Ice rink will probably remain in city of Stacy

By Barbara Brown

The North Branch Hockey Association wants to work with the City of Stacy to keep an ice rink in the city.
Jeff Henderson appeared before the council at the Feb. 10 meeting to talk about how the two groups could work together to keep the rink.

The city had planned to tear down the rink because it had not been kept up over the years.

Mayor Michael Carlson told Henderson that the city had several reasons to remove the rink, including its dilapidated and unsafe condition and the fact that the city believed the hockey association had agreed to maintain the rink.

Henderson said he could not answer to any previous agreements with the council, but that the association recognized its responsibility for the rink and agreed to work out a maintenance plan with the city.

The city said it was not sure it wanted to keep the rink in its current location on the east side of I-35 near Stacy City Park.

Henderson said the hockey association could partner with the city to work out a good location for the ice rink.
Henderson said the hockey association should be able to find volunteers to move salvageable pieces of wood to a new location and build in the remaining parts of the rink.

Both the city and Henderson agreed that the hockey association would work with the city to keep the rink in town.

Also at the meeting, engineer Chuck Schwartz reviewed with the council the current wastewater treatment preliminary draft plan.

Schwartz said the plan had to be put to a public hearing Feb. 24 so the city could meet the stateís Pollution Control Agency deadline for the project.

Several years ago, the city exceeded the stateís imposed phosphorus levels in its wastewater, Schwartz said.
Therefore, the city was required to come up with a remediation plan and a plan to improve its wastewater treatment process.

One option that was presented was joining the proposed regional Chisago Lakes Joint Sewage Treatment Center (CLJSTC) project.

If the city decided to build a chemical treatment facility for the cityís existing treatment plant, it could cost about $3 million and cost individual users about $53 per month.

Building a chemical facility would only solve half of the cityís problems, Schwartz said and maintenance and chemical purchases would be ongoing costs.
Going with the regional plan is projected to cost the city about $4.12 million and would cost users about $56 per month.

However, Schwartz said the costs for maintenance and upkeep would be shared among the cities involved.
Currently Wyoming, Stacy, Chisago City and Lindstrom are among the cities planning to connect their wastewater systems to a main treatment plant in Chisago Lakes.

The council indicated it would like to run a pipeline from Stacy through Carlos Avery along CR 19 to Chisago. The other option, which would cost significantly more, would be to run a line to Wyoming and pay part of the cost to continue the line east on Hwy. 8 to Chisago City.
The council is expected to make a final decision at its Feb. 24 meeting.

Also at the Feb. 10 meeting, the council approved the end-of-the-year financial statements for the cityís accounts.

The cityís water and sewer enterprise fund, which pays for capital improvements and maintenance on the water and sewer systems was in deficit again at the end of 2003, even after the city raised water and sewer rates.
According to final statements, the cityís fund was more than $29,0000 in deficit.

The city also will consider signing a contract with a snow plowing company to clear the cityís streets.
Until now, the city has had verbal agreements for street plowing. Residents have complained that streets are not cleared and that their lawns and curbs have been destroyed.

City Attorney Pete Grundhoefer worked out a contract that the council will review before the next meeting.

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