Houston Ambulance Now State Training Center

At their July 8 meeting, the Houston City Council recognized ambulance employees Dave Runningen and Chris Cox for their impressive 40 years of service to the community on the ambulance. In addition, Anna Frauenkron shared that the ambulance has now officially become a training center for the state of Minnesota. With that, the ambulance crew can present EMT, EMR and refresher courses right in Houston. 

Ambulance Director Chris Cox commended Frauenkron for her work in making that happen. Anna has also recently completed her CPR training as well as CISM (Critical Incident Stress Management) training.

Root River Trail Extension Plan

Larry Kirch of the Root River Trail Extension – Citizens Exploratory Committee visited the council meeting to present the trail plan for approval by the council. Kirch detailed the work of the committee. They have been building a webpage. Entrusted with producing a trail plan, the committee found that a previous plan had been done in 2011 which defined a corridor, but not an alignment for the trail. The committee chose to use the 2011 plan as a starting point.

Work has been slow on the project. Forty-nine out of the 100 miles of the trail was bought by the state. Private landowner concerns need to be answered as the group works on the extension of the trail. 

Kirch informed the council that the Wagon Wheel Trail with its $3.5 million bridge in La Crescent took 21 years to develop.

He explained that there will be no condemnation to procure land; they will work with willing owners. People can grant an easement if they want to retain ownership of the land; if people want, they can donate strips of land to the project. 

Several grants have been applied for; currently the committee is working on an Active Transportation grant from MnDOT. Kirch asked for letters of support from the involved cities as well as local legislators and recommended doing a joint powers agreement with the involved cities. 

Kirch also recommended that Houston join SMART (Southeastern MN Association of Regional Trails) and Parks and Trails Council of Minnesota and noted that La Crescent had recently joined Root River Trail Towns. 

The council approved the trail plan as presented.

Fundraising for Winter Street Decor

A representative of a sub-committee of the Chamber of Commerce appeared to request approval to do fundraising for flags and lighted decor for the streets of Houston. Christmas decorations have been in disrepair for several years. 

The sub-committee intends to begin with 12 or 20 new decorations and then move on with more later.

They are looking at alternating flags and LED snowflakes. The flags would be similar to the owl banners that decorate poles in town during the year.  Projected costs are $700 to $1,000 a piece. A winter theme was chosen so the decor could remain up longer after Christmas. 

The council was happy to hear the old decorations would be replaced and noted that the Chamber can do such fundraising – they just needed to follow their charter. 

Other business

In other business the council:

• Approved a variance for a fence height on South Ellsworth;

• Approved a cellular device stipend of $60 a year for an employee of the Nature Center; a cell phone is needed to access the mandated office 365 program;

• Approved a resolution to count write in votes if the write ins exceed the votes printed on the ballots

• Accepted a low quote for shaping the street between West Elm and Washington Street for seal coating;

• Waived tort liability – this is done annually in order to provide more insurance coverage;

• Approved the addition of a light pole behind the mill for the Hoedown tractor pull;

• Approved the amended purchase agreement with the Owl Center with an easement from the public right of way – the right of first refusal document will be approved when it is ready.

The next meeting of the Houston City Council was changed to the first Monday of the month due to the primary election the following week.