Abby Nadeau
Staff Writer

The Forest Lake City Council has started the process to find a new council member.

On Monday, Feb. 27 City Administrator Chip Robinson and City Attorney Dave Hebert presented the council with their recommendations for the replacement of former council member Dick Tschida.

Mayor Terry Smith was absent from the meeting, therefore council member Rick Ashbach was the acting mayor. Council members Susan Young and Judy Bull were both present.

Tschida resigned on Feb. 15 after the city council decided to reverse their decision against Duffy Development. He stated that ìIn my opinion the actions of this board and administration over the past year and a half caused me great concern.

ìIn particular the obvious disregard and lack of respect for the citizens position on the old District Memorial Hospital site.î

During the meeting Robinson presented four recommendations to the council.

The first move would be to advertise the vacant seat to the public. Then, collect applications and resumes from those who are interested in ìfilling this position until the end of December 2006.î

The council would then conduct interviews and based on the interviews a ìfinal appointmentî would be made by the council.

The council then voted unanimously to accept the recommendations made by Robinson and Hebert.

Applications and resumes will be accepted by the city council through Tuesday, March 21, 2006.

Robinson stated that goal of the council would be to have someone appointed by the April 10 city council meeting.

Other Business

The council was also slated to vote on the Human Rights Commission ordinances, by laws and incident response plan but the topics were moved to a later date.

Council members decided to bring the topics back at the next meeting so specific wording could be worked out.

Jim Heck brought possible problems to the wording of ìhate crimes.î He stated that not all Human Rights issues are actually crimes and that ìincidentsî might be a better term to use.

Mark Fuhr also spoke at the Open Forum about problems with the incoming roundabouts on West Broadway.

ìOn March 13, I will formally present information to you,î Fuhr said. ìI will ask that a motion be made to Washington County that some kind of left hand turn be inserted to the median. I will show how not having a left hand turn will affect my business.î

The council also approved the site plan and conditional use permit for the Washington County North Government Center/Library.

The next city council meeting will be on March 13.

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Forest Lake Times
P.O. Box 218
880 SW 15 St.
Forest Lake, MN 55025
651-464-4601
Fax 651-464-4605