CALL TO ORDER

Mayor Brad Foss called to order a regular meeting of the City of St. Croix Falls Common Council on Monday, September 11, 2006 at 7:04 p.m. Roll call: Councilpersons Darrell Anderson, Jon Cermin, Lori Erickson and Arnie Carlson were present. Also present: Administrator Ed Emerson, Clerk Bonita Leggitt, Police Chief Paul Lindholm, Police Sergeant Jack Rydeen, Head Librarian Sarah Adams, the public and the press. All Present joined in the salute to the flag.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Darrell Anderson moved to approve the Minutes of the August 28, 2006 Regular Council Meeting with correction to adjournment motion, second by Lori Erickson, voice vote, motion passed.

REPORTS OF PUBLIC OFFICIALS

Mayor Foss: the Wisconsin State Historical Society will be considering the application for inclusion of the Auditorium Theatre to the list of Historic Places on October 13, 2006. The Joint Planning Board met last week to discuss annexation, will meet again on Sept 15^th at 10am at the NPS Headquarters. There will be a Public Forum on Oct 14^th at 10am at the Festival Theatre.

Darrell Anderson: St Croix Tavern and Crystal Tavern were to contact neighbors and provide maps showing area to be closed off, as of this afternoon neighboring business has not been contacted. Administrator Emerson will contact the Tavern owners, permit may be revoked if terms are not met.

Police Chief Paul Lindholm presented the August 2006 Police Report.

The August 2006 Fire Dept Report was presented for Council’s information.

APPROVAL OF CLAIMS

General $54,122.15, Library $818.54, Water $6,220.99, Sewer $5,447.42, Park & Rec $9,900.00

Jon Cermin moved to approve claims, second by Darrell Anderson, roll call vote, 4 ayes, motion passed.

NEW BUSINESS

Resignation of Police Chief Paul Lindholm

Darrell Anderson and Polk Co Sheriff Tim Moore presented Police Chief Paul Lindholm with a plaque in appreciation of his 17 years of service to the City of St Croix Falls as Police Chief.

Consider a Resolution Appointing Jack Rydeen as Acting Police Chief

Jon Cermin moved to adopt Resolution #06-29, Appointing Sgt Jack Rydeen as Acting Police Chief, second by Lori Erickson, voice vote, motion passed.

Consider a Blight Grant Application for Purchase of Holiday Bldg, SEH, Library Consultants

The Library has hired SEH for project design for a new library; one option being investigated is the re-use of the old Holiday Foods grocery store.

Tori Hugo and Dave Carlson of SEH: we recommend applying for a Public Facilities Grant for re-use of a blighted building. The first step is to present plan to the Dept of Commerce, if Commerce agrees that building qualifies for a grant we can then prepare a pre-application for submission to Commerce. Any application would be presented to the Council for review before submission to Commerce. It is an approximately 45 day process for Commerce to review the pre-application and give us an indication of if, and how much, funding we would qualify for. The cost for preparation of the pre-application is $3,000, if the pre-application is approved then a final application would need to be prepared for an additional cost of $3,000. The Library has committed to using Act150 Funds to cover the costs of the application. If grant is awarded there would be a time requirement for start and completion of project. Grants awards can be as high as $750,000 and cover up to 1/3 of project costs, consequently if we wanted to utilize a Grant of $650,000 we would be looking at a $1,950,000 project. The grant would be specific to the site, if a different site were ultimately chosen would have to reapply for grant. If grant award is less than applied for can go back and negotiate with Commerce on size of project.

Jon Cermin moved to adopt Resolution #06-30, Authorizing Submission of a Pre-Application Contact with Dept of Commerce to determine if the old Holiday Foods Building is Eligible for a Grant and utilizing Act150 Funds to cover submission costs, second by Lori Erickson, voice vote, Darrell Anderson voted nay, motion passed.

Consider Revolving Loan Fund to Dam Bistro Bldg, Downtown

Jeff Halverson is the new owner of the Dam Bistro and he has applied for a RLF Loan. The RLF Committee recommends that $15,000 be loaned to him for 10 years at 4% interest.

Jon Cermin moved to adopt Resolution #06-31, Approving a RLF Loan for the Dam Bistro, second by Darrell Anderson, roll call vote, 4 ayes, motion passed.

Consider Approval of Conditional Use Permit, Sprint/Nextel Antenna

The Plan Commission held a Public Hearing and recommended approval of a CUP for Sprint/Nextel to place additional antennas on the upper Pine St water tower.

Steve Carlson, representative for Sprint/Nextel: proposal is to add one panel antenna to the top of the water tower and two panel antennas to the stem of the water tower to support the technology of the newly merged Sprint and Nextel Companies, we have agreed to an increase in rent to $18,000.

Jon Cermin moved to approve Resolution #06-32, Approving a CUP for Sprint/Nextel, second by Arnie Carlson, voice vote, motion passed.

Consider Design Character Statement Contract, City Code Update

Purpose of Design Character Statement is to spell out what is and is not acceptable an acceptable building design in St Croix Falls, it would be in a format that could be given to developers. Contract covers creation of Statement and for professional review that would be conducted before any proposed plans were submitted to the Plan Commission, fees would be passed on to the developer as part of their Site Plan Review Fee.

Jon Cermin: it is up to the Plan Commission to review site plans and design issues, we could take photos of what we want do and don’t like and create a picture book to explain our preferences, this proposal empowers someone from outside our community to decide what we want. When something comes up that we need help with we could hire an architect on an as need basis.

Darrell Anderson: why do we need others to tell us what we like, we need to do the job we were elected for, not hire others to do it for us.

Consider Adopting the 2030 Challenge for new Building Construction

The US Conference of Mayors has issued a challenge for new building construction to meet certain guidelines to reduce fossil fuel consumption and global warming pollution in graduated percentages with total carbon-neutral construction by 2030. Council noted that while it is a nice concept, that absolute compliance by 2030 was not realistic, and that perhaps we should wait and see how the contemplated eco-village works out and then see how this fits.

Consider a Resolution Adopting National Management Incident System

The National Management Incident System (NIMS) is a Federal Plan to provide a template for various organizations to work together in an effective manner during emergency incidents, and all agencies are required to adopt NIMS to receive Federal preparedness assistance.

Jon Cermin moved to adopt Resolution #06-33, Adopting the National Incident Management System, NIMS, second by Lori Erickson, voice vote, motion passed.

ADJOURNMENT

Jon Cermin moved to adjourn, second by Arnie Carlson, voice vote, motion passed. 9:25 pm.

Brad Foss, Mayor Bonita Leggitt, City Clerk