At a very short July 20, City of Rushford Village Council meeting, Planning and Zoning Administrator Jon Pettit presented the four new planning and zoning permits for CRV. Jeremy and Nicole Williams will be replacing a fence, Moonyeen Holle will be building a new garage, Darrel and Ellen Highum will be building a new house, and David and Marnie Brown will be reroofing and re-siding a garage. Pettit informed the council that the Planning/Zoning meeting had been continued and will meet August 11 at 6 p.m. with Vernie Bunke and his engineer regarding Bunke’s foothills addition.
Trenten Chiglo from Maintenance reported “everything was going well.” Councilman Roger Knutson added that the seal coating of Magelssen Bluff road had been completed. CRV and the city of Rushford collaborated to double chip seal coat the road. Knutson noted that the crews had trimmed low hanging branches prior to the project. He suggested that crack sealing should be down ahead of the chip sealing; it could be done next year with chip sealing again the following year.
Rebecca Charles of CEDA (Community and Economic Development Associates) reported the grant application for $4,000 had been submitted to SMIF (Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation). The grant would fund research by UWL about a possible ATV trail system for CRV. Charles shared that SMIF had been “excited to get the application” from a city they hadn’t worked with before; she feels the grant is likely to get approved.
In discussion, the council noted that a trail currently comes from Chatfield to Peterson. City Clerk Mary Miner stated that the trail is on the roadway for most of the time. Mayor Dennis Overland commented that there was talk of connecting the trail to Rushford. Currently, the townships were in conversation with the trail builders. Overland added that the county was looking at an ATV ordinance as well. Some of the trail is actually on CRV roads; they had not contacted CRV because they weren’t aware that the roads belonged to CRV.
In a closed portion of the meeting, the council discussed pay and benefits for new maintenance personnel. City Clerk Mary Miner later shared that Trenten Chiglo, Public Works/Maintenance supervisor, will have his hours increased from 25 to 40 hours per week. Preston Lecy, Public Works/Maintenance assistant, will work up to 25 hours per week. Both men will receive a pay increase and are expected to obtain a Class A CDL license as well as Class D water and Class SD sewer licenses. They will receive PERA and short term disability benefits.
The next City of Rushford Village council meeting will be August 3, at 7 p.m. at CRV Community Center; the public is welcome to attend.