The Peterson City Council met Wednesday, August 14 and the biggest topic of discussion continues to be what to do with city streets. Several areas are badly in need of repair and the city is still getting a handle on what condition underground utilities are in.
In trying to make a determination of the financial impact a street project would have on the city, proposals were sought on River and Park Streets. Four bids were received and the bids varied greatly, from type of work done to the actual street areas themselves.
One of the bids, from Aarow Asphalt, called for machine cleaning and prep of surfaces and a 3/8-inch chipped asphalt covering. The estimate of $80,400 included the north end of Church Street, an area the council is not considering for repair.
The second bid, from Asphalt Armor, detailed five block areas including River Street to Park Street, River Street to Victory Street, Victory Street to Centennial Street, Centennial Street to Fillmore, and then Fillmore Street to Church Street. Depending on options, the bid ranged from $109,328 to $138,305.
The next bid, from Dunn Blacktop called for full-depth reclamation and overlay of the bituminous surface, to a 2.5-inch depth, as well as adding rock base where needed. The estimated amount was $89,502.
The final bid, coming in from Fahrner Asphalt Sealers, detailed a similar process by sealcoating and adding fractured chips. Their estimate was $69,888.
“It’s all big money and we don’t have a price on utility work. We got a lot of numbers thrown at us quickly,” cautioned Mayor Tim Hallum. “It’s a lot of money all of a sudden and we haven’t really budgeted or tried to see what ways we can pay for it. We’re just not financially set at this time to turn around and do it, but at least we’ll know what we can budget out of funds or what we’re gonna have to do.”
Councilor Gail Boym suggested the city look at using $100,000 in the electric fund for the work, or at least revisit the idea.
Rue echoed the mayor’s comments, suggesting the city wait on doing any work in 2019, regardless of pricing. “Before we do anything, we need to get the engineers in here and study water flow to see what is going to be the impact on Park and River. The ditches on the streets are not deep enough and have to be redone,” noted Rue. “It’s additional expense and additional time delay, but at least we’d have an idea of where we’d be sending the water and what kinds of problems we’d be causing.” The council unanimously approved seeking engineering input on the roads and water analysis.
Several items of continued discussion were touched on, but will be on the council agenda next month. Included is a discussion over Minnesota Basic Code. The code, a complete ordinance document compiled by the League of Minnesota Cities and specifically designed for cities with a low population, was previously adopted by the council. The previous edition, circa 2004, has become obsolete and an amended version is under consideration. If adopted, it would replace the existing ordinances, with the exception of specific ordinances that the city has put in place.
Councilor Loren Rue and Planning and Zoning Board member Karlin Symons have been pouring over the documents. Once the document and zoning notes have been approved by City Attorney Greg Schieber, of Nethercut Schieber Law Office, a formal recommendation will be made for council approval.
With this, the city is looking at its own Vehicle Ordinance and what is written in the code to determine whether or not they mesh. The council approved the Vehicle Ordinance in November of 2018, after months of discussion and problems with inoperable vehicles within the city. The ordinance went into effect January 1 of this year. Under ordinance provisions, each inoperable, unlicensed vehicle on a property, not housed inside a garage, may see a first-time $50 citation. If the situation is not remedied within 30 days, subsequent citations may occur. With additional citations, the fee schedule is graduated and the grace period to address the issue is just 15 days after each new additional citation. City Clerk Chris Grindland noted city hall issued four vehicle citations in the past month.
Resident Jeremy Volkman was present at the meeting to protest the citations. Volkman maintains he is working on addressing issues on his property and that he is down to minimal inoperable vehicles. He further maintains the $550 worth of citations he’s received are burdensome and that he feels the council is picking and choosing who to issue citations to.
“It’s not fair. You aren’t doing this fair,” said Volkman. “The new ordinance makes things difficult.”
Resident Gary Quarve was also on hand to present concerns to the council regarding two properties within the city. The first, 116 Mill Street, owned by Paul Gordon, was issued a building permit for a home in 2016, but the home is not yet completed, being in a semi-completed state, with exposed framing and wall-board in sections. ”The city keeps giving them permits. It’s wrong. It’s a major eyesore. Either they need to finish it or tear it down,” he stated.
Quarve also had concerns over the property adjacent to his at 122 River Street, owned by Mike Halvorson. “They’re doing nothing with the house and yard; minimal maintenance. It’s certainly impacting the value of the houses around. I’d like to know what the city is doing to move them forward. I know we can’t expect things overnight, but there needs to be progress.” The city will review any previous letters sent to Halvorson regarding the property.
John Helland, who purchased the former Rushford-Peterson Middle School, provided an update on the buildings usage. A number of memorabilia items from the school still need to be claimed. Some need to be sorted and given to R-P Schools, while others, from prior to the district consolidation in the ‘90s, will go to the Friends of Peterson.
Helland is still reviewing the property and indicated there is a number of damaged areas, including some mechanical. He indicated he has no intention to heat the whole facility and is considering utilizing the bus garage, but hasn’t made decisions on the classroom, gym, or commons areas. According to Helland, it is possible the the various classrooms may be rented for storage and that if feasible, the gym and commons may be opened up for rental. Recently done plans for potential apartments were found in the school, but Helland was quick to note he isn’t intending to develop them. “We’ll have to see. There’s quite a bit of damage in there.”
The next regularly scheduled council meeting is Wednesday, September 11, at 6 p.m., at city hall. Budgetary discussion for 2020 will be on the agenda with a draft budget on hand. The public is encouraged to attend.
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