Facebook broadcast of city council meetings comes into focus
A chunk of agenda time at the Monday, May 15 Mountain Lake City Council meeting keyed in on improvements for the new Mountain Lake Commercial Park.
First, the council approved the petition to the city, and ordering of a preliminary engineering report by the Mountain Lake Economic Development Authority (EDA) for improvements abutting Mountain Lake Road from 7th Street to 300 feet to the west, proposed 7th Street between Mountain Lake Road and proposed Cottonwood Road and proposed Cottonwood Road between 3rd Avenue (Cottonwood County State Aid Highway #27) and proposed 7th Street.
These improvements in municipal infrastructure include streets, curb and gutter and utilities (sanitary sewer, storm sewer and water), along with site grading and improvements.
The proposed street improvements include the elimination of the westerly 1,000-feet of Mountain Lake Road and vacating of the existing right-of-way, with a new roadway alignment created to re-create the connection with 3rd Avenue (County 27).
The proposed development is for a commercial/industrial park. Therefore, the new roadways will be designed as a “truck route.” Third Avenue and 7th Street are curently existing truck routes, completing the truck route loop through the commercial park.
Andy Kehren of Bolton and Menk, the city engineer, presented the above preliminary engineering report.
After its presentation, the report was reviewed and discussed. Included in the discussion was the cost of the project, cost per acre and cost per lot.
Following the review and council discussion, members called for a public hearing on the improvements.
Trial run for Facebook broadcast of a city council meeting
By council consensus, it was agreed to broadcast a city council meeting via Facebook, and continue if there is sufficient public interest. City staff will create a Facebook page for this purpose. The meeting to be broadcast will be determined at a future council meeting.
In other business
+ Discussed moving the bulk of the Mountain Lake Area Chamber of Commerce Director responsibilities to the new EDA assistant. This move would allow the current Chamber and EDA Director Rob Anderson to focus more time to market the Mountain Lake Commecial Park. The City of Mountain Lake is unique in that few, if any, cities have combined Chamber and EDA departments. To date, this pairing has worked well. Anderson’s role is split 25% Chamber responsibility and 75% EDA duties. Also discussed were the duties of Anderson, as well as retiring EDA assistant Marva Ott. Additionally touched on were suggestions on staffing the department and dividing the work load. No action was taken. There have been two applications for the EDA assistant post that opens on July 1 when Ott ends her time in the position. The application date had been May 11. Anderson and Mountain Lake City Administrator/Clerk Wendy Meyer agreed to continue accepting applications until a suitable candidate is found.
+ Approved allowing a concrete plant to be located on a site in southwestern Mountain Lake that is zoned general commercial, but abuts against the north side of the railroad tracks. There are no homes close to the proposed location. A contractor hired to provide concrete for the Minnesota State Highway #60 project work between Mountain Lake and Windom had made the request to locate their plant on the site.
+ Agreed to NOT ACCEPT the revision to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFFSCME) concerning language in the section, “Temporary Performance of Electric Department Duties,” that was overlooked during the mediation. The section revision that was earlier adopted by the council was not acceptable to the local union, and they had proposed the the alternate language council members now rejected. Also discussed were current utility wages and the city’s ability to hire employees.
+ Reviewed and discussed a hand-out distributed listing the non-union employee wages of neighboring communities or those of approximately the same population as Mountain Lake. The council will review the information individually and in more depth prior to the next council meeting.
+ Learned that language addressing the needs of the Mountain Lake Police Department and Economic Development still needs to added to the proposal document for city attorney. Once these items are added, Administrator Meyer will send the document to the League of Minnesota Cities for their review and comment.
+ Learned that the Mountain Lake Ambulance Squad had recently purchased a Panasonic Tough Book to replace the paper run sheets for one of its fleet of two ambulances.
+ Agreed to reduce the width of application of dust control to 13 feet on 1st Avenue North from Cottonwood County Road #1 to 7th Street, and to dust control Castle Drive to a width of 13 feet.
+ Accepted a gift of $15,000 from the Mountain Lake Fire Relief Association.
+ Accepted the resignation of Patrick Oja, utilities lineman, and thanked Oja for his years of service.
+ Rescinded the appointment of Vince Voelker to the Lake Commission.
+ Appointed Jason Honkomp to the Lake Commission.
+ Approved the application for a Cottonwood County Aquatic Invasive Species Grant.
+ Heard from Mountain Lake Public School (MLPS) School Board Chair Chad Pedersen on he status of the building project.
+ Tentatively set the Capital Improvement Plan Planning Session for Tuesday, June 13, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
+ Reviewed amendtments to the Rural Service District Ordinance. The council agreed to hold the required public hearing on Monday, July 17.
+ The next Mountain Lake City Council meeting will be on Monday, June 5, at 7 p.m., at Mountain Lake City Hall.
Board of Appeal and Equalization
The Board of Appeal and Equalization was held Thursday, May 4, with Cottonwood County Assessor Gail Bondhus and Assessors Karla Ambrose and Allen Coners attending.
Bondhus explained that the 2017 residential assessments for taxes payable in 2018 are based on residential sales occuring between October 1, 2015 and September 30, 2016. Residential and commercial/industrial values were stable.
Definitions of “refused entry/no response” and “open sale” were addressed. “Refused entry/no response” values cannot be appealed.
The city’s current market value is over $68,000,000, with several small categories of specialized values still needed to be added.
Two Mountain Lake residents addressed the Board of Review:
- Scott Nesmoe, with property at 2504 3rd Avenue, questioned the increased value of the property. The property had been inspected in the last year and improvements were found. The property includes a machine shed. According to the county assessor, the value of machine sheds across the county were raised 15%-20%.
- Chad Klassen, with property at 510 6th Avenue, discussed the history of the valuation of the property. Values of homes over $100,000 were discussed.
The Assessor’s Office requested market value correction for two properties:
- The “no response” penalty of $1,000 should be removed for James and Carol Flaming with property at 323 10th Street.
- The property of Brendan Knapper at 1424 6th Avenue is undergoing significant renovation. The value should be reduced $39,800.
Council members approved removing the “no response” pentalty from the Flaming property, adjusting the value from $14,800 to $13,800 and also reduced the value of Knapper’s property from $62,400 to $22,600. They made no adjustments to the Nesmoe and Klassen properties. In closing, the council accepted the remainder of the assessments as presented.
2017 meeting schedule
Council meetings will be held on the traditional first and third Mondays of the month – with the exception of:
- The second meeting in June has been rescheduled to Thursday, June 22 due to the annual Pow Wow celebration.
- Both July meetings were rescheduled to the Fourth of July on Tuesday, July 4. The first meeting of the month will be Monday, July 10 and the second, July 24.
- The first meeting in September has been shifted to Tuesday, September 5 due to the observance of Labor Day on Monday, September 4.
- New dates have been scheduled for both meetings in December due to local school holiday events. The first meeting of the month will be on Tuesday, December 5 and the second on Tuesday, December 19.
- Meeting start times are 7 p.m.
City of Mountain Lake Meeting Dates
+ Mountain Lake City Council meets the first and third Mondays of every month at 7 p.m.
+ Utilities Commission meets the second and fourth Thursdays of every month at 7 a.m.
+ Economic Development Authority (EDA) meets the second Friday of every month at 12 noon.
+ Lake Commission meets the second Monday of every month at 6:30 p.m.
+ Library Board meets the second Wednesday of every month at 4:45 p.m.
+ Police Commission meets the second Thursday of every month at 7 p.m.
+ Planning and Zoning meets the last Monday of the month, if needed.
+ Tree Commission meets quarterly – January, April, July and October – at 7:45 p.m.
