TOWER — The city council here on Monday grappled with the fallout from the life-altering injury suffered by Tower Ambulance Supervisor Dena Suihkonen at the July 6 community picnic in Soudan.
A dunk tank malfunction prompted Suihkonen to fall backward from considerable height, breaking her back and leaving her paralyzed from the waist down. While she has started rehab at Miller-Dwan in Duluth, Councilor John VanDeVoort, who visited Suihkonen in the hospital, said doctors aren’t optimistic that she’ll be able to walk again on her own.
As ambulance supervisor, Suihkonen had a long list of regular duties, including serving as an EMT as needed. Tower Clerk-Treasurer Michael Schultz said the city needs to map out a way to restructure Suihkonen’s position to focus on the duties she’ll still be able to perform. Mayor Dave Setterberg told the council that city hall had already identified some of the biggest tasks, such as managing payroll and ordering supplies, and were getting help from other ambulance staff to assume some of the duties on an interim basis while Suihkonen remains in Duluth.
Schultz noted that the next ambulance commission meeting is set for next week and he expects commission members will have questions about the situation and plans for the future.
Suihkonen had also been attending meetings with the Virginia ambulance service on the Sprint Medic pilot program, which is being developed with funding from the Legislature. Councilor Kevin Norby, who has focused on the ambulance service, offered to attend those meetings in Suihkonen’s place.
At the same time, Schultz announced that Paige Olson, the city’s fire chief, has resigned.
The council voted unanimously to accept Olson’s resignation and advertise for the opening. They also voted to appoint Steven Freshour as interim fire chief, effective immediately.
In other action, the council approved moving forward with an upgrade of the electrical capacity at the city-owned Hoodoo Point Campground at an estimated cost of $70,000. The upgrade will include the replacement of three transformers and the burial of new main service lines to the campground but would not include the installation of new services or distribution lines to individual camping sites. The upgrade, however, will allow the city to begin the process of upgrading electrical services at the RV site to meet the growing power demands of modern RVs.
Under the plan, the new lines and transformers would be owned by Lake Country Power, which would leave the rural electric cooperative responsible for the replacement of equipment as needed.
Currently, the city owns that equipment and has incurred considerable expense over the years in replacing transformers.
Joe Peterson, the electrician who designed and quoted the project, said the $70,000 estimate was reasonable but urged some buffer due to possible tariffs on copper, which President Donald Trump has threatened in recent days, a development that pushed copper prices to record highs.
Upgrading the service to camping sites is a process that would likely be completed over a period of years unless the city can identify a source of grant funding to pay for it.
In other business, the council:
• Heard a request from Gary Aubol under public input to submit a letter from the city to area lawmakers urging their support for a change to the current state law that phases out private ownership of the Stuntz Bay boathouses, which are now part of the Lake Vermilion-Soudan Underground Mine State Park. Aubol said the eventual loss of the boathouses would have a negative economic impact on Tower and he urged the council’s support for the push to revise the law to allow private ownership of the boathouses to continue.
• Tasked Setterberg, Schultz, and Councilor Joe Morin with assessing the need for possible upgrading of the security camera infrastructure around the civic center and train depot area. Councilors discussed the need to upgrade the quality of the four existing cameras as well as the need to expand camera coverage to the mini-park area behind the train depot. Initial estimates appear to be within the city’s ability to fund.
• Gave accolades to Aaron Kania and the Tower Forestry Board for the new comprehensive municipal forest plan developed by the board. “It’s very impressive,” said Norby. Morin said Kania deserved full credit for the detailed report on the plan, which outlines a wide range of proposed and planned management activities on city forest land located in and around the city. The plan includes consideration of recreational trails, wildlife, water resources, school forests, wildfire risk reduction, funding opportunities, invasive species, and a stand inventory complete with recommended harvesting. “It’s really comprehensive,” said Morin.
• Discussed but took no action on three options proposed by American Tower for the renewal of the tower site lease on the city’s north hillside. The city stands to reap a substantial windfall from the lease renewal but wants time to consider the ramifications of the options proposed. The issue is likely to return to the council agenda in August.
• Gave approval to the preliminary plat presented by the Village at Vermilion, the name attached to the residential development located behind the Marjo Motel. Approval of the preliminary plat means the developers can begin work on the final plat for the project.
• Approved a motion to authorize the submission of a pre-application for funding for the Tower-Soudan Historical Society’s efforts to repair the foundation at the train depot. The pre-application is due July 18.
• Discussed but took no immediate action on a request from Breitung Township to coordinate on an update of the two community’s joint comprehensive plan. The last comp plan was completed in 2015.
• Approved a cooperative agreement with the Department of Natural Resources for the installation and management of a new fishing pier recently installed by the DNR at Hoodoo Point.
• Took no immediate action on a letter from the Range Association of Municipalities and Schools, or RAMS, for a letter of support seeking an exemption for U.S. Steel’s Keetac taconite mine and processing facility from the state’s wild rice sulfate standard. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is seeking to require compliance with the state’s 10 mg/l wild rice standard, a decision which has been upheld by the state Court of Appeals.
• Heard from Norby who wants the city to establish a blight committee to begin to address the issue within the city. The city has long had a blight ordinance, but it is mostly outdated and has not been consistently enforced in recent years.