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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

RV park fallout continues to roil city council

Marshall Helmberger
Posted 4/28/16

TOWER— Fallout from a proposed RV park along the East Two River provoked more rancor within the city council here on Monday, this time over an appointment to the city’s planning and zoning …

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RV park fallout continues to roil city council

Posted

TOWER— Fallout from a proposed RV park along the East Two River provoked more rancor within the city council here on Monday, this time over an appointment to the city’s planning and zoning commission.

Tower City Clerk-Treasurer Linda Keith had resigned from the commission earlier this month, after questions were raised about whether her service on the commission might violate the city’s charter. That left it up to Mayor Josh Carlson to bring forward a replacement for Keith for the council to consider. He had asked Victoria Meloche, the new co-owner of Ubetcha Antiques, to serve, and Meloche had agreed.

But that didn’t sit well with councilor Joan Broten, who questioned Meloche’s qualifications and why Carlson hadn’t asked any other potential candidates. Meloche had spoken in favor of a controversial rezoning plan at the previous council meeting, which would have made it possible to build the proposed new RV park. That put her at odds with Mill Point residents, including Broten, who have strongly opposed the rezoning.

Broten noted that three other people, including herself, her brother and former mayor Steve Abrahamson, and Mill Point resident Cathy Gruchowski had expressed interest in filling the planning and zoning vacancy. All three had sent emails to City Hall a couple hours prior to Monday’s meeting, expressing their interest.

Broten argued that Carlson should interview the other interested candidates before the council makes a decision. “I feel you have some good applicants there who should be considered,” she said.

Carlson’s motion to appoint Meloche initially failed 2-2, with Lance Dougherty siding with Broten. Councilor Brad Matich was absent from the meeting. But Broten’s motion to table the decision also failed 2-2, with Councilor Hiltunen joining Broten in favor of tabling. After more, increasingly tense, discussion, Dougherty changed his mind and the council approved Meloche’s appointment on a 3-1 vote.

Matich’s absence factored in on related action as well. The council had expected to approve the second and final reading of its rezoning plan, which adds two residential parcels and one commercial parcel near Mill Point to the harbor zoning district. But because the motion required four-fifths approval, the council lacked the necessary votes given Broten’s expected opposition, and the council opted to table the measure until their May 9 regular meeting.

That forced the city to postpone a public hearing on the conditional use permit application for the proposed RV park, which had been set for May 3. However, without final approval of the rezoning, the CUP application can’t move forward.

In other action, the council:

‰ Approved a $10,000 storefront renovation loan for Randy Semo.

‰ Approved a harbor dock agreement with the Department of Natural Resources for continued free use of two DNR docks at the harbor.

‰ Appointed Steve Abrahamson to the city’s Board of Adjustment.

‰ Approved taking action as early as Thursday to clean up the outside of a blighted residence located at 204 North Third Street. City officials have already served a blight notice on the owner, who had until Wednesday to clean up garbage and other materials from the yard of the residence. But city officials are more concerned about the interior of the house, where polluted, stagnant water has been standing in the basement for months, apparently due to flooding after water pipes froze and burst. The city discontinued water service to the home, but tenants are using the basement water to flush toilets, according to city officials. The property owner has been unable to evict the current tenants, who have changed the locks and are preventing the owner from entering the residence.

‰ Approved the apparent low bid from KGM for an airport apron resurfacing project at the city’s airport. The approval is contingent on final bid tabulation and the availability of funding.