<p> BIWABIK CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MONDAY, APRIL 14, 2014</p><p>The Biwabik City Council met for their Regular Meeting on Monday, April 14, 2014 at 6:00 PM in the Council Chambers.</p><p>Roll call Mayor Weikum, Councilors Jackson, Licari, Ekern, Swearingen Present:</p><p>Absent: </p><p>Others Present: Administrator J. Jacobson, Deputy City Clerk S. Mackey, Administrative Assistant S. Maki, City Engineer Matt Reid, Chief Techar </p><p>Audience: Darlene Jackson, John Plesha, Darren Egan, Dave Setnicker, Mark Sutich, Ed Stebly, Bob Karish, Lee Eklund, Kitty Anderson, Jim Hansen, Chris Ayres </p><p>Moved by Councilor Licari, supported by Councilor Jackson to approve the agenda as presented. Motion carried on a 5 – ayes, 0 – nays, 0 – absent vote. </p><p>Moved by Councilor Jackson, supported by Councilor Licari to approve the consent agenda; A) City Council Minutes –Regular meeting & Reorganizational meeting 3/10/2014 B) Biwabik Public Utilities Commission Minutes – Regular Meetings & Reorganizational meeting 3/13/2014; C) Biwabik Board of Recreation Minutes – Regular Meeting no meeting; D) Planning and Zoning Commission Minutes – Regular Meeting 3/6/2014; E) City of Biwabik & Utility Combined Financial Statement – February 2014; F) Bills and Payroll Approval – 3/7/2014 check numbers 12124 - 12140 & 119792 - 119825, $50,654.21; Bills and Payroll Approval – 3/21/2014 check numbers 12141 - 12169, 119826 - 119884, $147,521.02; G) Monthly Building Inspections Report – March 2014 H) Parks Committee Minutes – Regular Meetings – 3/18/2014; I) Fire Department Meeting Minutes – 3/8/2014. Motion carried on a 5 – ayes, 0 – nays, 0 – absent vote</p><p>Public Hearing- Public Utility Commissioner, Dave Sherek discussed a three year plan for a rate increase of 5% for water and sewer for 2014, 2015, and 2016 due to the extreme winter we had. The Public Utilities have spent near $100,000 this year in fixing broken water lines and frozen sewers.</p><p>Lee Eklund gave a presentation on the history of the City of Biwabik. He went on to discuss how Biwabik was a booming town from early 1900s through right before the close of LTV mine in 2001. Since then Biwabik and surrounding areas have decreased considerably in population and due to that decrease we have had to close the school, and we lost some businesses. His vision is for us all to work together to come up with a way to get people to come to Biwabik we have the natural beauty and the recreation facilities are here.</p><p>Moved by Councilor Swearingen, supported by Councilor Ekern to hold the second reading of the fence ordinance (440.03). Moved by Councilor Swearingen, supported by Councilor Jackson to dispense with the reading of the fence ordinance. Councilor Licari moved for City Engineer to inspect and approve design of fence per permit. Motion carried on a 5 – ayes, 0 – nays, 0 – absent vote. Moved by Councilor Jackson, supported by Councilor Licari to move forward with Resolution 2014-07- in opposition of State Highway 53 and 135 that would provide a lesser level of service than the existing interchange. Motion carried on a 3 – ayes, 2 – nays, 0 – absent vote. Moved by Councilor Ekern to amend language by removing “unsafe and” in last whereas and in Resolved change “plan to development of an intersection of State Trunk Highway 53 and 135 that would provide a lesser level of service than the existing interchange” and amend it to “plan to development of an intersection of State Trunk Highway 53 and 135 that provides an equal level of service current to that currently existing interchange”. Motion carried on a 4 – ayes, 1 – nays, 0 – absent vote.</p><p>Approval of Purchase Agreement – Austin Powder Property off of Highway 135 and Whiskey Road the old blasting site. Administrator Jacobson discussed it being an easy transition with the seller to transfer ownership and it won’t inhibit future mining activities. Purchase of the property cost is $340,000 and that is part of the $1.94 million dollar recourse loan through the IRRRB which will be paid back with revenue from the lease agreement with Laurentian Granite Monument & Stone. They will be leasing a new building that is going to be put up in the Industrial Park. Moved by Councilor Jackson, supported by Councilor Ekern to move ahead with the Purchase Agreement. Dave True from Austin Powder has already signed the Purchase Agreement from their side and we are just waiting on the understanding on covenance of the land going back to 1992 releasing us from it and we also still need to finalize lease agreement with Laurentian Monument Granite & Stone, IRRRB has the agreement right now. Councilor Swearingen is hoping by July that we will see some activity. Motion carried on a 5 – ayes, 0 – nays, 0 – absent vote. </p><p>Moved by Councilor Licari, supported by Councilor Ekern to appoint Loren Adams as our public works director. Motion carried on a 5 – ayes, 0 – nays, 0 – absent vote. </p><p>Adoption of Conflict of Interest Policy – Administrator Jacobson explained that the auditors recommend that we have a conflict of interest policy in place. It mainly says an elected pointed official should not use their position for monetary gain. Councilor Ekern would like to hold over to May meeting to have time to read over Conflict of Interest Policy to get clarification. We need to get one in place before the auditors ask for one again this year.</p><p>Moved by Councilor Ekern, supported by Councilor Jackson to approve the Facilities Use Agreement – Athletic Fields. Field gets used by East Range Soccer Club and we have not charged them in the past. Agreement is for $10,000 for use and maintenance of our field by the East Range Soccer Club. Motion carried on a 5 – ayes, 0 – nays, 0 – absent vote. </p><p>Moved by Councilor Jackson, supported by Councilor Swearingen to approve the permit for excavation by Century Link. Century Link will be laying a fiber optic cable in community. Motion carried on a 5 – ayes, 0 – nays, 0 – absent vote.</p><p>Moved by Councilor Jackson, supported by Councilor Swearingen to approve the proposal to replace automatic doors at grocery store entrance. Motion supported for acceptance proposal from Superior Entrance System. Motion carried on a 5 – ayes, 0 – nays, 0 – absent vote.</p><p>Moved by Councilor Licari, supported by Councilor Ekern to approve the new Fire Department Officers that were just voted in at their last meeting. Motion carried on a 5 – ayes, 0 – nays, 0 – absent vote.</p><p>Budget Revision – monthly Senior Center Contribution- The city of Biwabik contributes $450 a month to the Senior Center to help with building costs. It was recommended a few years ago to at least put gutters up and landscape to help divert water away from the building, to date nothing has been done. The president of the Senior Center, Dave Setniker claims it would take $35,000-40,000 to fix the real problems which is the foundation and the plumbing. They only receive $425 per month from AEOA and $450 a month from the city and cannot afford to fix these kinds of problems. Councilor Jackson recommended the senior center needs to apply for some sort of grant through IRRRB. Setniker agrees they need the funding but until he can put a revenue stream together and a plan to bring people in to make it usable we will only have an empty fixed up building. Councilor Ekern would love to see a presentation on Senior Center; Setniker states they could put one together on how they are hoping to repackage the Senior Center. </p><p>Department Reports:</p><p>Fire Chief Darren Egan reported that there were 21 ambulance calls in March and 4 fire calls. They have 12 members on the fire department and 16-17 EMTs. They also have a new box alarm system so when they get paged out at least two other departments from other neighbor towns will get paged out as well.</p><p>Chief Techar reported on Wednesday he will be doing a site visit for the siren and is waiting on Minnesota Power for grant request. They are going to start working on Blight; Officer Chelsea Trocano is in charge of Blight. They ask that everyone pick up their dog feces there is quite a bit out there its cold now but he thinks people will start calling it in next week as the weather gets warm. Call Sherry at City Hall and leave an address for them you can remain anonymous.</p><p>Public works and City Hall is working on snow removal guidance for next season. Administrator Jacobson and Councilor Ekern met with Loren Adams, the new Public Works Director to go over guidelines, man power, and equipment to help lay out a plan to start forming guidelines to follow to have something formal in place for next season. We received 49 applications for equipment operator. Administrator Jacobson will be getting together soon with Personal Committee to set up some interviews.</p><p>Public Utilities are still dealing with some freeze ups and the 5% increase in water and sewer that Dave Sherek brought up at the Public Hearing.</p><p>Parks committee reports that Honk the moose T-shirts are available at City Hall. On May 3rd Beautify Biwabik is being held from 8:30-11:30 and will meet at the Senior Center.</p><p>Recreation is hiring for summer workers and summer sports registration is going on now. We will need to update the campground host contract in the near future; we also need to look at updating site fees to be compatible with other campgrounds.</p><p>Administrator Jacobson stated he would like to see the Lease for Laurentian Monument Granite & Stone get wrapped up. IRRRB is reviewing the lease and he’s hoping for ground to be broken this summer. East Range cable meeting is coming up so we may get some communications then on the Franchise Agreement. April 22nd is the Board of Appeals meeting from 5:15 – 6:15 and a special meeting is possible either before or after the Board of Appeals meeting.</p><p>City Engineer went out to look at the culverts because of backing up on the South side of town, especially Old Highway 4 the culvert that crosses backs up a lot. The culvert is full of water and the water is the same downstream as it is upstream. Storm water sewer isn’t big enough on 1st street, so that is backing up the storm water. Lowering the culvert or making it bigger isn’t going to fix things because of the water being the same downstream as it is upstream. Matt Reid doesn’t see an easy solution to fix the problem. He will look at culvert again this summer. Councilor Ekern recommends a city wide hydrology study to be done and over the next 2-3 months Councilor Ekern and the City Engineer can work on researching that option.</p><p>Councilor Ekern would like to discuss website and features on the website at next council meeting or two in the future.</p><p>Councilor Licari commented that Lee Eklund did a good job on his presentation and Councilor Swearingen has done a good job getting Mark Sutich of Laurentian Monument Granite & Stone where it is at.</p><p>Councilor Swearingen discussed a recent Giants Ridge meeting he attended last week with the new hotel management of Giants Ridge being in attendance. He thinks the new management is very aware that the hotel has a lot of critics and will be working hard to turn things around. Mayor Weikum stated due to the length of the meeting he will submit a report to the council.</p><p>Regular council meeting adjourned 9:21 P.M. By statute 13B.05 Closed Session shall begin.</p><p>Closed Session began at 9:26 P.M. Closed Session over at 9:54 P.M. Regular meeting in session. </p><p>Moved by Councilor Jackson, supported by Councilor Licari to adjourn the meeting at 9:55 PM. Motion carried on 5 – ayes, 0 – nays, 0 – absent vote. </p><p>Mayor Jim Weikum</p><p>Attest: </p><p>City Administrator, Jeff Jacobson</p>