TOWER— Should the city of Tower agree to purchase the county public works facility, now being vacated by St. Louis County? That’s the question that the council has talked about for more than a year, but the potentially $260,000 decision will need to made in the next couple months or the city could lose the opportunity.
An ad hoc committee established by the council to examine the pros and cons was set to meet Wednesday, after the Timberjay’s weekly presstime. The city had been waiting on information on utility costs and the county provided that information to the city last month. The 31-acre county site, developed mostly in the 1980s, includes a main office and large shop, a salt dome, a cold storage warehouse, a fueling tank, and a four-acre, graveled grounds with room for considerable storage or new construction. In addition to the facilities and grounds, the county plans to leave a considerable amount of equipment and furnishings.
County officials are interested in selling the site to the city for the appraised price of $260,000 and it’s unclear how much room the city might have to negotiate.
The council took no action on the latest update from Clerk-Treasurer Michael Schultz, but the ad hoc committee will likely have a recommendation for the council for its February meeting.
In other business on Monday, the council, led by Acting Mayor Joe Morin in the absence of Mayor Dave Setterberg, took its first stab at its annual reorganization but postponed most decisions on appointments to city committees until February when Setterberg and council member Kevin Norby, who was also absent Monday, could be in attendance. From discussion it appears there will be few changes from last year’s assignments.
The council did reappoint Greg Buckley and Beth Debeltz to new six-year terms on the Tower Economic Development Authority.
The council also agreed to hire new staff for the ambulance, including Jen McDonough as an EMR and Barb Garrison as an EMT. Garrison works as an EMT at Ely-Bloomenson Hospital and her hiring may allow the Tower ambulance to assist the hospital with more transfers during hours when Garrison is on duty at the hospital. Patients in the Ely-Bloomenson ER have, at times, had to wait many hours or even days for transfers to larger hospitals due to the lack of available ambulances. Monday’s hirings are contingent on background checks.
In other business, the council:
• Approved a new housing study by Maxfield Research to assess demand and an initial market assessment for the creation of market rate rental housing in Tower. The city is currently working with the Minnesota Housing Partnership to develop a new project, either for seniors or workforce housing. While there is currently considerable funding available for new housing in Minnesota, Morin said an updated housing study is essential to any planned funding request.
TEDA will pay $5,000 toward the $7,200 cost of the study, with the city covering the rest.
• Approved a resolution allowing for the city to apply for culture and tourism grant funds from the Department of Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation later this month.
• Approved a supplemental letter from SEH authorizing rebidding of the drinking water treatment facility project, which initially came in millions of dollars over budget.
• Heard from Schultz that the city won’t know the amount of its annual distribution from the Duluth-Superior Area Community Foundation until after July of this year. The foundation is now managing the city’s Gunderson Trust funds and the city expects a significant increase in the annual distribution from the funds going forward.
• Opened two sealed bids for the purchase of the city’s former airport courtesy car and approved the high bid of $2,887 from Shawn Webster. The other bid for the 2004 VW Passat was less than the city’s minimum of $2,500.
• Approved seeking bids for the city’s legal publishing for 2024 without including any standards beyond the statutory requirements for official newspapers. Schultz had suggested that the council set some additional requirements for the bidding process this year. “From my professional standpoint, it is beneficial if there is an online presence and easily searchable notices,” said Schultz.
Morin said he agreed that an online presence was valuable but said he doesn’t utilize the Internet for much information himself. The Timberjay provides free online access to all of its public notices, which are easily searchable. The city’s other newspaper maintains a website but fails to post the city’s legal notices on its site, or on a statewide notices website, as required by state law for any official newspaper.