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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Tower Council says no to river parcel purchase

Aloysia Power
Posted 4/29/15

TOWER – After two months of negotiating and tabling the decision to either purchase or trade land for a parcel of East Two River property, the Tower City Council decided to go against acquiring the …

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Tower Council says no to river parcel purchase

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TOWER – After two months of negotiating and tabling the decision to either purchase or trade land for a parcel of East Two River property, the Tower City Council decided to go against acquiring the land at this time, citing lack of urgency and high costs. At their Monday night meeting, Tower Council disregarded Charles Cathcart and Tim Kotzian’s latest offer to exchange their 3.3-acre parcel of land on the East Two River at the corner of Lake Avenue South and Hoodoo Point Road in exchange for either of the city’s two 40-acre parcels in Kugler Township or the city’s 5.7-acre parcel at the old dump abutting the 3.3-acre parcel. The privately-owned river parcel was assessed at either $30,000 or $36,500 contingent on if there is an easement in place for river access.

“At the end of the day, it’d complete the river dump property,” Mayor Josh Carlson said of acquiring the Cathcart-Kotzian property. “But, you’re going to trade 40 acres for three acres, and we’d have a hard time justifying that to the taxpayers.”

If the city acquired the river property, it’d have access to the river from its bordering property at the old dump, and in turn, have the possibility of developing a campground, two housing lots, and trail extension from the new harbor to Hoodoo Point along to the river. But, council members said, that at this point in time, the river parcel isn’t crucial enough to the harbor project’s development in order to justify such a steep trade.

“At some point in time, it’s important to get it,” Carlson continued. “But with all our projects right now, it’s down the list.”

Councilman Lance Dougherty opposed the council’s decision to wave the offer, stating that now might be Tower’s only chance to obtain that parcel of land.

“I don’t want to see someone else get it, and then we never have a chance of getting it,” Dougherty said.

Clerk-Treasurer Linda Keith said that Cathcart and Kotzian were waiting to hear back from the council before publicly listing their property, and will now do so since Tower is not interested at this time.

“He can move on and we can move on,” councilman Bill Hiltunen said.

In other news, at their Monday night meeting, Tower City Council:

• Heard from Greg Knutson of Walker, Giroux and Hanhe Accountants of Virginia on the city’s financial state for 2014. Knutson reported that the city primary government’s financial position increased 5.7 percent, up by $362,000 in 2014. Governmental activities’ position increased by $436,000 because of so many capital grants received. But, business-type activities decreased five percent by $74,000 because revenue from service charges weren’t enough to offset the service expenses.

“We recommend the revenues cover everything including depreciation,” Knutson said. “The days of getting a lot of grant money has passed.”

In particular, Knutson recommended increasing sewer charges. In 2014, it cost the city $114,600 to provide sewer, but the city only charged $73,600.

“We weren’t that short last year,” Keith said. “We were shorter on water.”

• Approved Vermilion Country Charter School’s building permit for an educational greenhouse on the school’s property. The greenhouse will stand about 12 feet high, 20 feet long and 12 feet wide. The school is clearing an area for the greenhouse this week and plans on laying down the gravel and hauling in the lumber to begin building within the next two weeks.

• Gave permission to Tower Fire Department to sell the old brush truck that was damaged in the Tower Ambulance Garage’s Fourth of July fire last summer.

“There’s no reason for us to keep it,” Fire Chief, Steve Altenburg, said about the truck’s damages. Altenburg said Tower Fire would most likely sell the 1980 Chevy to the Embarrass Fire Department who has a mechanic willing to work on it, but will wait to sell the truck until Tower picks up the new brush truck in a couple of weeks. Earlier in April, Tower Council authorized the purchase of a $35,000 brush truck. The new truck is a one-ton 2008 Ford F550 6.4-liter diesel with 77,000 miles from Friends of the Northland Firewire.

• Applied for a $350,000 grant with the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR) for the next phase of the Historic Harbor Renaissance Project, specifically for the installation of a boat landing on the East Two River just across Highway 169 from the harbor, permanent docks in the new harbor, and trails stretching from the harbor to Hoodoo Point.

• Will split the cost of the Tower Lakeview Cemetery online name-search software three ways between the Cemetery Society and the Historical Society, each contributing $250. Tower already gives the cemetery $1,500 per year in levied income, according to Keith. Councilman Lance Dougherty opposed the motion.

• Approved Hoodoo Point Campground’s $2,770 project to install three new power stations for an area meant to host nine RV sites. The money will come out of the city’s Campground Improvement Fund. Campground manager Randy Pratt said that specific area has been under-utilized for years because of the lack of access to electricity.

“We were plugging campers into campers to get power there,” Pratt said about last summer.

Pratt said he’d also eventually like to upgrade the campground to 50-amp service, saying the cost of the entire project would be around $160,000. He said the campground should start now rather than later and asked for $23,00 from the Campground Improvement Fund to start by upgrading two sites.

“If we don’t do anything, we’ll get by,” Pratt said. “But, we do need to put some money out there in small increments. We have new competition now with the campgrounds at Lake Vermilion Park.”

The council decided against granting the unitemized purchase order, but agreed that more electrical work should be done, and asked campground managers Pratt and Julie Kranz to come up with a grand plan.

“We’ve got to pick a starting point and connect all those pieces somehow,” Keith said.

Tower City Council