During the public comment portion of the October 3 Lanesboro City Council meeting, Lanesboro resident Lester Dunn commented that he appreciated the Zoom coverage for city council meetings. “I wanted you to know that there are a lot of people who watch these meetings,” he said. “If anything good came out of COVID, that was it.”
Karen Heimdahl from Sylvan Brewing encouraged the council to call for a public hearing for the proposed revised/amended ordinances in regards to off-sale liquor.
The consent agenda was approved and included the accounts payable, 2023 liquor licenses, a temporary liquor license for the Chamber of Commerce for December 3, 2022, and a temporary liquor license for Lanesboro Arts for the dates of October 8, November 18, and December 23.
The city’s agreement with G-Cubed Development was reviewed by the council. G-Cubed owner Jeff Griffin asked the council to consider making some changes to the agreement. He did not feel that it was necessary or cost-effective to have an inspector on-site at all times. “Having a full-time inspector on a sewer line just doesn’t make sense to me,” he said. He also was not in favor of the 125% escrow for the entire project that was written into the agreement. The amount is usually set in place to ensure that a development can be completed or at least stabilized by the city if the developer has to abandon the project. Griffin asked the council to apply the 125% escrow only to the portion of the project that will take place off his property. He stated that if something were to happen to delay the development on his own property, he would be the only one hurt by that, not the city. “Other than that,” he said, “the agreement looked fine to me.”
Malm recommended that the council leave the agreement the way it was written, stating that while he doesn’t expect the developer to abandon the project, the city needs to be sure to have its bases covered. He also did not recommend striking the section requiring full-time observation on-site. He noted that he understands the high level of testing that will be done on the underground utility and sewer portion of the project, but that it does not negate the need to have someone present to observe the work. Once the underground facilities are buried, there’s no way to see that they were put in correctly. “Tests are good, but they’re not a replacement for observation throughout the project,” he said. Griffin disagreed, stating that the two-year warranty in the agreement would ensure that the work is done properly and that paying an inspector $5,000 per lot for observation would make it difficult to keep the housing affordable. Council member Mitchell Walbridge asked Malm how often cities modify his recommendations. Malm said that it did happen occasionally, adding that, “if you were to modify this, I would want you to be very specific about why you’re modifying it. The standard is to treat every development the same.”
Griffin proposed that any part of the project taking place off his private property could still be escrowed at the rate of 125%, but not the rest. He also proposed that since the sewer line will be running through his own property, the full-time observation part of the agreement be removed. Council member Chase Bakke asked if the escrow on Griffin’s property could be lowered rather than removed completely. Griffin was amenable to that and suggested keeping the 125% escrow on off-site property and replacing the escrow on his property with $50,000 contingent money, an amount that would easily cover any work needed to stabilize the development should anything happen to prevent him from finishing it. A motion was made to that effect and approved.
A motion was made and approved to add a paragraph to the agreement with G-Cubed saying that on-site construction will have critical point observation at a part-time rate and off-site construction will have full-time observation. The amended development agreement was approved.
City Engineer Brian Malm gave a report on the wastewater treatment facility project. “Things are looking good,” he said. The start-up time frame is set for the end of October, although the project will likely be completed in the spring when the fencing and landscaping will be done. The bike trail will be closed October 11-13 for some construction. The council approved pay request #22 in the amount of $180,388.83, which represents 82.2% of the work to date.
Pay request #2 for the upcoming street and utility project in the amount of $229,947.45 was approved as well as resolutions 22-37 and 22-38, both regarding bonding for the project.
David Haugen informed the council that the contractor the city generally uses for paving recently called to let him know that he had several days open before the end of the year if the city wanted to schedule a small project for that time. Haugen was able to get an estimate for an area on Kenilworth that is in critical condition and needs repaving. City Administrator Michele Peterson noted that the budget for this year is about $5,000 short of what is needed to do the project. The options she presented to the council were to not do the project this year, take the money out of the reserves, or take it out of next year’s budget. She noted that the price would increase next spring if the council decided to wait. A motion was made and approved to use the funds from the reserve to do the paving project this year.
The Park Board recently discovered that the gazebo in the park is in need of a new roof. They would like to replace the current cedar shake roof with a commercial metal roof which will cost nearly $20,000. A generous donation in the amount of $15,000 was received, which will cover the majority of the cost, and the board is waiting to hear if they will receive the $3,000 grant from the Community Foundation. The council approved the use of American Rescue Plan Act or ARPA funds to cover the rest of the cost. The Park Board is also looking into possible solutions for the tennis court area and their next step is to conduct a feasibility study at a cost of $9,000. A $5,000 grant has been applied for, and they asked the council to use ARPA funds to cover the rest. The council approved the request.
Andrzej Zalasinski from the Chamber of Commerce/Visitors’ Center gave a report to the council on the expenses and income for the last quarter, noting that things are going well this year and there have been a good number of visitors to the visitors’ center and website.
EDA Director Cathy Enerson and developer Joel Pfeffer updated the council on the former Methodist church renovations. The project is coming along well. The demolition, framing, roof, and siding are done and the drywall and framework will be completed soon. An amendment was proposed for the agreement with Sparrow Valley Properties to allow the contractors to be paid once a month using loan funds rather than disbursing the funds after project completion. The council approved the amendment.
A motion to schedule a public hearing to discuss the liquor license ordinance was approved.
During the recent street project, the run-off in one section originally ran over-ground into the river, but has now had a sewer added underneath the street. There was a concern that the temperature of the water going into the river would affect the trout so Malm recommended that a thermocooler be installed. A motion doing so as an environmental aspect of the project was approved.
A motion to have all council members tour the new wastewater treatment facility for a completion inspection in the spring was approved.
A letter of correction will be sent to the owner at 18 Beacon Street for the setback requirements, floodplain, and lot coverage issues found at that property.
Mayor Resseman noted that at the last city council meeting, inappropriate comments were made in the comment section of the Zoom meeting. He said that if the chat option was to be kept that someone would need to monitor it. Another option would be to eliminate it instead. It was pointed out that doing so would not remove the option for people to ask questions or comment as they could turn their microphones on. A motion was approved to keep using Zoom for meetings, but to turn off the chat option.
The council discussed the term limits for boards and commissions and agreed to review them over the next few months. Peterson will post for the current open commission seats.
The city had previously contracted with Minnesota Municipal Utilities Association or MMUA for safety trainings. Recently, the company changed its rates, which resulted in nearly double the cost for the City of Lanesboro. Peterson suggested the city join the Regional Safety Group, which is comprised of three other cities who would need to accept Lanesboro into the group. A motion to join the group contingent on acceptance from the other members was approved.
The Filthy Fifty gravel road bike race will be taking place on Saturday, October 8. Usually, the event vendors and after-party are set up on Coffee Street East, but this year, the road is under construction and not available. A motion saying that the event cannot take place in a construction site was approved. The Filthy Fifty event organizers will be offered the use of the alley between the Visitors’ Center and the Little River General Store contingent on contacting the general store for their understanding. A motion to close Parkway Avenue for the start and finish of the race was approved.
The Truth in Taxation meeting will take place at the regular December 5 meeting at 6 p.m. However, since the Lanesboro school Christmas concert also takes place that evening at 7 p.m., the council approved a motion to start the regular meeting no earlier than 4:30 p.m. that day.
The next Lanesboro City Council meeting will be held on November 7 at 6 p.m.
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