Also in attendance were Dan Marthaler, Rich Romness and City Clerk Joe Heinen.

Minutes of the May 14th regular meeting were reviewed and adopted following a motion be Thelen, s/Heidgerken, and passed on a 4-0 vote.

Old Business

Local Building Official Dan Marthaler appeared before the council to discuss the status of the Anderson Concrete Homes progress on two current structures, after builder Dave Anderson had been asked by the Building Codes Division to provide certain details to that agency. Marthaler stated that since a May 8th meeting at the building site, Anderson has not yet complied with the stipulations sought. He also indicated to the council that the previous engineer retained by Anderson has walked off the job site because of the state's involvement. Marthaler was asked if the city could restrict future building permits for Anderson and he responded by saying that he doubted that could be imposed, however, he would check with state officials. When the impact of the 60 day rule was discussed whereby any land use applicant would automatically be granted their request when a government unit does not act, the clerk replied that Anderson has not yet filed the new building permit application has thus the 60 day timeframe has not yet started. No action was taken since no permits were on file to be acted upon.

The members studied the written comments from the H&H Contracting firm, after they had returned a $1,000 check to the city, for their work on the water tower, after the council had reduced their original charges of $1,390. Although their foreman claimed he had closed the tower trap door, the council took no action and no reply to H&H was directed back at this time.

Information surrounding the treatment pond was limited to an MPCA request to the city for microfiche documents of the 1995 pond construction, which was then forwarded on to

Pete Carlson of SEH Engineering. This request was first talked about in April of this year when MPCA visited the pond site and informed the city that for some reason, that agency had never received the building plans, as required, revealed Clerk Heinen. He stated that he had written to Carlson, who had since phoned back that SEH was preparing the plans in question for return to MPCA.

The council also heard from the clerk that Shreffler Contracting had completed the crack filling project on the city streets, at a cost less than budgeted. Heinen reported that the total cost was $1,070 and a statement for payment was included in tonight's list of claims.

New Business

A cover letter from U.S. Cable, seeking approval of change in financial holdings of the principal partners in the holding company through passage of a local resolution, was introduced to members for consideration. After debating the issue briefly, a motion was made by Thelen, s/Heidgerken, to table the matter until such time as a representative of U.S. Cable can respond to local TV equipment needs. On a voice vote, the motion carried by a 4-0 majority.

Greg Boelter appeared at 8:35 P.M.

Public Hearing

At this time, following due mailed and published notice, a public hearing was convened for the purpose of determining the pending assessments for improvements of sewer and water to be installed along a new planned street with the Industrial Park. Staff provided a copy of the notice sent to a sole property owner, Quality Trailer Products, along with an affidavit of mailing. City Engineer Rich Romness presented a worksheet that illustrated the potential assessments for some 4 lots or the first phase of the park as well as the sole parcel of Quality Trailer Products that amounted to $41,420. In all, the total project costs were estimated to be $344,012 or $15,360 per acre. With no one appearing to speak for or against the project, Humbert moved to close the hearing, s/Boelter. By a voice vote, the motion carried with 5 ayes and no nays.

With Romness on hand, the council then inquired of him whether the proposed resolutions to be acted upon next were consistent with the Bolton & Menk sequence of events related to this project and that of the planned improvement of bituminous along a segment of 7th St. SE and whether a bid opening for both areas should be conducted on July 8th. After hearing that his firm was in agreement with the staff time frames, these

Resolutions were introduced for adoption:

  • No. 2002-12 "RESOLUTION ORDERING IMPROVEMENT AND PREPARATION OF PLANS-FREEPORT INDUSTRIAL PARK PHASE ONE"
  • No. 2002-13 "RESOLUTION ORDERING IMPROVEMENT AND PREPARATION OF PLANS-7TH STREET SE"
  • No. 2002-14 "RESOLUTION APPROVING PLANS AND SPECIFICATIONS AND ORDERING ADVERTISEMENT FOR BIDS-FREEPORT INDUSTRIAL PARK PHASE ONE"
  • No. 2002-15 "RESOLUTION APPROVING PLANS AND SPECIFICATIONS AND ORDERING ADVERTISEMENT FOR BIDS-7TH STREET SE BITUMINOUS INSTALLATION"

Heidgerken moved to adopt said documents, s/Thelen, and by unanimous vote, the motion was approved.

The clerk presented a summary of the activity of outstanding utility bills, after an earlier letter sent to several customers had produced the desired results, except in two cases. No receipts from Charles Lemke since March and the lack of payments from James Meyer were cited as the only delinquencies with no payment made in the last 90 days. No action on the Lemke case was initiated at this time and the clerk was instructed to write to Meyer stating that the city has no further responsibility in seeking damages from a sub-contractor for a $300 claim submitted last year by Meyer, after a 2000 year project that resulted in damages to a front-end fork owned by him.

A request for compiling financial data on all city public facilities improvements from 1997-2001 was illustrated in a cover letter from the Minnesota Chapter of Public Works Directors and the state engineering association. Romness stated that he would assist the city in compiling this data if he had access to recent audit reports and the clerk indicated he would make this available to him.

A list of current payables, amounting to $12,413.78, was presented for review and action.

After studying the list, Heidgerken moved to approve the payment of all claims, s/Humbert, and by a vote of 5-0, the motion passed.

The hiring of a summer recreation director, Becky Primus, was placed on the agenda for council ratification. The clerk suggested that an hourly rate of $9.00 be paid for this seasonal position and this prompted Heidgerken to move for her hiring, s/Boelter, at the suggested rate. With no dissent, the motion was approved.

Correspondence

These items of communication were sent to the members earlier, with no action required:

  • Memo to Roman Meyer regarding curb/gutter replacement cost
  • Noxious weed control memo to Joel Dasher from Stearns County
  • Stearns County Sheriff's Department May activity report
  • Stearns County revised Tax Abatement Policy
  • EDA Board minutes of 5/22/02
  • Status report on Judy Hoppe property nuisance violation
  • Notice of zoning hearing scheduled for 6/26/02

With no further business to come before the council, the meeting was declared adjourned at 9:50 P.M. by unanimous consent.