TOWER— Any adult resident here interested in public service can apply through July 1 for a possible appointment to the city council. The council agreed at their regular monthly meeting on Monday to post the council vacancy created by the recent death of council member Sheldon Majerle, who recently lost a short battle with cancer.
The council agreed to advertise the position for the next two weeks and will consider any applications ahead of their regular July meeting. Anyone appointed to the seat would serve until the fall general election and would have the opportunity to run for election at that time.
The council also considered changes in committee assignments to fill the positions previously held by Majerle. Tom Suihkonen will replace Majerle on the Tower-Breitung Wastewater Board, but the council opted to wait to fill Majerle’s position on the airport commission, the lodging tax board, and the Gunderson Trust board, until a replacement is appointed.
The council vacancy was the most substantive item in a brief council agenda that took just 28 minutes to complete.
The council did set a special meeting, however, for next week to discuss and possibly approve new contracts with employees covered by labor agreements with the AFSCME union. That includes the deputy clerk and the two full-time city maintenance staff members. In addition, the union and the city have been in negotiations for months on the framework for a first-ever labor contract for the city’s ambulance director, who filed for union protection last year.
Clerk-Treasurer Michael Schultz said the negotiators for all sides have reached tentative agreements, but that they will need to come before the council before final approval. “We could possibly have a closed session to discuss it,” Schultz told the council. State law does allow for closed sessions of public bodies for labor negotiations.
The special meeting is set for Monday, June 20, at 5:30 p.m. at Tower City Hall.
In other business, Schultz informed the council that bids for work on the new harbor area trailhead and Main Street road extension to the East Two River were set to be opened on Thursday, June 16, and will likely be discussed at a city projects meeting that same afternoon.
In other action, the council:
• Gave the final reading to modifications in the city’s zoning ordinance related to garage construction. The change would allow property owners who own a residence to build a garage or storage building on an adjacent lot that they also own as long as they replat the two lots as a single lot.
• Decided against selling the city’s former police vehicle given that city officials are making occasional use of the vehicle.
• Approved license renewals for city businesses engaged in the sale of liquor and/or cigarettes.
• Approved issuing a request for bids for improvements related to the proposed Renner RV park, located off Marina Dr. Renner is utilizing funding from the Department of Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation and those funds will come through the city, which leaves it in charge of the bid process and project oversight.
• Was informed by Schultz that the city’s emergency frontline workers have been notified of the availability of frontline worker bonus pay through the state.
• Reviewed a report from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency showing that the city’s water supply is narrowly back within limits for trihalomethanes, with an annual average of 73.2 micrograms per liter, below the safe limit of 80.4 micrograms/l.