Big Lake’s Brand Identity Project wrapped up with Como Lake Marketing Partners finishing their design projects. With the completion of this branding project, Big Lake has new logos for each department, a style guide for official mailings and other texts, promotional videos, powerpoint and document templates, advertisements, and other items. These will be used to promote Big Lake to new businesses and residents.

The new tagline and idea behind the new identity of the city is, “Live Big!” The new city logo features the city’s name, the new tagline, and an overhead image of Big and Mitchel Lakes.

New logos and other design items will be integrated starting in September, though city staff predict it will take a fair amount of time to switch everything over. 

Open Forum

Gloria Vande Brake of the Big Lake Chamber of Commerce spoke briefly about the annual Big Lake Block Party which will take place Aug. 21 and will feature lots of activities for kids. The price will be five dollars for children over five, and tickets are available for pre-sale at the chamber website.

Norland Truck Sales

Council reviewed a preliminary concept plan for Norland Truck Sales. The location of the proposed business site would be off of Hwy. 10 west, near El Loro, the Friendly Buffalo, Big Lake Car Condos, and other businesses.

The business hopes to move to Big Lake from their current location in Savage. After opening in 2017, the company has experienced rapid growth and needs a larger location.

Big Lake has an “innovative industrial zone” which is a place where companies who are not able or ready to move into a more traditional industrial park setting. Regulations are more relaxed in this area, making the area attractive to growing businesses. The zone has been established for about two years now. Norland was very interested in Big Lake because of this opportunity.

Currently, truck sales are not allowed in this zone, so, to proceed, the city would need to hold a public hearing to fix the issue. The council also discussed issues regarding access to the road. However, the current property owner said he’s already been discussing these issues with Norland and working towards solutions on their end. He plans to have the issues that concerned the council resolved within the next couple of weeks.

Monthly Dept. Reports

Big Lake Fire Dept. had 38 calls for the month of July, which included nine fires.

BLPD had 919 calls for service. Permit to purchase firearms will now be directed through the police dept. for city residents, rather than the Sheriff’s Office (township residents still have to go through the county.) A significant robbery took place at the liquor store with more than $450 of items stolen.

The engineering dept. gave an update on the street and utility project. Council member Ken Halverson asked about repairing a retaining wall in Big Lake (the lake) since the water is low. Unfortunately, getting a permit from the DNR takes time, so it was not on the radar of the city engineer at the time of the meeting.

The city engineer reported that watering restrictions are still in place. He asked council to give him any comments regarding the city comprehensive plan before it is presented at the next meeting. 

Halverson reported working on the city budget with the finance committee, his personal goal being to see the budget increase no more than three or four percent annually. 

Council member Kim Noding reported reviewing budgets for the Fire Board and BLEDA.

Council member Paul Seefeld reported that CMRP reviewed the city re-branding project.

In Other Business,the Council:

• Joined MnWARN (Minnesota Water/Wastewater Response Network);

• Went to a closed session to consider a property purchase.