City Council Meeting 3/30/16

Last night the Grand Marais City Council met at 6:30 for its second meeting of March. There was a shorter, but very important agenda of items due to the fact that Administrator Roth, Councilor Moody, and Councilor Mills were unable to attend. Spring Break does that to our community it seems! I have been seeing quite a few reports of Grand Marais residents taking their much needed vacations this week and I wish them all safe travels and relaxing times!

We started right at 6:30 with the roll call showing the attendance as I mentioned above.


I opened up the Public Forum at that point and, although there were several people in attendance, no one made a statement other than a "Hello!" from the Cook County Farm and Craft Market representatives!


Moving right along we addressed the Consent Agenda, which was the typical three items (Approve Agenda, Approve Previous Meeting Minutes, Approve Bills), which passed unanimously.


The next item on the agenda was the Cook County Farm and Craft Market who came to ask the Council some specific questions pertaining to the potential relocation of the Farm and Craft Market from the Municipal Parking Lot near the Senior Center to the City Hall parking lot across the street. They asked for assurances that they wouldn't have to move again since it is disruptive to their structure to have to do so, they asked questions about storing their barricades for closing down the space the night before, they asked about specific space available and what to do if the market requires more space, and they asked a few specific questions about how they would be allowed to advertise the change in location.

The Council discussed these concerns with them at length assuring them that the Council wants them to succeed and that the parking lot next to City Hall will give more flexibility and opportunities for expansion to Sunday markets etc. The Council urged the Farm and Craft Market to stay in contact and let us know how we can accommodate them better. As far as the storage of their barricades, they can store them behind the Liquor Store as long as they don't impair the Liquor Store's receiving lane. For space they would have the entire parking lot extending back to the alley and a few of the parking spots on the back side of City Hall. This would give them a comparable space to the Senior Center option and more connections to the downtown through the alleys. As far as blocking the space is concerned, there should be no issue as City Hall is vacated by personnel by 5pm on Fridays on most occasions. As far as advertising, the idea came through that the Farm and Craft Market could hang banners on the street lights in the same manner as the "Welcome to Grand Marais" signs are hung. These could be left for the summer season and then returned afterwards.

Overall the Farm and Craft Market representatives seemed to agree with these suggestions and agreed to give us feedback as the summer progresses. A motion was made by Councilor Kennedy and seconded by myself to support this model and it passed unanimously. A permit will be written up to reflect that.


Next came an update from Grand Marais Liquor Store Manager Chris LaVigne. Chris spoke to us from several different angles concerning the idea of remodeling the Liquor Store. His report included three recently remodeled municipal liquor stores, including the Silver Bay liquor store, which paid off its $1 million remodel in an astounding 2 years! That shows that there is potentially some great rewards for reinvesting in our store!

He also mentioned 5 reasons why the current downtown location for the Liquor Store is the ideal location. These reasons included: proximity to parking and other businesses, walkability, population density, etc. The Council seems to be in broad support of retaining the location downtown.

The next part of his report summarized his perceived reasons for a remodel. Several of these were storage/buying power (Buy more at a time and you get price breaks, but you need space to store it!), display space/coolers (We need more of it. Then we can carry a better selection and diversify wines etc), new receiving bay (there isn't one now and it makes receiving slow and a bit of a shuffle), an event area for tastings or featured products, better office space for staff, future growler sales, and expansion of craft beer selections. We are very limited in what we can do right now with the space we have.

Chris also summarized market areas where we would be able to expand and increase the income of the Liquor Store with a new space. Apart from what is listed above he mentioned getting into more cocktail resources, mixers, barware equipment, packages, seasonal items, limited edition brews and liquors, discounts, etc. These were all very compelling reasons for a remodel.

The Council charged him with taking a look at what all of this information translates to for square footage requirements of the updated store. Once we get to that point we can start thinking about what such a store looks like and perhaps can start getting some designs laid out... Until then we will keep working out of the existing store and doing the best that we can to provide for the market in our area.


Following those two great conversations we transitioned into the second reading of the ordinance that changed some of the language pertaining to lodging in the zoning ordinance. Last meeting we did the first reading and came back with unanimous support for the changes in language across the board. We found that the language changes unified the idea of "lodging" into one category instead of several (hotel, motel, boarding house, resort, etc) and clarified the expectations of some of the zones by actually explaining the purpose instead of assuming that a term can communicate its purpose. After asking if there was any further discussion of the ordinance a motion was made by Councilor Kennedy and seconded by Councilor Benson and passed unanimously. A copy of these changes can be found at City Hall and soon on the City Website.


We then moved on to Council Reports:

Councilor Benson reported that she has been doing some research on potential members of the City's Steering Committee for the Comprehensive Plan and was surprised to find how many community members didn't know that the City was taking on this process. She also stated that the Council needs to address, very specifically, the zoning of the C/I Zone because there are a lot of people in town that disagree with the City's actions in passing a moratorium on retail construction in that zone.
She then brought up a question concerning the potential relocation of the City Hall to the same location as the PUC garage. She asked if anymore thought had been given to it and why we hadn't. She makes a good point in this consideration that the Council never formally moved to abandon those considerations, but de-facto decided by moving forward with the design of the new garage up the hill. In response the Council agreed to schedule a worksession Tuesday at 12 to address this and to make a final decision on the future location of City Hall.

***IF YOU HAVE A FEELING ABOUT THIS CONCEPT, TALK TO A COUNCILOR OR ME AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. A QUICK EMAIL OR MESSAGE WORK JUST FINE.


I then gave my update that included a 2 day Arts Economy retreat at Lutsen to discuss the future development of our local art community and economy. There were SUCH INCREDIBLE ideas there including the vision of Grand Marais becoming a nationwide destination for recreation and art. That is totally possible and there is incredible energy around that idea. Stay tuned for more on this!
I also attended a GMATA (Grand Marais Area Tourism Association) meeting where the GMATA board approved roughly $13,000 of advertising grants for the community as well as establishing a music promotion policy similar to that of LTTA (Lutsen-Tofte Tourism Association) where establishments that offer live music can apply for, in essence, a rebate on the amount they pay musicians to perform, as long as those performances meet specific criteria set by GMATA. Pretty exciting!
A few days ago I attended a meeting of the Pigeon River Steering Committee, which is the group that has been working on Emergency Management and Crisis Management for our region. This includes Thunder Bay, as the meeting was held in Neebing, across the border. We have come a long way, but one of the questions that the City of Grand Marais needs to answer is whether or not our insurance allows for City resources and staff (fire department, etc) to practice across the border in Canada. I asked Financial Director Dunsmoor to investigate this.
The Library held a few meetings as well including its annual Strategic Planning Retreat, which included a great deal of discussion and proposed action about outreach to the communities of Cook County. The Strategic Planning document is available if you are interested in looking at it. Please let me know and I will get you a copy.
The other Library meeting was the regular board meeting. There was conversation about the proposed sidewalk connector from Hwy 61 to the front of the building. This will be a "Poetry Walk" where there will be poems submitted from library users pressed into the concrete. Since April is National Poetry Month, the Library will be holding a Poetry Contest during that month to collect short, one stanza or less poems that reflect the nature of our community, literacy, or our library.
Submissions can be made directly to the Library or via email to myself or Library Director Steve Harsin.
The sidewalk is scheduled to be constructed this spring with a dedication happening in July.


That was it for our meeting! As always, if you have any questions, please let me know!