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Hundreds of citizens, young and old, turned out for the North Branch City Council meeting Monday night in a show of support for lighting ballfields. The council chambers held only a portion of those who came, as some stood outside city hall and glanced in through windows during the meeting.

North Branch Baseball Association's Don Simon told council the association had met with the parks, trails & open space commission and the commission supported the association request to install lighting at Harder Park. The council was asked to help make this happen using proceeds in the parks account. By lighting a field the kids can get more games in.

Or, Simon suggested, council could make a motion to "kick the adult teams off" the new Roger Johnson Park fields and allow the youngsters greater use of that park. This was obviously not an option council embraced.

Simon's first option was to authorize less than $50,000 for lights for one field immediately, to address the shortage in youth league playing space. One light project would be approximately $42,000. Simon said by keeping the project below municipality mandatory sealed bid threshhold, the city could address this crisis in a more timely way.

Al Cottingham, city planner, added that even without having to bid the work, the city still awaited the needed quotes from companies and steel delivery (if the light poles are steel) could take weeks. He assured council staff will work with association members to get the lights installed as soon as practicable.

Council member Larry Erickson asked if it wouldn't be more cost-effective to build another field. It was estimated a field runs about $250,000, however, so Erickson's approach went nowhere.

Council member Kathy Blomquist chastised council for backing off on a referendum the council had earlier proposed for a citywide ballot. Upon finalizing the 2007 budget council felt a parks referendum wouldn't be supported due to property tax hikes pending, so council rescinded a vote to offer the ballot. Blomquist said this recreation issue is a "direct result" of not holding the vote and moving ahead on needed recreation projects.

Council member Theresa Furman asked if the adult corporate and bar leagues using Roger Johnson fields are North Branch residents. If they aren't, then North Branch kids should be using those fields, Furman maintained. She stressed that in the future, as policy is developed on city field use, local youth must be given priority in scheduling.

Mayor Karsky suggested staff contact a spokesperson for the adult leagues and see if they'd voluntarily alter their games schedule, but she also supported moving ahead on one ballfield lighting project, which was unanimously approved.

In other matters: council supported a request from the Police Chief for about $2,500 to have surgery performed on the K-9 dog, Raven. An injury has left Raven with a limp and damage to a rear leg. The dog is a good candidate for surgical repair, and will be back to "about 95 percent," according to Officer Rollins, Raven's handler.

Council also approved on a 3-2 vote, Erickson and Furman opposed, to extend the contract with Animal Control Services Inc. of White Bear for the year. ACSI does nine hours of patrol weekly and responds to call-outs on an hourly basis.

Finance Director David Stutelberg gave council the bad news that a redevelopment firm the city has been working with has withdrawn from the project. Blackstone "is not able to make the (ESSBY) project work," council heard. City Administrator Bridgitte Konrad said staff and legal will discuss terminating a letter of intent with Blackstone and try to seek new developer RFPs in the fall.

A request for off-site advertising from Tom and Joyce Borchardt was denied. They sought an ordinance amendment allowing a billboard along the freeway, but away from their actual business site. The denial was unanimous for a variety of reasons. Mayor Karsky said the ordinance amendment wasn't comprehensive enough and lacked definition. She was agreeable to planning continuing to review the issue. Other reasons were the ordinance didn't describe where billboards might be allowed in relation to housing, etc. It also didn't address aesthetic concerns.

The preliminary plat for Sandstone Hills was granted an extension of one year. Normally developers have only one year to go for final plat approval from council and start to build.

A public hearing for Goodview Avenue and 402nd was set for the first council meeting in June. Street and utility extensions are proposed.

The council awarded the city equipment certificate to Horizon bank. The certificate funds about $255,000 for capital purchases. Horizon's total interest costs were $32,226 over the life of the debt, making it low bidder.

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