City Hall in Appleton City was packed on the 20th of August for a special session of the city council. Area residents were responding to a letter sent out by New Mayor Jay Knowles concerning the financial state of the town. It seems that the financial statements do not match the actual monies that the town had- to the tune of $30,000.
It seems that Mayor Knowles was having several run ins with the town clerk, Rick Cook. Mayor Knowles said when he took office that he wanted to make sure that the budget was in order, and according to the letter, he has found several discrepancies. Among the listed were problems with overtime, finding ordinances in readily accessible binders, and the possibility of the town clerk using city checks to pay for personal bills.
When the meeting started, it went immediately into executive session. There was a buzz in the air as to what would happen, with 'the letter' being the buzzword of the night.
After the executive session ended, Rick Cook did indeed sit down with the rest of the Aldermen as part of the council. Mayor Knowles started by apologizing to a member of the council that couldn't make it to two meetings concerning the style of bookkeeping. It was made clear that this member was 'Chasing bad guys' at the time and unable to attend. As to the problem at hand, Mayor Knowles said that the city is going to hire a CPA /bookkeeper to help with the books, at which time they will have an audit. They are putting in an ad for the CPA immediately. After figuring out the discrepancies in the books and getting the city's accounts back in order, they will have an opening for a treasurer. This is presumably to keep anything like this from happening again.
Also at the meeting there was a question involving the enforcement of ordinances, especially when it comes to tall grass and weed infested lawns. Mayor Knowles acknowledged that he too has a problem with several yards. The main problem is that it's a waste of the limited money that the city has to have their workers are mowing the yards. Most of the houses are in fact abandoned, and the city is also concerned about recouping the money that the city workers are paid.
Also discussed was a problem with large trucks parking over at the corner of Main and 4th due to the ability to see oncoming traffic, as well as the railroad tracks. This led to a problem with trucks and trailers in general. A 'Pet' trailer has been parked across from Brownsberger Veterinarian office for some time now. It has been checked as far all the tags are concerned, but there doesn't seem to be any fowl play afoot. However, it's been sitting on the city streets for a long time and taking up space. This seems to be a problem with trailers at the park as well. People have been leaving them there for some time, causing concerns about the roads and general look of the town, as well as safety concerns. Several options were discussed as to remedies for this problem, but nothing seemed to be able to satisfactorily solve the issue.