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!