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The final public meeting for Lindstrom elected officials Roger Lindgren, Tom Warner and Stacy Pearson last week included remarks by the outgoing members. Warner did not seek re-election after serving the city for 20 years. Appointed to the planning commission in 1985, Warner recalled there being about one building permit a year at that time. He advised incoming elected members to try to envision the future when evaluating projects and policy as council members. It has been a pleasure to work with the community, he added.

Lindgren observed the city is facing serious decisions that will lay a path for years to come. He said city staff is knowledgeable and dedicated and commended all the volunteers on boards and commissions who have been wonderful to work with in his term as mayor.

Council was given a presentation on an “annexation plan” by planning commission member David Waldoch. Waldoch and two other commissioners (Erlandson and Danielson) served as a subcommittee of the planning commission to review looming annexation issues and develop a plan for the city to resolve “islands” of township properties lying within the city--while also identifying priority city-growth areas. The city wants to reduce proliferation of individual wells and encourage water being provided via a centralized system. The goal is to provide efficient and economical delivery of city services, according to handout Waldoch referred to.

The county sanitarian worked with the subcommittee to identify parcels with imminent septic system problems for inclusion into city services.

Staff, with the 5-0 adoption last week of this plan, will begin to develop a project for extending sewer into the Mentzer Trail area. Finalizing costs for this project goes towards an overall cost analysis being put together. The city needs to determine if servicing annexed areas is feasible and then budget for annexation parcel needs.

City Administrator John Olinger said the next steps would include getting tax ID numbers for the parcels on the plan map, locating owners and in the next couple months sending notices informing owners of the annexation plan and possible availability of city services. A public hearing will come later in 2007.

Some of the stand-alone township parcels surrounded by city property include Rose Hill, Sunset Point, the Norelius site to the north. Other areas in the plan the city wants to bring in include; land off 316th, where city sewer and water has been installed and the thinking is that city lots will eventually be subdivided to hook-up. Lakeshore is also on the map to “protect” the lakes from burgeoning individual septic system problems, council was advised.

Waldoch mentioned there are city ordinances that conflict with land uses on-going in the township and the city will need to review those. One example is the Peterson parcel north on #14, (Morning Sun at 316th and #14 is already in the city) and the Peterson business would not be allowed in a residential zone at this time.

A request from the neighborhood for a street light in Lakes Country Estates was delayed until staff can check to see if the lighting plan shows a pole at the location where the light is requested. If the plan for this relatively new subdivision wasn’t followed by the developer, the city will pursue a different course of action in responding to the citizen request. This issue will come back after staff researches it.

A local business owner sent the city a bill asking for help with costs for the “Lighting” events in downtown, including a small stipend for the Santa and Mrs. Claus characters. Council denied the request for $198, saying it was not a city council sanctioned expense and retroactive payment isn’t proper. Council member Joe Wishy commented that if the council had a liaison attending the downtown business group meetings this may have been avoided through a better flow of communications.

Council voted 4-1 (Pearson opposed) to adopt the budget and levy for 2007. The budget last year was $1,687,103 and for 2007 it will be $1,881,761.

The local levy that supports this goes to $1,398,568 or about $100,000 more than last year’s. Other revenues Lindstrom gets come from charges for services, intergovernmental aid, etc.

Debt service for the city is $48,000 in 2007. The levy for supporting the Economic Development Authority budget is $72,000 and general government takes about $1.2 million.

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