At last month’s meeting, the task force decided in a 4-1 vote to explore establishing a golf advisory board and manifesting a five-year business plan.

 

Tuesday, the task force reviewed a set of 13 questions compiled from the committee to better narrow down who is to serve and what their responsibilities will be once appointed.

 

The task force discussed the goal of the advisory board, the job description of the members, the scope of duties of the board and how it is monitored, how the director of golf and the board interacts with council, how the application process would proceed, how often the board would meet and how many people would be assigned to sit on the board.

 

The task force was unable to get through all 13 topics, so they tabled the final five or so for the next meeting.

 

One thing that seemed to be agreed upon would be the structure of the board in which the members would report to the director of golf who in turn would report to council.

 

The task force also said they’d like to see the advisory board be comprised of people with a business background, experience in marketing, experience in event coordination, experience in banking or finance, experience in human resources, experience in public relations and possibly a golf pro or golfing enthusiast from the area.

 

The advisory board would also seek to have people who are residents and/or have a business in the Becker area so they will have a vested interest in the board.

Another topic discussed during the workshop was Mayor Lefty Kleis’ suggestion the city not waste time sending out notifications to people who have not maintained their lawns, but to go in and do the work and assess the property owners for the services of cutting their grass.

 

Mayor Kleis stressed he was mainly referring to properties that are either vacant or bank-owned that have not been properly maintained.

 

City Administrator Greg Pruszinske passed out the city’s ordinances in regards to maintenance of private property and council decided to turn the information over the public works committee to figure out how to proceed.

 

Kelli Bourgeois said the city received a notice from the county that one property located in the mixed density of River Oaks Estates was on the scrolls for public sale. Bourgeois said she reviewed the lot and decided it was not in the best interests of the city to acquire the property since the lot is only 0.04 acres and is on an un-buildable parcel.

 

Council agreed and decided to approve the county reclassifying and selling the property in an upcoming land sale.

 

Amanda Othoudt discussed a variance request for property locate at 14049 Lee St. owned by Lynn and Jeanne Cox.

 

The Coxes submitted the variance request in order to build an addition to their existing attached garage.

 

The variance would decrease the side yard setback from the required 10’ to 6’6”. Currently the Cox’s garage is 6’6” from the existing side property line, which does not meet current setback requirements.

 

However, the Cox’s home was built in 1988 and met all city requirements at the time. The city made changes to its setback requirements in 1996, which made the Cox’s residence a legally, non-conforming property.

 

The addition the Cox’s are seeking would align with the sidewall of their current attached garage.

 

The planning commission unanimously approved the variance at an earlier meeting and council did the same Tuesday.

 

Dave Pesola said he solicited quotes from four contractors to do water service improvements to two lots located at the end of Hillcrest Road.

 

Pesola said he received only one bid back.

 

Pesola said one of the two lots affected by freezing water lines is vacant while the other is a residence. SEH, the city’s consulting engineering firm, provided Becker with a solution to eliminate or at least greatly reduce the chances of future freezing problems due to the close proximity of the storm sewer culvert.

 

SEH estimated the project to cost around $43,140 and the one bid Pesola received had a quote of $47,001 from Schiendzelos and Sons.

 

Council approved the one bid since the project falls in the 10% over/under range of estimates and the project is deemed to be concluded by the end of August.

 

Treasurer Sarah Brunn passed out a copy of the city’s capital asset policy with a proposed change to the threshold for capitalization of assets.

 

Currently, the city’s threshold is $5,000 and the reason for the fixed asset system is to monitor and depreciate major capital assets of the city. Brunn said having lower capitalization threshold results in the city tracking a higher volume of assets in the fixed asset system.

 

Brunn said she did a comparison of the CAP of other cities and they had thresholds in the range of $3,000 to $20,000. However, she said, some cities with lower thresholds indicated a need to review their threshold levels.

 

Brunn recommends the city raise their intangible threshold to $10,000 and also amend the useful life range of computer software to three-to-10 years.

Council approved.

 

Pruszinske, speaking on behalf of Street Supervisor Joe Danielson, asked council to approve the purchase of two vehicles to be used for ball field preparation and park and trail maintenance.

 

Pruszinske said the streets department already had $18,000 designated from the parks revolving capital fund for the purchase of one utility vehicle, however, the department found a 2014 Sand Pro utility vehicle and a used SmithCo vehicle to do both jobs for the price of around $14,322.

 

The SandPro vehicle would be used to drag the ball fields, grade them and groom them while the SmithCo would be used for turf maintenance, light grading and wood chipping.

 

Council approved.

 

With the departure of Bourgeois next week, she talked about the needs of the city to hire a planner and an administrative support specialist to assist the city while a new community development director position is being sought.

 

Council Members Adam Oliver, Tracy Bertram, Lynette Brannan and Rick Hendrickson approved the new staffing suggestion while Mayor Kleis opposed.

 

Will Brannan of Autumn Ridge advised council he is looking at finding a way to prevent further spread of oak wilt on his property that is being transferred from a neighboring lot which the city owns.

 

Brannan said he and another neighbor are experiencing the oak wilt spread to their parcels and he had Gina Hugo from the county come out and assess the problem.

 

Brannan says he now is having to invest his own money to inject his trees with a fungicide to protect them from developing oak wilt.

 

Brannan said it is his goal and his neighbors to work diligently with the city to get the problem taken care of.

 

The next Becker City Council meeting is July 15 at 5 p.m.