Mabel’s city council met on October 13, will all members present (Mayor James Westby, Terry Torkelson, Adam Wilder, Kirsten Wyffels and Cory Wilson). Also participating was city clerk Karen Larson. No visitors attended to speak on any issues. The main topic of discussion was a request to designate an alley in Mabel as a one-way route.
The alley in question runs north from West Fillmore Avenue, then curves to the left (west) and emerges onto North Cedar Street. Mayor Westby explained that there’s been a request to make the alley one-way, due to a number of “near misses” when vehicles come through the alley at the same time that residents are back out of garages into the alley. Westby said,, “As you can see, where the curvature is on that alley, there’s three garages all located in the one intersection there. And when people come up from Cedar Street, and come whipping around the corner, it ends up to be a little mess.”
Westby added, “Everybody in that area, that I’ve talked to, is all OK with making it a one-way.” Larson said no public hearing is needed on the issue. he council voted to change the alley to one-way traffic, running north from Fillmore Avenue and then west onto Cedar Street. The change will go into effect when Mabel obtains and installs signage to indicate the change.
Larson brought up that Mabel’s “winter parking” rules will soon go into effect. She stated, “November 1st is when the odd-even parking starts.” She said the city will post a notice about this on the city’s Facebook page. She added, “And the deputies are good, I’ll request them again to do warnings to start” before giving out tickets for violations of the winter parking rule.
Mayor Westby said he had a discussion with the CEO of Dollar General, and there are still efforts ongoing to see if Dollar General may open a store in Mabel. He said Dollar General has been given all requested demographic and traffic numbers, as the company works to determine the feasibility and best location for potentially opening a store in Mabel.
Larson brought up the Shade Tree Program, and asked if the council would like Mabel to pursue this. She explained, “This last year we worked on getting rid of a lot of the dangerous trees in town, with ash trees and what not.” She said the program could help furnish replacement trees to be planted throughout Mabel. The council approved Larson to move forward with getting Mabel into the Shade Tree Program.
Zoning Permit requests were approved for Adam Tollefson, Kelly Sand, and Jennifer Koch. A reminder was given to citizens that annual hydrant flushing will be happening in Mabel during the week of October 25-29.
Mayor Westby said the city is soliciting ideas for ways to make the annual Steam Engine Days celebration more successful. He said ideas include possibly getting more musical performers to play at the event.
Mabel’s charging station (for electric cars) is expected to be received around the middle of November. There was discussion that depending on the arrival date, and the weather, it may be prudent to wait until spring for the charging station to be installed and available for usage.
A joint meeting between the Mabel-Canton School Board, Canton City Council, and Mabel City Council is being pursued. Larson said she had a discussion with Gary Kuphal, the school superintendent, and asked that the school board pick a date, and then Mabel City Council will send representatives. She suggested that no more than two council members attend, so that it would not be considered an official council meeting.
The next meeting of the Mabel Council will be November 10 at 6 p.m. The public is welcome.
Leave a Reply