By Patrick Tepoorten

A proposal to acquire a decommissioned aircraft from the U.S. military and place it at the entrance to Rush City airport once again received attention by the Rush City council at its regular meeting Monday, Oct 9.

The ìgate guardî was also discussed at the city councilís previous meeting, at which concerns were raised as to the cost of maintaining the airplane.

In the interim, city administrator Amy Mell did some research and discovered that an airport in Brainerd is dealing with maintenance issues right now.

Primarily it is a problem of finding the necessary funds to repaint the aircraft, which needs to be done roughly every 10 years and costs upwards of $4,000.

Councilman David Bengtson suggested that the city needs more of a plan before committing to placing a gate guard in Rush City.

Mell responded that the airport board broached the subject of setting up a fund to take care of the plane, which was an idea that Mayor Mike Skalsky wanted to see grow before moving further.

ìA fund should be set up right now, while everyone is excited about this,î he said, adding that the fund should be established before the city makes a commitment.

Mell was encouraged by the council to return to the airport board for ideas on creating and maintaining the fund.

In other city news:

ï Floor plans for senior town homes were approved.

ï The small cities grant used by the city toward construction of Countryside Senior Apartments was closed out.

ï The city approved a bid by SEH in the amount of $9,800 to update the cityís Water Emergency and Conservation Plan.

ï A special meeting of the planning commission has been scheduled to hear a request by resident Carmen Anderson to use property at 640 S. Bremer Ave. as a safe and sober boarding house. The request is actually a zoning change, from R1 to R3, which would allow for such a facility.

ï An open house for Countryside and the newly constructed community center has been scheduled for Mon. Oct. 16, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.