Council Meeting 6/29/16

The City Council had another meeting this past Wednesday at 6:30pm, right as the storm front passed over the City and dumped a bunch of rain on us!


We started the meeting glad that the rain hadn't come a few minutes earlier, and reported that everyone was present for the meeting.


I opened the Public Forum then and since there were no people there to speak, we closed the Public Forum and then moved right along to the Consent Agenda...


The Consent Agenda had 4 items on it: The three usual items (Approve Meeting Agenda, Approve Previous Meeting Minutes, and Approve Bills) and a street use permit for the Credit Union's Customer Appreciation Day on July 21st (There! Now you know then Customer Appreciation Day is!). The Consent Agenda passed unanimously.


On to the next item! There was a representative from the American Legion/Grandma Ray's on hand to respond to the application for the Fish Pic Beer and Bingo Tent. The Council just asked a few questions about the formalities of the permit, mainly who was applying for the permit and who was going to be providing the service since Grandma Ray's is a different entity from the Legion. Our permits require the applicant for a Temporary On-Sale Liquor Permit to be a non-profit entity, but the entity that provides the on-sale services must be a licensed liquor provider with the City. Since the American Legion is a non-profit and Grandma Ray's is a licensed liquor provider, they have everything that they need for the tent, so it was passed unanimously. Stop by the tent and play some Bingo during Fish Pic!


Moving on to something of more substance, the Council then reviewed the job description for the new Assistant Director position at the Library. You may remember back during the Budget Process of 2015 that the Library proposed a 16% increase in their budget to provide for another full time position to assist the director in developing and providing programmatic services to the City and County through the Library as well as to relieve the director in the instance of his absence. The City and County agreed to fund the position over a two year period, half of the funding coming in 2016 and half in 2017. This being the case, the Library Board has been working with the City Personnel Committee to draft a job description that encompasses the work that this new position would be responsible for. Having been briefed on the position and hearing that the position description had been vetted by the Personnel Committee and the Library Board, the City Council approved the description. The next step for this job description, before it can be posted, is for it to be submitted to the City's employee Union (AFSCME: American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees) for consideration as to whether it should be exempted from Union membership (if it is deemed a supervisory position) or if it should be subject to Union membership. After those conversations and determinations, the position will be ready to be posted for applications.


Following that conversation, the Council received an update on the various elements of the Comprehensive Planning/Community Visioning process that we have begun.

The first element was the service contract with CDG/Weber Group, the agency that was selected to assist the City in performing and assessing the planning process. CDG (Community Design Group) has partnered with Weber Group to create a complimentary team to perform our community engagement process, to organize the gathering of important information to direct the process, and to analyze that information into recommendations and other policy proposals etc to complete the process. CDG impressed us with their flexibility and willingness to perform on ever changing fronts and the Weber Group, which has over 40 years of experience in community planning, impressed us with their straightforwardness and knowledge of information analyzation.  The contract offered to this agency basically is an agreement for the services, with the language necessary to protect the City from unauthorized expenses and also to protect the contracted agency from unjust treatment, which we don't plan on doing...
Councilor Mills asked a few questions about a few stipulations in the contract, one being the mention of protection for construction services, which isn't applicable in this situation. Administrator Roth said that the contract is pretty standard and it is a good idea to have all possible protections in place with the contract because we don't always know the direction that things will take.
The Council approved the contract unanimously.

The next element was the application for grant funding from the IRRRB (Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board) to assist with the planning process. IRRRB has made community planning a priority because, in their experience, communities that have plans do better economically and are more stable. Because of these findings, they have set aside monies to assist communities in taking on these processes. The City will be applying for the maximum amount possible, which is $20,000. The estimated price tag for the planning process is somewhere in the neighborhood of $50,000, so the IRRRB money will almost cut that in half. Of the remaining $30,000 we will be receiving additional grant monies so that the expense to the City will not be prohibitive. The Council approved the application for IRRRB funds unanimously.

The last element is the selection of a Steering Committee for the planning process. A Steering Committee isn't a group that is in complete control of the planning process, but it is a group that will work directly with CDG/Weber Group to make sure that the process is accomplishing what we set out to do and that it is still on track. The Council wanted about 10 people on the Steering Committee; a mix of City Residents and County Residents, people who were raised here, people who left and came back, people who moved here recently, etc... It was the goal of the Council to represent as many of the perspectives in our community as possible. When we were brainstorming names for this group we came up with over 80 people, which is a testament to how unique and vital our community is!
Of that list there were several people whose names showed up numerous times. Those people were in the first batch of folks asked. I was encouraged to find out that many of the people identified said yes to being a part of the process, so I would like to introduce these people to you now, understanding that the list will grow as we get around to inviting the final members:

These are the people who have said they would help us out (in no particular order). Say thank you to these folks when you see them!

-Kyle Anderson
-Barry Pederson
-Devlin Duvall
-Chelsea Pusc
-Paul Sporn
-Grant Adams
-Julie Carlson

There are three more people who we will be asking. If these people say yes then we will have a strong City representation, County representation, business owners, workers, etc. The Council was pretty excited to see that the team is coming together as it is.


After this conversation we moved on to "Other Items As Necessary," of which there were a few!

One quick item was the authorization of Raffle Ticket sales for the Gunflint Canoe Races Raffle. This passed unanimously.

Another was a proposal sent to the City from Good Measure Media, a locally based and owned media company to see if the City would like to have their meetings recorded and live-streamed/posted to the internet so that residents can watch them as they are happening and/or review them afterwards. This is the same company that the County is using and would be almost the exact same services that the County gets.
**The Council will take action on this at our next meeting. It sounds like this service will cost about $3000/year and will include special meetings and regular meetings.

Here's the question: Should the City invest in this sort of recording/broadcasting of our meetings for the amount of around $3000/year? 

Please let me know your thoughts on this. The City is required by state law to record our meetings, but we have just been using a sound recorder up to this point. This would expand the availability of the meeting recording and the quality of it... but it will cost more...


On to Council updates:

Councilor Moody expounded on some conversations that he has had regarding the EDA's housing development in Grand Marais, saying that now is the time for the City to expand the City infrastructure westward so that we can unlock a large piece of the undeveloped land on that side of the City. There was a lot of conversation about the challenges to this and the benefits, but in the end it was decided that there should be a little homework done concerning more specifically what the costs/benefits of doing something like this would be.

Councilor Benson brought a number of good questions to the Council, such as:

--When are we going to allow the fire department to demolish/burn the buildings on the Tomteboda property? There was no date set, it was also discussed that the fire department would like to do some other trainings with those buildings, such as breaking down doors and entering a structure through windows, as well as other active trainings that are difficult to perform elsewhere. There was also the mention that this could be a situation where the City could get a fire trainer to come up and use some of those structures to train other fire departments... none of those plans have been arranged though.

--Can we paint a "Liquor Store" sign on the west side of the Liquor Store to inform people more plainly of its location? Perhaps it could be a contest or some of the local youth artists to paint it!

--With the release of the new County website, is it time for the City to get serious about revamping its website? What are the online services that our community wants/needs? Are there elements of the County website that the City could buy/use to make its website more functional? Please feel free to weigh in on these things!

--The City has been approached by a few firms offering to do simple online surveys to gather information about the City in regards to how the City brands itself. Councilor Benson's question was this: "In what ways can we brand ourselves as a place that is ripe and ready for business development?" There was more to her question and statement, but it revolved around the idea of branding our City as we want it branded. It was suggested that this was a prime subject for the Comprehensive Planning process and was noted.

--She also asked whether or not there had been any additional thought/planning given to the relocation of City Hall. I offered that we do know a rough estimate of space requirements for the City offices as well as the potential space required by the other governmental agencies that rent space from the City currently (AEOA, SBA, Chamber, etc). This is something that we will continue to gather information about and will look for more feedback from the community.

-Finally she reported that she attended the North Shore Management Board, an agency that oversees the North Shore Management Plan, a plan that is meant to protect the lake and the shoreline from pollution and exploitation etc. She reported that the Board has recently released an online map that shows the restrictions and categorizations of the entire North Shore and what each restriction/category means. It will be a great resource to find out what your property is subject to under the Plan.


I reported on several meetings and conversations that I have had over the past weeks:

--I had a conversation with a few property owners seeking to have better signage downtown to direct people to the public restrooms at City Hall. There was some conversation about the crossing of private property to enable easier access to the restrooms, but the conversation was left at the fact that there should be better signage.

--I have also been hearing inquiries about the Municipal Parking Lot and what is being done to solve the flooding process. The City has been working with Cook County Soil and Water to find an engineer to come up with some proposals, but currently both agencies are looking for funding for such an effort. The previous study of the parking lot is likely not useful due to the rise of the lake level and the increase of use of some of the property/pavement in that area.  More will be upcoming on this.

--I received a complaint that the seagulls in the downtown area are becoming a nuisance and that it should be explored what can be done regarding them. This is actually a state and federal problem it turns out... There are regulations on these animals and that can make abatement of them pretty tricky. I have contacted the federal wildlife office and will report the findings that I get when I hear back from them (they are going to email me the rulings on it).

--Over the past few days I have been able to meet with MN Congressman Rick Nolan to discuss the unique challenges facing our area. It was a great opportunity to speak with him about our housing problems, our innovative attempts at addressing such, our economic development efforts, our water treatment efforts, etc. It was great to have him here and he pledged his support to our region in anyway that he can. I feel much more comfortable calling on him now if there is anything that he can impact at the federal level.

--The Library Board is reworking its budget and will be reporting the first draft of such to the City Council in July.

--The Coop recently turned on its new photovoltaic solar installation, which is the second installation in the City! Hurray! Let's keep them coming!

--I recently was interviewed by the Two Harbors paper asking questions about fractional ownership or timeshares on the North Shore. These exist on the North Shore, but not in the City. It was an interesting conversation and one that I believe the Council should be educated on to see how we can fit this into our zoning ordinance in a way that will enrich our community.

--I had a meeting with a small group of people who are passionate about addressing the issue of the sexual exploitation of youth in our community. It was a very good conversation, however, the problem is a hard one to tackle. A few things came to the forefront though: 1. There is a narrative in our community about this. Whenever something like this happens or hits the news, people say, "That's just the way it has always been" or something to that effect. I have heard this time and time again. I and these people don't believe that is actually  our community narrative. I think that our community narrative about this subject is, "This is wrong, we know this is wrong, you know this is wrong, if you do something like this you can expect to be marginalized from most of this community" or something like that. I would like to believe that the vast, vast majority of our community believes this and I would like to put together a gathering of the men in our community that are committed to protecting our children and standing up for this new narrative in our community. If you are interested in being a part of this, please let me know and tell all of your friends and neighbors that they should be a part of it as well. This is something that our community can do. We can rewrite this unfortunate and inaccurate narrative to the betterment of of our community. This isn't turning our eyes away from the issue, it is staring it in the face and challenging our community to really engage in changing it.
2. There is an education gap for our young people. The Violence Prevention Center and the school councilors deserve a medal of honor for the work that they are doing in our community. They are protecting our children in incredible ways by teaching them their rights and their worth in life, in relationships, in school, etc. I can't tell you how glad I am that we have Anna Sandstrom, Kris Hoffman, MaryBeth Wilkes, and Jodi Yuhasey to help our community with this. It seems, though, in lieu of these efforts, there is more to be done. This isn't a rip on any of the aforementioned people. They are doing incredible stuff! The group that I met with were interested in asking some questions and seeing how the County, City, and broader community can encourage and empower these people in their efforts though. 3. Public Health and Prosecution- This is the tricky one. There is a LOT that is already being done, but there are more conversations to be had about how we can help survivors of exploitation feel comfortable coming forward and reporting abuse/exploitation as well as simply knowing what exploitation looks like! Many people who are exploited don't even realize that they have been because they started off in an abusive environment, so an exploitive one may seem more stable, but that is still not ok...
**As you can see, this is something that I get really fired up about. It is a heavy topic, but I really believe it is one that our community can work together in addressing. Will we completely eliminate this? Probably not, but you know what? I think that we can really push it near extinction!

--I ended my report with mention that everyone should come to the Alumni v. Alumni Football Game this Saturday at 7:00. It is a fundraiser for Cook County sports and will likely be a hoot! I will be playing on one of the teams and am both really excited and a little worried because there are a lot of REALLY BIG GUYS playing! Buy your tickets beforehand because then more money goes to the athletics program versus buying at the gate. I have tickets that I can sell you if you want!


Councilor Mills had a few items and conversations that he brought up:

--Community members were worried about the CBC article concerning a Tim Horton's being located in Grand Marais and there are more conversations about adopting a formula business ordinance for such an event.

--The Y Council reported some pretty awesome numbers at their last meeting: 1700 members, 85% retention rate, 40 kids in daycare, 60 kids in the summer program, 10 full time staff, 20 part time staff. Pretty good stuff!

--He asked a question pertaining to the progress on the City PU facility to which Administrator Roth reported that the architects are creating detailed drawings and cost estimates that can be used to go out for bids. Utility work can begin just about any time as can landscape clearing. Things are largely still on schedule though.

Councilor Kennedy had a few very good pieces of information for us!

--The City's two applications for the Greater MN Parks and Trails Commission's Regional Significance classification (the Rec Park and the Old Ski Hill) came back with a "High" ranking. This is a BIG deal because it is basically the green light to put together a master plan for the future development of these properties into regionally significant amenities which is the next step before applying for Legacy Amendment Funds that would pay for the development of these resources. We are talking about millions of potential dollars for these projects that could get us a destination nature and trail center on the Old Ski Hill as well as vast improvements to the Rec Park. More to come on this, but the City will be actively pursuing the writing of these Master Plans to allow the application for Legacy Funds to occur.


That is just about it. Our Council does a lot of work outside of our meetings, which is what makes our update section so long. Make sure to thank your Councilors for the work that they do! They do a great job!

As always, let me know if you have any input to the questions I pose in this post or if you have any questions.

June 8th City Council Meeting

Well, the City Council met again last night to attend to some business. The agenda was a little shorter than usual, but the conversation was still brisk and we learned a lot about the EDA's housing partnership, which I will do my best to outline below.

On to the meeting:

The meeting was called to order at 6:30 with all of the Councilors present!

I opened the Public Comment Period and had Linda Kratt from Visit Cook County speak concerning a meeting of the downtown business owners and managers where they discussed various ways that the downtown could be beautified. They came up with some ideas such as unifying dumpsters so that there aren't quite so many floating around behind the buildings and asked the City for some attention to be given to the trees planted on the city streets, both in trimming the grass that grows up through the grates in the sidewalk and to the tree locations where the trees have been lost. They also asked whose responsibility the grassy section on the south side of Hwy 61 near the Visit Cook County office is. They will have continuing meetings to discuss these concerns and other items, such as the alleyways of the City. I told them to keep me updated on their meeting times and I will try my best to attend those meetings to represent the City.

No one else spoke for the forum so it was closed and we moved on to the Consent Agenda.

The Consent Agenda was the usual three items (Meeting Agenda, Bills, and Previous Meeting Minutes). Without too much ceremony there was a motion and a second and the consent agenda was approved.


Next came a Planning Commission report where there was a conditional use permit requested for the construction of a garage building in the residential zone that will have a home occupation (home-based business) located in it as well as an apartment.  The findings of the Planning Commission were that the proposed structure is within the setbacks and meets all of the criteria for approval, being that the proposed use (a beauty salon) is in line with the allowed conditional uses for the residential zone. The Council asked a few clarifying questions about the application, but it was approved.


The Council was then given a presentation by OneRoof, the affordable housing developer based in Duluth that the EDA has been working with to develop some workforce housing options for Grand Marais. This presentation explained the background of the organization, how their business works, how they plan to provide some housing developments for Grand Marais, and examples of some of the other homes they have developed in the Duluth area.

The presentation started out with what is proposed for Grand Marais: 7 single family houses. The property that they will be built on has been identified and is in process of being purchased. It is located on 2nd St. W. immediately to the west of the Homestead Property.
For clarity: OneRoof will be the entity purchasing and holding the land. They operate on a "Land Trust" model, which is the mechanism they employ to keep the cost of the homes low. OneRoof will own the land under the homes, but each home is deeded to each purchaser just like a market rate home is. The only caveat is that when the homeowner decides to sell, they can only sell for a certain percentage increase over the price that they paid, which is how the homes remain affordable over time. The OneRoof representative told us that the median house price in Grand Marais raised around 75% in the past 10 years, something that is very hard to manage when you are a lower income resident... (We knew that already).
*You can only own these homes if you homestead them as well and as long as they are your primary residence. This is aimed at making sure that the people living in these homes are working members of the community.

The homes would be developed on the property, spaced out and off of 2nd St. W., using housing assistance dollars from various granting organizations as well as through payments of pre-sales of the homes. Three of the seven homes are slated to be made available for people making 80% of our area's Median Income, which is adjusted based on the number of people in your household. If you are a one person household, that would be something in the neighborhood of $36,000/year. The rest of the homes are expected to fill the niche of those making up to 115% of our area's Median Income, which would be something like $50,000/year. Remember that these numbers are adjusted for the number of people in each household.
*It is important to note that OneRoof is looking at developing these houses for the demand that we have in our community. If there is a higher demand for the 80% houses, they will look into building more of those...

In regards to whether this is the right sector of our community to be building for, I think that we have to start building something. If we don't build anything then the situation won't get any better. The Land Trust model is likely going to be the cheapest option to build well-built, efficient homes for families and residents to live in.

The 80% homes will likely be 2 bedroom, 1 bath homes with a full, walkout basement. There will be a stumped in bathroom in the basement that could be easily added in my the owner of the house.

The 115% houses will likely have 2-3 bedrooms on a similar floorplan and would potentially have the 2nd bathroom in the basement finished out.

*These are all very early stage designs. Nothing is set in stone yet, although they want to start construction in spring 2017!

Because these houses will be built with assistance from federal and state agencies, there are certain standards that they homes must meet: They must be Energy Star certified, which means that they are efficient to heat and cool, as well as that they are outfitted with Energy Star appliances and utilize efficient lighting choices. This will lower the monthly operational expense of the homes, which will make them a good choice for those people who don't want to spend a lot of money on utilities and heat (which is most of us...).

So, how does someone get one of these houses? Well, they will open up pre-purchasing when the designs and schedule is all set and all you have to do is take a look at the houses, contact your bank (I believe that Grand Marais State Bank is working with them to make mortgages more accessible) and get approved for a mortgage, and then submit your offer, with your income information to OneRoof through a local realtor.

*It is important to note that OneRoof has various tools that can help people get approved for a mortgage for a Land Trust home as well as assistance with down-payments.

So, that is the basic summary of the presentation. I tried to put in all of the little snippets of useful information that I took notes about.


After that we moved on briefly to approve the last batch of hires from the Park Department for the summer. They were all approved, so I believe the Park Department is now at their summer staffing level.


That having been the extent of the items on the agenda, we moved on to Council and Staff Reports:

Councilor Moody reported that he has been spending his time working on getting the OneRoof presentation to happen... as it just did...

Councilor Benson asked again if the summer porta-potties had been placed and again urged the Council not to forget about bathroom development concerns.

I reported on a shorter list of meetings where the Library Board is beginning its budget meetings, I attended the Chamber's latest meeting to give an update on City Planning and other projects, there were a number of concerns raised regarding the "pop-up" store on 1st Ave. W. which I spent some time getting to the bottom of and found that with our current zoning, there is nothing out of line about that development. If you disagree, then I would encourage you to be a part of the City's planning process and make that clear so that your preference can be heard and considered. Other suggestions about that space were to make the curb cut in front of the space a parking spot since it isn't going to be a thoroughfare for cars anymore with the idea to be at least one handicap parking spot. I think that makes some sense... we will continue to look into it. I also will be doing a Proclamation for the Grand Marais Playhouse, which will be celebrating its 250th show this summer, which is remarkable for a small playhouse! Congrats! Also, in breaking news, I believe that I will be playing in a certain Alumni Football game this summer as I was invited/agreed to play even though I didn't graduate from CCHS. I DID graduate from a small school that played 9 man football though...

Councilor Mills reported that the YMCA had an emergency meeting concerning childcare in our community and is still in conversation with the Cooperation Station about a potential partnership. The Co-Working space in the old visitor's center (attached to City Hall) is almost ready to open, which the Broadband Commission is excited about. The Park Board took some public comment at their last meeting where they explained the different upgrades and projects that are happening at the park this summer to address a seasonal camper's concerns that there needs to be more improvements happening down there.

Councilor Kennedy reported that he attended the downtown conversations that Linda Kratt mentioned at the start of our meeting as well as an Active Living Steering Committee meeting where they discussed the proposed National Bike Route (Route 41) that would run from St. Paul to Grand Portage and how that organization may begin working on community food issues.

Administrator Roth had a few things for the Council. There were a few bids placed on items up at the Tomteboda site, which the Council accepted. If there is anything you would like that is on that property, make an offer to the City! We may accept it!
In addition, the Council will be meeting with one of the agencies that responded to the City's RFP for assistance with the Comprehensive Planning process on Tuesday to see if they are the organization the City should be working with. Administrator Roth also asked the Council to accept a contract with Moving Matters to hire someone to work with the MN-Department of Transportation to make sure that our Hwy 61 Redesign continues to go smoothly. This is a very good idea considering the amount of work that we have put into the process thus far. The contract was approved.


Following that we adjourned for the night.
As always, please contact me if you have any questions or comments!

**I will be re-issuing the last few meetings' blog posts as I got pretty busy this early summer and need to spend a little more time editing them!