A special Big Lake City council meeting was called June 14 to interview police chief candidates. 

Two candidates from within the department applied for the position, Acting Chief Matt Hayen, and Officer Sam Olson. After over a week of consideration, the council offered Matt Hayen the position. Hayen has been serving as the Acting Chief since Joel’s Scharf’s medical leave and eventual resignation from the position. 

Council member Ken Halverson stated that he wished some external candidates had also been considered for the position. Because of this, he chose to abstain from the vote to appoint Hayen as the next police chief.

Council member Paul Seefeld responded by stating that the decision to look internally only was recommended by the personnel committee in an effort to make the best decision for the city. 

Mayor Paul Knier thanked both of the candidates for applying for the position. 

CommonBond Communities 

The board approved a resolution of support for CommonBond Communities to submit their tax credit application with Minnesota Housing. These are the same apartments that were such a hot topic during the last regular meeting, but the board approved the resolution without discussion, as it was only a resolution of support as CommonBond makes its application, and does not have a bearing on the council’s final decision regarding the senior housing.

Later in the meeting, Hanna Klimmek of community development noted that CommonBond was still looking at their plan and trying to determine if the items the council asked them to consider were feasible and whether they wished to continue. 

Open Forum

Troy Stegora spoke to the council about an issue with a parcel of city property that bordered his property. The city owns the small bit of land for the use of snow storage, but Stegora has been using that property to access his own land. He ran into some trouble upon discovering he did not have the proper easement to use the land that way. He told the council that he has been maintaining the property himself, so he would like to either become the owner of the property or have the city take over maintenance.

Swimmer’s Itch

City Staff was planning to treat Big Lake for swimmer’s itch this week. This is a process that is done only along the shoreline with the swimmers, and is completely harmless. The beach will not need to be closed during this process. 

Follow-up on Open Forum

In response to the previous meeting’s open forum speakers, City Administrator Clay Wilfahrt has been speaking with the veterans who were unsatisfied with the condition of the flags at the city’s Memorial Day services. Together, they developed a plan to care for the new flags so the situation does not occur again. Wilfahrt stated that he planned to contact the American Legion to follow up on this conversation.

Wilfahrt also stated he has been speaking with the city attorney regarding the request that Big Lake become a second amendment safe city. He told the council members that he expected the item to be on the agenda at the next regular meeting in July.