City Council Meeting 10-26-2017

It was a dark and windy night...

Fall is almost beyond us and the sun is now setting long before our meeting time, but that doesn't stop us from getting down to work!

Our meeting started at 6:32pm with all present but for Councilor Kennedy and Councilor Moody, who are out of town for other meetings.

I opened up the Public Comment period then and with no one present that was not on the agenda, the Public Comment period was closed.

We then took up the Consent Agenda, which was populated with the usual three items: this meeting's agenda, the previous meeting's minutes, and the City's bills from the past two weeks. There wasn't much conversation about this and thus it passed unanimously.

Next, Mary Somnis from the Cook County/Grand Marais EDA came to speak with the Council regarding the proposal they received from Spectrum Health in response to their Request for Proposal concerning the Elder Care Services Study that was completed by the Cook County/Grand Marais EDA earlier this year. Spectrum Health was the only company that responded to the RFP. They are an elder care health care provider with a number of other facilities across Northern MN, such as Ely, Babbitt, Orr, Two Harbors, Virginia, Aurora, and several others. She came to let us know that some representatives from Spectrum would be visiting Grand Marais in the upcoming days and wanted to make sure that the City would be able to meet with them and talk about some of the available plots of land where they could develop their $5.5 million building.

There were a number of questions asked about how Spectrum will be working with the existing elder care providers to make sure that the resources that we have already won't be endangered by this new development. Somnis reassured the Council that Spectrum has already started scheduling meetings with some of the heads of these providers to make sure that coordination would go as cleanly as possible, should the project move forward.

Somnis also reported that Spectrum is now doing their due diligence to make sure that a project in response to the EDA's RFP would be successful according to their models. There wasn't anything for the City to respond to, but we will be staying involved in the process...


The Council then moved on to the agenda item to discuss the interviews that were performed with the Construction Manager companies that answered our call for proposals to perform the work on the construction of the Public Works Facility. We had two companies respond: McGough Construction and Kraus Anderson Construction. Since Councilor Kennedy and Councilor Moody were not in attendance the Council decided that we should wait to have the conversation until all Councilors were in attendance. This is a really big decision and we have two great choices to choose from. Both companies have extensive experience and incredible reputations. Kraus Anderson has done a great deal of work in the area and McGough is just starting expanding into the area and is very eager to get a project up here.  Councilors Kennedy, Benson, and myself were present at the interviews.

The next thing on the agenda was a conversation regarding whether or not the City Council should have a Councilor (or several) go through the state's training on how to be a Local Board of Appeal and Equalization. This is basically a long way of saying that the Council would then serve as the organization that hears appeals to the valuation of property within the City... i.e. if you feel that your property is valued at a much higher value than it actually is, or vice versa, you can appeal this valuation and that appeal right now is heard directly by the County Assessor's Office. The new County Assessor Todd Smith asked if the City would be interested in being the Local Board of Appeal and Equalization because he has found, historically, that people feel more comfortable and are often more successful with their appeals if they are heard by their local elected officials rather than the County staff. The Council took no action on this because we wanted to get some more information to see what this would all entail and to see who on the board would be willing to take the training, which is free and provided by the State.


Cook County Soil and Water made a request to the City to match equally a grant for stormwater planning for the City. This grant is a $22,750 grant that the City would have to match $11,375 to the County's $11,375 to result in a total value of $45,000, which could be leveraged to match a separate grant for $25,000, resulting in a grand total of $70,500 for the City's investment of $11,375. This money could be used to address stormwater concerns as a part of the Hwy 61 redesign and hopefully to take mitigation action for the municipal parking lot.

There was another option put forward by Soil and Water that would result in a much larger pot of money to use for this process; this process would require a $25,000 investment by the City, but that could result in a combined total of almost $190,000, which could be used for stormwater planning and implementation of a plan.

Both of these options are a pretty good deal for the City and the City should take a look at its stormwater plan, which was done in 2001... before the municipal parking lot was paved (2004) and before there were other significant changes in paved surface in the City. This would be essential in creating tangible solutions to our stormwater problems now and to prevent new problems from happening in the future.

On to Council Reports!

Councilor Mills--
Broadband Commission met and accomplished just about all of its charge, but what hasn't been accomplished has been how to promote or encourage the attraction of tech jobs to the area to take advantage of the broadband resources here. The conversation was to transition this effort over to the EDA, which it sees is more in their wheelhouse. The other thing was to encourage e-government services to be incorporated or to continue to be incorporated into County and City governments.

Y Council-- Strat planning dealing with issues facing the Y and community

He heard a citizen concern regarding crossing the highway at 1st Ave W commenting that the flags DO assist in that crossing location, but people still are traveling very fast through there. This very conversation has been heard a number of times in the Hwy 61 redesign process and will hopefully be addressed in that process. He made a request to see if the County would put its speed sign down there to reinforce the speed limit.

Comments on the Spectrum Health project potentially being located at the Tomteboda site... The Council thought that this was a good idea to at least show them this property...

I reported on a slew of meetings that I went to, many of which address significant problems in our area:
-I went to a meeting of several interested parties (Moving Matters, the EDA, community members) to discuss the possibility or to create a plan for a park and walk or park and bike system to provide some parking relief for the downtown area and Highway 61 area during the 2019 Hwy 61 Redesign. The purpose of this meeting was to see if there were any places that we could direct people to park before the construction began so we could start to create a culture of walking before the redesign, thus lowering the impact of the construction on our downtown businesses and on our guests. There was a conversation about creating mini parks at parking spots to give people who choose to park off of the highway a place to sit and rest or to wait for an Arrowhead Transit bus, etc. Very early conversation on this. Ideas are much appreciated!

I also attended a planning meeting to prepare for the November 17th meeting in Beaver Bay to discuss the sex trafficking and exploitation of our young people in the Arrowhead. A group of interested people including caregivers, elected officials, community activists, and community members sat down and discussed what the problem is, where it is in our community, why it is there, and potentially what we can do about it. This meeting will serve us well as we will bring this information to the meeting on the 17th and thus don't have to do all of that work at that meeting where we will have St. Louis County, Lake County, and Cook County present.

Sex trafficking is something that we don't talk about much because we don't usually believe that it is happening in our community. Sexual exploitation is a different matter. This is the exchange of sexual activities for anything of value. A lot of times this is where someone exchanges sex for food, security, clothing, luxuries, transportation, or drugs. Minnesota has a Safe Harbor Law now, which says that people who are fleeing this kind of situation cannot be prosecuted for things that they have done that broke the law. They are seen as a victim as long as they can prove that they were being forced into that behavior. It is an icky subject and something that we don't like talking about, but it is very important for us to address this as a community!

That same day I met with Barbara Battiste from the MN Office for the Economic Status of Women.  She came to our area to conduct a listening session on the challenges and situation that women in our area face economically. The meeting was exceptional, largely because we have a lot of exceptional women in our community. The meeting was attended by 22 people, from young single women to young women with children to middle aged women whose children are in school to women whose children are out of the house and independent. The conversation covered a lot of ground from the troubles that have been faced with childcare to the housing pinch, which hits single women really hard, to the trouble that women have getting jobs that pay them a living wage compared to men, who can get construction and trade jobs that pay a higher wage more easily than women. There were good things too. We have good resources available for higher education and we have a strong community of incredible female businesspeople that are willing to help other women get settled into business, etc.
The conversation has been rippling through my days and I have been staying in touch with Ms. Battiste so that she knows that we are still interested in state actions on some of these topics.

I had my last League of MN Cities Policy meeting also, which resulted in the 2017 LMC Policy Proposals. These are the official stance of the League of MN Cities and will be brought to the legislature for consideration for the coming legislative session. There is a LOT of stuff in there, but there are a few things that will have significant impact on our area potentially. One is the Workforce Readiness Policy, Workforce Housing, and the Public Infrastructure Policy. I served on the policy committees for the Improving Local Economies and Improving Fiscal Futures Policy Boards.

The Library Board met and discussed plans for its strategic planning activities for next year. This is an important part of making sure that the Library functions well and has a clear vision for what its purpose is in the community.
The Board also voted to authorize Director Harsin to purchase a new microfilm reader for the library because the existing unit has been non-functional for some time and that means that there is virtually no place in the county where people can read microfilm... which is how all of the records of the Cook County newspapers are stored for public use along with many other documents. There was conversation about digitizing the collection of microfilms, but it was said that would cost $50,000 or more, which is an amount that the Library isn't willing to pay at this point. There will likely be other opportunities to have the collection digitized into the future for much less money.
The Board had a conversation about how they would be involved in the hiring process of the new Assistant Library Director, for which the application period has just closed. We received a number of very qualified applicants it sounds and the hiring process will begin shortly.
Succession planning was also a conversation. The Library Board will have two members stepping down this year, Sally Berg and Audrey Stattleman, who have completed their 2 three year terms. Thus, the Board is looking for one City and one County representative who would love to help us insure that our Library stays vibrant and effective for our community.

I also attended the final meeting of the group meeting to work on improving and empowering the local creative economy. This group was very active in assessing the unique nature of our area and brainstorming how this area can grow to be a national arts destination without losing its local flavor and small town feel. A challenging charge, but I believe that they did a pretty good job. I will try and get an electronic version to share with you all. This information is going to be passed on to the Council in the future and the Steering Committee for the Grand Marais Visioning Process.

I also attended a two hour emergency preparedness training, which was training for how I can be a better Public Information Officer (PIO) in the case of an emergency. This is basically saying that if something bad happens I have to be the person to tell the media what's going on and this was a training to make sure that I don't say something that confuses the public or that makes things seem worse than it really is. It was very useful... but I hope that I don't have to ever use it!

Grand Marais Community Visioning Process did two trainings this past week to get community members ready to actually perform some information gathering events to support the process. One training was done at 2:30pm at the Courthouse and then the trained people tried out their skills on employees at the Courthouse. They then took their pop-up information gathering setup to the YMCA to gather information there. The second training was at 6:30pm at City Hall. Over 25 people participated in the training!
The next day, Wednesday, I took part in an information gathering event at the Coop and there was another one at the YMCA. We will be looking at doing more of these events across the City to continue gathering information.
Another one is happening this Friday. Stay tuned for more events! We still have a question as to how we get the people who don't usually participate. We will work on getting someone at the Community Connect event on Saturday, which is an event that highlights different services and assistances that are available in our area.

Hwy 61 Update: We hired a person to make sure that the public engagement for the redesign is where it needs to be and that we are still included completely in the pre-design engineering so that our business people have an opportunity to give feedback to the design. The City will then hold a few meetings as well and will issue comments to the design after that process is completed. Administrator Roth also reported that the work thus far on behalf of MN DOT seems to take into consideration the work that was done in our planning process.

As always, please let me know if you have any questions or comments...

City Council Meeting 10-12-16

Council Meeting 10-12-16

The meeting was called to order at 6:30 with all Council members present except for Councilor Moody, who showed up part of the way through the agenda.

After the roll call I opened the Public Comment period to which three people spoke. 

Local resident Todd Sylvester again expressed concerns on the legitimacy of the mayor's business signs. He presented the permit documents, which he obtained from City Hall and stated that the permit expired in 2015, which would then make the permit not in compliance. The observation was made from the City Council that the permit he showed to the City was not a portable sign permit, which needs to be renewed each year, but an off-site freestanding sign permit, which is a one time permit. Thus the sign is in compliance as the permit is still on file at the City. He then continued to pursue a claim that certain Council members encouraged members of the community to disregard ordinance in regard to zoning. He also expressed that he felt attacked by the Council. The Council heard his complaint, but was unclear as to an action to take that would reach a resolution as he stated that he was speaking for other members of the community who brought up the concerns. The Council encouraged him to invite those members of the community to reach out to the Council members in private or at a meeting so that their concerns can be heard and addressed.

Dave Beckwith spoke as well to support Mr. Sylvester in his claim that it was said in the Planning and Zoning meeting that a few members of the Planning and Zoning Commission told the potential purchasers of the Nor'Shor Building that they should buy the building and it was unanimous that the P&Z Commission said that no vacation rentals will be allowed and that the rezoning request was denied. He was also concerned that people will not come forward for the Comprehensive Planning process. The Council responded saying that we are trying to think out of the box so we can reach folks that aren't usually engaged. 

Mary Somnis reported that Spectrum Health responded to the RFP for an Assisted Living facility located in Grand Marais. They have asked two things locally: 1. 3-5 acres of land, 2. Assistance with IRRRB funding for infrastructure. She provided us a head's up that Spectrum has shown interest and that we should expect to hear this topic in the future. 

Another topic, county/city agreement to identify $175,000 in monies for the housing project in the City. Reminder that we need to identify this money to make sure that the project gets accomplished. 

We then moved on to the Consent Agenda, which had the usual three items on it and one additional item, an on-premise gambling permit for Grandma Ray's. Due to some questions on the gambling permit, we pulled it off of the Consent Agenda and passed the Consent Agenda with those usual three things.

We moved on to the on-premise Gambling Permit for Grandma Rays. The Council had some questions, which were answered very clearly by the managers of Grandma Ray's. There will be pull tabs and a few other small-scale activities on-premise, the proceeds of which will go to the Sons of the American Legion and the American Legion Auxiliary, a non-profit that offers funding for local events and scholarships. Once the Council understood the structure of the permit, its responsibilities, and who will be in charge of the operations, etc, the Council approved the request unanimously.

We then moved into conversation on the City's liability insurance policy, which is up for renewal. Our broker for the City policy, Paul Coe of City Insurance, walked us through the coverages and the amounts that the City has to pay. We discussed whether or not we have any other options that could be cheaper for the coverages that we get. We currently get our coverage through the League of MN Cities Insurance Trust, who negotiates on behalf of most of the cities in the state and who tailors the policies to the needs of cities. It was determined that the City would not be able to find another policy that would offer what we need for anything close to the amount we would pay. Our liability insurance is around $56,000 for next year, which is pretty close to what it was last year. 

One point of conversation here was whether or not the City wanted to waive or not waive a clause on the reimbursement of monies to people who are injured in events where the City has some liability. If we did not waive the protections then we would be liable for up to $500,000 per person or $1,500,000 per event. If we waived this clause then the per person limit is removed, allowing for a claimant to receive more than $500,000 if that is determined to be the reimbursement for damage done. 

Why do we want to waive this? Well, this is our coverage by our insurance. If we get sued for more than $500,000 by one person and the court says that we need to pay more than $500,000, then that comes right out of our pocket. If we have this waiver, then the insurance will cover that expense up to $1,500,000, which is pretty unlikely to happen... It is actually a safer bet for the tax-payers to waive this and protect our cash reserves than it is to have it in place and risk having to pay a settlement out of pocket. I hope that helps explain things... In the end the Council voted to approve the renewal.

Other Business:

Public Works Facility we received two bids for being our Construction Manager. Kraus Anderson and McGough Construction. The Council will set interviews with both companies to figure out which we will be going with. The Council will get the proposals soon so that we can take a look at them. They were not identical proposals!

Based on the proposals:

Kraus Anderson asked for $330,000 for Construction Management and $37,000 that we didn’t identify. We will be asking about this at the interview.

McGough rolled all expenses into a figure of $537,000.

Looking at the significant price difference in the proposals we need to ask whether there were any differences in the proposals at the level of services rendered. We want an organization that will see us through the entire construction process and that will be responsible for fixing things that are done incorrectly or that will at least stand by their product.

Comprehensive Plan Update: CDG is coming next Tuesday 2:30pm at the Courthouse to do training with the Steering Committee and then to perform those skills for employees at the Courthouse. There will be another training at 6:30pm at City Hall. . Tuesday afternoon they will set up at the Y in the entryway and Wednesday at the Coop conference room 9-noon and the Y. So come down and try it out!

The survey is live on the Grand Marais visioning website! www.grandmaraisvisioning.org

On to Council reports!

Councilor Mills—Park Board was his only meeting. The golf report showed that the annual memberships will go up $10/year. Conversation about Disc Golf showed that Mike K. thought that it wouldn’t be a good fit for the course, so conversation switched to other locations for a potential course. 

Paving is going to be happening in the Rec. Park and electrical upgrades will be located this fall before being completed next spring. 

Conversation about the Park’s rates was that there will be a modest increase in rates for 2017. 

Had a conversation with Go-Dog-North-Shore concerning being a part of the Sawtooth Bluffs Project with a dog park.

Councilor Moody—Had some questions about location of the winter plowing for some of the property in the Business Park in regards to being able to ride winter fat bikes from the snowmobile trail up to the groomed biking trails at Pincushion for the winter. This will not impact groomed SKI trails at Pincushion. It was decided that this would be a conversation to be had with the County and potentially with business owners on the Business Park loop.

Councilor Kennedy—Planning commission is looking at amending the language regarding non-conforming language, will bring proposed language to a public meeting of the Planning Commission to gather comments from the public in regards to the language changes. The purpose is to attempt to clarify the language from outdated language to something that will work better with current conditions.

Active Living Policy Meeting where they reviewed the Active Living Plan and thus Grand Marais’ role in it. We have accomplished and are following through on our identified items. The conversation about what we will be doing in the future is hoping to be drawn out during the Comprehensive Planning process. Also, tweaking the Park Master Plan, which will happen this winter, should be a part of the Active Living Plan and these two should share some characteristics as well as sharing with other groups, such as Northwoods Food Project and the Sawtooth Bluffs Master Plan.

Councilor Benson—Question regarding whether or not anymore buildings have been bid on up at Tomteboda, etc. No more bids, people have been working on the moving of the buildings that they have purchased from the City. 

My update was surprisingly short. I have had quite a few conversations with folks in the community. I went to a planning conference in St. Cloud a week and a half ago where I attended a lot of really interesting sessions that will be useful during our Comprehensive Planning process.

That's all for now! Happy Fall to you all and I hope that you are all finding some time to take a deep breath of that great fall air!

City Council Meeting 9-27-16

Due to scheduling (Administrator Roth and I will be gone tomorrow at a planning conference in St. Cloud where we will hope to bring back some useful information to help in our Community Planning Process) the City Council rescheduled its regular Wednesday evening meeting to Tuesday morning.

*When the meetings are rescheduled it is posted at City Hall and online. If you would like to know more about when meetings are rescheduled, let me know and I will try to get the info out!

The meeting was called to order at 9am with all of the Councilors present.

We opened up the Public Forum as an opportunity for community members to address the Council and one community member spoke.
Todd Sylvester, a local resident, cited a section in the Planning Ordinance that states that any business is allowed one temporary sign and pointed out that my B&B business has a sign on the corner and one in my yard, using this information as an accusation that the Council is not following its own ordinances. This was followed up with the re-iteration of a claim made at a previous meeting stating that Councilor Kennedy informed the applicant of a re-zoning request that they should break ordinance. An accusation was then leveled back at me that I did not report that information in my blog. Immediately following these comments, Mr. Sylvester excused himself and thus was not present for any follow-up conversations in regard to his comments.

To follow up briefly:
This is what we know about the Planning and Zoning meeting in question:
1. The meeting was not recorded as there is no legal requirement for them to be recorded. The Council made the recommendation to not only the Planning and Zoning Commission, but to all Commissions and committees that their meetings should be recorded from now on to prevent misunderstandings in communications made during those meetings.
2. The claims that Mr. Sylvester have not been corroborated by other members of the Planning and Zoning Commission and others present at the meeting. *I have not had the opportunity to speak with all members of the P&Z, but even with that, I have not had a single conversation corroborating this claim.
3. The P&Z and the City Council voted to deny the re-zoning request as it was not in line with the ordinance language.

In regards to my own signs, I have removed one of the signs while I investigate the nature of the accusation even though, in conversation with the Sheriff there was no issue cited.


**For the record, I would like to clarify that the Council has no enforcement jurisdiction of City ordinance. The City Council is a policy making body and responds to concerns brought by City and community residents that impact them by adjusting policy or directing residents and/or the Sheriff in a manner that will best lead to a resolution for the betterment of the community. There is a lot in that statement that should be unpacked and I will try to do so briefly:

1. The Sheriff enforces City ordinance. The Council can direct the Sheriff to areas where we believe there is a violation, but we do not have the mechanism in place to issue administrative tickets or penalties. In situations where a resident refuses to heed City requests to come into compliance with ordinance, the situation is then turned over to the County Court system, who prosecutes the case.

2. The betterment of the community is determined by the community. We have a long list of ordinances that were created and have been updated several times throughout the life of the City. If the ordinances no longer serve for the betterment of the residents of the City, it is the responsibility of the Council to respond to that. This is another reason why it is so crucial that we have as many residents take part in the Community Visioning/Comprehensive Planning Process as that will be the major tool used to re-do City ordinance over the next few years.

Moving on...

Following the public comment period there was a conversation at the Council level regarding if there should be some guidelines put into the Public Forum to prevent the slandering of Council members and impacting the public record. Having the Council meetings recorded was done in the good faith of the Council that it would provide greater transparency to the public about what is happening in their local government and the risk that was stated was that unverifiable allegations could distort the public record concerning the facts of an issue.

This was taken up for several minutes by the Council, but in the end it was decided that the Council will encourage all City Commissions and committees to record all of their meetings for the express purpose of being able to respond to allegations of wrongdoing and/or to respond to questions regarding the meeting content. In addition, the Council felt that it was important to allow the Public Forum to continue unfettered with the Mayor and Council working to assist the commenter in finding resolution to their comment.


Following that discussion we moved on to the Consent Agenda, which contained the usual three items (paying of bills, approval of meeting agenda, and approval of previous meeting minutes) and two additional items: a permit for Visit Cook County's Moose Mosey on October 22nd and a permit for a block party on 7th Ave W. There was no conversation opposing any of these items, so the Consent Agenda passed unanimously.

Following that we moved on to the sole item on the agenda, which was an amendment to our agreement for energy purchasing with the Southern Minnesota Municipal Power Agency, which is a group of 18 MN cities that pool their resources together to get purchasing and providing power for electric utilities. We are a part of SMMPA and have a contract with them that extends out to 2050. Other cities have decided not to continue with SMMPA and thus an amendment to the original agency agreement needed to be passed to create a category for those municipalities that chose not to renew their membership in SMMPA. This changes nothing in OUR agreement with SMMPA, but creates the language necessary to categorize those non-renewing cities and to structure payments differently for them since they will be benefiting from SMMPA projects during the remainder of their membership, but won't be members throughout the remainder of the debt service on the projects.
For example: Let's say that City A didn't renew their membership with SMMPA, but Grand Marais did. So, Grand Marais is part of SMMPA through 2050 and City A is only a member until 2030. SMMPA builds a bunch of renewable energy in 2018 and has a bond to pay off, that will come due in 2038... well City A has benefited from that project while it was a member, but isn't going to be paying its part for the next 8 years, even though the infrastructure is still there and being paid for.

This amendment is basically to make sure that City A pays their part. It won't impact Grand Marais' electricity prices or relationship with SMMPA; it actually protects us a great deal.

That was the bulk of the work that we had on the agenda. Here are the Council Reports that we had:

Councilor Mills met with the Northwoods Food Project who are hoping to have a Community Garden up at the Community Center by 2019.
He also met with the Broadband Commission who asked if the City had additional plans for the Office Outpost area, perhaps to ask for more time using the space. He reported that usage has been steady, but numbers are low probably because it is the first year.

Councilor Kennedy attended the Pro-Walk/Bike/Place Conference with Jan Sivertson and brought back some great ideas for how we can expand walking/biking/placemaking in our community. Some of his examples from the City of Vancouver will be useful in showing us some ways that we can incorporate healthy living into our planning process to encourage residents to be more active.
He, and all of the rest of the Councilors, attended the Affordable Housing Workshop that was put on by the MN Housing Finance Agency last week as well. It was very useful to have almost all of the housing agency heads in one place where they could hear our concerns, challenges, and plans and gain a larger appreciation for the work that we have been doing.

Councilor Benson asked what the update was with the Comprehensive Planning Process, which I addressed in my update.

I explained that the Steering Committee for the Community Visioning process has met two times and has already started the work of the engagement process by vetting the engagement plan, proofing and revising the community survey, giving advice and gathering information that will be on the planning website (http://www.grandmaraisvisioning.org/), and will be having a meeting in October with the Community Design Group to actually get out in the community and gather some information! So, things are starting to pick up speed! Hurray for that!

I met, with several other local representatives, with the Lt. Governor, Tina Smith, to discuss some of the projects that we are working on in and around Grand Marais. We showed her some of the Great Place Race projects, including the Table Tennis table outside of the library, and spoke to her about housing, job creation, and our boat launch project. She was a very good listener and I hope comes back to visit us again.

I attended a Superior Hiking Trail Association meeting where they commented that they are going to be completing the construction of the trail this year and thus shifting toward maintenance and improving the trail. This could include improving the connection to Grand Marais, which should be considered when the Sawtooth Bluffs project is started to be formulated. Councilor Mills added that the school should be a part of that process as well, to which I agreed.

There was a non-traditional lender's meeting at Higher Ed this week and I was surprised to see how many programs there are in our area for people with business ideas to find gap financing and/or other resources for their startup business. If you are looking for information on this, let me know and I will try to direct you as best I can!

A group of people in town have been asking me if it would be possible to install a disc golf course in and around the Municipal Golf Course. They cited numerous studies that show that disc golf improves the round numbers of existing golf courses and is very good for exposure. The group will be putting together a proposal for the Park Board.

The National Wildlife Federation is encouraging people in our area to plant milkweed and other plants that encourage Monarch Butterflies. If you would like free seeds and more information, please visit their website.

This past week there were two League of MN Cities Policy Group meetings, one for the Improving Local Economies and on for Improving Fiscal Futures. The Fiscal Futures meeting was full of policy suggestions to promote the effective and efficient running of government, most of which isn't applicable to us because of our size, but very interesting none-the-less.
The Improving Local Economies conversation was more interesting because there was a resolution to be voted on that suggested a revision to the Local Government Aid distributions in the state that would put rural MN cities at a disadvantage. This was discussed at length, but no action was taken, so I will keep you in the loop on that.

Finally, the Library Board met last night and was pleased to report that there have been at least 3 applicants for the Assistant Director position and that the Library has been switching out a number of its computers and technology to make sure that we are offering quality equipment to our guests and employees.

That is all for this meeting. Please let me know if you have any questions.