TOWER— Short-term rental horror stories are hardly unusual, but they had been relatively uncommon in Tower—that is until now. At Monday’s council meeting, residents from North Star Addition issued a plea for action from the city to address a residence that is being operated as a short-term rental allowing up to 14 guests at a time.
Nick Levens, who lives next door to the residence at 5587 Pine St N., said the neighborhood has put up with a laundry list of inappropriate and disturbing behavior from guests staying at the facility, which is owned by Treasured Memories, LLC, based in Lakeville.
“We’re having problems with trespassing and parking on private property, parking without permission, unloading and loading of side-by-sides in the road blocking traffic… myself, I’ve experienced problems with public urination, drunkenness, parties disturbing the peace, vulgar language in front of children.”
Levens, who lives behind the problem residence, notes that his front yard, where his children often play, is next to the backyard of the neighboring property. “So, we’re all playing basketball or trying to enjoy our yard and we’re faced with this litany of drunk, vulgar language basically three days a week for the past 11 months. We’ve experienced things like snowmobiles coming home in the middle of the night after the bar closed. Six snowmobiles driving up that road sounds like an invasion.”
Levens noted that, just this past weekend, a large group took over their quiet cul-de-sac. “They came with many trucks, with big, utility-sized trailers that they off-loaded in the road for hours, blocking the road and clogging traffic. I had a confrontation with one of the tenants and it got ugly. I tried to contact the owner of the property but she took their side. So, the man I had the confrontation with, I believe in retaliation, pulled his ATV into the middle of the road at seven in the morning and cranked his stereo at like an obscene volume for approximately five minutes.”
Dan Jones, another North Star Addition resident, confirmed that Leven’s complaints were accurate and said he agreed with his concerns about the impact of the property on neighbors. City-clerk Michael Schultz did say he’s received calls about the rental property from other residents of North Star Addition as well, expressing similar concerns.
Levens estimated that the neighboring property has been a party spot for at least 200 strangers over the past 11 months and he said the regular disturbances are “affecting my right to peaceful enjoyment of my property.”
If Levens hoped for immediate action, he was likely disappointed. While St. Louis County has a well-developed ordinance and permitting requirements for short-term rentals, that is currently not the case in Tower. “What I can say is that we do not currently have an ordinance that addresses this but we are actively working towards that,” said council member Joe Morin. “It’s not a quick process, but it’s on our radar for a number of reasons. And this probably helps us support an efficient process.”
In other business, the council approved another $5,000 transfer of funds from Hoodoo Point Campground to help cash flow the city’s ambulance service, which continues to operate in the red. With the latest transfer, Schultz reported that the city has now tapped $25,000 from the campground account to make payroll on the ambulance and he suggested that Monday’s request likely won’t be the last, especially with a sizable worker’s compensation payment coming up soon.
Last year, the city transferred a total of $15,000 to help support the ambulance service.
Mayor Dave Setterberg said he had worked out “a possibility” involving pay schedule changes that could allow the service to break even, but he said he wanted to wait to discuss the change with ambulance personnel before talking about it publicly. “We’re going to present it to them and then once we get any feedback from them, we will be incorporating anything that they suggest, or at least looking at what they suggest. We know we need to do something and then we will bring it to the council, hopefully at the next meeting to implement the kind of pay schedule type changes that we can cram data together,” Setterberg said.
The council also agreed to explore an idea offered by Setterberg to expand the Hoodoo Point Campground. Setterberg said he had recently visited the campground and had noted that the point extends well beyond the current area designated for camping and that there could be room for several additional sites on high ground along the point’s interior. He said the area is currently heavily timbered with a significant number of downed trees that make it difficult to traverse the area.
“Has anyone talked to [campground manager] Randy about it?” asked council member Kevin Norby. Setterberg said he hadn’t so far, but was waiting to gather a bit more information. The council agreed to establish a committee of Norby and Bob Anderson to explore the idea and come back to the council with recommendations.
In other business, the council:
• Heard from Schultz that all of the funds from Gunderson Trust have been successfully transferred to the Duluth-Superior Community Foundation, which is now managing the fund for the city. The soon to be defunct Gunderson Trust Board will be meeting soon to recommend the makeup of a new board that will oversee donations from the proceeds from the trust.
• Heard a brief report on the recent visit of members of the House and Senate bonding committees, who came for an in-person report on the city’s request for funding for the Tower-Breitung drinking water plant.
• Briefly discussed the possible acquisition of the county public works building. Norby said the city should conduct a cost-benefit analysis to consider what current city buildings could be divested. Morin said the city should think of other possible uses for some of the property at the county site, such as possible commercial opportunities. Schultz said he is still waiting on a list of expenses as well as an inventory of the property from the county.
• Agreed to have Morin and council member Josh Zika work with Schultz to work on a new lease for D’ericks.
Appointed Setterberg and Morin to engage with Breitung in negotiations over the 2024 police contract.
• Appointed Cade Gornick to a vacancy on the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission.
• Approved the low bid of $1.279 per gallon for propane from Edwards Oil for the next year.