City Council Meeting July 27 2016

The Grand Marais City Council gathered for another meeting last night to cover quite a lot of ground again. One difference about this meeting, apart from Councilor Kennedy's absence to attend a Greater Minnesota Parks and Trails meeting, was that we were slightly reorganized and were speaking into microphones as part of our new offering of live streaming of the Council meetings as well as their archival on Youtube. Thank you Good Measure Media for getting it all set up and for providing a professional service for us! Check out the video and let us know what you think!


We started with the Public Forum, but no members of the public were there to speak so we moved right along to the Consent Agenda, which included the usual three items (Approve Agenda, Approve Previous Meeting Minutes, Pay Bills).


Next Howard Hedstrom and Mary Somnis representing the Cook County Grand Marais Economic Development Authority spoke asking the City to consider being a partner with the County and EDA in supporting the EDA's proposed housing development in the City in conjunction with OneRoof Housing of Duluth. OneRoof is a housing land trust model developer that tries to get the biggest bang for the buck out of housing developments in rural areas. The ask from the EDA representatives is that the City be a partner with the other entities in raising the necessary local match funding for the project, which would come to a maximum of  $25,000/unit or $175,000 total.
**The City, County, and EDA had a meeting on Tuesday afternoon to work on hashing this out and got to a point of majority consensus in the conversation that the amount asked for was not unreasonable and that there are many options open to these organizations to find that money.
With this in mind, the City voted to support this project and will begin looking for options for funding that will assist in meeting that obligation. The County and EDA will be doing the same.


Every year we have a visitor come from the Coatition of Greater Minnesota Cities (CGMC), a lobbying group composed of 88 outstate MN cities that Grand Marais is a member of. This representative, Bradley Peterson, came and gave us an update of the State Legislative Session and what we should be looking forward to in the future. He touted an increase in Local Government Aid (LGA) to small cities and the hope that it will continue to increase, he spoke about a Commercial/Industrial property tax exemption that CGMC is working on, he spoke about the continued gridlock in the State Legislature and how that is impacting things on local levels. If you are interested in finding out more about these issues, or what CGMC is up to, please check out their website.

The next thing that we had on the agenda was a discussion/update on the Public Works Facility project. At our last meeting we spent some time weighing the pros and cons of two different models for constructing the building, General Contracting or Construction Manager at Risk. These two models have pros and cons, but the Council, after some continued conversation and perspective from all of the members, voted to move forward with a Construction Manager at Risk model, which would give the City a more secure concept of the total cost of the project. It is in essence paying a little bit more for a guarantee that you are going to get the project for the agreed upon price. The Council considered the costs of other projects that have been built in recent history in our area and it seemed that most of them came in over budget due to our location and geographical challenges, so in order to insulate the City from unnecessary expense, we decided to let the Construction Managers take on that risk in exchange for paying a little more for that guarantee.
*If this doesn't make sense, let me know. I have it down in my head pretty well, but sometimes that doesn't translate well...


Next we took a look at the proposed budget timeline/calendar, which has several of the key items that need to be accomplished in order for us to be able to pass our yearly budget in line with statute and so that we can do it well. Last week Financial Director Dunsmoor provided 6 month year to date summaries to the Department Heads for their analysis and this week the Council was supposed to go over Council priorities, goals, and to arrange meeting times to continue the discussion.

At the beginning of this discussion, Administrator Roth mentioned that the Council is pretty much already maxed out on projects for 2017 and that this will already be reflected in the 2017 budget requests from the Department Heads, so there probably wasn't too much to talk about there. Councilor Moody interjected a quick question about whether or not 2017 would be the year that we built more public restrooms around town to meet the need so passionately portrayed by downtown business owners. This set off a long conversation of options and why it hasn't been done yet and a few suggestions for ways that we could address this need and what the need was in the first place. This was all good to hear, but in the end I asked the Council if this is something that we should get done in 2017 understanding that if we commit to it we would then have to come up with some money to make it happen. It was a strong consensus on the Council that something has to be done and there was a seeming leaning toward having a few locations throughout the City to help take the burden off of local businesses. There was also a strong perspective to not spend $450,000 on public restrooms (using an amount spent on the recent reconstruction of a bath-house at the Rec. Park.
We left the conversation at that, understanding that at the next meeting we will look at the projects that we have already committed to and will talk about other options for public restrooms that are cost effective other than porta-potties. If you have any ideas, let us know!


At a previous meeting the Council voted to seek assistance with our Comprehensive Planning process from the IRRRB. The City was awarded the maximum amount for our process, $20,000, and needed to sign the contract to release the funds to the City. There was a vote and it unanimously passed to sign the contract and accept the funding.


Let's see, then it was time for the Council Reports. Due to our changed seating, Councilor Mills started:

Councilor Mills-- The Park Board has a vacancy that they are looking to fill. The position will be posted soon, but if you are interested, please go to the City Hall and ask for an application!
He also reported that the gravel on Creechville Road was cleaned up very quickly, but asked if there was any other work done or in the planning stages. Administrator Roth informed us that he is in communication with the County about the clogged culvert on that road and is looking into what kind of maintenance is necessary to make that ditch safe again and to stop the erosion of the road. More to come on that in the future!

Councilor Moody-- The Cook County Grand marais EDA has a City Position Open. They need someone to start immediately. There have been a few application packets taken, but none have come back in yet. This position will be posted as well, but if you are interested in serving on the EDA board, please stop by City Hall to pick up a packet. Councilor Moody spoke of how rewarding he found the work and how important it is to the community.
He also reported that the EDA Housing Project work has been good. There is a lot of inertia building around it and hopes it will come together so that groundbreaking will happen next spring. Also, another Business Park Lot sold! There will likely be 3 groundbreakings this year on previously sold properties there.
At our meeting on Tuesday one option for paying the local commitment for the OneRoof program ($175,000; see above) was to use the money banked from the sale of Business Park lots. In order to weigh this accurately, the Council had Administrator Roth look into it and give us the balance of that account as well as the balance of the levy on the business park. After looking at the numbers it became clear that using this money for any use other than servicing the levy debt would be imprudent. Councilor Moody noticed that the City didn't receive a payment from the County in 2013 to help pay the debt service and wondered what was up with that. Administrator Roth didn't have a solid answer for that question, but it sounded like it wasn't really worth looking into at this time.

Councilor Benson-- Noted that the Housing conversation that we just had and all housing conversations in the future need to be viewed not just as a City concern, but as a wider County concern due to our location and the nature of our economies up here. She also asked what the status of rebuilding City Hall and the Liquor Store is. Truth be told, not a lot has been done on this because there are so many other projects happening, but they are important items that we will keep on our list.

I had a bunch of things:
There was question again of whether or not the curb cut between Joy and Company and the Gunflint Mercantile should be dedicated as parking now that the lot it is in front of is being developed. The answer came mainly as another question for the property owners that is abutts, so that question will be asked before any changes are made.
I recently received an invitation for the City to apply with the University of MN as a "resilient community" which would basically mean that the City would partner with the University of MN to get graduate student real life assistance in trying to accomplish projects that would make us a healthier/stronger community. I proposed that we could use this to try and get a solid stormwater plan for the City, but there are many other directions it could go... There wasn't much conversation on this, but it seemed that there was interest in looking at it a little more closely, so we will do that for next meeting.
A few members of the Public Works Commission provided me with information pertaining to the potential installation of a SolarWall solar heating unit on the Public Works Facility when it is built. This technology would increase the build cost of the building, but could potentially save us a LOT of money for heating in the winter. I will gather more information on this to present and the information has been sent along to our architect.
Last week I made a proclamation. I posted it here on the blog, but it was for "Go to the Theatre Months" to honor the Grand Marais Playhouse's 45th season. Head out and see either of the shows. I hear that they are great!
I also received some information from the Department of Health's Cean Water Fund, whcih could be potential money to do improvements on the municipal parking lot as well as to help design a stormeater treatment plan. More information to come, but again, the Council seemed interested.
The Library Board had a meeting to discuss their budget, which the City approved last meeting, and upcoming programming, which is going to be great! Stay put!
Last week I was invited to go down to the Twin Cities and participate in MPR's Policy and a Pint event where they had a panel of young elected officials discuss their experiences and challenges in their service. It was a lot of fun and very informative to hear how others deal with their positions!
Just a few days ago we received at City Hall a proposal from a few concerned citizens for a thorough renovation of the municipal public restrooms attached to City Hall that would cost roughly $12,000. This isn't a lot of money, but the Council tried to pull up the reason it didn't get completely renovated last year as well as asking whether it was a good idea to spend ANY monty on our building because it is going to start falling apart more than it already is. We thanked these ladies for their assistance and will take it into consideration as we cross that bridge.

That was everything. As always, let me know if you have any questions.

A Proclamation for the Theater!

I didn't get around to posting this on the 19th, but it is still applicable! Go see the shows!

Proclamation

WHEREAS, on July 19th, 1971 the community of Cook County was changed forever by the formation of the Grand Marais Playhouse; and

WHEREAS, the legacy of the performing arts reaches deep into the history and industry of our region; and

WHEREAS, our region is continually enriched through Playhouse presentations of community theater, high school theater, and private theater productions, and

WHEREAS, the Grand Marais Playhouse has successfully staged and performed over 250 performances throughout the community for the benefit of our community; and

WHEREAS, we recognize the hundreds of actors and crew members that made these performances possible as our neighbors, friends, and family-members; and

WHEREAS, we join with the Grand Marais Playhouse to celebrate 45 years of quality theater and look for many upcoming opportunities to see these performances in our community.

THEREFORE, JAY ARROWSMITH DECOUX, MAYOR OF THE CITY OF GRAND MARAIS,           

does hereby proclaim

 THE MONTHS OF JULY and AUGUST:

“Go To the Theater Months”

and urges all citizens to join in recognizing the contributions of the Grand Marais Playhouse to our region by attending both of the summer performances for its 45th season.

Proclaimed this 19th day of July, 2016

Jay Arrowsmith DeCoux

Mayor of Grand Marais

**If your organization would like a proclamation made, just let me know and we can figure out the best way to do that!

Council Meeting 7-13-16

Here's the summary of the latest City Council meeting that was held last night at the City Council Chambers at 6:30pm.


We called the meeting to order with all of the Councilors in attendance. We moved right on to the Consent Agenda, which was populated by the usual three items (Agenda, Last Meeting's Minutes, and Payment of Bills) and one additional item: The Street Permit Application for the Lion's Club's Fisherman's Picnic celebration this year. The consent agenda was passed unanimously with the comment that some of the port-a-potties mentioned in the application may need to be re-located due to the development in the lot in between Joy and Company and the Gunflint Mercantile. That conversation will be had with the Lion's Club.


We moved right on to the Planning Commission Report, which had a request for a Conditional Use Permit for the "Resort-Commercial Zone" located on 5th Ave W., particularly for the property formerly known as the "Fenstad's Motel." The new owner of that property is looking to redevelop the existing structure to create a permanent residence, a long-term rental, and 2 vacation rental units in the existing building. The Planning Commission reported that permanent residences and long-term rentals are approved uses for that zone, so there didn't need to be any Conditional Use approved for those, but the 2 rental units would have to be approved. Seeing that the "Resort-Commercial" zone allows lodging as a conditional use and the property was previously developed as a motel, this was in line with the neighborhood, and thus the Planning Commission recommended approving the request. There was a little conversation at the Council level about it, mostly being glad to see someone working on that property, but in the end the CUP (Conditional Use Permit) was approved unanimously. It will be exciting to see the new progress on that property!


Next we had Library Director Steve Harsin and Library Board President Audrey Stattleman present the Library's proposed budget for 2017. The Library Board's Financial committee and Director Harsin have spent a great deal of time number crunching so that they can provide a responsible budget that stays within the increases approved for this year's budget and proposed for next year's. The balance comes with the introduction with a full-time Assistant Library Director who will be hired to provide additional oversight at the library and oversee program elements that have been proposed to increase the Library's presence in the far reaches of the county. This means that there will be an increase in the Library's budget, an increase that will be offset partially by using the Library's designated funds to continue purchasing materials for the collection and other materials services (like ebooks and online magazines). This proposal was seen to be responsibly put together and took into consideration the most possible expenses that could come to the library over the coming years, so the Council voted on and approved this budget for 2017. The Library Board will now present this version to the County for consideration before it will be adopted for 2017.


After that we had an interesting conversation with Patrick Knight of Good Measure Media, located here in Grand Marais. Patrick approached the Council a few weeks ago asking if the Council would like to have the Council meetings recorded and uploaded to Youtube so people could watch and review the meetings at their leisure. The Council took turns saying that they were open to the idea and that if it was not utilized by enough people in the community, we could just not renew next year...
It was reflected upon that the City used to pay about $1000/month for this type of service and that it was well received when it was offered. The proposal from Good Measure Media was for $250/month for 5 hours of recording, which would come to roughly $3000/year, or one quarter of what the City used to pay. The Council appreciated the potential increased level of oversight this would provide for the community and thus voted unanimously to contract with Good Measure Media to provide this service. The contract will be revisited throughout the year and it will be reviewed as to whether or not it should be continued...


Jumping back to the Agenda:
The next item was for the Council to approve a bid for paving services for the Rec. Park. Thoreson's bid $19,317 for 14,411 sq. ft. of paving work to be done at the Rec. Park to improve the rough sections of pavement around the office and other roadways throughout the park. This bid, being under the $20,000 allotted for this improvement this year, passed unanimously.


Next we moved on to the Community Visioning/Comprehensive Planning update. The City provided the contract for services to the Community Design Group (the agency that the Council chose to assist with the community engagement and analysis portion of the Comprehensive Plan), and that came back with one request from CDG: An adjustment in the amount of insurance that they have to carry on the project.

The actual contract that we offered to CDG is a contract that was written up to protect the City and offer the mandated guarantees to the contractee. This contract is kind of multi-purpose and thus includes a bunch of stipulations that apply to construction and other capital projects. Thus, the amount of insurance required by the contract is $1.5 million/incident: $3 million total, which would cover just about any project that the City takes on. CDG asked if we would accept $2 million/incident: $2 million total, which meets our first requirement, but not the second.
What does this mean?
This means that if the work that CDG does ends up costing the City money because of damages or associated lawsuits or whatever, the City will be covered by CDG's insurance up to $2 million dollars. Considering that we are only contracting with them for their planning services, the Council believed this to be a fair offer and accepted the change to the contract unanimously.


Have you ever heard of a Granny Pod? Well, I guess that they are getting really popular in the Cities and thus the State passed a law regulating them. This got the League of MN Cities involved because the League feels that it isn't the State's job to be making local zoning decisions for cities. Each city has a different situation and may want to take a different stance on these little units, which are technically called "Temporary Family Health Care Dwellings." Therefore, the League offered some information to its member cities regarding this new law and how they could opt out of it if they so desired. There was a great deal of conversation on the logistics of a move to opt out of the State's law, but in the end it was decided that it is better for the City to develop its own standards for these units along with ANY accessory dwelling on a property, in conjunction with the community during the Comprehensive Planning process. So there is another thing for you to think about! Should the City allow these Temporary Family Health Care Dwellings? Should the City allow tiny homes as accessory dwellings on lots? What should the rules be? These are important things to consider. Let me know if you have any great ideas!


The next update came regarding the Public Works Facility. Our engineer, LHB, had been working on a cost estimate for our project and then sent the numbers out to a second engineering firm, Krauz-Anderson, for a peer review (a very good idea) and the numbers came back virtually identical. Krauz-Anderson had some very good insights that weren't captured by the LHB project, but complimented LHB on a well-written proposal. In the end we are looking at a project that will cost in the ballpark of $3.8 million. That includes site prep, utility installation, landscaping, construction, and finishing. The next step for the Council is to review the estimate thoroughly and decide if the City should sign up with LHB as a Construction Manager at Risk or as a General Contractor.

The difference between these two is that with a Construction Manager at Risk the City contracts with the company for a specific amount of money for the entire project and it is up to the Construction Manager, in this situation LHB, to provide the product agreed upon for the money agreed upon. Pros for this are that we KNOW how much it is going to cost. Cons are that if the company builds it for less than the bid, they keep the savings.

With a General Contractor we contract for the work to be done and the GC bills us as it goes. Pros are that if the project is completed cheaper, the City pays less. Cons are that if the project is more expensive... well, the City is responsible for that.

The Council is going to get together with representatives of other organizations in the community (hospital, school, YMCA, etc) to discuss their experience with either type and then will make a decision at the next Council meeting on the 27th of July.


That was everything on the agenda, so we moved right on to Council and Staff Updates!

Councilor Moody brought the update that another lot in the Business Park sold! Hurray!

Councilor Benson had no direct update, but a few questions that were answered in the following conversations...

I reported on a few things:
-A concerned resident of Creechville contacted myself and Councilor Mills about some erosion problems on 4th Ave W (Creechville Road). The road surface is starting to collapse because of water undercutting the pavement. The message was passed on to the Street Department and a plan will be developed. It is a tricky street though because jurisdiction on that street is unclear... whether it is a city street or a county street... We will get to the bottom of it though!
-Improvements on the tennis courts have begun and are progressing nicely. Get your racket ready for Fish Pic's Tennis Tournament!
-Administrator Roth forwarded a Carbon Footprint Analysis to the Council that I received from a business that provides those reports for a fee. I passed it along as a resource to explore if the Comprehensive Planning process brings up our carbon production as a priority to assess and mitigate.
-A concerned resident asked if the corner of Hwy 61 and 3rd Ave W could get some yellow paint. It turns out that people have been parking awkwardly on that corner, creating a dangerous situation for drivers and pedestrians. The message was passed along to the Street Department.
-I attended a meeting of the Community Connection group, which is a group that has been quietly working for over a year to put on an annual "services fair" in Grand Marais to show all of the great services that are available by our non-profits, churches, and other service organizations. It will be sometime in October it sounds like and will have many, many vendors giving away free samples of their goods/services. There will likely be food there as well. It is hoped that this will be a way for people in our community to connect with the services that they qualify for and need so that they can improve their standard of living. More to come, but kudos to a lot of great work done!
-Today I attended the Active Living Policy Group meeting up in Grand Portage. The Tribe was gracious enough to give us a tour of their community gardens up the Mineral Center Road, which are really turning into a great community asset! There is a great deal to learn from their model! If you are interested at all, you should head up there and ask to get a tour. It is pretty cool and will hopefully expand to provide a significant amount of food for the village! Also in that meeting the Group went through the Active Living Plan that was put together a few years ago. It was quickly apparent that many of the things introduced as priorities have been accomplished and thus it is likely time to revisit what the next steps are. The City committed to doing just this as a part of its Comprehensive Plan, so if you have any suggestions of things that the City can do to help promote healthy, active living, let us know!
-We got a little sidetracked by a flyer that I received in the mail advertising the flashing radar speed signs. I thought it was interesting that they now only cost $2000, and mentioned that, but I shouldn't have, because it got us off-topic for probably 10 minutes... Oh well, these things happen...

Councilor Mills reported the same concerns about the Creechville Road as well as:
-A conversation that he had about the Comp. Planning process. He spoke with someone who was concerned that our efforts to include every possible demographic and person may not actually best reflect the community. We talked about it a little at the meeting and we all agreed that our best option is to talk to the people who are here. We have to do that. We hope to talk to everyone and we hope to make a plan that is visionary and provides great leadership into the future.
-The Park Board spent a lot of time going over the response they received from the Regional Parks and Trails Commission. As I reported last meeting, the Rec. Park and the Sawtooth Bluffs area both received "High" rankings this year, and thus we need to update (or create) a master plan to direct the development of these resources before they are eligible for Legacy Fund monies for improvements. One comment that was interesting was that the Regional Parks and Trails Commission commented that the Rec. Park's application would have been stronger if it had a stronger emphasis on the marina. It isn't clear what that means, but the Park Board hopes that the proposed new boat launch will be a good step toward meeting whatever criteria they are looking for! To close on this item, the City and Park Board will be working on these master plans over the winter and spring so that potentially funding for improvements can be secured in the coming years. Pretty exciting stuff!
-The YMCA Council has had continuing conversations with the Cooperation Station about partnerships that could work there, and the Y's outreach programs in Hovland are going really well! It is exciting to see these sorts of programs hitting the East End and soon the West End!

Councilor Kennedy reported that all of his updates were already covered by the other Councilors.

Administrator Roth reminded the Council that ONEROOF, the organization that is working with the EDA to develop the homes in Grand Marais, will be coming back to a future meeting (maybe the next one) to have a conversation about what kind of financial support the City will be putting into the project. It was quickly realized at the Council level that we need to get the Council, the County Commissioners, and the EDA together to sit down and talk about this because the financial estimates provided by OneRoof accounted for $25,000 of local money going into each of the 7 units. That is roughly $175,000. The City is not going to be paying all of that and needs to have the necessary conversations with the other entities involved to figure out where that money is going to be coming from. There are a number of options available, many of which won't increase anyone's taxes at all. Please note that we are going to be having this joint meeting to work out the best options that will impact everyone the least.
-Administrator Roth also reported that the 8th member of the steering committee for the Comprehensive Planning process said yes! Welcome Julie Carlson to the committee! Thank you in advance for your help! There is one final member that we are still working on... I won't say who it is until I am sure that we have her committed, but the Steering Committee is looking very, very good!


That was it! We covered a lot of territory in this meeting and were pleased to see continued private development in the City. As always, please let me know if you have any comments or questions!