City agrees to host new State Park celebration
TUESDAY, MAY 29, 2018 — “Fantastic,” Mayor Josh Carlson said as the Tower City Council learned, at its regular Tuesday evening meeting, that the Tower-Soudan & Lake Vermilion Events Board was planning its own celebration in Tower to coincide with the Lake Vermilion -Soudan Underground Mine State Park campground ribbon cutting ceremony slated for June 7. The Events Board was seeking permission from the city to close off Poplar Street, between Main Street and South Second Street on June 7 to create an area for to promote the activities of local organizations, area businesses, food vendors and an out-of-town radio station. The Events Board will be supplying campers at the state park, underground mine tour participants, and other state park visitors with $5.00 gift certificates good for purchases at local participating businesses. In addition to the gift-certificate promotion, the Events Board has announced that Zup’s Grocery will be offering pizza and Coca-Cola products to its customers. Most importantly, the Tower-Soudan 4th of July will have its traditional booth up selling raffle tickets and American Flags and will be accepting donations towards the 2018 celebration.
The city council gave its unanimous approval to closing the street starting at 9:30 in the morning, Thursday June 7.
A lengthy discussion was conducted by the city council on blight matters involving Dave Durrant and Vicki Hall, who between themselves own three Tower residential properties. According to City Clerk-Treasurer Linda Keith, the last time she issued a blight complaint against Durrant he asked her to simply call him and any issue could easily be remedied. Keith reported that she called Durrant last September to request some clean-up at his properties, however the request was never acted upon and on April 20 of this year issued a written complaint. It too has gone unheeded, Keith said. The city council reviewed a a letter from Durrant in which he asked the city for additional time to clean up the mess citing a medical need for the extension. The council decided that it would allow Durrant and Hall to submit a plan to clean up all of the garbage and junk on their three Tower properties by the end of this week as long as the plan is scheduled to be completed by June 21. Unanimously the city council approved a motion by the Mayor to offer the time extension along with the caveat that a daily fine of 95 dollars will be set against the properties after June 21. In talking about the North Second Street properties, Mayor Carlson seemed to speak for the entire council when he said, “The neighbors in that block have been living in an absolute slum for quite some time.” It was obvious that the city council expects action on the matter and is ready to add the sting of a daily cash fine.
In other action, the Tower City Council:
• Approved publication of Environmental Assessment Worksheet comments on the proposed Dave Rose East Two River Campground in the Minnesota Environmental Quality Board Monitor as was reviewed by the Tower Planning Commission last week
• Approved a request to apply for Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board demolition funds to be utilized on the Lake Vermilion Cultural Center and unanimously approved a resolution to make the council’s request known
• Canceled its contract with Lanyk Electric and enter into an agreement with Amtek to complete the installation of a grinder pump and wiring to the seven new Hoodoo Point Campsites
• Learned about his candidacy for St. Louis County Commissioner from Bernie Mettler
• Acknowledged the receipt of a thank you letter from Kathy Lovgren, Tower-Soudan Civic Club secretary. The note of appreciation to the City of Tower was “for your continued support in our activities”
• Approved the sale of Golden Horizons to Tower WC LLC, owned by Matthew Ward and Peter Corniea.