By Patrick Tepoorten

It's looking more and more like Rush Landing residents could have their roads completed this year, especially with the Rush City Council giving its approval for city engineering firm SEH to put the project out for bid.

According to city engineer Barry Peters, plans and specifications have been completed for that project as well as the Jay Ave. project, and the two are scheduled to be completed at the same time in order to save money. Peters estimates the cost of the Rush Landing project at $99,053 and the Jay Ave. project at $248,560. With 27 percent added for administrative costs, the total project cost is estimated at $441,470.

The bid opening is scheduled for August 23, at 1 p.m.

In other city news:

• The city council agreed to waive fees associated with sewer hook-up for the Rush City school district, which is planning to construct a bathroom-ready structure along with new ball fields. Mayor Jim Ertz noted that the structure would only be open in the summer months, and would therefore have just a fraction of the impact on the system that a house would have. The total fees waived are just over $2,000.

• Mark Althoff, of Althoff and Nordquist, LLC., summarized the audit of city books for the year 2006. He highlighted a loan receivable in the amount of $100,000 that had been expected to be paid off in 2006 but was not.

"I'm not too excited about that," he said. "It's supposed to be paid off."

Tax revenue is expected to pay off the loan eventually, but has not been coming in fast enough to pay the debt by the deadline. According to city administrator Amy Mell, a TIF loan was made to J. Graf to purchase a building and land owned by the city. The payback schedule included tax revenue generated from improvements to the site that were never made, so the revenue has been generated more slowly than projected.

Aside from that loan and the "lack of segregation of duties" typical of smaller cities, which Rush City minimizes by city council review of all expenditures, the audit concluded that the city is in "satisfactory financial condition," adding, "effective budgeting has been employed to ensure that revenues are sufficient for current expenditures and the accumulation of resources for future use."

• A resolution approving a tax abatement agreement between the city and Chisago County to collect airport hangar taxes was approved. The taxes collected will be used to pay the city and county portion of the taxiway project, of which the city and county are responsible for five percent of the overall project cost, estimated at just over $1 million dollars.

• Regarding a request to survey airport property south of the airport access road for purposes of exploring the development of a business park, Peters returned an estimate of $12,300 to complete the survey. The council approved the cost.

HRA-EDA director Chris Eng expressed interest in teaming with the city if they pursue the business park.

• The city has agreed to a mediation schedule regarding its lawsuit against Milcon and other construction entities involved with the new community center. Mediation is scheduled to begin on September 18, 2007. It was suggested by Eng that former city administrator Daniel Hoffman be contracted to work with the city throughout the process, as we was intimately involved with the project.

• Based on two requests for on-sale liquor licenses in the last three months, Rush City will review its current liquor license ordinance, which allows for two on-sale licences. According to Mell, state statute allows for up to five such licenses in Rush City.

• The city agreed to pursue a federal grant to pay for a new airport beacon, airport layout plan, and phase I environmental study. The total project cost is about $219,000, of which a grant, if approved, would pay for 95 percent. Also approved was a grant agreement between the city and state for improvements to the arrival/departure building at the airport. That grant is a 70 - 30 split, with the city paying the smaller portion.

• Senator Rick Olseen and Representative Jeremy Kalin gave the council an update on the recent legislative session. Both legislators expressed disappointment that the gas tax was not increased by the state in order to pay for road projects.