Tower City Council — Monday, August 27
TUESDAY, AUGUST 28, 2018 — Town of Breitung Supervisor Greg “Dusty” Dostert appeared before the Tower City Council on Monday, August 27 seeking its support in creating a multi-community recreation board to supplement local youth sports programing. No local community has, in its own right, enough young citizens required to form teams and, more importantly, enough funding to fully sponsor community recreation departments. Dostert believes that collectively the local communities could support sports activities for local young people and hopes to promote a communities-wide meeting to measure the interst in comming together to develop a non-governmental board, like the Tower-Soudan-Lake Vermilion Events Board which currently manages Tower’s 4th of July celebration and other area public events. “I’m a firm believer in building ball fields, not prisons,” Dostert said. Although no formal motion of support was made the Tower City Council responded favorably to the proposal and it is expected that Dostert will contact other potentially interested people and organize an initial meeting in the near future.
Although requests for bids were sent to seven different contractors, City Clerk-Treasurer Linda Keith reported that the city only received one bid for work at the city’s municipal airport. Low Impact Excavating, Ely, MN, bid $33,500 for the scope of work including repairs and additional directional signage at the airport. The city council was perplexed at the lack of bidding for the work but recognized that contractors already have full agendas during the early autumn. During lengthy discussion the council determined that it would accept the bid from Low Impact, first asking its engineering firm, Short Elliot Hendrickson to review and approve the company’s proposal as a condition for its acceptance. A motion to accomplish this was approved by unanimous vote.
City sidewalks came under the scrutiny of the city council. Many sidewalks throughout the town have settled creating tripping hazards and others are eroding into gravel and sand. Areas of particular concern for the city council include North Spruce Street, the block west of the Tower-Soudan Elementary School and Scenic Rivers Clinic and alongside the bank, in front of U’betcha Antiques in the 600 block of Main Street. The council also considered that some corners near the clinic on North Spruce Street should be replaced with Americans with Disabilities Act compliant access.
Many ideas to alleviate safety concerns were considered, including removing a street-side section of Main Street sidewalks and planting grass along the curbside creating a parkway effect for the street. Because Main Street sidewalks are considerably wider that Minnesota Department of Transportation standards the idea to plant grass was considered but concerns arose in regards to the maintenance of the grass strips. Some Main Street property owners are quick to clean the sidewalks following snowfall, however others do nothing allowing winter weather to make sidewalks impassible.
The city council reviewed the budget dollars available for the project and learned that $20,000 was available to spend in 2018 on streets and $8,400 is available for sidewalks. Understanding that the sidewalks have long been neglected by past city councils, and the pressing safety concern, the city council determined that it would ask its maintenance department to create a list of the most egregious sidewalk issues and instruct the city clerk to to solicit bids for their repair and to bring the bids before the city council for action at a future meeting.
Como Oil and Propane, Tower submitted the lowest bid to the city from propane gas delivery. Como bid $1.09 9/10 per gallon of fuel, adding a standard $8.81 delivery and recovery charge on each delivery. North Country Propane and Edwards Oil, Virginia, bid $1.28 and Lakes Gas Company, Cook bid $1.13 9/10. Following a discussion considering the number of average number of deliveries it receives each year, the city council was unanimous in its acceptance of Como’s low bid, noting that its price would likely save the city about one cent per gallon. Como Oil and propane offers the same price it offers the city to all city employees. The city was firm that it would only allow statutory employees, and not include its vendors, in a list of qualified employees it would present to Como as those qualified to take advantage of the offer.
In other action, the Tower City Council:
• Approved changing the new city sign location to the east of the Highway 135 and Highway 169 junction
• Approved sending all North Third Street residents a letter asking that cars not be parked in the two paed diving lanes, and rather, they park alongside the roadway
• Determined that it would again look at selling its excess snowmobile trailer this winter and, until then, place it in storage
• Approved the transfer of an airport hangar lease from Arden Niemi to Timohy Harty
• The City Council unanimously approved a map establishing a formal utility easement at Hoodoo Point Campground. The easement is required by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency the city’s engineer Jason Chop told the council
• Set a deadline to receive a signed Tower Vision 2025 development agreement.