By Clark Natalie

In addition to action on 2 a.m. bar closing hours and discussion on the penalties and costs of inaction on the pending water and sewer facility plan, on Dec. 2 the Harris City Council received a letter from attorney Kevin Shoeberg resigning his position, effective Dec. 31, 2004.
The 2 a.m. bar closing was included on the agenda because of the many times it had been brought up before. The council felt it was time to make 2 a.m. permanent. It was noted that since the probationary period had been in place, there had been no problems. The sheriffís deputies had no calls for fights or problems and there were no DWIs in Harris in the past six months.

Apparently the bar owners have been providing additional security. Laura Kranz, manager of Heartbreakers, said the bar has four security guards to escort patrons to their cars. She also said they usually stop serving alcohol at 1 a.m., which allows the patrons to consume food and non-alcoholic drinks the last hour they are open.

The council voted 4-1 to make the 2 a.m. closing permanent. Councilwoman Kathy Olsen was opposed saying she would have preferred to wait until the probationary period ended before making it permanent.

The Council also reviewed the next step in the process of putting into place the Sunday liquor ordinance that had been voted in. A draft ordinance was reviewed. The Sunday license would be for restaurants, hotels, and clubs to serve liquor in conjunction with the sale of food. The city can regulate the hours.

The ordinance calls for a $200 license fee, the maximum allowed. A public hearing is mandatory to implement the license. The City Council set that hearing for 6 p.m. Dec. 16.

During the public comment period, resident Anita Mohr expressed concern about the trash that has not been picked up from around the bars in town. In addition to bottles, there had been adult literature, she said. Would the council ask the businesses to do something? Kranz said that Heartbreakers was not aware of the problem, but would start to inspect their area every afternoon when they opened.

Deadline concern on wastewater plan
Councilman Dan Walton asked Shoeberg and maintenance supervisor Mike Kriz about the progress of the holding pond dealing with the water and sewer in Harris. Walton was concerned about the city meeting the March 7 deadline to provide a facility plan to the EPA.

Shoeberg and Kriz assured the council that they were on schedule to meet the deadline, even though they were waiting on a response from North Branch about the option of connecting to their system. This would decide the final path the city would take, but the timetable was on pace. When Walton pressed them as to what would happen if they missed that date, Shoeberg said the EPA would step in, levy fines and no additional hook-ups could be made to the system. The cost of bringing this immediately into EPA standards would be about $4 million. This would break down to about $33,000 to $37,000 to each user of the system. This would be assessed to the properties. Walton hoped the new council would meet this deadline.

With input from the mayor-elect Rick Smisson, the council also changed their meeting dates for 2005. Instead of the first Thursday of the month, the Council will now meet the 2nd and 4th Mondays.

With that, the council recessed the meeting to reconvene at 6 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 9, for the truth in taxation hearing.

Top of Page

©ECM Post Review

6448 Main Street
North Branch, MN 55056
Telephone: 651-674-7025
Fax: 651-674-7026
E-mail: editor.postreview@ecm-inc.com