By Clark Natalie

The map was before the council May 8 for adoption.

But the owners of the Margaret Nelson farm, located west of the interstate interchange and bisected by County Road 9, had objections. The proposed zoning is General Business for this parcel, which would be a change. The owners and their attorney, Grant Lindberg, were at the meeting.

The parcel is 52.4 acres. Lindberg said his client has requested not to rezone the southern parcel as General Business. The reason being that they felt there was no need for that much General Business that far west of the interchange.

Mayor Rick Smisson asked how they determined this. Lindberg talked about the many commercial lots presently available that have not been utilized. Also, the location of the south property is too far west of the interchange to be a valued commercial property. It was explained that the lot would be too small, as there is a wetland delineation which would require a storm water settling pond, taking up a large area required for building or parking. Access would not be allowed to CR 9, and with the required distance a driveway could be located from the intersection with County Road 64, a resident may be sharing a driveway with a business.

Lindberg also noted that at the planning commission meeting the Thursday before, City Planner Dean Johnson, had said that the moratorium that had been put in place was specifically to stop the proposed residential development on this property.

By Minnesota statute, Lindberg said, a moratorium is not allowed to stop or delay specific projects. Also, the moratorium called for study of the area. No study has been done. No statistics have been provided to show the best use for this whole parcel is General Business, the attorney said.

Responding to this, Harris City Attorney Peter Grundhoefer said that the council did have authority to issue the moratorium, as they are given broad discretion in zoning issues. Also, a study with specific statistics is not required. He said the council can rely on factors in normal zoning issues such as transportation access and location.

Lindberg expressed his clientís willingness to compromise on the issue. The north parcel, which would be conducive to General Business use could be changed and they would not disagree provided the southern parcel would remain residential and be developed into lots. This compromise had been accepted and recommended unanimously by the planning commission.

The map was not adopted that night. The council elected to continue the matter until the next meeting when they will have an opportunity to study this specific parcel and how it relates to the map as a whole.

Public comment was opened by Mayor Smisson responding to one of the questions that have been asked of the council. It had to do with the storage of the back-up data at Councilwoman Kathy Olsonís house. Smisson said the city had lost financial data on a hard drive when it crashed. The city had incurred a lot of expense in developing a dual hard drive network system. The data was stored in Olsonís house until it could be moved to the city attorneyís office for storage. This location will remove it from harm should a catastrophe cause the damage of the computers and hard drives in City Hall. It was noted that Olson had no access to the data, as not only does she not have the software to access the data, she does not have a computer.

Resident John Perron asked when he would be getting responses to the written questions put before the council on two different occasions. He also asked what was being done to protect city maintenance worker Mike Kriz from entering dangerous working conditions during the normal course of his job. Perron indicated his willingness to contact OSHA to inspect the conditions, to make sure Kriz has a safe working area.

Later in the meeting, the council reviewed with Kriz their specific direction not to enter into any space where he needed a second person for safety. Should that need arise, he is to contact the council. Kriz said he had developed a technique to limit his need for entering dangerous situations and had adhered to the council directive.

Citizen Lisa Jorgenson asked for clarification on the emergency meeting dealing with the city clerkís suspension (April 25). Jorgenson wanted to know how the information was provided to the Cambridge Star, as her name was in the article. Jorgenson felt it implied an impropriety on her part, with no facts to substantiate. Jorgenson said she was appalled as she is a business woman in town and takes her reputation seriously.

Carla Waletzko asked when the council would provide copies of all documents relating to all issues on the agenda. Also, what a reasonable time to respond to the questions that have been presented would be?

During Grundhoeferís report, a temporary replacement for the clerk (who is currently suspended) was extended for an additional 40 hours, to May 22, the next council meeting. The council has contracted with Richard Hill who is the treasurer of Shafer and is providing financial and administrative services so Harris can continue to operate. The contract amount is $24 per hour, with no benefits.

Two public hearings were set for June 12. The first being a review of the water and sewer ordinances to make sure they are in compliance so the city can access lower than market financing on its wastewater treatment facility and water treatment plant.

The other hearing will be to set fees for off-sale liquor.