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Stacy City Council met December 10 for a regular meeting. Council member Dennis Thieling was absent. 

The meeting began with a public hearing for 2025 street improvements.  The city’s maintenance department and city engineer have deemed   Floral Avenue, Erie Lane, 340th Street, 352nd Street, Fenway Avenue, Fenway Court, Genesis Avenue, Gable Avenue, Finch Avenue and Finch Court as roads that are in immediate need of improvements.  The hearing was to inform those residents of plans and answer any questions they may have.

City engineer Dan Boyum presented a slide show showing costs for improvements to each road.  The audience then got a brief synopsis of what cities usually do as far as binding and potential assessments from Doug Green of Baker Tilly.  Tilly mentioned most municipalities use chapter 429 (Improvements) with special assessments up to 20 percent of total cost for rural streets and 25 percent for city core streets.

Deb and Brian Happe from 315th Street told the council their road has been there for 17 years and he is to believe his property value will increase with a new road? “Sounds like a maintenance problem, not an improvement problem”.   Another resident from 315th Street added “The majority of homes in your project are old Lent Township properties, this isn’t going to sit well with us” she said. “It’s one thing to add sidewalks and call for improvements or to pave from gravel to tar, but this just isn’t right”.

Resident Rick Keller said the city should start budgeting yearly for road improvements to ease the burden on homeowners.  Council member Tim Sawatzsky told Keller there was 400k in the road improvement fund but some had to be allocated to pay the sheriff.  “If it’s beyond 20 years, it’s not a maintenance issue anymore it’s a replacement issue” Sawatzsky added. 

Estimated costs for rural improvements to the roads listed come to $395,826.  Estimated costs for core streets improvements comes to $386,849 for mill and overlay and $615,146 for total reclamation.

Council then voted to move forward with the project reminding the residents assessments will be discussed more in the future. “This is to keep  the ball rolling” Mayor Mark Utecht added.  “There is always a chance we decide against this. but we need to at least move forward”.  Council member Jeff Barrett added he would like to see any assessments be held to $1,300 or less by using city funds.  The motion to proceed passed unanimously.  

Maintenance supervisor Troy Nelson then updated the council on Well 1 and radium levels.  Olson presented a letter from Ryan Capelle from Stantec.  The letter included a process recommended by Capelle that includes a pilot study by the MDH. The letter states there was an original study performed in 2014 that identified a HMO treatment process with pre-oxidation in a detention tank that was capable of reducing the concentration of Radium to acceptable standards.  Nelson told the council the talks are ongoing and he will not move forward without a guarantee the city will know what is coming out of the well after it is abated. Council agreed to do a "resting test" on #1 & #2 for radium to start with, and depending on the results, may do further testing of a different type. This will take about a month to get results.

The council then approved a final Levy for 2025.  The levy approved unanimously is at $1,797,368.  The levy has an increase of 3.42 percent from 2024. 

Council then unanimously accepted donations from the Stacy Lions Club for $2,000.

There was then discussion  about the agreement regarding the roads transferred to Chisago City and the outstanding bond that Lent Township had. Stacy attorney James Monge submitted a suggested repayment request for Chisago City.  

2025 - $80,555.73 

2026 - $79,806.63 

2027 - $78,997.08 

2028 – $79,895.68 

2029 – $78,164.40 )

Total - $397,419.52  

Chisago City felt  the numbers are not correct and countered with:  

 

2025 - $51,973.11

2026 - $50,522.86

2027 - $51,341.66

2028 - $49,722.56

2029 - $50,370.20

Total - $253,930.39

Council agreed to have Monge go back and check the history of the annexation agreement.

The council then discussed a previous agreement with Lindstrom, Wyoming and Chisago City for use of the compost site. All four municipalities split the costs evenly which totalled  $11,300 in 2023.  Cost is estimated to  decrease this year.  Council wants more information about our resident's use of the site before deciding if we will be participating next year.

Council also approved a letter to be sent out to all Stacy residences concerning flushable wipes.  The informative sheet will detail how harmful flushable wipes are to the sewer infrastructure and to plead with residents to discard and not flush the wipes.

Council adjourned at 9:55 p.m.

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