Council Meeting 5-14-15

It was our first meeting starting at 6:30pm and it went pretty well.  According to our agenda we even ended ahead of schedule... at 8:30pm...

A lot of good things were brought up and some good conversations started.

To begin with we took into consideration the consent agenda, which included the agenda (plus a first reading of the Sunday growler sale change enacted by the MN legislature), payment of the bills, and approval of the minutes for our last meeting.  Everything being in line, the consent agenda was approved unanimously.

We moved right along to the Planning Commission's Report, which included two requests from residents: one for a variance for the construction of a garage, and another for a conditional use permit the construction of a single unit vacation rental.  Reviewing the Planning Commission's findings for both of these requests, the Council agreed that neither of the projects would change the nature of the area surrounding each property and that all plans were in line with the zoning ordinance.  There were no residents present to oppose either request, either at the the Planning and Zoning meeting or at the Council meeting, so both requests were approved unanimously by the Council.  Details for these two requests can be found in the meeting packet or in the minutes of this meeting.  

*We also discussed how the zoning was developed and considered the implications on future requests for variances as well as vacation rental by owner (VRBO) in the residential zone, mainly to educate ourselves on the process.  The Planning Commission will present their thoughts on VRBO activity at a later date.

Next the Art Colony came before the Council with their application to use the downtown streets (Wisconsin Street, 2nd Ave W) for the 25th Annual Arts Festival this summer, July 10th and 11th.  A brief conversation was had encouraging the Art Colony to strongly encourage their vendors to park their trailers and vehicles away from the downtown area so that flow is improved and downtown businesses are not boxed in.  The application was approved unanimously.

One more request on the agenda:  Cook County Farm and Craft Market's application for use of the public parking lot off of Broadway.  The request made was for the same arrangement as in past years: use of several parking spots for Farmer's Market vendors on Saturday mornings throughout the summer.  Conversation was had about how much space they use versus how much they need as well as when they block off those spots for the market.  Local businesses have noted frustration about the early blocking off of those spaces and the representative of the Farmer's Market said that he would pass on the information to vendors and board members to encourage cooperation with local businesses and not to block off the parking spots until 4:30pm or later.  Councilor Mills noted the importance of the Farmer's Market to the entrepreneurial spirit in Grand Marais and asked if there was some other arrangement that the City could make with the Farmer's Market so that they don't have to come back to the Council every year, but the changing needs of the Farmer's Market seem to lend toward the annual request, so the plan was to continue doing it the way that we have been doing it.

Then the Cook County Local Energy Project's representatives were on the agenda to give the Council its update on their 2014 activity as well as projects they are working on for 2015 in order to make a request to the Council for funding for the 2015 year.  An extensive resume of projects and accomplishments was given to the Council to consider, and the representatives explained the projects that are currently happening. REEP (Residential Energy Efficiency Program) is one of their on-going projects, offering county residents rebates to defray the cost of having a home energy audit completed and taking action on the opportunities identified by the audit.  They are also preparing a "Solar Toolbox," which is a set of information laid out so that residents of the county seeking to add photovoltaic solar systems to their properties have all of the information they need to make an informed decision without having to start from ground zero.  They have put together a contractor's continuing education class in the county that has been well attended.  They have worked with North House Folk School's Sustainability Symposium. They are monitoring solar (heat and PV) installations for efficiency as well.  At the meeting a new potential partnership with the EDA's housing development work came into view as well, having CCLEP help to make any new construction of housing be as efficient as possible.  In the end, CCLEP asked for $2000 to continue their work in the community.  Seeing that this amount was the same as what was given in the past several years and seeing the value of the programs that CCLEP offers (over $100,000 of home improvement/efficiency improvement from the REEP program alone!), the Council voted unanimously to approve this amount to support CCLEP.  

Now comes the logistical request...  The hospital in Grand Marais has been in its present location for a while.  Some would say a long time.  It is going to stay there for a long time as well.  Other things can and have changed over time, but the hospital has stayed put.  Because of some of these changes, the hospital brought a Quit Claim Deed before the Council for consideration.  A Quit Claim Deed is usually used to transfer land from one ownership to another, but in this instance it is being used to correct the legal description of the hospital property.  5th Ave W used to be the Gunflint Trail.  That is what it says on the hospital deed.  It needs to say something else... like 5th Ave W or a legal description of the property in order to make sense anymore.  That is what we voted unanimously to do, to accept the formal change of the hospital's description of their property in their deed.  It took up many pages in our materials, but that is the summary of it.

In other items, we brought back Ordinance 2015-1, which was the ordinance allowing growler sales in Grand Marais.  Because the state legislature just passed a new law allowing Sunday growler sales, we need to change the wording of our ordinance to make sure that it complies and that we can sell growlers on Sunday as well.  There was talk about skipping this as the first reading and just accepting the ordinance as changed, but because it came to the Council pretty last minute and because the language change of the ordinance could potentially need to be changed, the Council voted to accept the first reading and will re-address this ordinance at the next meeting... So in two weeks you will probably be able to buy growlers on Sundays... Unless something weird happens with the ordinance.

There was a lively discussion concerning the upcoming Joint Powers Meeting on May 28th after that.  There was some conversation of things that the City would like to speak with everyone about, such as garages, spending on certain projects that share jurisdiction, biomass updates, county composting ideas, as well as a general update of how things are going at the City.  

An interesting conversation concerning garages came up that introduced 2 new ideas for our consideration.  The first idea was brought up by Councilor Moody suggesting that we take a look at the plans that were already drawn up for a Grand Marais municipal garage facility located out in the Cedar Grove Business Park.  He suggested that we should at least take a look at them and see what we think.  Then Councilor Benson added a suggestion that we consider moving the administrative offices out to the new location of our garages, wherever that may be.  Considering the problems that have been happening with the current City Hall (leaking roofs, inefficient heating, inflexible spaces, etc) such a plan could free up valuable downtown space that the City could lease out to businesses, etc.  **Please note that these were IDEAS, not anything that was put to a vote or even taken under consideration at this time.  A change of this magnitude would warrant public comment and consideration before any action would be considered.

Then we went to Council and Staff reports:

Councilor Moody said that there was an EDA meeting where the housing group OneRoof (of Duluth) came up and met with the EDA to consider possible properties/locations that would be appropriate for new housing in both the West End and Grand Marais to the East End.  He also commented that the Superior National Golf Course was open early this year, a fact that has bolstered its financial numbers for the short golfing season.

Councilor Benson had no report for this meeting.

Councilor Mills attended the Park Board meeting where it was reported that the Gunflint Hills Golf Course had a miraculous turn of events with about 75% of the winter kill (grass) has recovered!  The Park Board is also looking into various promotional offers to get new golfers to come up to the course.  The Park Board showed positive energy toward the potential of public restrooms located at Boulder Park saying that it is in line with the Park Master Plan.  Councilor Mills also attended the North Woods Food Project meeting where they continued to work through their plans to create a composting system in the county.  They are going to be asking local businesses that produce compostable material (restaurants, etc) if they would be willing to participate in a composting program.  He also attended the Broadband Committee's meeting where they are working on figuring out what is next for the implementation and optimization of the broadband services available (or soon to be) in Cook County.

Councilor Kennedy attended the Moving Matters meeting where they discussed the health impact assessments produced as a part of the HWY 61 RE-DESIGN project saying that there is more to be done, but that the information is very helpful.

City Administrator Roth mentioned that on Tuesday May 13th he appeared before the County Commission to present a mutual long-term agreement on bond payments for the EDA's Cedar Grove Business Park.  The County Commission accepted this agreement and thus it will appear before the City and the EDA for final approval.

I had a busy couple of weeks as well.  I issued a proclamation that it was National Nursing Home Week and May is Older Americans Month and attended the Care Center's Golden Gala celebration.  I even got to dance with some folks!

The Library Board met at the beginning of the month and discussed briefly the budget for 2016, staffing (of which we are looking to increase so we can provide better service), and the financial policy to govern the library's reserve funds.

There is a small group of stakeholders getting together in the near future to discuss the Requests for Proposals that were received concerning the Market Study of the need for Assisted Living in the county.  I will be giving updates as we go through that process.

The contracts for the customers of the District Heating system have been completed and are being distributed to the customers.  There was a bit of a delay due to the unique nature of some of the facilities that are being considered for the system, thus complicating the calculations and causing much needed double-checking.  We are now pursuing signed contracts and will be preparing an application for bonding to the state contingent on getting the appropriate number of signed contracts.

Myself and many of the Councilors attended the Bike Safety Rodeo that was held last Thursday at the Community Center.  It was a great time with over 100 kids coming and learning about bike safety and safe riding in our community.  I also helped out with the 3rd grade class on bike safety this week as well.

I think that is about it.  If you have any questions, please let me know!