Friday, March 29th, 2024 Church Directory
MARK SCHNEIDER of Bethany Bible Church led the council in a prayer to start the new year. (Photo by Katherine Cantin.)
FORMER COUNCIL MEMBER SCOTT ZETTERVALL asked that Matt Hayen’s resignation be opened for discussion. (Photo by Katherine Cantin.)

Big Lake city council prepares for new year

During last week’s city council meeting, Mayor Paul Knier asked his friend Mark Schneider from  Bethany Bible Church to lead the council and audience in a prayer for the new year. 

Reorganizational Meeting

Appointments for council members to various committees in the city were made. The city also specified which business will provide their services, including city attorney (Campbell Knutson), financial consultant (Northland Securities and Taft Stettinius & Hollister), official newspaper (Elk River Star News), official depository (US Bank), and secondary depository (Old National Bank, Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., RBC Dain Rauscher, and UBS). 

Chief Hayen Resignation

Two individuals spoke during open forum. The first was former council member Scott Zettervall, who requested that the acceptance of former Police Chief Matt Hayen’s resignation be removed from the consent agenda in order to have a discussion about the issue.

Molly Hayen, Matt Hayen’s wife, also spoke during open forum, voicing her dissatisfaction with the way the city handled the issue.

Mayor Knier honored Zettervall’s request by removing the acceptance of Hayen’s resignation from the consent agenda. All council members expressed their sorrow for the situation but felt that Hayen had made a significant enough mistake to warrant the acceptance of his resignation. 

More information on the nature of the complaint and investigation of Hayen was released before the end of the week, and readers can find Bill Morgan’s story on this information on page 1.

Road Work Public Hearing

Lake Ridge Dr. and 166th. St. will be added to the streets project for this year. As part of the project, 166th St. will be made into a collector road, meaning it will have the capacity to handle much more traffic, will be wider, and will feature new turn lanes. This was done since the city discovered that there was a significant amount of traffic on the road already. 

Open houses for the residents on these two roads were held in summer and fall of 2021. 

As per city policy, 60% of the construction cost will be assessed to the benefitting property. Property owners may pay this back over 10 years with their annual property taxes or may pay the cost upfront and avoid inflation.

Bond Sale

In order to pay for the streets project, the city took out a bond. Five companies bid to offer this service to the city. The lowest bid was 1.39% interest for the city. This was an aggressive bid that was 1% lower than the next lowest bid. Council was pleased with the results which came from some historically low interest rates. 

Student Liaison

Ella Dotzler, student liaison from Big Lake High School, gave a review of the “Hornet Hospitality Room” project. Over the holidays, Minnco Credit Union and students at the schools would bring in items such as school supplies, backpacks, and jackets. These items are stored in the social worker’s office and students are able to privately enter and take any of the items they need. 

Water/Wastewater

Dan Childs of the water/wastewater department noted the increase in water usage between 2020 and 2021. The city is growing, and the water usage shows it. The wastewater facility is already under strain. 

Childs shared an interesting video of the BLPD drone investigating a city water tower. After strong wind events, public works staff always make a point of investigating the hatch on each water tower to make sure all the equipment is still secure. This used to take hours of manual labor, with staff climbing the towers to personally investigate the tops. Now, they simply borrow the police drone and take a recording of the top of the water tower. 

In Other Business, the Council:

• Held a public hearing on and approved a final plat for Premier Marine;

• Accepted donations for the Big Lake Freedom Rock and towards the farmer’s market;

• Heard reports from the mayor, council, and city administrator.