November 16, 2009

Misty Lane Water Tower up and running

The Misty Lane water tower is online. Because of this water source, the fire station is requesting a ISO re-evaluation. ISO is an independent organization that serves insurance companies, fire departments, insurance regulators, and others by providing information about risk. ISO's expert field staff visits communities around the country to collect information about their fire departments, their fire alarm and communications systems, and their water supplies.
Resident's homeowner's insurance is directly tied in to the ISO rating. A lower number on a scale of 1 to 10 indicates better fire protection is available. Hopefully, a reduced ISO rating will mean better insurance rates for Grand Chute residents. I will keep you up to date on the town's ISO rating progress.

November 13, 2009

Agenda for November 17th Town Board meeting

The Agenda for the November 17th Town Board meeting is available for download. The Board will be acting on the proposed budget. We will also consider a proposal to shift away from the proposed police department merger with Appleton and focus on identifying was we can cooperate with Appleton short of a merger.

Grand Chute Kiwanis ringing the bells tomorrow

The Salvation Army has kicked off their 2009 holiday bell ringing campaign. Members of the Grand Chute Kiwanis will be by the kettles in various parts of Grand Chute tomorrow. I'll be ringing the bell at the new Walgreens on Northland Ave. 2-3pm tomorrow afternoon. Be sure to say hello if you're passing through!

November 12, 2009

New town festival in the works

Various organizations in Grand Chute are working together to expand on Grand Chute's annual Parks Day event. The town is looking to create an event that is identifiable to surrounding communities as a "Grand Chute" celebration, similar to Darboy's Chickenfest, or Greenville's Catfish Races. The goal is this will be a community-wide event.

The main festival date is September 11, 2010, with other activities possibly occuring on the 10th and 12th.

Currently, a steering committee is looking into naming the event. From there, themes, and activities will be planned.

Grand Chute Firefighters, Grand Chute Citizens Police Academy and of course, Kiwanis, will all be a driving force behind this event. Town officials, Grand Chute Kiwanis, residents and business people will all come together to organize next year's festival. This is a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor and help shape the future of Grand Chute celebrations. I will be meeting with Town Administrator Jim March early next week to start outlining the festival. Please email, comment, or call if you have any ideas.

November 10, 2009

Memo from Town Administrator Jim March regarding Police Merger

The Grand Chute Town Board directed staff to investigate the feasibility of a police department merger with the City of Appleton over a year and a half ago. Initially, a consultant was hired to investigate the matter. After the consultant reached an early conclusion that a merger would not work, elected leaders, the Grand Chute citizens committee and staff members from both communities felt that the investigation was not as thorough as we would have liked and determined that the issue warranted further study.



Since that time, a joint implementation committee was formed with representation from both municipalities. Joint staff created numerous detailed reports that portrayed a hypothetical budget, a sample funding formula and delineated how the governance of a merged department would function.

Elected officials on both sides have indicated that they expect a merger would include at a minimum three components listed as follows

1) enhanced services,

2) financial efficiencies or at least no additional costs and

3) a “true” merger that recognizes the importance of the departmental contributions from both communities.


During a recent meeting with Chief Walsh and interim Chief Peterson, we concluded that, realistically; a merger could not likely accomplish all three of these goals at this time.


We believe that a merger would provide nearly immediate enhanced services to both communities. This goal and perceived outcome has never been a question in our minds.


In attempting to identify financial efficiencies, we think that one of the initial assumptions used as a requirement for a merger precludes us from saying with certainty that a merger would cost the same or less than the combination of our departments financed independently.


The assumption that no one would lose their job in a proposed merger is counterintuitive and likely serves as the best source of potential savings. We are not saying that we disagree with this early prerequisite, but in our opinions the stipulation does limit our ability to be creative.


We believe that a lot has been learned through this process. In fact, we believe that it is the knowledge that we have gained that has shaped the increasing doubts for the need to proceed further with the merger investigation.

During the interim period under effective departmental leadership, the following items have been noticed:


  • Grand Chute’s Police Department can be properly equipped through budget action
  • Grand Chute Departmental morale improves with effective leadership
  • Grand Chute can revise our departmental policies and procedures
  • Grand Chute could maintain it’s identity and have a highly functioning department


Nevertheless, while we may be at a crossroads that casts doubt on the value of continuing the merger feasibility analysis, the process we have undertaken has revealed numerous opportunities for collaboration that can be achieved without consolidation of the two organizations. In fact, many of the strengths associated with the merger are within reach through operational collaboration. Several key areas worthy of consideration have been preliminarily identified as follows:


  • Increased cross jurisdictional responses to enhance response times in critical situations and in circumstances where geography and staffing deployment issues impede service delivery
  • Consistency in policy development to enhance cross jurisdictional service opportunities
  • Unification of key operational components based on function; e.g., PSL

o A unified approach to the PSL function would ensure constant coverage in PSL absences, standardization of policies between law enforcement and the School District, Child Protective Services, etc., and enhanced information sharing

  • Technology/data sharing in areas such as criminal intelligence, crime mapping, and crime analysis trends.
  • Consolidation of the crime scene processing function, including equipment purchase
  • Joint deployment of a single Crime Scene Unit
  • Sharing of technical criminal investigative capabilities; e.g., computer and audio/visual forensics capabilities
  • Collaboration on equipment and program research, grant funding opportunities, and volume buying
  • Consolidation of the training function for the purpose of affording each agency access to the other’s instructional staff and in-house training opportunities


In light of these many opportunities, our joint recommendation is to transition the proposed discussion on a merger to a proposed analysis of ways that the Grand Chute Police Department and the City of Appleton Police Department can share services on an administrator defined level. Should this shift in philosophy find support, it would be advisable to consider an extension of the Memorandum of Understanding between the two communities, in which the City has agreed to provide the Town with an Appleton Police Department Deputy Chief to act as the interim police chief. This will enable the two chiefs to fully explore the range of possibilities for such a collaborative approach toward administrative and operational policing activities.


We have also concluded that if future financial incentives for mergers become available at the Federal or State level that this issue should be reexamined at that time. The full exploration of all opportunities for collaboration between our two independent police departments would only serve to enhance renewed merger discussions should the aforementioned financial incentives present themselves.


In closing, we would respectfully request consideration of this proposal by the Grand Chute Town Board and the Appleton Common Council in the spirit of cooperation that has prevailed during the 17 months of merger feasibility research.

November 9, 2009

IT subcontracting services passes Appleton City Council

IT services for Grand Chute came on step closer to being taken over by Appleton's IT Department when Appleton's City Council voted 14-2 last week to approve the contract request. The contract will be on next week's Town Board agenda. If the Town Board approves the contract, services can expect to start soon after. The town will pay an annual fee of $20,000.The town has the option of buying additional network support service during off hours for $90 an hour

November 6, 2009

Police Merger up in the air

I've been fielding a lot of calls from the news media and residents about rumors that talks between Grand Chute and Appleton police merger are dead. Memos were apparently sent out to Grand Chute and Appleton officers. Radio reports (WHBY) Appleton's memo informed offficers the town board might not be interested in pursuing merger negotaions. At last Tuesday's town board meeting, Chairman Marsden expressed his dissatisfaction with Appleton's sticking points (name identity being one of them), but no action was taken by the Town Board toward disolution of merger discussion.

As of this time, I am waiting for official word in memo form from Town Adminstrator Jim March, Appleton Chief David Walsh and Interim Deputy Chief Greg Peterson. Chairman Mike Marsden is out of town. Until I receive word in written form, I cannot speculate as to the reasoning, or the direction the merger is taking, because truthfully, I do not know.

Next Thursday's meeting of the Merger Implementation committee has been cancelled.