Alice Pickering
Wyoming Area Reporter

About 2600 Wyoming voters cast ballots in the November 2004 election. In the special election Feb. 17, 226 of them returned to elect a new city council member to fill the seat held by interim appointee Bob Hittner.

Of those votes, Joe Zerwas received 135, Bob Hittner received 88, and there were three write-in votes. Zerwas did not attend the March 1 council meeting and Administrator Jill Teetzel said he was to be sworn in the afternoon of March 2. Zerwas takes office at the council meeting, March 15.

Stars and Strikes

Stars and Strikes developers may have another chance to get their project started, but they must work with City Administrator Jill Teetzel and Attorney Tom Miller to arrive at some mutually agreed upon terms about payment of the water and sewer connect fees. Council voted 5-0 to table any decision to move forward on the project until the group comes back with a joint proposal.

Nancy Immel, Betsy Rud, and Mike Rud brought three options for financing to the council. They still believe the water and sewer connect charges are too high, considering that the project cannot even hook up to the regional system until October 15, which is the project completion deadline. They offered three alternatives to spread out the cost of the utilities hook-up charges.

Engineer Lee Elfering first reassured developers that they would not likely need to install holding tanks for the Stars and Strikes complex, because by the time the complex is completed, they should be able to hook up to the regional sewer system. He then reviewed how he computed the WAC and SAC fees. Two other engineers computed estimates as well and he did not see their calculations.

He computed his figures of 48.36 "housing units" from the Met Council tables, and then multiplied by the city fees for water connect charges and sewer connect charges, $3000 and $3,500 per unit, respectively.

Elfering said ultimately the council determines the WAC and SAC fees and terms of payment. From his report, "the theory behind the Met Council table is to translate the commercial usage anticipated based on facility type to a residential unit-equivalent so a correction is not necessary."

Addressing their references to the reduced unit charges for Meadows-on-Fairview, Elfering said Met Council has an assisted-living feature for calculating water and sewer charges, where three beds are figured as one SAC unit. This recognizes that cooking and laundry of household volume are not done in each room.

Usually there are two beds to a room, about .67 SAC units per room, even with higher staffing in the facility. He believes that former Administrator Dennis Coryell's calculations, resulting in about .75 units for each of the Ebenezer living units makes sense and is slighter higher than the Met Council estimates.

Elfering does not believe the proposed Stars and Strikes facility will discharge 398,000 gallons a month, but calculations are for peak flow, and he believes that the "sewage discharge rate of 9.2 gpm could be exceeded on a regular basis."

Based on all this information, "my recommendation is to stay with the original figure," said Elfering. These fees would be $145,080 for WAC and $169,260 for SAC. The WAC must be paid before the building permit is issued.

Miller said the contract was signed in Nov. and might have to have an addendum if adjustments are made in financing arrangements to cover the $145,080. He was willing to consider a financing option, but not lowering the fees. Another concern is that any agreement must have a way to protect the city financially if the project is started, but is not completed.

In the existing development agreement, WAC must be paid before construction begins. His concern is security for the city if payment is not made. It also could "open the door, set precedent." Any official record of council action should record the reasons for the decision.

CM Alan Juneau said he would really like Stars and Strikes to come to Wyoming, acknowledging the anticipated jobs and contribution to the community. However he believes the WAC and SAC fees are fair. Comparing the charges as combined packages for each of the four cities provided as examples, "we're not going to budge on those, we're still the lowest of the four cities," he commented.

Phillips commented that this is the third time this has been brought to council, even references to St. Michael, which adjusted fees had to act with council permission.

Mayor Sheldon Anderson said that in Nov. discussion, the council was ready to discuss financing options, to "work out an agreement." He is willing to work on a financing agreement, but not reducing the water access and sewer access charges. He agreed with Teetzel's recommendation of staying with fees determined by Elfering.

The proposals Stars and Strikes have brought forward have been unilaterally determined, hoping that the council would choose among the offers they presented. In favor of case-by-case consideration, Anderson commented, "we're hoping to look at anything (negotiating financing), but staying strong on these fees right now." The position of the council is to "hold the bleed” of lost city revenue, he concluded.

Trailer purchase

Council members passed a resolution authorizing the Wyoming Police Department to purchase a speed trailer. Police Chief Tony Pangal made the request at the Feb. 15 council meeting to help the department deal with a problem of speeding traffic, particularly on Highway 61. The only other speed trailer in the area is owned by Chisago County, but does not have the capacity to do speed studies.

Before the decision CM Tom LaBarre asked if it would be possible to share the purchase of the trailer with another municipality. Phillips disagreed about sharing the unit with another community because then questions arise about who tows the trailer and arrangements for repairs.

Pangal expressed a preference for the city owning the trailer outright, with possible use by other communities on a fee basis. Three bids have been received for the trailer. The lowest bid of $5,700 is for a demonstration unit, which also can provide other statistics. Funds for the purchase are to come from the police supplemental fund, which currently has a balance of about $15,000.

The entire council supported the purchase.

Positions

Council voted 5-0 to re-post the Police Department’s Investigator position. At the last meeting, the position of Police Sergeant was changed to Investigator. Scott Dexter has been employed as a sergeant, but has been spending more duty time on investigations. However, union contract requires that the position be posted for one week. The vote was 5-0 in favor of the motion. Teetzel explained that the position must be posted in accordance with union contracts.

The same action was taken on the management analyst position. Robb Linwood has been working for the city for about six months but, this newly created position must also be posted. Mayor Sheldon Anderson said the city must “follow policy on promotions.” Vote was 5-0.

There was no information about the results of interviews for legal council for the city.

Other business

In other business, the council:

• Learned from Teetzel that the new East Central Branch Library being built in Wyoming will not be completed until January or February 2006. Steel needed for the building is on back-order.

• Learned that County Administrator and each city administrator coordinate library-opening ceremonies.

• Learned that Teetzel will be on vacation from March 10 to March 14.

• Learned that Teetzel will be attending the Clerks’ Conference in St. Cloud shortly after her return from vacation.

• Learned that the city’s website will be up and running on Wednesday.

• Learned that Boonestroo is still completing inspections necessary for the proposed downtown TIF district.

• Learned that Planning is reviewing the city code and the first part under review is the Sign and Fence section.

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