Freeport City Council Regular Meeting Minutes - Wednesday, September 11, 2002

Staff on hand included Joel Dasher, Rich Romness and Joe Heinen.

The minutes of the August 14, 2002, regular meeting were presented for review and adopted following a motion by Humbert, s/Boelter, and all voting aye.

Committee/Staff Reports

Documents related to the Industrial Park, both easements and land purchase agreements were addressed with the introduction of several items from Attorney Scott Dymoke. Those communications included:

• a copy of a letter to the Stearns County Recorder that dedicated some 3.35 acres of land from Peter and Marilyn Heidgerken to the city
• a draft of the purchase agreement that would allow the Middendorf Bros. Partnership to sell 3.38 acres or Lot 1, Block 1 to the EDA
• a signed copy of a purchase agreement made by Freeport Properties, agreeing to purchase said 3.38 acres from the EDA
• another letter to the Recorder, requesting that certain easements with Franklin Sign Co. be recorded

In addition, a response from Attorney Scott Johnson, representing Freeport Properties LLC, dated 8/27/02, apologized to the city clerk for his oversight in failing to acknowledge that the city had replied to his inquiry about the length and terms of placing special assessments on their property tax rolls. In summary, no action was taken on any of these matters since they were deemed informational only.

Public Works Supervisor Joel Dasher appeared before the council to speak about the 8/28/02 letter from Sherry Bock of the Brainerd MPCA office that required a response from the city within 30 days as to why certain measures should be taken to prevent effluent violations at the pond. He stated that he would prepare a draft and spell out the city's prevention plans in order to comply with the reply deadline.

Dasher also spoke of the recent riding lawn mower repairs and because of the need to replace a gear box, expenses would exceed $700. He stated that he and the clerk have prepared the quotation forms and notice to submit a quote for various vendors to submit so that replacement mower proposals would be reviewed on 9/25/02, in order to consider a new unit at that time. Before ending his remarks, he asked that the council seek snow removal contractors to introduce their bids on an hourly rate for the current winter season. The mayor received a consensus from other council members to merely have the clerk re-negotiate a 2002-03 contract with Kemper's Trucking, if the hourly rate does not exceed a 5% capped increase.

Members requested that Dasher provide a current copy of his hourly schedule for the most recent month and he then passed out a copy of his August work summary which revealed that 163.02 hours were worked this past month while a flat 173.33 hours were paid, the standard city policy. The worksheet also indicated that some 64 of a total 72 hours for personal time had been paid to him this year, in accordance with the city's current policy. Members were also reminded that on October 5^th, his first year anniversary occurs and performance reviews would be made a part of an October agenda for rating and wage adjustment consideration.

Discussion on the Industrial Park resumed in the presence of Romness and he indicated that he had received a lot of negative feedback on "Uhlenkotts Drive" as the pending street name. As a result, members agreed that they too, had conversations with Phil Osendorf and others who also were concerned that this name would be confusing for many suppliers and delivery firms. With that, the mayor conceded to the wishes of the group by agreeing to utilize the name of "Industrial Drive" as the primary road within Plat 1. This action was accomplished when Thelen moved to rename said street, s/Boelter, and all voting aye. Romness then spoke of the pending Plat 2 and his recent conversations with Sam Deleo of SEH and the need to set aside a designated pond to the north I94 right-of-way area to contain the northern 2/3 of the Bestes' 15 acre tract. He stated that he had spoken to the Bestes' about completing soil borings on their intended site and he indicated that Freeport Properties would need to complete borings on their Lot 1, Block 1, since he felt their conditions were suspect. In a final issue with DeLeo on the new Plat 2, Romness stated that he had informed DeLeo to contain the entire cul-de-sac at the end of Industrial Drive all within the Bestes' 15 acre site.

Old business

An August 31^st letter from H & H Contracting, the firm engaged in providing maintenance to the city's water tower, had reduced its billing for charges from the original $1,390 to a flat $1,200, but had not provided the information requested by the clerk after this unpaid bill was discussed at a July meeting. After some debate on the city's potential liability, as well as the firm engaged, a motion was made by Boelter, s/Humbert, to accept the offer from H & H and pay the amount of $1,200 for services performed. On a voice vote, Boelter and Humbert voted aye, Atkinson and Thelen voted nay and the motion failed on a 2-2 tally.

Other issues relating to both utility services and development agreements within the Industrial Park were advanced when the clerk introduced copies of written letters to John Beste and Phil Osendorf, directing them to complete the enclosed Reliant Energy service hookup request forms. The clerk also announced that power source at the park was still not resolved; with Xcel Energy still calculating whether 3 phase power can be provided without impacting other customers within the city. They had hinted that if they could not provide the necessary services, they would cede the territory over to Stearns Rural Electric.

A written cover letter from Traci Ryan of David Drown Associates dated 8/30/02 outlined the pending TIF assistance from the city in their proposed site improvements with the park and the detailed development agreements were summarized by her for both Freeport Properties and Freeport Roller Mills. The clerk announced that since these letters had been sent to both developers as well, a mutual consensus with the Bestes' had since moved the construction start date back to October 1, 2002, and a completion date to August 1, 2003. Ryan also pointed out the need to amend the city's current Business Subsidy Criteria and for that reason, she requested that the council set a public hearing for September 25^th to consider certain changes in conjunction with a TIF District amendment hearing also scheduled for the same evening. As a result, Boelter moved to adopt Resolution No. 2002-25, a "RESOLUTION CALLING FOR PUBLIC HEARING ON THE PROPOSED MODIFICATION OF BUSINESS SUBSIDY CRITERIA". Humbert seconded the motion and by unanimous vote, the motion passed with all voting aye.

Heinen spoke of his follow-up with the firms impacted by the potential land use zoning district amendments, both in the Industrial Park and the adjacent Quality Trailer Products.

After hearing that all businesses conduct some sort of accessory retail sales, he laid out several suggestions to City Attorney William Meyer that might zone part of the land I1 and some C2, rather than the current A or agricultural designation it now is assigned due to the directives within the city code. He stated he would confer again with Meyer and stated that a public hearing notice and ordinance draft would be before the council by 9/25/02 with the hearing and amending land use ordinance ready for council action in conjunction with their 10/8/02 meeting agenda.

New Business

The council spent the next 40 minutes going over a proposed budget for the year that had been prepared by the clerk, with the need to set forth a preliminary tax levy resolution at tonight's session, in order to meet a September 16^th deadline for providing same to the county auditor. It was also pointed out that although the city is not required to conduct a Truth in Taxation hearing due to the decrease in population that drops the city census below 500, the mayor and others felt it would be appropriate to hold a budget and levy hearing since this practice is now expected within the community. While reviewing the line items within the budget, Bud Heidgerken appeared and took part in the discussions at 9:55 P.M.

Of the over $800,000 in revenues and expenses anticipated for next year, the council set forth these tax levy figures to make up a part of the revenues:

With these monies established, Heidgerken moved to adopt Resolution No. 2002-26, s/Boelter, to approve the above 2003 Tax Levies for the purposes indicated and conduct a Truth in Taxation hearing on 12/03/02 and 7:30 P.M., with a hearing continuation set for 12/10/02 at 7:30 P.M. By a vote of 5-0, the motion passed and the clerk was instructed to forward a copy of this resolution to the county auditor.

As part of their annual requirements, the LMCIT sought to have the council take formal action in providing monetary limits on any tort liability claims against the city. After studying the option form provided, Humbert moved to have the city waive the monetary limits on tort liability, thereby allowing any claimant to recover up to $1,000,000 in damages on a single occurrence. This limit would apply to all claimants filing under the same occurrence and would then limit the city's exposure unless it purchased excess liability coverage. On a call for action, the motion passed unanimously.

Claims amounting to $3,639.47 were introduced via a claims summary worksheet, for council action. In addition, the clerk submitted a late request on behalf of the Fire Department, seeking payment of $294.00 for fire chief convention fees. Thelen moved to approve all claims, s/Heidgerken, and all voted in the affirmative.

The Stearns County Sheriff's Department August activity worksheet was made available for all to study, which resulted in 11.5 hours of time. No action was required on this matter.

With no further business to come before the council, the meeting was adjourned at 11:05 P.M.