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The Wyoming City Council is back to full complement with the appointment last week of Blake Tiedeman to serve in the vacancy left by Allen Juneau’s resignation. Tiedeman was appointed on a 3-1 vote with Council member Joe Zerwas choosing to support applicant Ben Dougherty. The third applicant considered was P.J. Richardson.

The appointment is an interim seat, the council also approved a special election for September 7. Contact city hall if you are interested in filing to place your name on that ballot.

Council also heard an update from Wyoming Investigator Scott Dexter on the new chaplain program officially recognized in Wyoming.

Dexter said the clergy members have agreed to be on-call two weeks at a time to assist officers and fire department personnel whenever needed for a traumatic episode, loss of life or for counsel. The chaplains will carry pagers and the program has also been given embroidered shirts and jackets from Union House (Max Anderson) and Wyoming State Bank, the Zaruba family.

Dexter stated the program will be up and running by the end of June, “Cross your fingers we won’t need to call them,” he remarked, “but we’ll be ready.”

The chaplain program volunteers are Jeff Beebe of St. Paul Lutheran; Dan Patz, Grace; Sharon Mills of United Methodist; Mike Waddle and Leslie Hester from Faith Apostolic Church; Mike Haseltine of Maranatha Assembly of God and a priest with St. Peter’s in Forest Lake will be joining.

A Conditional Use Permit for a new bank in the Viking Commons site got lengthy review and ended up being tabled until the July 5 meeting .

John Milbauer of Lino Lakes State Bank and Mike Muske, property owner, took questions and attended the public hearing.

Four residents commented during the hearing they feared the traffic would be worsened in the surrounding area and didn’t like the layout of the proposed single drive-through, full service banking facility. They also questioned if parking would be sufficient.

Muske and Milbauer explained the circular traffic pattern around the structure will be made one-way after the drive-thru is activated and that there is an unimproved lot nearby that could be used for employee parking if needed. “We wouldn’t want to put anything in there that won’t work,” Muske declared.

He said the building was designed with a bank in mind for that location and a floral shop had first leased the space only because, “...we couldn’t solidify a lease with a bank.”

There is a proposal for RiverBank to build a new facility in Wyoming that is pending finalization while redevelopment issues are completed. Council asked if the Milbauer CUP could negatively affect this.

Staff said RiverBank is aware of the Lino Lakes State Bank proposal and still plans to proceed on its project.

City Attorney Tom Miller reminded council that it must identify specific findings why a bank is not a conditionally allowed use in that location, or authorize the permit and place conditions on the bank operation, that might require use of the auxiliary lot, etc.

More will be discussed at the July 5 meeting.

Short term borrowing

Carolyn Drude of Ehlers and Assoc. asked council for direction on bridging the possible cash flow gap in the new wastewater system connection and related projects.

Drude said the city is waiting on receipt of outside grants that if delayed could leave Wyoming anywhere from $20,000 to $600,000 short. She explained the second half of the Polaris land sale payment isn’t due until 2006, and this also figures into the potential for shortages. She recommended the city selling anticipation debt through a local lender, and it should be about three years and offer flexibility for the city to retire the debt at any time.

Council member Ted Phillips made a motion for $900,000 and directed Ehlers to contact banks for quotes on interest and structure. Phillips said he agreed with staff that a “cushion” above the high end of the potential cash flow shortfall is a good idea and the city is allowed to invest what it doesn’t need, so he increased the sum by a third. Council unanimously supported the motion and asked Drude to report back on debt packages and at what cost.

Rebecca Kurtz, also with Ehlers and Assoc., explained the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District designation isn’t going so well.

The city is looking to create a large overall redevelopment area that qualifies for TIF. The program rules are that a certain percentage of the area needs to be blighted or have special redevelopment expenses, and there’s a large vacant parcel that’s skewing this “coverage” percentage. Kurtz suggested the parcel be deleted and the city move along on a smaller area.

City Attorney Miller advised closing the TIF hearing until the new mapping is done. The city still has to proceed with ordering building inspections to identify the “substandard” qualities that the TIF district designation attempts to address.

Council consensus was to remove the problematic vacant parcel and move ahead on the TIF paperwork.

Council okayed the final plat for Sunrise Meadows. The developer will grant city easement instead of re-engineering the road rights-of-way for installing sidewalk or trail, which staff said was a good compromise. There will be four street lights, which council had also sought for the plat. The 30-lot plat abuts 258th, which will be paved.

Council also voted 3-1 with Zerwas opposed to appoint Michael Thomas to the planning commission.

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