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Minutes of Grand Forks City Council/Committee of the Whole
Monday, September 24 2007 - 5:30 p.m.___________________

The City Council met as the Committee of the Whole on Monday, September 24, 2007 at 5:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers in City Hall with Mayor Brown presiding. Present Council Members Brooks, McNamara, Glassheim, Gershman, Christensen, Bakken, Kreun - 7.

Mayor Brown commented on events during the past week and upcoming events:

This is Homecoming week at the University of North Dakota and good luck to the organizers and the football team, and welcome back to alumni returning to town.
There was an event on Saturday with the Students Today and Leaders Forever group that resulted in over 50 students from upper great plains helping out residents in the Near Northside Neighborhood, and thanks to them and also to Council Member Glassheim and neighborhood members and those from the office of urban development for their work in making this project a success.
Thanks to Senator Conrad and Governor Hoeven for helping dedicate the new ND Air Branch on Saturday, this is a critically important role for our Homeland Security and a role that Grand Forks and our region can play.
Last week had chance to welcome and commemorate Canad Inns grand opening, and congratulations Leo Ledohowski and to the whole crew.
Thanks to everyone who attended the Public Works open house and thanks to the crew at Public Works.
Another open house this week and encourage people to attend, a special needs open house at the DeMers fire station this Wednesday, September 26, from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. This event is specifically for individuals with special needs, and will include several demonstrations.
This past Saturday had the opportunity to welcome the Center of Excellence in Women's Health Connection at the UND Memorial Building, over 300 people from infants to women age 80 choosing healthy life styles, congratulations to them and the organizers and participants.

PRESENTATION BY NORTHLANDS RESCUE MISSION

Dave Senna, Northlands Rescue Mission,, made a brief presentation to the council and community, several Board members were present: LeRoy Sondrol, Shelter for Homeless president; Linda Holman, chair of Mission Board; and John Rogers, member. He stated his presentation will be about community support of the Mission over the last 10 years and his presentation showed areas of the facility that have had improvements, some of which have been done by Community Development Block Grant. He also noted they have support from many groups and volunteers. He stated that State numbers are going up and want to make sure that nobody in Grand Forks and in our region has to live on the street, and thanked the City and Urban Development and general public that have made this possible. He also stated they serve 21 county area, 10 in Minnesota and 12 in North Dakota, and have gone to the different counties, Grand Forks County helps with service agreement of $20,000 year to help Mission and Marshal County donated $500 last year as well and is a continual process; and trying to engage churches from all of that area as well as people who donate from those areas privately and is an on-going effort with City and County governments from those areas.

Council Member Gershman stated that the City has given some assistance and how they have turned that so well and how changed the whole face of Northlands Mission, and thanked them for using our resources so well in leveraging them with the private sector, and was impressed with what they are doing.

2.1 Request from Plains Art Museum, Fargo, ND for gaming site authorization at Canad Inns, 1000 S. Columbia Road.___________________________________
Council Member Gershman stated that several months ago received call about this
issue from Fargo where they were concerned about how it would play up here, that contacts were made through Convention & Visitors Bureau and other organizations in town and they were not interested in making the investment because it is significant ($75,000 to $90,000), that Canad could not find a local organization to do this and that Plains Art Museum is interested in working with a local organization here. It was noted that Plain Arts and Canad waited until they found a local organization to participate. Council Member Kreun stated that one of the partners is going to be the UND Athletic Assn., that Plains Art Museum will hold license but work in conjunction with UND. Tim O'Keefe, UND, stated they are partnering as Fighting Sioux Club with Plains Art Museum and a percentage of the proceeds will go directly to the scholarship fund associated with that.

2.2 Matter of Memorandum of Understanding with property owner at 2424 Olson Drive and disposal of excess property adj. to 2424 Olson Dr.________________
There were no comments.

2.3 Bids for Project Nos. 6151 and 6180, Dist. Nos. 457 and 297, sanitary sewer on 1400 and 1500 blocks of N. 42nd St., 4200 and 4400 blocks of 16th Ave.N. and 1500 block of 16th Ave.N. Circle, and watermain on 1500 block of 16th Ave.N. Circle______
There were no comments.

2.4 Plans and specifications for Project No. 6192, Dist. No. 298, watermain on 2500-2600 blocks of N. 43rd St. and 4200 block of 26th Ave.N.____________________________
There were no comments.

2.5 Proposal award - Public Safety in-car video system, police department.
There were no comments.

2.6 Collateral for New Jobs Training Grant Loan for Cirrus Design.
There were no comments.

2.7 Central Parking Ramp painting.
Council Member Bakken stated he was in favor of painting and was informed that we have a lighting problem that they thought was solved and would like staff to see why have 13-14 lights out in the ramp. Mr. Hoover will look at that.

There were some questions as to whether beams for structural purposes and ceilings would be painted, and if included in the bid; Mr. Hoover stated that they are included and would be done. Signs would be cleaned and/or repainted.

2.8 2008 Special Events Program.
There were no comments.

2.9 Request from Michael Coleman for preliminary approval of an ordinance to amend the zoning map to rezone and exclude from B-2 (Shopping Center) District and to include within the B-3 (General Business) District, the front 100 ft. of Lot 9 and the front 100 ft. of Lot 10, Block 1, less 17 sq.ft. for street right-of-way, Cox's Addn. (loc. at 1835 S. Washington St.) ____________________________________________
There were no comments.

2.10 Appointment to Grand Forks Regional Airport Authority Board.
There were no comments.

MAYOR AND COUNCIL MEMBER COMMENTS

1) Council Member Brooks stated that the meeting last night with UND Student Senate was a good meeting and that Pete Haga has already started following up on some of the items and that if continue those meeting has positive impact on relations between UND and City and students and citizens.

He directed item to Mr. Duquette that for the next committee of the whole meeting would like an item for discussion of council structure, have gone from council in formal committee permanent setup into committee of the whole and city council meeting, then branched off to standby committees in case needed them and did away with task forces, then got into work sessions and now looking at standby committees as standing committees but didn't look at how to direct items to those committees, and discuss whether we need all these or drop some off.

He then directed item to Don Shields in Public Health, that since smoking ordinance was passed by the City and that we went farther in ordinance than the State but held up because of the border and situation with East Grand Forks, and that the group leading non-smoking was interested in their goal being to go completely smoke-free. He stated he has had questions about whether some action to be taken or not - and to let people know if something coming forward.

He stated last item has to do with salvage yards, that they are painting the walls and still trying to work with some issues and would like some info. - that conditional use permits have about 3 years left but didn't believe that some conditions were being met, and asked for an update of where they are at, and unless get more cooperation and some action doesn't know that conditional use permit would be extended and that is an issue and would like to stay on top of it

2) Council Member McNamara thanked Mr. Haga for his efforts last Tuesday night as they did the Just Say Hi in the University Park area, great event - fun and interesting time to get feed-back from both students and residents that live in that area.

3) Council Member Glassheim stated he would be interested in knowing before the vote on item 2.2 what the cost to the City would be for the things that it would have to do, also min. bid or lowest bid, and that apparently no one else can use that property and is there any point for anybody else bidding it. Mr. Grasser will bring that information.

4) Council Member Christensen stated he would like to begin review of how we assess property in the city of Grand Forks, that Mr. Carsen will present a report at the committee of the whole, but that he would like to refer that to the Finance/Development Standby Comm. so they can get report, review and oversight as to how they are assessing property, esp. how did it in the past where had 10 or 20 different segments as opposed to one evaluation. The next Finance meeting is scheduled for next Wednesday after next week's city council meeting.

Mayor Brown stated that this valuation is item of interest to all citizens and would like to see it at committee of the whole or can tape it for broadcast on Channel 2 so people know how the system works, can either work with Public Information or have presentation in council chambers..

5) Council Member Christensen submitted another item for the Finance Comm. is the beginning of a review of the capital improvement items they have scheduled in the Mayor's 2008 budget, for review from staff as to source and application of funds to pay for those projects. He stated he is making this recommendation and request as Service/Safety Comm. moved forward last Tuesday to study the 48th project, not approval of construction but study of whether or not 48th should be constructed.

6) Council Member Christensen stated another item for the Finance Comm. agenda would be review by Mr. Grasser of the source and application of funds necessary to fund the construction of that improvement (48th project) and also source and application of funds required to buy the land adjacent to 48th and the projected selling of bonds so they have understanding as to what will have left in Fund 2163 should they embark on the process of buying land adj. to 48th.

7) Council Member Gershman reported he had received an e-mail today from a student at UND as a result of their meeting yesterday about tailgating, that he contacted Sharon Cummins at the Alerus about it, and she contacted the student and making a personal phone call to the person affected by disability to get tailgating; and appreciates quickness of the response by the Alerus Center and that the students did feel that they were able to contact council members, and contact with students very beneficial.

8) Howard Swanson, city attorney, reported that copies of Supplement No. 17 to the City Code had been sent to council members, that if they find any errors or matters incomplete or if pages not in proper order to let him know and will try to correct them. He stated that if they do not want to keep their printed Code up to date to turn them back to him as the Code is available on-line and is more up to date than printed copies will be, will continue to have supplements printed.

ADJOURN

It was moved by Council Member Bakken and seconded by Council Member Kreun that we adjourn. Carried 7 votes affirmative.

Respectfully submitted,



Candi Stjern
Acting City Auditor