Cancellations first: the Neenah Plan Commission meeting that was to have been held at it's regularly scheduled time on Tuesday, Jan. 27th, has been cancelled.
Also the Finance and Personnel Committee meeting scheduled for Monday, Jan. 26th, has been cancelled.
The Neenah Community Development Authority meets Monday, Jan. 26th, at 4:00 at City Hall.
One item on the agenda re-opens an issue that has rubbed some people the wrong way. That is: parking. Specifically, parking in the Church St. parking ramp behind the new Alta Resources building.
When that ramp was built along with the Alta building, a reserved parking stall rental agreement was reached. In that agreement, Alta pays the city $5 a month for each of 510 parking stalls. That rate holds good for 20 years.
Now the city wants to provide parking stalls for Plexus in that ramp. So the agreement with Alta needs to be amended. From the wording of the memo written by Community Development Director Buckingham to CDA Chairman Martin, it appears that the city forgot that it couldn't lease reserved parking spaces in that ramp to Plexus without getting permission from Alta Resources. Therefore Alta appears to have asked for and received additional benefits in the amended lease:
- An increase in the number of stalls it rents at $5 a month
- Instead of a 20-year lease, Alta will now have a perpetual lease at $5 a month per stall.
- The city will remove snow from the ramp where currently Alta contracts for snow removal and is credited that cost through reductions of its monthly parking fees.
On that last point, the city's parking revenues will no longer be reduced by crediting Alta's parking fees.
The point that rubs some people the wrong way is that amount paid per stall.
Next, on Tuesday, Jan. 27th, the Public Services & Safety Committee holds its regularly scheduled meeting.
Here comes the rooster issue again. At the Jan. 13th meeting of the PS&SC (minutes <here>), I suggested that instead of amending the current chicken coop ordinance, the city should think about terminating the allowance of chicken coops altogether. On the agenda for the Jan. 27th meeting I saw this:
III. Council Referrals
- Ordinance 1382 - Restrictions on Chicken Coops Permitted in the City of Neenah
- Discussion regarding broadening restriction to include all farm animals (Ald. Bates)
There has been plenty of public commentary on this issue in the newspaper and on radio and blogs (including NeenahPolitics.com). A new paragraph will be added to the city ordinance, Section 3-3(c), and is proposed to read as follows:
(c) Chicken coops permitted under this section shall be limited to the keeping of up to four (4) chickens, and shall be subject to the following conditions:
- The principal use of the property where a chicken coop may be permitted is limited to single-family dwellings.
- No person shall keep a rooster.
- No person shall slaughter any chickens
- The chickens shall be provided with a covered enclosure and must be kept in the covered enclosure or a fenced enclosure at all times.
- No enclosure shall be located closer than twenty-five (25) feet to any residential structure on an adjacent lot.
I detailed in my summary of the situation that the Cranes, the next-door neighbors of the owner of the Rooster In Question (RIQ), asked that the RIQ not be "grandfathered in". That is, they've been so aggravated and bothered by Jake the rooster that they would like the city to remove him. As with all changes to laws, there is a "grandfathering" period; in other words, the city can't just haul Jake off and get rid of him. He will be allowed to live on in his lusty-lunged state for quite some time. Jake's owners will not be permitted to buy any other roosters; but Jake stays.
The revised ordinance tries to be fair to everyone. It simply cannot provide relief to the the Cranes in their rooster-induced disquiet.
I don't know what additional restrictions Alderman Marge Bates will propose. I'll let you know after the PS&SC meeting when the committee members are supposed to vote on whether to send the revised ordinance to the Council for a final vote.
It looks like citizens are enthusiastically making use of the Tullar Garage recycling drop-off; so much so, that the city had to pay overflow charges. Therefore the city will add another paper recycling bin and a blue bag recycling bin. It'll cost an additional $119 a month or so for the rental of those big bins (8 yard paper and 4 yard blue bag).
There is also a meeting of the Neenah-Menasha Joint Fire Commission on Wednesday, Jan. 28th, at noon at City Hall. There appear to be no controversial items. Item VI. on the agenda is "Discussion of providing fire protection to surrounding communities." I can only speculate that that means that there has been some talk of the N-M Fire Department extending its operations further to cover a broader area.