City hires Steve Altenburg as Ambulance Director

NOVEMBER 28, 2016 — Tower Mayor Josh Carlson opened tonight’s city council meeting by expressing the council’s sympathies to City Clerk–Treasurer Linda Keith and her family. Keith’s family was bereaved by the death of her husband Scott on Saturday, November 19. “Scott was a member of our EMS services and will be missed. On behalf of the entire City of Tower, Linda, I sincerely would like to express our deepest condolences,” Carlson said.

Turning to an item of old business which has been on the city’s agenda for several months, Mayor Carlson reported that he recently met with all of the Tower Ambulance Service personnel to learn about the direction they believed the service should head in the future. “There is an overwhelming amount of support for Steven Altenburg to serve as Ambulance director,” Carlson said. Offering an apology because of the length of time it has taken the city to decide on a candidate for the ambulance director position Carlson said that it was a big and very important job. “I also apologize for the oversight that we overlooked offering a raise to the prior director,” Carlson said.

Noting that the number of ambulance calls has nearly doubled over the past five years, Mayor Carlson moved to have the city appoint Altenburg as the new Ambulance Director at a monthly salary of $1,800. The director would not be responsible for set office hours. The increased pay and office hours were conditions which Altenburg insisted upon when he originally interviewed for the position this past summer. The city was originally unwilling to meet these conditions and instead decided to re-post the job and advertise for additional applicants. No additional applications were received and with the December 1 resignation from Matt Tuchel the Mayor said that he did not want to have the position vacant.

Alderman Joan Broten reminded the city council that it previously hoped to make the pay raise incremental, over time. “Do we want to make a counter offer?” Broten asked.

Mayor Carlson objected. “In three days we will be absent a director. The city has known about the vacancy since March or April. The committee has had until the last meeting to resolve this. It took an eleventh hour plea from me to come to an agreement with Steve,” Carlson said. Alderman Broten said that she did not believe that blame should be placed on the committee, however Carlson maintained that it was the committee’s responsibility to negotiate with the candidate.

“I spoke with Matt Tuchel,” Alderman Lance Dougherty said. He said that this new rate of pay is warranted for the position.

Mayor Carlson moved to hire Altenburg and Alderman William Hiltunen provided support for the mayor’s motion. The Tower City Council was unanimous in its support of the hire and it is expected that Altenburg will assume the position of Tower Ambulance Director on December 1. The council was in total agreement that, “Steve will do a good job and move us forward.”

The city council finally canvassed the ballots from the November 8 general and city election. The official accounting of votes in the city election reflects Brooke Jankowski (Anderson) receiving 185 votes; Kevin Fitton receiving 116 votes; Jeff Hill receiving 80 votes; and write-in votes for Sheldon Majerle, one vote; and Brad Matich, one vote.

Minnesota Statutes require that:

Between the third and tenth days after an election, the governing body of a city conducting any election including a special municipal election, or the governing body of a town conducting the general election in November shall act as the canvassing board, canvass the returns, and declare the results of the election.

The city council did not give any explanation why it did not canvass the ballots at its November 14 regular meeting and meet its statutory requirements to do so “between the third and tenth days after an election.”

Josh Gillson, Lake Vermilion Resort Association, Greg “Dusty” Dostert, Breitung Town Board Supervisor and Rusell Habermann, Arrowhead Regional Development Commission, appeared before the council providing an interesting presentation on the proposed Lake Vermilion Trail. It is their hope that a trail will connect Tower, Cook and the entire southern shore of Lake Vermilion. The multi-million dollar project is expected to take 20 years to be completed, however the group hopes to start connecting Cook, by trail, to the lake next year. Tower is slated to be connected to the “Y” Store area on the second phase of the project.

Habermann told the council that he hopes it will consider entering into a joint-powers agreement with the City of Cook, and other area townships and the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa. He proposed an annual membership fee, to be a part of the joint-powers trail board, of one dollar, per capita. Based upon the 2o10 census data that has Tower’s population at 500, the city would be responsible for a $500 annual payment.

Gillson said that the trail committee appeared before the Cook City Council earlier in November and that council approved joining the joint-powers board, pending approval of the agreement by its attorney. The city council was in favor of the project and approved the proposed joint-powers agreement, providing, like Cook, Minnesota, the opportunity to have the agreement reviewed by the city’s attorney, Andy Peterson, before it was formally adopted.

“I believe it would be a great asset to the communities,” Alderman Broten said as she moved to enter into the agreement. Alderman Hiltunen provided support for the motion which was immediately passed with unanimous vote.

In other action, the city council:

• Acknowledged correspondence from Adventure Seaplanes, LLC, a Blaine, Minnesota company. Adventure Seaplanes is considering purchasing Irene and Bud VanDeusen’s commercial airplane hangar at the Tower Airport as an additional location where the company can offer scenic float plane rides. It is also expected that jewelry sales might be a part of the business offerings at the hangar, should the city permit this type of business at the airport, according to Clerk–Treasurer Keith

• Nominated Alderman Dougherty to run for a position on the Range Association of Municipalities and Schools board of directors

• Received and discussed a revised proposed 2017 city budget from Clerk–Treasurer Keith. It is expected that the council will approve a finalized budget at its December meeting

• Approved applying for an Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation grant to make Tower’s commercial district and harbor area more attractive to visitors coming to the area. Mayor Carlson said that $15,000 was already available to serve as a part of the city’s matching funds. These funds, acquired from the lease of land for the cellular phone towers on the north hill, are earmarked for this type of community development project.