The Common Council meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 4th, will be preceded by two events. First, at 6:00pm, a special performance of "Edge of Reality", a movie produced by the students of Neenah High School. According to the City of Neenah web site, "Edge of Reality" is a "nationally recognized presentation of the impact of drinking and driving,"
The movie is also available on-line at the Appleton Post-Crescent site.
After the movie there will be a quick Finance & Personnel committee meeting to discuss the resolution to change the retirement health savings plan contributions made by the city to retiring union members.
The Common Council meeting will begin immediately after the end of the Finance & Personnel meeting.
The Council will be voting on a number of routine items:
- The Mayor's appointment to the Harbor Commission
- Alcoholic beverage operator licenses
- The Reciprocity agreement with Menasha and Appleton for Park program fees
- Purchase of a quarter million dollar recycling truck
- Purchase of a heating system for the city garage vehicle storage area
- Payments for a couple paving and sewer contracts
- The level of contribution of the city to the union retirement health savings account plan
- Final vote on new restrictions for chicken coops in residential neighborhoods.
That last item saw the passionate presentations at the January 27th Public Services and Safety Committee meeting. It's quite possible that more presentations will be made during the Public Forum portion of Wednesday's Council meeting.
There's also a rare happening at Wednesday's Council meeting:
The Common Council of the City of Neenah will convene in closed session under Section 19.85(1)(g) and 19.85(1)(e) of the Wisconsin Statutes to confer with legal counsel concerning strategy to be adopted by the City with respect to the defense in connection with potential liability arising from the Lower Fox River/Green Bay Natural Resource Damage Assessment, Lower Fox River and Green Bay remediation issues, and related potential litigation and to discuss strategies for negotiations with representatives of the United States of America and the State of Wisconsin on compromise settlement of potential CERCLA liability, indemnification, contribution, contribution protection and municipal entities infrastructure concerns with respect to the Lower Fox River/Green Bay.
This is about the dredging you've seen in Little Lake Butte des Morts. CERCLA is the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act. The Council also met in closed session on this exact same issue on March 5th of last year.
I don't know if this is related to the following, but it's right around the same time frame as the March 5th Council meeting. This is from the June 30th, 2008 quarterly SEC filing made by Neenah Foundry:
Fox River Cleanup Matter. Certain areas of the Lower Fox River System in Wisconsin have been designated for remedial activities under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (“CERCLA”) due to PCB contamination. Neenah Foundry Company (“Neenah”) operates a facility near this area. With respect to the Fox River PCB site, Appleton Papers Inc. (“API”) and NCR Corporation (“NCR”) commenced an action in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin on January 7, 2008 seeking to allocate among all responsible parties the equitable shares of response costs and natural resources damages associated with the environmental contamination of the Fox River. API and NCR indicated that they believe that other parties, including Neenah, should participate in the funding of this work because they allegedly contributed to the environmental contamination and are responsible parties. Accordingly, in a letter dated March 12, 2008, API and NCR notified Neenah that they were thereby terminating the 2004 tolling and standstill agreement among Neenah, NCR, API, and Arjo Wiggins Appleton Ltd., with the intent of adding Neenah as a party to the referenced litigation. On April 14, 2008, Neenah was served with a third amended complaint and joined as a defendant in the pending lawsuit brought by plaintiffs API and NCR. Plaintiffs make claims against Neenah (and other defendants) for response costs allegedly incurred by plaintiffs, contribution, and declaratory relief. No case management dates have yet been set in the case. Neenah will assert factual and legal defenses to these claims. The Company is also exploring the possibility of reimbursement of certain expenses and defense costs incurred relating to the case from its liability insurance carriers. There have been no amounts accrued for potential liability in this case as of June 30, 2008.
In addition to those legal proceedings discussed in our reports to the SEC, we are involved in various claims and litigation in the normal course of business. Although the results of legal proceedings cannot be predicted with certainty, in the judgment of management, the ultimate resolution of these matters is not likely to have a material adverse effect on our consolidated financial statements.