Alice Pickering
Wyoming Area Reporter

Among business items Wyoming City Council addressed Jan. 3 was a resolution authorizing the city to request proposals for professional and other services. Routinely cities review services and receive bids on the same.

Council will do this at one time. Services to be reviewed include: auditing, building inspection, cleaning, engineering, financial advisor, legal, towing and web services.

Liaison appointments for 2005 were approved by resolution from a list. Besides serving as mayor, Sheldon Anderson has liaison duties as library commissioner, police/fire liaison, sewer commissioner (alternate), EDA and watershed district representative.

CM Allen Juneau has responsibilities as EDA member, sewer board and litigation/union/personnel liaison.

The positions for public works and parks have been combined. CM Tom LaBarre will serve as liaison for these two groups and the EDA.

CM Ted Phillips duties include; acting mayor, library commissioner, sewer commissioner, planning commission liaison, Rush Line liaison and litigation/union/personnel liaison (alternate).

Police reserve

Council unanimously passed a resolution creating the Wyoming Police Reserve program. Police Chief Tony Pangal said Wyoming will be the first community in Chisago County to establish such a program.

He identified reservists as being available to assist officers at events/situations where crowd control is necessary, vacation checks, and providing transports.

Washington County has a 10-week training program for reservists. Although an unbudgeted item for 2005, Pangal believes dollars designated for snowmobile patrol this winter can be shifted for this program. Volunteers assume the cost of providing their own uniforms.

Pangal will develop applications for the positions.

Council passed a resolution adopting bylaws of the fire relief association. While the entire document was presented, most changes were to put language in agreement with required state statutes. Fire Chief Dennis Berry pointed where there were changes. Most have to do with the term of service. One change is from years of service to years and months of service and specifies compensation for retiring.

Teetzel reported the council approved language changes to all of the management team contracts. Wage changes were approved at the last council meeting in 2004 for the public works supervisor and city administrator. Both have signed original contracts, but because of budgetary constraints, neither signed the addendum with the salary increases. Pangal signed his contract with language changes.

Paperwork related to the federal EDA grant of $1,500,000 awarded to the city has been returned to the regional office in Chicago.

The city has temporarily contracted with Matt McGinn for web services because of the loss of the webmaster for the city site. Teetzel recommended authorizing a contract with McGinn to update the site and keep it current until the city reviews bids for this service.

Engineer Lee Elfering reported 10 bids for the joint wastewater pipeline, with the lowest being from S.R. Weidema.

Council approved a partial pay request for Frattalone Companies for cul-de-sac grading on CR-84 in the amount of $27,575.40, with $1,451.34 retainage. Also approved was a partial pay estimate for paving of the same area by Bauerly Bros. The payment is $7,730.86.

Attorney Tom Miller reported continuing work with the development project with Polaris Industries. Work is also continuing on the purchase agreement and development transaction with Riverbank, for an area north of Viking Blvd., just west of Sunrise Prairie Trail. Elfering is working with the state to secure rights to access the former Top Hat Video and adjacent property for testing.

Asked later about how he sees the council's approach to governance, Anderson says he wants to stay in touch with residents. This is one reason for the decision to hold meetings in the community center, a much larger space.

Commenting about the Stars and Strikes situation, the new council would have considerd a negotiated payment plan for the business. A draft payment plan had been proposed, but only in general terms, with no details proposed and not finalized.

Another concern was that developers should have had the proposal to the city staff to look at before the meeting.

Anderson said he was cautious about offering discounts and give-a-ways to businesses, because he believes those are decisions which have short-changed the city in terms of revenue. He said the Stars and Strikes development should have had a park dedication fee of $50,000, but were only making a $10,000 donation to parks. He said this is one of the reasons the city is short of cash.

Other business

In other business, council:

ïEstablished a policy of closing the council agenda on Wednesdays to allow staff the time to research and prepare resolutions.

ïLearned Wyoming Township has made a $20,000 donation for the East Central Branch Library.

ïLearned unpaid utility bills have been turned over to Chisago County for collection with the 2005 property taxes.

ïLearned Beth Neeck has resigned as park board chair for personal reasons. Jennifer Hegstad will serve as chair.

ïLearned the planning commission meeting has been cancelled for Jan.

ïLearned that because of the change in council meeting days, the regularly scheduled EDA meeting must be changed.

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