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Rush City residents frazzled by felines |
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By Patrick Tepoorten
“My house smells like the neighborhood litter box,” said Rush City resident Laura Ciesinski to the Rush City Council Monday night. She said she wakes each morning to five or six cats on her deck.
Some are a neighbor’s and others are stray or feral cats, and they are leaving a mess. According to Ciesinski, they spray along the outside of her home on W. 10th Street, and, when the weather warms up the urine begins to smell. As well, she said the cats bring fleas that infest her home. “I have to spend $70 flea bombing my house every spring and fall,” she said.
And she isn’t the only one suffering property damage.
Another resident, Paul Baxter, also in attendance at the March 1 0 meeting, said he will have to throw his backyard gazebo away because of the damage done by cats spraying on it. As well, his meat smoker is ruined and he has to wash the main door to his home daily to get the spray off of it.
Both Baxter and Ciesinski want something done about the problem. Baxter, who has been catching cats on his own, said the cost of trapping and fixing the cats, $150, is prohibitive for a private citizen. As well, animal shelters often aren’t accepting cats because they are already overloaded with them.
Baxter suggested the city look into using the services of Animal Ark’s Neuter Commuter, a mobile surgical lab that provides free spay and neuter services for communities. There is a catch though. The city would have to collect 50 to 100 cats to get Neuter Commuter to come. That also would require a storage area for the felines for both before and after surgery. Baxter volunteered to help trap cats, but asked if the city knew of anyone else who would volunteer, either to help trap or store the cats.
Once the cats are “fixed” they would be released where they were captured to reclaim their territory and keep other, not fixed felines from intruding. In other words, the fixed cats become the deterrent for others.
No action was taken by the council regarding this matter, but Ciesinski was instructed that the city would drop off a cat cage for her to trap the cats for animal control to take away.
In other news:
• Crews will begin the demolition of the abandoned dairy store at CR7 and CR-30 on Thursday at 8:30 a.m.
In related news, the city is expected to mirror updated county ordinances regarding demolition, including a $500 permit fee that will cover asbestos inspections and testing.
• City Administrator Amy Mell reported that the city can now facilitate direct pay for water bills. Credit card payments are expected to be available by March 15.
• An increase to WAC/SAC (water accessibility charge/sewer accessibility charge) was approved. The WAC will be $2,000 and the SAC will be $2,500. The new fee structure will include hook-up.
Formerly, the WAC/SAC charge was $1,900 total but a study by the city revealed that Rush City was lagging behind many area cities in this area. For instance, Braham’s WAC/SAC fee is $3,000, North Branch is $4,786, Stacy is $6,180, and Harris is $10,936. Pine City, Hinckley, and Sandstone remain considerably less expensive, ranging from $1,955 to $700.
Mayor Jim Ertz said the increase in fees was necessary to insure that new development pays its fair share of present and future water and sewer needs. “It takes the burden off of existing homeowners,” he added.
The city has scheduled a public hearing for April 14 at 7:15 p.m. to discuss SAC unit charges for commercial business.
• The Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on March 18, at 6:30 p.m. to discuss a request by Grant House owner Todd Johnson.
Johnson has requested that the city amend zoning ordinances to allow state licensed board and lodging facilities as part of a B2 (general business) zone. He has also requested a conditional use permit provided the amendment is approved.
The reason for the request is his desire to lease the second and third floors of the Grant House to a Christian-based chemically dependent adult women’s’ care facility called Selah House. The facility could admit up to 20 women who enter the program on a voluntary basis. According to the council, Selah House runs a similar but smaller facility in Stacy.
• Ertz requested that the city look more closely into the Brookside townhomes area, near the golf course, and prepare for the sale of the foreclosed development. He said there is no purchase in the works as far as he knows, but the development has numerous issues the city needs to address before there is one.
Specifically, public roads that were not completed, unfinished landscaping, and what he called a “punch list” of things not completed by the developer. It was his desire the city add up the cost of outstanding issues for purposes of placing liens or other mechanisms by which the city would be sure to either recoup losses or insure completion, thus avoiding a situation similar to that experienced with Rush Landing, for which the city had to provide blacktop.
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