August 10th Council Meeting Summary~!

Hello Everyone!
Well, August happened to me in a very busy way and I haven't had time to sit down and do the summary justice, but I thought I would get it out so that the record is still out there!

The meeting was called to order at 6:30 right on the money and all of the Councilors were present.

We moved on to the Public Forum where no one stood up to speak, so we closed the forum and moved on to the Consent Agenda!

The Consent Agenda was composed of the usual three items (Approve Minutes of the last meeting, Pay Bills, and Approve this meeting's agenda) and two additional things: 1. An approval for the MN Deer Hunter's Association raffle and 2. Approval for the purchase of a new plow for one of the City's trucks.
After a little conversation, the Council unanimously approved the Consent Agenda!

The Council discussed a few openings on City Committees: One on the EDA and one on the Park Board. The Council decided to accept the application of Bev Green for the City's rep on the EDA and to approve, pending her acceptance, Barb Backlund for the opening on the Park Board. Both people have accepted these positions! Thank you to the both of them for being willing to serve!

The City then received an update on the Public Works Facility, which was comprised of taking a look at some examples of the Construction Manager model and the General Contractor model. As of this meeting we basically decided that the project would be started next spring, but we are going to try to get all of the planning done yet this fall/early winter.

The next item on the agenda was labeled "Budget Priorities" which was just a placeholder to start the conversation of the annual City budget! We took a look at a few lists of projects identified by department to see what we are up against. The only action that we took was to schedule a meeting to meet with the department heads to see the summaries of their budget proposals. This will lead to our calculation of the preliminary budget, which is the highest that the levy can possibly be raised this year.

There was a great deal of conversation here about the nature of the projects identified and the need of downtown facilities for tourists and business owners. No action was taken, but the Council showed a strong willingness to put time and effort behind identifying solutions for these problems.

Council Updates:

Councilor Mills-- Park Board: Paving has been put off to after Labor Day due to the busyness of the park.  Great numbers are coming in this year.
In addition, the Y and Coop. Station have reached an agreement on offering childcare services at both locations. We are looking forward to hearing more about this and thank those groups for working so hard to help provide this essential service!

Councilor Moody-- EDA: They recently finished the support letter for the workforce housing initiative. This is a letter that will be given to OneRoof to provide them some support in seeking the grant monies that they have proposed would be used for our housing project.
IRRRB Development Director Steve Peterson is coming up to talk about housing, biking, Lutsen expansion, etc... The EDA is excited to have his ear and will spend the time helping him see all of the good work happening up here.
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Councilor Kennedy-- Had a conversation with the County's David Demmer concerning the County's purchase agreement on 80 acres of landlocked property by the Sawtooth Bluffs area so could be added to the proposed Sawtooth Bluffs area. County has given letter of support to this. The City has been asked to do so as well to help the County in their application to the State. Motion was made and passed for the letter.

Also, development in the western part of the City, how can we work on the wetlands up there and encourage development? The biggest problem is the wetlands up there. First step we would have to look at a wetland replacement plan for that area, no one knows what this would look like. However, we could do something about the 3rd St. roadbed and encourage water to go downhill naturally instead of being dammed up by the roadbed... Good thoughts, no decisions were made on this!

Active Living Steering Committee: US Bike Route 41-- St. Paul to Grand Portage. It's moving along well and will be designated soon. They asked for a letter of support for the project. I made a motion to write it and it was passed unanimously...

GMRPT said that Cook County Mountain Biking Plan was designated as regionally significant/designated park or trail. Now they can submit for funding.

We all have received some calls from residents in town wondering if there is anything that we can do to speed up the placement of a new driver's license center in Grand Marais or even the county! As far as we all know it is a state program and sometimes takes a lot of time to get going!

Me--
I offered an example program to solve the bathroom problem downtown. One thing that the City could do would be to establish a borrowing fund at the City to allow business owners to borrow money to fix up their bathrooms if they offer them for public use and then the City would offer a discount on the business's water bill. This plan was greeted with some suspicion as it was seen that the problem isn't just the facilities in the buildings and the water expense, but the traffic itself. No action was taken on that idea.

I met with Representative Erin Murphy as well to discuss the future development of the arts economy in our area. This was a great conversation and Rep. Murphy gave us her support to continue doing the development work that has been done recently.

I had a few residents of the Rec. Park talk to me about the cancellation policy down at the Rec. Park. They felt that the policy was far too lenient and was being abused by visitors who reserve sites for dates that they don't intend to use just so that they have flexibility in their scheduling. Their suggestion was to increase the penalty for cancelling sites so that this was discouraged.

I was contacted by the Tennis Association to see who should be contacted concerning the information on the kiosk on the corner across from City Hall and Bally Blacksmithing. They informed me that the information on the sign was not correct anymore and should be amended. I informed them that the Chamber of Commerce was the agency that put up the sign, so they are the ones to discuss the sign with.

North House Folk School is going to be turning 20 years old next year and is planning their celebrations already. They would like to keep conversations with the City open concerning a collaborative project to celebrate the relationship between the School and the City. Ideas have been coming in for this!

Sculptor Wayne Potratz has approached the City to donate a piece of his artwork for public art display in the City. The piece of art is a 7 foot cast iron canoe with paddles and Duluth packs that could be located someplace in the Boulder Park area. There is a little foundation work that would have to be done, but it would be a small installation that would be fitting for the location, so the Council agreed to accept the donation and will follow up with him for installation in the spring.

Cook County Soil and Water mentioned to me that there is matching money available for stormwater planning, perhaps something to plan for in the coming year? We have been faced with stormwater problems in past years and need to take actions to prevent them from getting worse and to prevent them overall.

I asked a followup question concerning what is happening in the Creechville area concerning the plugged culvert and the washout on the roadway. At this time jurisdiction is still being considered.

Administrator Roth had a simple update on the Comprehensive Planning Process, the Community Design Group will be presenting the design for the engagement process this week to the City, so more to come on that!


That was it. I apologize for the slow reporting on this one, I will do my best to get the others out on time!
As always, please let me know if you have any questions or comments.