City-County Building
Common Council

Meetings and Updates Week of January 27

posted 
  • City Meetings:
    • Common Council 1/28
    • Board of Public Works 1/29
  • Winter Salt Awareness Week is 1/27-1/31
  • Reminder: Portland Park Playground Public Meeting 1/28
  • Events & Announcements

City Meetings

Note: This is not a complete list of meetings for this upcoming week. All meetings and their details can be found at the Meeting Schedule page.

Common Council

The Common Council meeting will take place on Tuesday, January 28, at 6:30 p.m. in hybrid format. Agenda items include:

  • Item 2: An honoring resolution expressing sincere appreciation to Madison Police Department Chief of Police, Dr. Shon F. Barnes for his 4 years of dedicated service to the City of Madison.
  • Item 3: An honoring resolution celebrating February 2025 as Black History Month in the City of Madison.
  • Item 5: a staff presentation on an effort to streamline the City’s many, many committees.
  • Item 26: A resolution authorizing the acceptance of grant wards for overtime and supplies for the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network to manage firearm ballistic casings and digital evidence (I’m a cosponsor).
  • Item 27: A resolution authorizing grant contracts to support the Madison Area Resource Initiative (MARI) for individuals with substance use disorder who have committed nonviolent offenses stemming from addiction (I’m a cosponsor).
  • Item 31: A resolution amending Metro Transit’s 2025 Operating Budget to provide additional contracted service to the City of Verona (funded with revenue paid by Verona) and to appropriate additional federal funds (I’m a cosponsor).
  • Item 36: A resolution increasing the dollar threshold requiring competitive selection of service contracts from $50,000 to $75,000 to cut down on administrative and staffing costs in the Finance Department.
  • Item 44: A resolution re-approving a certified survey map (lot lines) of property owned by Sprecher Apartments LLC located at 102 S Sprecher Rd in District 3. This reapproval is before the Council because the owners’ previous CSM approval in 2022 has expired. I understand that the applicant has been in communication with the North Star Neighborhood Association leaders about their plans for the property.
  • Item 86587: A resolution mourning the loss of life and injuries suffered from gun violence and urging the WI State Legislature to enact common sense gun control (I’m a sponsor).

Meeting info:

Board of Public Works

The Board of Public Works meeting will take place on Wednesday, January 29, at 4:30 p.m. in virtual format. Agenda items include plans and authorization for the City to advertise and receive bids to make bridge repairs at three bridges, including to the bridge between Portland Parkway and Dempsey Road over Stoughton Road (partially in District 3). The repair work on this bridge will include concrete surface repair along the sides and top of the bridge deck, patching the fence post cover pop-outs, epoxy sealing concrete cracks across the top of the bridge deck, replacing the bottom rail where rusted, and replacing the some plate coverings on both ends of the bridge. Here’s a link to the repair plan images for each of the three bridges. 

Meeting info:

If you would like more information about becoming a member of a City board, commission, or committee, please visit the page linked here.

Winter Salt Awareness Week is January 27th-31st

Every winter, salt can be an important tool to manage safe pavement conditions on roads and sidewalks, but its use has very real (and expensive) consequences and we must all be careful not to overuse it. All salt applied outside eventually ends up in our waterways, and measured chloride levels (from road salt) have been rising in our drinking water. One teaspoon of salt per five gallons of water is enough to kill aquatic life, which should help us understand why our area waterways are under tremendous stress. Residents and businesses can make meaningful contributions to salt pollution reduction by learning about smart salting practices, engaging in safe winter driving, and hiring trained service providers.

Winter Salt Week is an annual event organized by Wisconsin Saltwise and serves as an opportunity to educate our communities on smart salting practices, including effective application methods. This webpage has a list of programmed educational events. Below is a recording of District 17 Dane County Supervisor Dan Blazewicz, who represents much of Madison Alder District 3, reading this year’s County resolution recognizing Winter Salt Week, citing a lot of good information about the importance of this cause.

(In the video embedded below skip to 19:30 to see Sup Blazewicz's reading of the resolution, or use this direct link to that point of the meeting in CityChannel)

Reminder: Portland Park Playground Public Meeting Tuesday

Public Input Meeting - Portland Park (Virtual), Tuesday, January 28: As a reminder, Madison Parks is replacing five existing playgrounds in 2025. On Dec. 5, a virtual playground workshop was held for all five playgrounds, including the playground in Portland Park, 4210 Portland Parkway. Parks staff presented an overview of the playground replacement program and asked for input on design decisions during break-out sessions specific to each park location. The second input meeting will be held virtually on Tuesday, January 28th. Parks staff will present two playground concepts based on feedback received. Please consider sharing this information with anyone who uses the Portland Park playground!

Events & Announcements

Please visit the City news webpage to find additional news and announcements and to subscribe to receive notification of news releases as they are posted. Additional upcoming events can also be found on the City events calendar.

Tags:
Was this page helpful to you?

District 3 - Alder Field

Alder Derek Field

Alder Derek Field

District 3
Contact Alder Field

Categories