Single copy $1.00 Vol. 113 No. 3 • Thursday, January 9, 2014 • Silver Lake, MN 55381 Council reorganizes; looks at Marathon Station possibilities By Alyssa Schauer sary liaison: Councilor John- departmental employees so Staff Writer son. that he or she can update the At its first meeting of the • Community development Council as to the workings of year, the Silver Lake City and planning commission liai- the assigned area and report on Council discussed Mayor son: Councilor Eric Nelson. the departments budget Bruce Bebo’s liaison appoint- • Assistant to all liaisons: throughout the year.” ments and other annual ap- Mayor Bebo. Bebo also noted the plan- pointments for 2014. The regular meeting dates ning commission liaison is to The following appointments and times also were set and meet with Gary Kosek, direc- were recommended and ap- regular Council meetings will tor of pool operations and proved by the Council: be the third Monday of every summer recreation, as part of • Official city depositories: month at 6:30 p.m. Meetings the community development First Community Bank of Sil- scheduled on federal holidays portion of liaison duties. ver Lake and Minnesota Mu- will be held Tuesday. Venier also noted that the li- nicipal Money Market Fund. Quarterly meetings were aison acts as a “leader” or • Official newspaper: Silver scheduled for April 7, July 7 “guide” for the planning com- Lake Leader. and Oct. 6. mission. • City attorney: Gavin, Members of the City Coun- “The commission has been Olson & Winters, LTD. cil are appointed to the eco- missing that leader in the past • Acting mayor: Councilor nomic development authority, year. They look to that coun- Nolan Johnson. and the personnel committee cilor liaison for guidance,” Ve- • Deputy weed inspector: consists of Mayor Bebo, Fog- nier said. Dale Kosek. arty and City Clerk Kerry Ve- Bebo commended coun- Silver Lake Leader photo by Alyssa Schauer • Civil defense director and nier. cilors for their past liaison as- It’s not that cold emergency response coordina- Bebo then reviewed the etti- signments and said, “I thought tor: Chris Wawrzyniak. quette for meetings and de- everybody was engaged with On Monday and Tuesday of this week, Tuesday’s weather report shows temper- • City administration liai- scribed the characteristics of their department heads, and I temperatures recorded were historically atures 15 degrees below zero. Several son: Mayor Bebo. each liaison appointment. compliment you all on that.” low, and Gov. Mark Dayton even an- schools throughout the state also were • Public works liaison: He reminded councilors that On a 4-0 vote, the Council nounced for schools to be closed closed on Tuesday, including Glencoe- Councilor Pat Fogarty. liaisons are “not supervisors” approved the liaison assign- statewide. On Monday, the low was Silver Lake. • Public safety liaison: to the department heads, but recorded 25 degrees below zero and Councilor Carol Roquette. are “responsible for working Council • Municipal liquor dispen- with the department heads and Turn to page 2 Information pamphlet County may scale back North Complex to be in next water bills By Alyssa Schauer with the next billing cycle security plan improvement proposals Staff Writer about checking the new By Lori Copler mediately adjacent to the over the building,” Lauer said. The security modifications Silver Lake residents water meters. Staff Writer lobby. “In our break rooms and proposed by Wold had an esti- should expect to see an in- The new meters, Venier The only security modifica- County Recorder Lynn Ette everywhere else.” mated cost of $110,000. formational pamphlet said, are battery operated tion McLeod County may Schrupp said her department is But, Lauer said, he feels that But he did ask that Emer- about the newly installed and can be checked by make at its North Complex one of those. problem can be addressed gency Services Director Kevin water meters in their next shining a light on the sen- might be an emergency exit on “I’m just not comfortable without restructuring the Mathews be asked to provide water bill, according to sors on the meters. the north side. with ‘buzzing’ people building. training to the staff to “review City Clerk Kerry Venier. “The meters show digital At a workshop session Tues- through,” said Schrupp. She “I think it’s a learning the process of what we would Venier updated the Silver symbols that tell home- day morning, the County said someone from the auditor- process rather than building do if there should be someone Lake City Council at its owners if they have a con- Board heard from employees treasurer’s office would likely physical barriers,” said Lauer. in there with a gun.” quarterly meeting Monday stant leak or an intermittent that other proposed security have to do the ‘buzzing’ since Commissioner Sheldon Nies Melvin said the sheriff’s de- evening, and informed the leak. For example, if there measures may be excessive. her department doesn’t have said the County Board asked partment had arranged a series City Council the first is a faucet symbol with A study of the North Com- direct access to the for the study after an incident of trainings regarding security, billing using the new soft- water running from it, that plex by Wold Architects & En- entrance/lobby area. with a customer at the North but they were poorly attended. ware went out that day. represents there is a con- gineers had proposed a secured “My staff is kind of the Complex. Lauer said that most of the “It was a nightmare to stant leak,” Venier said. lobby area to keep the public same way,” said Auditor-Trea- “Our concerns were over an employees from the North convert everything over,” He said the meters record out of the rest of building, un- surer Cindy Schultz. “We incident that happened,” said Complex had attended the first Venier said about switching data over a period of 24 less they are accompanied by don’t want to go into a lock- Nies. session, but were disappointed to the new software. hours to conclude water an employee. down mode.” But, Nies said, if the staff is when the presentation focused “It was more difficult to leaks. County Administrator Pat Veterans Services Officer comfortable with minimal im- more on home security than on do than the salesman let He added that the new Melvin said that the proposed Jim Lauer said that having the provements, so is he. workplace security. on,” he added. meters can give homeown- secure lobby “poses some public wander around the “We don’t want to spend Security He said a two-page ers an “idea of what’s going problems for some depart- building is an issue. money just to feel good that booklet will be distributed on in their houses.” ments” that are not located im- “We’ve got the public all we did something,” said Nies. Turn to page 2 County calls for final plans on possible recycling facility retrofit By Lori Copler Wright said, County Board near Biscay) or SCORE fund- county increased its tip fee to grams. Once the county started and Adult Habilitation and Staff Writer members will visit each city ing from the state, the recy- $3.50 per ton at Spruce Ridge the recycling program, the Training Center (AHTC) of The McLeod County Board council in the county to again cling program has not made a from $1 per ton at the begin- SCORE money went to fund- Winsted providing employees of Commissioners voted Dec. get input, as it did when the profit on its own until 2012, ning of 2013. Homan said that ing the program, which is free at the MRF. 31 to authorize its solid waste issue first came up after Glen- when an increase in recycled the amount of material being for county residents. ***** consulting firm, Burns & Mc- coe opted to contract with materials and improving com- taken to the landfill has de- Homan said that an increase Wright said that the Dec. 31 Donnell, to move forward with Waste Management for single- modity prices provided a profit clined. in tonnage of recycled prod- vote to call for final plans final plans for a possible retro- sort recycling last year. of about $11,000. “We’re uncertain why it’s ucts is expected if the county won’t be the County Board’s fit of its Materials Recycling ***** In 2009, shortly after the dropped, but we are sure that changes to a single-sort pro- final vote on the proposal. Facility (MRF) to accommo- McLeod County Solid economy went into a severe re- it’s not the tip fee,” said gram, which also will help “We’re not making a state- date single-sort recycling. Waste Director Ed Homan re- cession, the solid waste spent Homan. with revenues as there will be ment that the county is going The county currently has a viewed some of the material $627,000 on its recycling pro- Commissioner Kermit Ter- more material to sell to other to one-sort,” said Wright. Get- five-sort program, in which re- that had been presented at a gram and generated $425,149 linden said that one question vendors. ting a final plan will allow the cyclable material is sorted at prior workshop at the Dec. 31 in revenue. The year 2010 saw he is often asked is how much A single-sort program is ex- county to develop a request for the source; namely, residents regular meeting of the County $668,196 in expenditures and levy money goes to supporting pected to bring in at least proposals (RFP) so that the and businesses.