City Council Meeting 6-24-15

The City Council had yet another meeting last night (June 24th) and discussed several interesting topics and a few logistics items to dot our "i"s and cross our "t"s.


Right off of the bat, Bob Pranis stood up during the public comment period to invite the Council to participate in a potential $25,000 grant through the Broadband Commission to work on creating a trial co-working facility in Grand Marais as well as establishing several remote video-conferencing locations across the County to take advantage of the new broadband installation.  "Co-working" is a term used to summarize an office space that has the general resources of an office (printers, fax, internet, etc), but that can be used by several remote-working individuals to meet their needs for a small charge.  The grant would require a 25% match, not all of which would be coming from the City and which could be matched with "in-kind" donations, such as space or infrastructure.  Since this was not an agenda item and because the Council requested more time to consider possible partnerships with the Broadband Commission on this project, the Council chose to decide on this issue at the next meeting on July 8th. There were a few comments expressing excitement for the proposed project as well as a few questions concerning why the co-working facility had to be in the downtown area since the whole concept of "remote working" doesn't need a specific space to make it work... More to come on that next meeting.


Next came the Consent Agenda, which yesterday included the agenda as published, the minutes of the last meeting, the bills for the City that need approval to pay, and a street permit for the North Shore Federal Credit Union to close down the street immediately in front of their building for their annual member's appreciation BBQ.  The Consent Agenda was unanimously passed.  See you at the Credit Union for a brat on July 16th!


Moving right along, Kristin DeArruda Wharton from Cook County Moving Matters presented the Cook County Grand Portage Active Living Plan to the Council, summarizing the action items that were created BY the City, FOR the City to work on.  The City has taken on many of these projects and has made good headway, but there is more work to do to continue promoting/developing active living in our community.  This is one of the aspects the Council will continue to consider as a part of its Comprehensive Planning activities.  The Highway 61 redesign project was part of this Active Living Plan.  Ms. DeArruda Wharton also invited the City to continue in conversation with Moving Matters to continue finding resources to assist in accomplishing the priorities of the Council.


Tied to the previous item, Administrator Roth brought forward a contract from the Sawtooth Mountain Clinic pertaining to the funds used by the City to accomplish the Highway 61 Redesign project.  The monies for the project came from the Moving Matters grant and thus the City needs a way to represent that we accepted and used that money.  The contract that we unanimously approved did just that in a retrospective manner since we have already spent that money.


Next the Council fielded a resolution that simply corrected some incorrect/confusing language in the description of a property in the City.  This language has created problems in the handling of this piece of property, thus the request to correct the description.  The Council had a brief conversation about why this came up now and not at earlier times when the property was sold/re-sold, but when the Council was satisfied that this was the right thing to do we passed the resolution unanimously.
The Park Department once again came before the Council to hire the remainder of its seasonal workforce, which the Council accepted.  Welcome to the seasonal staff Noah Warren and Michael Sussano!


The last item on the agenda was a resolution for the City to become a joint applicant with the County to apply to the state for "Regional Park or Trail Designation" for the mountain biking trails and infrastructure created at Britton Peak outside of Tofte and Pincushion Mountain outside of Grand Marais.  This application, if accepted, is the first step necessary for getting our trail system eligible for MN Legacy Funding for the continuing development and expansion of the trails in our county.  As part of this application there is a master plan that outlines roughly 50 miles of singletrack trails as well as other traverse trails to connect these systems.  The reason that this could be a big deal and an economic driver for our County is that this trail system, if built, would be a national caliber destination mountain biking facility, something that would add significantly to amenities for our area.  The Council asked several questions about the stipulations and consequences of signing on to this application and then voted unanimously to approve the resolution and become the co-applicant with the County.


On to Council and Staff reports!


Councilor Moody asked for clarification on who the contact person was for Arrowhead Animal Rescue so that he can get up to speed and get meeting dates.  These names were given.


Councilor Mills reported that the YMCA approved its 2016 budget after significant conversation and number crunching.


I reported on four meetings that I attended in the past few weeks:

1. I met with a few residents of the community who brought up concerns regarding blight or poorly maintained properties/areas of the City.  Concerns regarding how we present ourselves to visitors to the area as well as how poorly kept properties effect the property values of those around it.  The big "ask" was, "What can the City do about it?"  I did some looking into this issue with Administrator Roth and we discovered that the City does not have a "Blight Ordinance," but has a "Nuisance Ordinance" which largely applies to physical dangers that are present on a property and not aesthetics necessarily.  When questioned as to why the City does not have a Blight Ordinance, the answer was that blight has not been a big enough problem in the past and that codifying the aesthetic that we would like to have in our city is much more comlicated than just outlawing peeling paint... In the end I volunteered to have a conversation with Sheriff Eliasen about his understanding of the Nuisance Ordinance so that we can see what the best way is for residents to report/have their complaints heard.  It is the City's perspective that the best way to resolve differences between neighbors is to have a conversation with that neighbor or to be personally involved in the solution of the problem, but also understand that there are situations where a positive conclusion is more difficult, so we are glad to have this conversation.

2. I met with Emergency Services Coordinator Jim Wiinanen and County Commissioner Heidi Doo-Kirk to discuss the community's Emergency Operations Plan.  This plan is a master document that summarizes how our community will coordinate and respond to any emergency in the county.  This document is very detailed in its aspects and includes just about every consideration necessary in preventing emergencies from spreading and to put our resources to the best possible use.  Every year roughly 1/4 of the plan needs to be re-addressed to make sure that it is still appropriate for our community.  Our task is to reassess these several points by year's end, but we are striving to complete the project prior to September's Integrated Emergency Management Conference, which will be held in Grand Portage with all local agencies as well as Canadian agencies in attendance.

3. Upon the request of the District Heating Task Force, I made the request for a motion to be made to formally suspend the contract with FVB Energy as stipulated in the contract. This motion was accepted unanimously by the Council and comes following realization that capitalizing the project in the current economic environment would not be financially responsible nor prudent.  The City will be in conversation with FVB Energy to provide a final report on the project and will settle all outstanding payments necessary.  Since this round of work was funded through two grants, the City will now begin the process of reviewing the procedures for returning the remaining grant funds to the granting agencies.  Our hope is that the work completed with provide us with a somewhat turn-key project should the economics of a biomass plant improve to a point where it would be viable again.

4. I met again with a few representatives of the North Shore Health Care Foundation to work on hashing out what the purpose of the conversations we have already had about healthcare for Seniors in our community.  It became clear very early in the conversation that neither the City nor the Health Care Foundation was in a position to, nor should be the leading entity in this conversation.  This created some confusion and frustration because we both believed that this study is a critical part of how we can better serve our residents and keep them in our community from "cradle to grave" so to speak. After much conversation, I made the offer of taking the initial lead in working to put together a coalition of organizations in our area that will invest time in educating ourselves about what the issues/opportunities are, seeking a study to formally understand these issues/opportunities, and then use the information we gather to create plans to meet the needs of our residents, which will benefit the community culturally, physically, and economically.  I will be attending the North Shore Health Care Foundation's meeting on July 13th to discuss this directly with their board.


Following a few comments from Administrator Roth concerning the City's role in the planned library lawn rain garden, the meeting adjourned at a reasonable hour.


*In closing comments, I am writing this summary during one of the breaks at the League of MN Cities Annual Conference where I am attending several sessions such as:

1. Seeking Solutions to the Workforce Housing Challenge2. How can my city get involved with community solar gardens?
3. Attracting and Retaining the Next Generation in Your Community
4. I had a great conversation with the Preservation Alliance of MN concerning ways to preserve aging buildings in our community as well as creating succession planning for business owners in our area.

City Council Meeting 6-10-15

Another City Council meeting was held last night starting at 6:30 at the City Council Chambers (we are good at starting on time!).


As usual, we started with the consent agenda (for review, the consent agenda is all of the routine things that the Council has to approve. We look over these things before the meeting and if there are no objections, we can approve the whole bunch with one motion in order to expedite things a little more...).  In addition to the usual things there was the street permit for the 4th of July parade from "Visit Cook County."  There was a wording change to the previous meeting minutes and the addition of the application for the Fisherman's Picnic Raffle from the Lion's Club. Other than that, there were no objections to the consent agenda, and it passed unanimously.



The Council then saw a presentation from Deborah Morse-Kahn, an author and historian who lives in Lutsen.  Deborah has written numerous historical books and has worked with the MN Historical Society on projects in the past.  She brought a proposal before the Council asking for the City to be her sponsor/partner in a Legacy Fund Grant application she would like to apply for.  The grant that she would like to apply for is considered a "Small Grant" because it is $10,000 or less.  The project that she proposed is a "re-photographic survey of historic buildings within Grand Marais." She explained that unlike other cities, Grand Marais is a treasure of historic buildings with amazing stories and legacies that should be recorded and/or preserved as a means to protect our local heritage and collective memory.  "Re-photographic" means that she will be taking exterior photos of historic structures and researching their histories.  Since there is a lot of institutional knowledge in our community of the histories of many of the structures, this could be really fun and interesting to see.  If she would like to get more up-close to a property, she will be required to get the express permission of the property owner, so she won't be trespassing on private property. Originally she was asking for the City to be a "partner" with her in her application, which meant that the City would pledge a certain amount of staff time, resources, or office access as a part of her application.  She seemed very confident in the application and the uniqueness of the project, though, so the Council decided to serve as her sponsor and not to dedicate specific amounts of staff time to the project.  This is because the process of monitoring and recording the City staff's contributed time and resources to the project would likely far exceed the reimbursement and would then require, for the grant's accounting and fulfillment, a specific amount of time to be used.  We anticipate that the amount of City staff time needed for her to successfully complete the project, if funded, would be small and the questions that she would be asking of our staff are things that they are already obligated to perform for residents of the area, so the duplication of efforts to create a partnership is unnecessary.  The Council voted to sponsor Ms. Morse-Kahn's application as a sponsor, with no dedicated in-kind partnership.
*What does this mean?  This means that the City will submit an application in our name to the MN Legacy Fund for the project as described by Ms. Morse-Kahn. The results of her work will then be owned by the City and can be used to fill out our records, inform our future planning, be given to the historical society for their uses, or any number of other uses.  The grant funds will be paid to the City and the City will have a contract with Morse-Kahn to perform the work necessary to fulfill the grant.



After that discussion, the Council dove into another deep discussion concerning the update from the Planning and Zoning Commission.  Two items were on the docket: 1.) A zoning change for some the EDA's Business Park lots and 2.) The Commission's thoughts on vacation rentals located in the residentially zoned areas of Grand Marais.

1.) It sounds as if the Planning and Zoning Commission is preparing to step into the process of getting the zoning change for the west 6 lots in the Business Park to allow for business owners to live on their lots in addition to locating their businesses there.  Stay tuned on that.

2.) Vacation rentals located in the residential areas of Grand Marais is something that we talked about for quite some time.  Many other Cities, such as Duluth, are having this same conversation. The concern is that vacation rentals located in the residentially zoned areas of Grand Marais are, or could, take away potential living opportunities for residents of the area, thus limiting the availability and raising the cost of rentals. The other side of the conversation is that vacation rentals allow residents of the residential areas to have additional income, which is an economic driver.  The Planning and Zoning Commission ALSO had a very long and heated conversation about this topic, reviewed the current ordinance, and decided to honor the current ordinance, which clearly states (by not mentioning vacation rental properties of any kind) that the only use of the residential areas is residential.

This is where it gets complicated though, so don't jump to any conclusions about what that means.  There are a number of exceptions to this, which I COULD go into right here, but it would make this conversation MUCH longer and confusing.  I would encourage any of you that would like to hear about these exceptions to give me a call and we can discuss this further or a cup of tea or a beer, depending on your tastes...



Following all of that discussion we had a few items that were a little less controversial.  One of those was a recommended hire for a seasonal maintenance worker for the Park Department.  Park's Director Dave Tersteeg requested that the Council hire Dene Taylor for the position, and the Council did so.



In an interesting technical discussion, the City decided to start issuing tobacco licenses to 5 businesses located in the City.  The City used to do that, but stopped issuing the licenses several years ago because it seemed unnecessary due to the fact that the State of MN requires a similar license to sell tobacco and the City saw this as unnecessary duplication of information. Well, I guess that we were wrong when we heard from the local businesses selling tobacco products saying that the State was requiring them to present their City license.  The Council paused to think about the impacts of NOT issuing the licenses, but after some more thought, the motion to approve the licenses for the 5 businesses passed unanimously.



The additions to the agenda were as follows:
1.) Joint Meeting? The Council directed me to follow up with the other joint powers entities to see if and when we are going to have our next joint meeting.  I agreed to do that
2. Toilets? In an effort to keep the conversation going, we agreed to look into alternative options for bathrooms to keep ongoing costs down, i.e. composting toilets, seeking grants to assist in building the toilets, etc. We will be checking into the regulations that would impact us as we are thinking about the possibility of putting a bathroom unit near Boulder Park.
3. City Buildings and Garages-- The Council set a work session to take a look at the plans that have already been done concerning City garages and facilities.  Also, the Building Analysis that was approved in January has finally been completed and will inform us of the state of City Hall, including what improvements would need to be done to get the building back into functional shape. We are anticipating an interesting report to say the least...



For Council Reports:

Councilor Moody reported that there is some exciting activity on the EDA, apart from their 7am meeting times... The EDA is looking forward to getting some housing units planned as they now feel like they have the information they need to create a well-informed plan.  For more information on this, please contact Councilor Moody or any member of the EDA.

Councilor Mills reported on the Park Board meeting where they discussed a request from the North Shore Music Collaborative for a busking permit to allow musicians to casually perform in Harbor Park for tips or voluntary donations.  In the past each performer had to apply for their own permit, but the Music Collaborative is offering to hold the permit and keep record of the musicians who are performing, thus keeping with the ordinance and allowing musicians a more accessible avenue for playing their music in a public place. I don't believe a decision has been made on this yet.

He also reported that the YMCA is in the budget-making process as we speak and are pinching pennies to make sure they are on budget.  They are also considering re-negotiating their arrangement as a branch of the Duluth YMCA because under that arrangement we are obligated to pay a percentage of membership dues to the Duluth YMCA.  Considering that we have so many more memberships than we anticipated, it may be to our benefit to be independent... If you have questions on this, please contact Councilor Mills or the administrative staff at the YMCA.


For my report I had several things:
1. Cook County Local Energy Project is making good progress on its "Solar Toolkit," a collection of information aimed at answering all potential questions one would have in considering adding solar electricity to their property.  This toolkit will hopefully streamline the process for people interested in solar technology on their property and allow more of it to appear in Cook County.
2. The Library Board is in the midst of budget talks as well.  The Board is considering different levels of staffing increase to get to optimum levels.  This will probably result in a larger than usual increase in the library's requested budget.  If you would like more information on this, please let me know and I would love to explain what is being considered.
3. Jim Wiinanen is gathering people to take a look at renewing the Cook County Emergency Operations Plan. I will be sitting on this committee.
4. A few weeks ago I sat in on a meeting between representatives from the Snowmobiling Club and Visit Cook County to brainstorm some ways that we can promote snowmobiling in and around Grand Marais.  We re-hashed some of the history of snowmobiling in town and strove to learn from the mistakes that were made in the past.  We are going to keep talking about ways to create a sound access to town for snowmobilers while not compromising the peace and quiet that we all appreciate.  Stay tuned for more.
5. Lastly, the group that was formed by the City to discuss the services that are available and not available for older adults in our community met this past week to review some of the proposals received by the City and to discuss the next steps.  The group now feels comfortable with its purpose, which is to gather the information so we can plan for the services that we need in the future and to fill in the gaps in the services currently available.  If there are services that are identified by this study that are not currently available, then the City will have the information to direct potential changes in what is available, with the assistance of the service givers available to us.

So that is about it for that meeting!  I am continuously impressed with the commitment of the Council to stick with some of these tough conversations until we feel that we have an acceptable solution or until we fully understand the situation.  That means that the meetings are longer, but it is an investment that will definitely pay off.

As always, if you have any questions about anything in this meeting, let me know and I will follow up with you.