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Thursday, September 02, 2010
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| | Email this article • Print this article | North Branch spending tops agenda
BY DENISE MARTIN
Financial concerns facing the City of North Branch laid over a purchase of two big ticket items at the council meeting Monday night. There will be a special meeting tonight (July 30) about 6:30 p.m. for the full council to revisit the issue. Mayor Amy Oehlers was absent Monday and Acting Mayor Larry Erickson said this purchase should be acted on by the full council.
Council is being asked to okay a trade-in of the road grader for a new unit, and to buy a new extrication device for fire and rescue. Total is $170,000. The city usually uses "equipment certificates" through an area bank to finance these kinds of purchases.
Theresa Furman said the grader's working fine, "to me it's a want" she added, not a need. She did support the extrication equipment upgrade.
Kathy Blomquist, though, pointed out that trade-in value declines as machines age and repair costs increase. Blomquist argued the new grader will provide services to residents on one-third of North Branch's roads which are gravel. "I look at this as what city residents expect from their government."
Erickson noted that any motion looked like it would be a 2-2 vote, and so the special session was scheduled so there'd be five to vote.
For the year 2010 the North Branch Firemen's Relief Association requires an increased city contribution, to $74,602.
Chad Van Dyke, fire relief association secretary, said the shortfall is required to be covered. He added it's basically due to recent retirements of five firefighters whose payouts depleted the account and due to poor returns on investments. Van Dyke stressed this is mandatory action, and the sum would be put on taxes if the city council did not approve this. Council okayed the action 4-0.
Fire Chief John McFarling told the city council that North Branch, at $3,200 for its retirement-per-year-of-service payout, still is one of the least-costly departments.
According to the state auditor's office, of 221 fire departments in comparably-sized population areas, North Branch's budget ranked 220. The department costs North Branch residents $15.52 per capita (for 2007) McFarling said.
Jennifer Stanley of Dance Dynamics came to the council to see if the city would add parking spaces on the edge of Central Park, for her growing business and for the tae kwon do center in the building (by the grain elevators).
Council unanimously voted no. Council member Holmes told her the city just doesn't have any money to do any improvements.
She was advised to meet with the city planner to see if parking spots could be added into a grassy area, at the building owner's expense. She said she'd talk to the landlord and the staff and see if that's an option.
There's also a public gravel surfaced parking area near the intersection (by lighted civic sign); but the city engineer said North Branch isn't putting any money into this because when the intersection gets updated, part of this land will be needed for enlarging or adding turn lanes, etc.
Council voted 3-1 to proceed working with bond advisors on selling bonds for improvements being done in the Tax Increment Financing housing district in the ESSBY redevelopment area. Furman was the no vote, saying she doesn't support TIF for housing.
Council voted 4-0 authorizing moving forward on bonding for the lease-revenue debt for ESSBY, which will cover remaining owed on the industrial-related improvements.
Ehlers and Associates will have a representative at the August 10 council meeting with bond bids.
Council also gave City Administrator Bridgitte Konrad the okay to get fee information from professional labor negotiators. The city council wants to hire a person to act as lead negotiator in upcoming bargaining and will get an idea how much this costs through the information.
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