Common Council

City Meeting Schedule: Week of December 12, 2022, Public Information Meeting on 12/12, and Community Updates

City Weekly Meeting Schedule

http://www.cityofmadison.com/clerk/meeting-schedule 

The Madison Common Council and City of Madison boards, commissions, and committees meet regularly to discuss and take action on City business.  The City Weekly Meeting Schedule is a quick way to access an agenda, location, and time of a meeting. You can subscribe to receive Meeting Schedule and Updates emails. Check the schedule periodically during the week since meetings can be added or canceled, or contact the City's Clerk office at (608) 266-4601 to confirm a meeting.
 
If you would like to share a comment with a committee or commission, you can do so during the Public Comment period or register to speak on a specific agenda item listed on the agenda.

NOTICE OF VIRTUAL
PUBLIC INFORMATION MEETING
Gammon Road & Watts Road Safety Project
Monday, December 12, 2022, 6pm-8pm

You are invited to a virtual public meeting where you will hear about WisDOT Project 5992-07-18/19, a safety improvement project for the intersection of Gammon Road & Watts R0ad that is scheduled for construction in 2024.

The proposed improvements include reconstructing the medians on Gammon R0ad to provide better off-set for left turns, installing new over the lane traffic signals and enhanced crosswalks.

You can join the virtual meeting using your computer, smartphone or tablet, or you can listen in via telephone. You will receive login information after registering for the meeting from this website:  https://www.cityofmadison.com/trafficengineering/GammonRdWattsRd.cfm.

If you have any questions, please contact:
Mark Winter at mwinter@cityofmadison.com / (608) 266-6543
Jim Pavelski, PE, PTOE  jimp@jt-engineering.com / (608) 515-5365

How Can Citizens Play a Role in City Government?

Have a voice in City government! Apply to be on a City board, commission or committee.

Committees, commissions, and boards play a significant role in helping city staff, the Common Council and the Mayor in making decisions that affect the lives of Madison residents. The City of Madison values broad participation in these bodies and highly encourages people of color, persons with disabilities and members of other traditionally underrepresented groups to apply. Committee positions are open to City of Madison residents.

Passenger Rail Station Study

Credit: Amtrak.com

The City is working with the U.S. Department of Transportation (US DOT), Amtrak, and other stakeholders to capitalize on the greatly increased federal funds to expand intercity passenger rail and to bring Amtrak service to Madison.

Two recently released rail plans identify the need for passenger rail service in Madison – Amtrak's Connects US (June 2021) and the U.S. DOT's [CS1] Midwest Regional Rail Plan (October 2021).

Amtrak's plan initially recommends extending four daily Hiawatha trips to Madison, connecting the city to both Chicago and Milwaukee with reliable, comfortable passenger rail service. In the long term, Amtrak recommends extending three daily trips from Madison to Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Credit: Recommended Amtrak Routes – Amtrak's Connects US Plan

The City is working with the U.S. Department of Transportation (US DOT), Amtrak, and other stakeholders to capitalize on the greatly increased federal funds to expand intercity passenger rail and to bring Amtrak service to Madison.

Two recently released rail plans identify the need for passenger rail service in Madison – Amtrak's Connects US (June 2021) and the U.S. DOT's [CS1] Midwest Regional Rail Plan (October 2021).

Amtrak's plan initially recommends extending four daily Hiawatha trips to Madison, connecting the city to both Chicago and Milwaukee with reliable, comfortable passenger rail service. In the long term, Amtrak recommends extending three daily trips from Madison to Minneapolis-St. Paul.  

Credit: USDOT - Recommended Midwest Rail Network from Midwest Regional Rail Plan

The greatest opportunity lies with the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, passed in late 2021, which includes an unprecedented $66 billion in funding for passenger rail services improvements and service expansion. To prepare for on this opportunity, the City of Madison Common Council allocated funds in May 2022 to conduct a study that will identify a locally recommended passenger rail station location for a future extension of Amtrak's Hiawatha Service.

The Passenger Rail Station Study will determine a preliminary program for a modern intercity passenger rail station including passenger waiting areas, parking, platform size and configuration, and the need for light maintenance and crew accommodations. The City is coordinating with Amtrak to determine the station program needs and to screen potential locations based on operational viability. Other important considerations for the station will include multimodal transportation access, the site's ability to accommodate the station program and future service expansion, and opportunities to advance local plans, equitable development, and tourism infrastructure.

The study will initially look at broad corridors within the City of Madison and then look at more specific locations once those corridor areas are narrowed.  

Potential station locations

Kick-off Meeting for the Passenger Rail Station Study

The City of Madison hosted a kick-off meeting for the Passenger Rail Station Study on December 7, 2022. 

• View the video recording of the meeting and staff presentation

Madison CARES Releases End of Year Report, Virtual Public Meeting & Discussion

• Read the report
• View the recording

West District Blotter

(Please note: The following is an excerpt from the West District Blotter. You can read the Blotter in its entirety here.)

December daydreaming...

Happy Holidays!

I hope this finds you all well and staying warm.

First of all, I want to thank you all for your commitment to safety. After I wrote last time about the spike in vehicle thefts and burglaries in the west district, you all responded by being diligent about locking up your stuff. Our thefts fell significantly over that time and that is largely because of your commitment to checking your property, then re-checking it, and on occasion, just being neighborly. Thank you! Let's keep it up, keep those vehicles locked and those garage doors closed. 

Capt. Kelly Beckett
Madison Police West District

Mark Your Calendars!
Monday, January 23, 2023
Kestrel Park Meeting

The Parks Division is set to begin the master planning process for Kestrel Park. They envision holding the first virtual public input meeting in January, then a second in March. From there, they will determine if a third meeting is necessary based on the input received. Once the master plan has been developed with input from the neighborhood, it will go before the Board of Park Commissioners for adoption. After the plan has been adopted, the Parks Division capital budget includes funding for park development to at least partially implement the master plan in 2023 and 2024.

Streets Division Drop-off Sites Now on Winter Hours

The Streets Division drop-off sites at 4602 Sycamore Avenue and 402 South Point Road started winter hours on Monday, December 5, 2022.

The hours for the sites are now as follows:

• Monday: 7:30am to 2:30pm
• Tuesday: 7:30am to 2:30pm
• Wednesday: Closed
• Thursday: 7:30am to 2:30pm
• Friday: 7:30am to 2:30pm
• Saturday: Closed
• Sunday: Closed

These reduced hours will remain in effect for the Sycamore and South Point drop-off sites until April 2023.

The drop-off site at 121 E. Olin Avenue is closed for the season. It will reopen in April 2023.

More Information

• More information about the Streets Division drop-off sites can be found at http://www.cityofmadison.com/DropOffSites.

• For additional details about all Streets Division operations, please visit http://www.cityofmadison.com/Streets.  

Streets Division, Westside office: 608-266-4681,