By Clark Natalie

The members of the Harris City Council filled the vacant council seat Monday night, Feb. 27.

Douglas Payne was appointed by the council to the position vacated by Dan Walton. Payne is presently the chairman of the Harris Planning Commission.

Mayor Rick Smisson detailed the process the council had used. They interviewed three candidates: Payne, John Pelant and Rodney Larson. All were asked the same questions concerning their accomplishments and their ability to overcome obstacles.

It was noted that Payne was chosen because of his answers and also his historical background.

In addition to his service on the planning commission, Payne is an electrical engineer in the aerospace industry. It was felt that this background will help with the Waster Water Treatment Facility and the Water Treatment Plant that is under construction.

The mayor moved to appoint Payne and the motion passed unanimously. Payne was immediately sworn in and took his seat at the table for the rest of the evening.

The next item dealt with on the agenda was financing of the new fire pumper truck, along with interim financing for the Waste Water Treatment Facility and the Water Treatment Plant. Todd Hagen of Ehlers & Associates, presented the results of the request for General Obligation Equipment Certificates. Because the certificates will be non-rated the offers were made to local financial institutions. Three responded.

The low bid was from Northwoods Bank, which offered to fund the $165,000 over 10 years at 4.25 percent. The repayment of the certificates will be through tax levies. There is no lock out or prepayment penalty, so if the City is able to obtain a grant the certificates can be paid off. Councilman Doug Chaffee said the fire department is still working to obtain a grant to fund the purchase of the truck.

Hagen was then authorized to obtain proposals to fund the interim construction costs on the WWTF and WTP. This will fund the construction until the permanent low cost funding is provided by MPF. Because of the size of the interim funding, $500,000, the request for proposals will me more complicated. Underwriters will be involved and the proposals will not only be taken to local financial institutions, but also national investment firms. The proposals will be brought back March 27 .

Public speaking

During public comment, Linda Jorgenson asked if council members could serve on more than one committee. City Attorney Pete Grundhoefer said no.

Jorgenson then asked about funding of the pumper truck. She asked why repayment was set up when it had been expected that the pumper would be repaid with FEMA grants. The council responded that the city no longer qualified for some of the FEMA grants. Those grants had to be applied for and in place before the equipment was purchased. The council is pursuing other options.

Chaffee said he is meeting with FEMA concerning other grants. Representative James Oberstar has indicated that Harris is rated no. 2 on his list to obtain grants. Smisson explained that obtaining the grants available has been a learning process.

James Swing of Harris also had questions concerning the process of the purchase of the pumper. He asked who had authorized driving the old red pumper to Alabama. Smisson responded that he had made that authorization. Swing, who works for the Department of Transportation, then pointed out that when a vehicle is ìred tagged,î it is out of service and can not use public roads until it is repaired.

It makes no difference what caused the vehicle to be red tagged, it can not run on the roads because it is out of service, he said. The fine can be up to $10,000.

Swing said the DOT plans to launch an investigation into this incident.

After the meeting, in a discussion with City Attorney Gundhoefer, it was learned that Grundhoefer plans to check into the statutes sited by Swing. (See sidebar above)

John Kerns asked about the cityís process for rezoning. Kerns had an article concerning Harris and asked if all of the rezoning pointed out in the article had the required public hearings.

Smisson responded that the different properties noted in the article were in different stages of process. Some had their hearings, some had not. Kerns pointed out that the article implied that the processes were done and the property all rezoned. Smisson assured him that was not the case.

Larry Nelson then asked why the city had not pursued funding through the U.S. Dept of Agriculture Rural Development. USDA is set up for rural committees and may have been able to give Harris a better deal than PFA. City Engineer Chuck Schwartz responded that there is correspondence in the files, showing that funding had been discussed with the USDA, it was felt that with the location of Harris to a metro area, along with itís growth, Harris had outgrown the ability for USDA to help them.

In other business, the Council:

ï Dealt with the WWTF and WTP issues, calling for a special meeting March 6 to accept plans and specs of the WTP so the PFA loan will proceed as planned.

ï Received a draft of the proposed revisions to the ordinance establishing regulations and enforcement of alcohol sales. In addition to setting fees and other regulations, it specifically states, ìNudity or obscenity prohibited.î It then defines what is covered by this restriction. The draft states that is applies to ìany agent, employee, patron or other person.î No mention is made as to the grandfathering in of existing establishments or the ramifications of the sale of the same establishment. A public hearing has been set to hear public input on the regulation before it becomes law on April 10, at 6 pm.

ï Heard a request from City Maintenance Engineer Mike Kriz spend $12,000 on chloride for the city roads. This will be applied to Harder Ave, Sink Hole road and the downtown roads. This was not done last year because the conditions were not right. Kriz will monitor the conditions this year to make sure they are right so the chloride is put down at the optimum time.

He also asked the council to have the city attorney prepare a written opinion as to Harrisís requirement to take Ginger Avenue from the county. Once the road is accepted by Harris it will be the cityís requirement to maintain and plow it. Also, the county will bring the road up to county specifications, but not city specifications. The city will require, among other items, curb and gutter. The county will not pay for this.

The City also authorized the payment to Bill Grasavage for his work in obtaining a $500,000 grant for the Water Treatment Plant. Grasavage had been working to obtain a DTEC grant which the city did not get. Instead they obtained a PFA grant for the same amount, which will actually benefit the city more, as they can use the data to obtain grants to repair some of the lift stations.