Homeless camping ban, replacing city council member, sidewalks, ARPA spending all part of La Crosse public meetings this week

It’s committee week in La Crosse, with the city’s two biggest meetings where the public has the most say on legislation happening.

Much of the action taken Monday by the City Plan Commission will be discussed by the two big city council committees.

The Judiciary and Administration Committee meets at 6 p.m. Tuesday. The Finance and Personnel Committee’s meeting is moved up a day, to 6 p.m. Wednesday, because of the holiday.

Some of those items were discussed on La Crosse Talk PM last week with council members Mac Kiel and Tamara Dickinson, including restrictions on camping, due to homeless populations, as well as two agenda items to replace a city council member.

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La Crosse Talk PM airs weekdays at 5:06 p.m. Listen on the WIZM app, online here, or on 92.3 FM / 1410 AM / 106.7 FM (north of Onalaska). Find all the podcasts here or subscribe to La Crosse Talk PM wherever you get your podcasts.

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The council is considering changes in city law, which could prevent homeless people from setting up tents in the parks. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week that camping by the homeless can be banned by local governments.

The idea of putting sidewalks in one south La Crosse neighborhood was back up for discussion Monday, as well.

Some people living in the Hintgen Elementary School neighborhood are again asking city leaders not to install sidewalks in their residential area, speaking out to the city plan commission Monday.

The city council voted in April to move ahead with sidewalk installation, despite neighborhood surveys showing most people living near Hintgen say concrete walks are not needed.

City engineer Matt Gallager said sidewalks have been part of the long-range neighborhood plan for years. He told the commission that “the time for waiting is over.”

La Crosse city leaders are also working on ways to spend what’s left of the federal American Rescue Plan Act money. The city has until this year to allocate the funds and 2026 to distribute them.

The city received just over $20 million to respond to needs related to COVID. Now there’s about $1 million left.

Members of the plan commission discussed some of those ideas, such as one proposal calling for using the leftover funds to pay for projects which have already been started, to reduce the amount of borrowing the city has to do.