“I went through the budget and found places to make cuts,” Lanesboro City Councilman Tom Smith stated.
Smith proceeded to review the 2017 budget to show the other members of the council where he felt cuts could be made.
Among other suggestions, he proposed cutting the police budget, various departments in public works, the library budget for movies and books, the EDA, and the ambulance budget. The assorted cuts could bring the proposed 2017 budget increases down to 1-2% or even level it out. Smith’s presentation was met with applause from the audience at the meeting.
Mayor Robin Krom thanked Smith for doing the research and agreed that the council needed to further review his proposals.
Mike Bubany from David Drown Associates informed the council that after going through the city’s current debt, as he does each year, he found an opportunity to reduce bond payments for the Wittier-Maple Bond. By refinancing the bond at the Merchants Bank in Lanesboro, he projected a $27,000 savings over the eight year life of the bond. The total fees for refinancing would come out to approximately $20,000, but the savings outweigh the fees. “There’s no downside to doing this,” he pointed out.
The council approved the refinancing.
The Sons of Norway received a $179,000 grant to rehabilitate their building. On an unrelated note, they requested that the city of Lanesboro be designated as their fiscal agent. The council agreed to the request.
Two sealed bids for the city’s 2005 Ford F350 were opened at the meeting and the higher bid was accepted.
The Chamber of Commerce asked the city to make a matching donation for a grant which would go towards the printing of the 2017 visitor guides. The request was not passed due to lack of a motion.
The Lanesboro Public Utilities Department recently discovered that the contract that the city signed with Davy Engineering for the utilities project was signed by Mayor Krom and City Administrator Michele Peterson, but had not been brought before the council. Because of this, they voted to end the contract as it was not entered into properly.
At this point, Davy Engineering has already done some work and has been paid for it.
The Public Utilities department recommended utilizing Bolten and Menk, the engineering company that the city recently hired as the city engineering firm for the remainder of the project.
Mayor Krom felt that before a decision was made, legal counsel should be sought by the city. It was decided to table the matter until the December council meeting to gather more information.
Mayor Krom pointed out that there are currently properties within city limits that do not have access too all of the services that the city offers, such as paved roads, various utilities, etc. He proposed that the council consider offering a lowered tax district for those properties. He plans to do more research on how other local small cities handle this issue and will bring the information back at a later meeting for the council to review.
A motion to put bids out for continued rural and urban services was approved. Currently, the garbage service contract is on a different schedule than the rest of the contracts, but Peterson will work on rectifying that.
Councilman Tom Dybing gave an update on the Herbicide Task Force. They are currently looking for volunteers to help identify any invasive species. They also plan to discuss spraying protocols with Public Works Director Andy Drake.
Fourteen Lanesboro residents attended the meeting held by Western Homes Assisted Living which discussed and answered questions about the possibility of an assisted living center being built in Lanesboro. Pastor Kerry Eversole was able to be at the meeting and tour an existing center, along with the other attendees. “I was very impressed with the facilities. They were very up-to-date,” he noted.
The next Lanesboro City Council meeting will be held on December 5 at 5:30 pm.