Revitalization of Appleton's Soldiers Square doesn't measure up to more pressing city projects, officials say
APPLETON - An effort to add the revitalization of Soldiers Square to the city's five-year capital improvements plan failed to gain traction this week.
Public Works Director Paula Vandehey said the infrastructure of Soldiers Square was constructed with tax dollars and is "in really good condition," so she was hesitant to make it a priority over other city infrastructure that is in poor condition and needs work.
"To tear that up, instead of fixing other projects, I think is where our struggle is," Vandehey told the Municipal Services Committee.
Committee Chairman Bill Siebers said he wasn't interested in increasing the city's debt to pay for the revitalization.
"Something's got to come out of the five-year plan for this to go into the five-year plan," Siebers said. "I haven't heard anything in regards to that."
The committee voted 5-0 to deny a resolution that sought to put the Soldiers Square revitalization in the five-year plan and "move with reasonable speed" toward design.
The denial, if upheld by the Common Council, leaves any public or private revitalization efforts in limbo.
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Council members Alex Schultz and Israel Del Toro introduced the resolution to jumpstart the revitalization of Soldiers Square, which is a one-block plaza between Oneida and Morrison streets immediately north of the Appleton YMCA parking ramp that's under construction. It functions largely as a one-way street with parking.
The plaza is home to Appleton's Civil War Memorial and is envisioned as a site for the relocation of the Spanish-American War Memorial that once stood at Soldiers Square but now is at Pierce Park.
In 2019, two nonprofit organizations, Hearthstone Historic House Museum and Sculpture Valley, started selling engraved bricks to raise money for the revitalization of Soldiers Square. The campaign continues today but lost some urgency when the city decided to build its new public library in place of the existing library, rather than in place of the Soldiers Square parking ramp.
Vandehey presented a conceptual plan for Soldiers Square that could accommodate a second memorial, a grassy area and a wall of engraved bricks but would result in the loss of 11 downtown parking stalls. She said staff doesn't support the use of bricks for pavement or sidewalks due to maintenance issues.
The estimated cost of the project was $210,000. It doesn't account for the bricks or relocating other monuments to the site.
Whether such a project would be funded publicly, privately or by a combination of the two was left undecided.
Schultz viewed the project as worthy of some city funding and inclusion in the five-year plan. Fellow council member Chad Doran disagreed.
"I, for one, would not be supportive of spending city dollars on this project at any point in the near future, just given all of the other infrastructure needs that we have that we're not currently keeping up with," Doran said.
Before the committee's vote, historian and former council member Christine Williams asked elected officials to treat Soldiers Square as a public walkway or promenade, as was intended by philanthropist Amos Lawrence, the namesake of Lawrence University, when he deeded the land to the city in the 1850s.
Williams said city leaders decided in 1933 to change it into a street and parking lot, adding that Lawrence might not have made the donation had he known what it would become.
"This is a time to right a wrong," Williams said. "They screwed up in 1933. Please don't screw up now."
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Contact Duke Behnke at 920-993-7176 or dbehnke@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DukeBehnke.
This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Revitalization of Appleton's Soldiers Square doesn't rank as priority
