City of Tower looks towards 2017 budget, hears request to increase it by $10,000

NOVEMBER 14, 2016 — Mayor Josh Carlson turned the attention of the Tower City Council towards the 2017 budget at the regular city council meeting with remarks that the city clerk, Linda Keith, is proposing a zero levy budget increase. However Marshall Helmberger and Nancy Larson are hoping to increase the city budget for their projects.

“Tower is hot right now—It’s on the map,” Marshall Helmberger said as he asked the Tower City Council to earmark $10,000 in the 2017 city budget to fund the Tower-Soudan Community Development Corporation for economic development of the Main Street. He said that they would like to use those funds for their newly created development organization. Helmberger claimed that there was a lot of interest in Tower and said that he had, this week, received an email from developers who were interested in a major investment, perhaps even purchasing an entire block of  Main Street. According to Helmberger the plan is to hire an executive director by funding the corporation with city money. Then the corporation would be independent from the city, yet work closely with the council. According to Helmberger one of the benefits of such an organization would be its ability to “keep confidentiality” where the city is bound to conduct its business in the open.

Helmberger also informed the city council that Nancy Larson was working on applying for a $15,000 Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board grant, with a November deadline, and that she needed a letter from the city noting its approval of the application. The city council gave its unanimous approval to preparing the necessary letter but took the request for the 2017 $10,000 budget expenditure under advisement.

Mayor Carlson instructed the council to carefully examine the proposed budget and to be prepared to come back to the council table with ideas, suggestions and proposals at the next meeting.

The city council was in agreement on all issues needing action on the agenda. Each motion passed with the unanimous consent of each alderman.

The city council received and noted the reports from the fire department, ambulance service and the Breitung Police Department. When reviewing the Tower Ambulance director’s report Alderman Lance Dougherty said that he was concerned that there have been no new applicants to fill the position of  ambulance supervisor. Earlier this autumn Steve Altenburg had expressed his interest in filling the supervisor position and outlined his vision to lead the ambulance service to be prepared for the future needs of the community. He offered to fill the position provided that the council was on board with his ideas and was prepared to increase the supervisor’s pay. The council did not meet his proposed pay increase and Altenburg declined the city’s counter offer. In discussing the ambulance supervisor vacancy it was noted that the current supervisor, Matt Tuchel, would be finished in two weeks, on December 1. Tuchel reported that he did not anticipate any problems because of the vacancy as the supervisor’s duties would automatically fall to the assistant supervisor.

Tower City Clerk–Treasurer Linda Keith told the city council that the airport commission would like to see the city forego the airplane hangar lease fees currently paid by John Burgess, the city’s airport manager. Keith explained that Burgess performed a large amount of work as manager without any pay and that the airport commission believed that foregoing his lease fee would be a token renumeration. Burgess currently pays $350 each year for his hangar lease according to Clerk Keith. Mayor Carlson instructed the clerk to have the airport commission formalize its request by contacting all the hangar lease holders to solicit their input and to vote on the proposal so that the city council could consider the request. “A recommendation should come from the commission and it should let other hangar owners know that this is being considered,” Carlson said.

The city learned that Short Elliott Hendrickson Inc. (SEH®) engineer Jason Chopp completed the description adjustments to the Tower Harbor Renaissance land being transferred to Tower Vision 2025 LLC. Orlyn Kringstad is also revising his site plan and the city is hosting a public hearing on the proposed project at the Tower Civic Center at 6:00 o’clock in the evening on Thursday, November 17, Clerk Keith said.

The city council gave unanimous approval to presenting its request that St. Louis County allow All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) traffic to use the HooDoo Point Road and Pine Street and Alder Street (north of Main Street) and North 2nd Street, between Pine and Alder streets.

The city council approved entering into a new contract with Randy Pratt, to continue as manager of Hoodoo Point, for a period of five years, ending in December 2021. Pratt will receive $36,000 annually for his managerial services. The new contract reflects an increase from the $34,900 currently paid for management services.

The city council unanimously decided to decline Vermilion Housing Corporation’s offer to sell Tower its undeveloped lands within Tower city limits. The council discussed purchasing the land but concluded that since it was already looking at acquiring tax forfeit lands on Main Street adequate funds for the purchase were not readily available.  “There are developers in the area that are looking at Tower’s potential growth, so it would be easy for Vermilion Housing to find a buyer,” Mayor Carlson said.

SEH engineer Chopp presented the city council with its analysis of the existing Hoodoo Point Campground sewer and water infrastructure, in anticipation of the city considering an expansion of the number of campsites available for rent. Chopp recommended that the city conduct further analysis of the existing sanitary sewer system. Mayor Carlson moved to have the council approve seeking a cost estimate for the project from SEH and his motion was unanimously approved by the city council. Chopp’s initial assessment for the campsite expansion project is in excess of $100,000.

In other action, the council:

• Approved selling city owned acerage on Gundersen Road to Roger Ruliffson for $35,000

• Approved a mutual aid agreement and an intercept agreement between Tower Ambulance Service and the Virginia Fire Department Ambulance for 2017

• Passed resolution 2016-18 supporting the Range Association of Municipalities and Schools call for Minnesota Pollution Control Agency action on wild rice sulfate standards

• Accepted the Walker Giroux & Hahne, LLC proposal to conduct the city audit between December 31, 2016 and June 30, 2017 at a cost that will not exceed $23,000

• Provided the League of Minnesota Cities a liability coverage waiver

• Passed resolutions 2016-16 and 2016-17 authorizing the sale of land to Kevin D. Onstad, John Pgleasa and Wesley E. Clark; and the sale of land to Roger Ruliffson

Listened to a request from Bud VanDeusen to purchase acreage from the city located in the Mud Creek Road area. VanDeusen offered to pay $7,500, plus all additional costs to close, for the land. The city council determined that it would need to have the land appraised and offer the land for sale to the public if it was determined that it was interested in selling. The city council gave its unanimous approval to hire Steve Abrahamson to conduct the appraisal.