By Patrick Tepoorten

Rush City Mayor Mike Skalsky wants visitors to the Chisago County Fair to know that the carnival rides will be safe to enjoy. The unusual reassurance, given at the city council meeting Monday night, was a response to an accident that occurred on July 8 in Hinckley, in which two teenage girls were seriously injured on a ride called the ìZipper.î

Skalsky met with John Magel, who is the owner of Magel Carnival Midways, which provided carnival rides for Hinckley and will for the county fair as well. Skalsky said Magel has a long track record of safety that will be enhanced by measures taken this week.

All of the Magel rides are due for an annual inspection by H & W Loss Control this Wednesday. Furthermore, Magel assured Skalsky that the rides will be inspected continuously by staff throughout the fair.

Skalsky added that, after speaking with Magel, he felt comfortable that the provided carnival rides will be safe. The Zipper however, will not be available.

The city council continued to ponder the request by Five Points Development to obtain building permits for Rush Creek Estates before the first layer of blacktop is on city streets.

Daniel Birdsall appeared before the council to again encourage the council to issue those permits. He pointed out that the cityís subdivision ordinance, although stating that no building permits will be issued before the first ìlift,î also allows for the council to make exceptions when agreed upon.

Other points Birdsall made in pursuit of the permits included the suggestion that doing so is common practice in other municipalities, and that without them the stable of builders at Rush Creek Estates could decide that waiting until Spring is too long and move on to other developments.

ìIf the builders remove their hat from the ring we may be forced to do an open development. Weíd prefer not to do that. The difference is dramatic,î said Birdsall.

The city council, which appeared to be leaning towards allowing the early permits just a few meetings ago, has increasingly been under pressure from the Planning Commission to adhere to the strict guidelines of the ordinance. ìThey have strongly expressed the view that we should not issue the permits,î stated Skalsky.

Furthermore, the cityís planning consultant Joanne Foust has recommended the city not grant the early permits, and city engineering firm SEH provided the city with nine issues that should be considered were the city to grant the permits.

The council put off a decision on the early permits until its next regular meeting, with much of the council stating that they did not yet have enough information to make an informed decision.

The cityís reticence to issue the early permits comes largely from bad experiences with previous developments, like Rush Landing, where early permits were granted only to result in a development with completed houses and an incomplete streets. Since the developer in that case declared bankruptcy, the city is left trying to find a way to complete streets that were supposed to be done by the developer.

As coincidence would have it, roughly a dozen Rush Landing residents were in attendance Monday night and dominated the public comment portion of the meeting.

Spokesperson Todd Sempel asked when residents might expect the city to have the final layer of blacktop installed in the development.

ìPotholes have become pretty commonî said Sempel, who added that there is a great deal of silt and sand piling up on the roads as well and streetsweepers have not been seen in the area since 2004. He described having to use a wheelbarrow to remove sand from in front of his house and reminded the council that the first lift of blacktop was four years old.

Acting City Administrator Amy Mell responded that the city is unable to sweep the streets because they are in such rough shape.

Other residents, along with Sempel, implored the city to find a way to sweep the streets, noting it is unsafe for kids on bicycles and is creating ìdeltasî within the development.

Mell said she would talk with public works and see if something could be done.

As to the completion of the road, the city informed the crowd that a study of the issue had been undertaken by former city engineer Bob Moberg and they instructed SEH president Mike Kraemer, present at the meeting, to present it at the next city council meeting.

Resident Kerry Heiniemi expressed concern about the cost to residents. ìWe have already been paying for upkeep of the road and asked the council if residents would be taxed further to complete the road.

Skalsky responded that assessments were one option but added that this case was unique. ìI canít say unequivocally ënoí to assessments, but I am leaning that way,î he concluded.

Residents were also informed that the city was looking for a way to ìpiggybackî the project onto another area blacktopping project being completed by the county as a cost saving measure. However, the county project is coming up soon and the city warned residents that, given the tight schedule, the project may have to be completed before the city and residents would be able to come to an agreement as to its financing.

In other city news:

ï SEH president Mike Kraemer informed the council that city engineer Bob Moberg has accepted a position with the city of Plymouth. Two engineers, Stefan Higgins and Barry Peters, will replace Moberg. Kraemer assured the council that any learning curve would be at SEHís expense.

ï Miller Law Office was retained for litigation concerning the new community center parking lot.

ï An agreement was approved with SEH to conduct an environmental site assessment for the Rademaker property, which the city has agreed to purchase.

ï At a special meeting last Thursday, the council appointed Amy Mell as interim city administrator, and hired former administrator Daniel Hoffman on a temporary, part-time basis until various issues are resolved.

ï Also at that meeting, the city agreed to tender an offer designed to settle the Dan Volk grievance. Volk, a public works employee, has been seeking an increase in pay as a result of earning his wastewater plant operators license.

Because the license was earned before the most recent contract between the city and the Teamsters Union and there is no language in the contract allowing for the increase, the city had said no.

Now, the city has offered to put the necessary language in the 2007 contract, and offer Volk the increase retroactive to the date he earned his license. Mayor Skalsky reported Monday night that the union appears agreeable to the offer.