests.

We'll now move on to services programs.

And we have uh the first step is senior activity coordinator.

I think we're gonna do is we're gonna turn you do first.

Oh, whatever you want to do, whoever wants to go first.

Okay, can I do that after the screen?

Okay, sorry.

Specialist first.

Yes, that would be great.

Hi, everybody.

So nice to see you.

Gayla Evers, um, recreation supervisor with the city of Waukesha Park and RAC.

Um, thank you all for your support over the years.

Um a couple years ago, we identified a true need in our before and after school and youth development summer programs for an adaptive education specialist.

Um, we really want our programs to be as inclusive as possible.

We know that in before and after school, we're partnering with the uh school district of Waukesha.

Uh next year we'll be in all of their elementary schools, providing both before and after school programming.

Um, we also partner with them during the summer for their summer school program.

So the kiddos go to the morning summer school program with the school district, and then we get them all afternoon.

We also provide full day camps in some of our beautiful parks and at some of our facilities.

We know there's a tremendous shortage for quality and more importantly, affordable child care.

And so we've worked very closely with the school district over the last goodness, probably close to 30 years now, trying to really provide um what's necessary for for our families.

So the adaptive and inclusion specialist um is um uh certified teacher who goes into our programs.

She observes students working in the programs.

She also observes our staff, um, and she really tries to um help kiddos be successful.

So if you can imagine about 30% of our students have identified special needs during the school day, they have an individual education plan and they have a lot of support when they come to our recreation programs.

They don't have that support.

And so we employ a lot of college-age um students to work in those programs.

We train them very, very well, but they're very green.

And so this adaptive and inclusion specialists works extremely closely with both myself and my recreation programmer.

She can really identify um where kiddos need support, and then she can work with the families, the classroom teachers, and our staff, and really helping those kiddos be successful.

Since we've been able to employ this part-time position, we have noticed a significant um increase in kiddos being successful in the program and being able to remain in our program.

It's an extremely important position.

So in 2025, in both April and May, our adaptive and inclusion specialist was able to meet student needs across both our summer youth development programs and before and after school programs.

She also helped me partner with four community partners to provide additional resources again to help kiddos stay successful.

Like I said, out of our 650 students, 85 of them are identified special needs and need additional support, and she was able to offer that.

And then about 130 students have unidentified needs, but still maybe suffering from trauma, anxiety, and some other learning disabilities.

And so she really is able to work with those students and help them be successful.

Okay, move to the next slide.

So looking forward to 2026, she will be working again in all 10 of the elementary school sites.

She will be offering ongoing training to equip staff with tools to in order to support every student.

We are also working on rolling out a new class in fall of 2026 with the idea of really being able to be inclusive and supporting all learners.

So she this class will be students that have identified needs and then neurotypical learners, and so it truly an inclusion and inclusion, which is amazing.

And then again, we'll continue to strengthen our partnerships to better reach families and meet these students' needs.

Very good.

Are there any questions?

Yes.

For clarity, you said she's gonna be working in all 10 schools.

Is she physically going to every building or is she training people to be available in so both?

So we have four supervisors, so to speak, or our coordinators dedicated to before and after school.

It's an extremely large program.

And so each day we hand pick different schools that we're going to go to to help with uh supporting kiddos or doing observations, and so she really goes where the needs are.

And so when staff contact us and say, I have a learner who's really struggling with X, Y, and Z, she's a part of the leadership team that can go out and observe and work with the student, work with families and the staff.

Okay, thank you.

But she also helps me lead trainings as well.

Okay.

Thank you.

Very good.

No further questions.

We'll have you present for the swim and park play partner.

Thank you.

That would be wonderful.

So this is a great program.

It really came about because we wanted to sort of help.

We know there's a significant learning loss all summer long, and we wanted to be able to keep those little minds active, but we also identified a real true need for water safety.

And we have two beautiful pools in our lovely city, and so we work very closely with our aquatics supervisor.

Um so this program uh we're able to in the morning work with kiddos.

We do different enrichment, different academic activities.

We partner with the Waukesha Public Library who comes in and does story time both in English and in Spanish.

We also partner with UW Extension for their nutrition program.

So Paula comes in and provides some great nutritional classes, and then we have a phenomenal partnership with St.

Vincent DePaul.

They work with their volunteers to actually serve a really nutritious, healthy meal to our kiddos and their entire families.

And so it's a great program.

They're with us all morning.

We're doing fun enrichment engaging activities.

We walk them over to the pool.

Our lovely lifeguards and swim instructors are there to meet and greet them.

They get a half-hour swim lesson, and then we go back to the park, finish up some cool play, and then uh have a have a lovely lunch together.

It's a remarkable program.

Uh, last year at both Horb and Buckner Pool, we had 22 participants.

Um, 100% of them improved in their water safety, 100% at Horb improved in organization perseverance and social skills, and then 100% were provided a healthy meal from St.

Vincent DePaul over at Buckner, very similar stats as well.

It's been a really successful program.

Our families definitely appreciate it.

And again, just knowing that these kiddos brains are being activated all summer and they're getting some wonderful water safety skills, has been phenomenal.

Families do have to apply.

They do have to meet the qualification qualifications of the HUD to in order to have this be a free program for families that don't qualify.

They can also we have a fee-based program as well, and then also our lovely financial assistance program will come into play.

So we really don't want to leave any kiddo, any family out.

We really work hard to make sure that if they want to come and attend this program, they can.

So looking ahead to 2026, we'll continue to build water safety skills for our youth across the community.

We'll expand our partnerships for daily meal support during the program.

We'll continue to strengthen those social skill development through structured recreation.

And uh, we really want to maintain that 100% participation and improvement benchmarks.

Can I answer any questions?

Questions.

If you're ever free during the program, come on out and see us.

Lunch is served at 11 30.

They love visitors.

Thank you all so much again.

Oh, and I added some photos because I know a couple years past someone's like, we want to see photos.

This is our fabulous staff team.

They're hard working group.

A lot of them attend uh Carroll University and Ethnos 360 Bible College.

Uh, a lot of retired teachers come and work for us.

So it's a good crew working with our youth throughout the city.

Thank you guys.

Thank you, Gail.

Okay.

Next up, senior activity coordinator.

Evening everyone, Lone Kind Recreation Supervisor with uh Park Park and Forestry.

Um I'm just gonna go over and provide a brief overview of the uh senior activity coordinator position and its role underneath the CPG grant.

Um this is a continuing uh CBD funded position that directly supports seniors programming for adults 55 and older.

The senior activity coordinator plans, coordinates, and facilitates senior activities, manages volunteers and partners, and ensures programs remain accessible, organized, and responsive to community needs.

Um funding supports a range of free senior activities, including bi-monthly programs such as our concerts, bingo, bonco, and other events and offerings that's provided by that.

These programs serve as a critical access point for seniors, particularly those living alone or in low low-income housing.

Um these individuals face a higher risk of isolationism, which is the main reason why we want to get them out in these programs.

Uh I was outlined in the application, these offerings directly support programs, goals of increasing participation, improving social connectedness, enhancing health and wellness, and expanding awareness of our community resources that the city provides.

Um we also have partnerships and collaborations with the aging and disaging and disability resource center and our Walkshaw Housing Authority.

Uh, if funding were reduced or eliminated, this position would no longer be fully supported, and these free senior offerings would need to be transitioned to a fee-based programming or possibly discontinued altogether.

Uh and summary funding is essential to maintaining staff capacity, meeting measurable outcomes, and ensuring equitable access to our senior services in Waukesha.

So this position has been ongoing for the past several years.

Um, our seniors truly see the benefit of this pro of senior activity coordinator.

They get that really connected to the social aspect of this, so that preservist just puts a person inside those programs and still just someone in office.

So they're very hands-on, they're very approachable, and they're really relatable to just entire programming as whole.

Do you have any uh general questions I can answer?

Questions.

Thank you very much, Logan.

Okay.

Well, that completes our presentations for our facilities and services programs.

And the next item on our agenda is a review and possible action on a recommendation to the common council on the 2027 allocation resolution.

As chair, uh, I would like to propose uh if we can, because we have all committee members present.

If we think that we can have a conversation and reach uh consensus on uh allocations that we try to do that still while we're here this evening.

Um what I would like to do is ask uh staff.

So if Jeff would want to present staff's recommendations to us, we could review that first and then come back to uh us for uh conversation.

Does that work with very good?

That's what we'll do.

So turn it over to Jeff to present staff's record.

Yeah, so ours were just we kind of basically just trying to balance things out and cut things and put them around.

So it's not a whole lot of you know research into other funding sources or anything.

But um for I'll start off with the facilities housing economic development.

What we did there was just kind of took 60 recommended 65,000 towards Grandview Park.

We did uh 63687 towards the Buckner Playground surface as opposed to the frame park formal garden.

So we just looked at that and like um thought that maybe that's a priority project, serves an LMI neighborhood nearby.

Um Buckner Park, while itself is not an LMI area, it does it is kind of on the on the north and east, is kind of surrounded by one.

So that's why we we kind of prioritize that project.

Um but there wasn't uh that that's the only reason for that recommendation.

Um public art fund, we cut by 25 percent.

Uh Landmarks Pan Repair, we did leave that 25.

That's a program that um really helps when you have a historic home and always costs a little bit more to meet those landmark standards.

That money gets every year gets fully spent.

So we left that at 25,000.

Awayfinding, we also cut down by 25% to 37,500.

So that was really the really just trying to make an across the board cut there for these programs.

Um but it's kind of up to the board how they want to really move things around among the facilities housing and academic development programs.

Moving to programs a little easier, it's all one department, it's parks doing it.

So I just reached out to him.

I said, here's the expected allocation, and then they um gave me the numbers that they thought would work best with their programs and alternative funding sources.

So in that case, these are based on um park staff recommendations to us.

It's 12,562 for senior activity, 20,000 for the adaptive education specialists, and then 2,500 for the Buckner and or Horeb Park Swim and Play programs.

So I would think for the programs that that recommendation, since it's not competing among different projects, would um has more of a sound like more thought went into that, I think, just because that's how they think it'll work best for their budget.

Okay.

Thank you, Jeff.

Does that conclude your yeah?

I know in the past sometimes we've kind of just put in numbers here and trying to average it out, but if you however you want to approach it, that's fine, we'll kind of work within that.

Okay.

What I'd like to recommend to the committee is uh to work on the program services uh allocation first.

Is that looks relatively easy to address?

Um go ahead, Alderman.

Overall question, I guess.

Just for my own understanding, Jeff, what's the benefit of partially funding everything versus fully funding something?

Um it does I guess it's I don't know if it's a benefit or not.

It's sort of just we just kind of tried to balance it out so we weren't cutting from all yeah, we did cut from the we recommended zero for the frame park formal garden one, but I think in that case that's where we kind of made that decision, like the money for those two parks projects.

We thought it would better go into Buckner Park.

Um the other one just kind of we sort of spread across the board.

That's really why it just touches more programs.

That's why we split it up.

But but in the past, we've had it kind of where what our rec the recommend what the requests were were kind of in line with what we actually had.

So this is the first year in a while that we've had um higher requests than amount of money for the programs.

So that's that's the way we did it this time, but it's yeah, it's kind of up to the board.

If you'd rather prioritize a single project or two single projects, that's that's kind of in in your purview.

And is there any understanding as to why the requests were so much higher this year than that?

Yeah, just um well, obviously, the cost of everything goes up.

Um just maybe some bigger projects.

Um typically in the past, we'd have maybe one ADA project and it's a little bit less expensive, or we combine the ADA and resilient surfaces and try to fund it through there.

Um, and like I said, adding that wayfinding, which we hadn't done in a few years, that also added to that.

Um that's just curious, thank you.

Yeah, I think it's just um opportunity for money, people want to apply for it, and we want to try to offset you know, cost of taxpayers on these projects through federal funds.

That's uh excellent question.

I'm glad you asked that.

Um, as I and Emmy have been on the uh committee for a long time.

I think here close to a quarter century.

That's my 28.

Um we have, and this goes way back to Steve Crandall days uh when he was community development director, and we used to use a chalkboard and we'd get up there and write our numbers on the chalkboard and always tried to balance it out for fairness.

There were reductions in some of the projects, and as been explained that they can still complete projects, but not maybe to the extent that they they would like.

And it encouraged the applications to continue to come in through the years.

And with the work that uh staff does uh leading up to this to come to the recommendations, um, they've got the best knowledge of how to allocate and get the biggest bang for the buck out of what we have to work with.

And this is one of the largest.

I think this is probably in the top two of the largest requests uh that I recall, so it makes it a little bit more difficult to prioritize.

Uh but all the projects and uh programs are worthy, otherwise they wouldn't have been presented to us.

So that was another reason why we try to balance it out.

So I hope that helps.

I'll add a little bit to that.

Um sometimes when we have like a bigger project, like uh, you know, the the crossing or the playground surfaces, sometimes with the CDB allocation and the council resolution for those allocations in place when it comes to the um community investment program budget, the five-year you know, CIP budget, the departments that are requesting those could then come to the council and the finance committee and the council with the request saying, okay, uh, next year or we'd like to do Buckner Park Playground Surface.

In addition, here's our total request.

We also can offset that with X amount of money as CDBG funds.

So it does help with our budgeting later in the year for each of these projects.

Now, if you look at something like landmarks painting repair, another reason we recommend 25,000, that's not really anything that the city would ever fund out of our own budget.

So that's why we kind of also left that as it like whereas things like you do wayfinding, typically public art too, we wouldn't fund that out of our budget.

We try to do almost all that with grant money or donations.

Um so those those projects you know tend to be something if we did put in the budget, it'd be probably one of the first things cut.

But um, some of the other projects, it's just a way to kind of help offset or kind of reduce the cost of it when we get into the CIP planning.

Go ahead.

I mean we still have there any of the requests involved that would not be able to get funding from any other source.

I would say the landmarks paint repair is probably the one that would not be able to get funding from any other source.

Um in that case.

Um we do have some other loan programs that they could tap into.

That's not tied to landmarks, and that's a loan, you have to pay it back.

Um so we have what's called our affordable housing um rehab program.

There's income eligibility requirements and house value eligibility requirements for that.

That's a revolving loan fund that we created using tax incremental finance extensions.

So that could potentially help some landmarks applicants.

Um however, due to income and um income regulations, it may not help all of them.

So there's a little offset there.

Um sometimes wayfinding could be wrapped into other projects, you know, like William Street.

There's a budget for that streetscape there, so that could probably be offset in a portion that could be offset in there.

We wouldn't be able to do the full impact, but there's additional funding, and obviously the the other ones, the bigger ones would be like the wayfinding would also probably probably be a CIP item because they're kind of bigger tickets.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

So again, going back to uh the programs uh portion with the three applications.

Um I'll start off our conversation uh to see if we can reach a consensus on this.

Um the one that I disagree with uh staff on is only partially funding uh swim part play.

Um that program seems to me is having that fully funded at the requested amount of four thousand.

Um I would like to do that, and and then what we would do is split that difference of twenty four hundred and sixty-nine dollars being subtracted from the fifth nine subtracted from the twenty-five thousand.

That way that's one in park play program would be fully funded at four thousand dollars for the request.

That would just be a recommendation, open this up.

Well, I think that for example, the senior activity reaches more people than the playground program.

Um I'm assuming the adaptive education specialist.

I forgot how many she said you had in the program last time.

We had 650 students in our before and after school and another uh 300 during our summer.

So over 900 gallons.

Thank you.

Yeah, I think in this case, too, similar to the stuff above in the facilities.

You know, may want to see with parks what alternate funding sources to make up that gap are like I said, these these recommendations didn't come from technically, they came from parks if when we told them what the budget was, but I guess it's up to the board, and but you may want to find out what what ones are easier to offset that that money from four you said that was four thousand mic, and you think you're talking about yes, to just fully fund that at 4,000 versus the staff recommendation.

Is that something that could be worked with, or would it be preferred for about zero?

We appreciate your support wholeheartedly.

Um with the women park play, we um are able to utilize our financial assistance um program as well.

So um, which is why I felt comfortable reducing um that program a little bit.

Um with the adaptive and inclusion education specialists, um we don't really have an opportunity to do that because these are already enrolled in our school or 70 development program.

Um so that's why I decided to reduce the part like that we could still accommodate at least 4550 pedals with the 2500.

Uming that some families may be able to support uh program fees, and I could use some of that revenue to offset some of that.

Understood.

Thank you for that assistance in our conversation.

Uh I'll open up to fellow committee members on your thoughts staff recommendations, or would you have an interest in giving it up a little bit differently?

If there's a staff recommendation that one of you would like to make a motion on, we can do that at this time.

So just to clarify, they did 25 for each program, 25 percent or no 2500 20,000 five six.

Yeah, I think for the the 25% was kind of how we made some of the cuts on uh on like the public art um and wayfinding, we cut 25% from those.

That's where that's coming from.

Thank you.

I would entertain a motion for staff's recommendations then for uh the project or programs portion of our allocation requests.

So as you see staff's recommendations is that what excuse me question is that with your amendment?

No, no amendment.

I open it up just for discussion about the 2500 versus 4,000 for the request, but with the explanation from uh Kayla and from Jeff, I'm okay with it being funded at 2500.

Okay.

Staff's recommending I'm actually okay with that too, so I can make a motion to pass staff's recommendations.

I'll second.

Very good.

Further comment carrying none, then all in favor of staff's recommendations, as we see.

Aye opposed, unanimously approved.

Thank you.

Next up, it gets a little more interesting.

Uh there's any favoring of one project over another.

But I will open it up.

Uh, is chair.

I'll just say that I uh am comfortable with what staff is recommending for this allocation as well.

Um committee members.

Go ahead, Alderman.

Just to clarify for the staff recommendations for this part, everybody was had their input and were okay with the number that was um eventually submitted.

I think in this case it was really just us trying to cut it, cut sort of across the board, whereas in the path, these are different departments kind of all submitting, so it's a little harder to to do that where in this case below their all parks department.

So it's like which one do you guys have funding for?

So this one really was just us trying to equalize everything, but it's um as far as we didn't really look at alternative funding sources or anything like that.

It was just kind of trying to cut it to get it under in the budget.

Um again, the priorities of the board is really what takes precedence here.

So if there's ones that you think you have more funding or less or no funding, that's kind of that'd be your role here.

I mean, in the wayfinding, if you wanted to cut some out of that, that'd be you know, we could manage that and then spread it out across more years.

That's that's an easy one to spread out across a couple of years.

So okay, thank you.

Thank you.

I do have a question on the Grand View Park Crossing.

Uh, if that was funded at 65,000 versus the 200, yeah.

Would only part of those improvements take place?

Would the sign get uh what I what they probably do is then submit it for CIP budget, okay, with this being the offset.

Okay, so here's the total cost of that X amount, whatever you recommend, we'll cover that part of it, and then requesting CIP funds to cover the rest of it as a 2027 project.

Excellent.

Yeah, because that's the okay.

Questions?

Yes, the more I more I thought about it, more I had follow-up questions to this particular one.

What the first question is what is the lifespan of this new light model?

I'll ask that first.

Yeah, I'll have Darren do that.

You can maybe address the other funding source part of it too.

I didn't realize you were back to still sorry.

So your your question was the new lifespan for the pedestrian hybrid vegan.

Yes, it would be at least 25 years with some of the newer infrastructure that would be in place.

It would be more comfortable to say we could that could be extended more to probably 30 years.

Okay.

And then what do you know offhand what the cost difference is from what's currently there to what you're proposing?

Like the the light that's there now.

Okay, like how much would it be to just replace what's there versus this new available?

Or if it's even available, yes.

So with what is there with what is there now as like a traditional traffic signal, it wouldn't really be the recommended um installation for that just because of the type of control that it is, but similarly to that.

Um it may be like not much cheaper in the grand scheme compared to the pet hybrid installation, maybe 10, 15,000 less in comparison for the infrastructure portion, and that doesn't include the uh um crosswalk pedestrian bump out improvement.

Okay, so the 200,000 request includes all of it, the light, the bump out, everything.

That is correct.

Yep.

Thank you for the clarification.

Was that with the budget?

Was that what you're doing?

Darren, Darren, one more oh, I was gonna say for the budget, would that be what you would be looking to do then if if it's not fully funded and go to CIP then for next year?

Correct.

Okay.

Yep, thanks.

Going back to the lights, why not something similar to the by the courthouse?

So that was um an item that was discussed upon um, but with what currently exists out there with it being a traffic signal, it was um requested that something similar to the traffic signal, but current practice of a traffic signal be replaced in kind.

Okay.

Thank you.

I also think it makes a difference with it mainly being adults crossing at the courthouse.

My opinion, you know, um, did I miss something on why we have a zero for the formal gardens?

As the staff records we just kind of sorry, that's up to you if you want to move around.

We just kind of figured that the Buckner Park would be a priority given um again the community served.

I mean, obviously, everybody uses the formal gardens as well, but we thought the resilient playground service with additional EDA enhancements serving that low to moderate income neighborhood to the north of there.

Um obviously you have the habitat um subdivision that's gonna be finished this year.

So that that's why that was our rationale behind it, but that was just um just trying to make you know trying to dump the money there and then maybe find a different funding source for the other aspect of it.

But that was that was really the only reason behind it was the impact to the neighborhood between the two projects.

Can you put the screen back up on that?

Yeah, sorry.

Sorry, I was trying to show that crosswork, but let's go back.

You're talking about this one or the yeah, okay.

So we need to see the top.

Oh no, never mind.

Sorry, sorry, never back.

That's recommendations.

The actual request.

I can scroll up there if you want to see the request up here.

Scroll back to staff's recommendation.

Is that helpful?

Yes, thank you.

So with that, um any other comments on the projects and what staff is recommended.

You have a feeling one way or the other.

And if you're comfortable with staff's recommendations, uh, would someone like to make a motion to accept that further discussion on staff's recommendations?

Was the second on that?

Amanda, okay, thanks.

Hearing no further discussion, and all in favor of staff's recommendations, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed, unanimously approved.

Thank you.

That made things very easy to get through.

Thanks for your thoughtful comments and questions.

Uh, we have no further business this evening.

Uh so I would just take a motion to adjourn.

Oh, I'm so moved.

All right, and Amanda is a second.

That's what I heard.

I typically don't make motion.

No, it's mine.

Okay.

So motion and second.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Adjourn 520.

Thank you.

Um time to next stop will this be presented in the next common council meeting?

Um, it'll be I don't think it'll be on when council is the next week.

I think um it might be on the first one in June.

Okay.

Well, I'll shoot an email to the committee when um we have that scheduled for council.