(Reporter’s note: This article is covering the Big Lake City Council Meeting of April 28. A story about the council meeting of Wednesday will be released in next week’s Patriot.)
For the first time in months, the Big Lake City Council had a full dais as they welcomed new councilwoman Kim Noding.
Cookie Donation
Big Lake Girl Scouts Troop 333 accepted donations for the service men and women of Big Lake (inlcuding members of the BLPD, BLFD, council members, and veterinarians) at their cookie sales booths this year. They used the open forum portion of the evening to distribute almost 400 boxes of cookies, thanking the first responders of the city for their excellent service.
2020 Audit
The council reviewed the 2020 audit. With 2020 being such a crazy year, the city’s spending and revenues did not quite match up with what was expected in 2019, but this is not unique to Big Lake by any means. The only real issue the auditor found was a lack of separation of duties in the finance department, which she said was not uncommon for a city of Big Lake’s size.
CARES funding did help to cover some of the expenses of the city. For example, the city over-budgeted for public safety, due to the CARES funding they were able to channel to make improvements to the BLPD and BLFD.
2021 Street Improvement Project
The council accepted bids for the street improvement project. City engineer Layne Otteson said the bids were very favorable. He proceeded to go over the project, what work is expected, and that the work is expected to begin around Memorial Day.
The council awarded the bid for the work to Asphalt Surface Technologies Corporation from St. Cloud for a total of $2,588,617.79.
Finance, Liquor Store Update
The finance committee’s Deb Wegeleben gave updates for the first quarter of the year. Greg Zurbey, manager for the liquor store, jumped in at the end of her presentation to help answer council questions about the revenue the liquor store made for the city. The store has had much success over the last year, and has already paid the city about $900,000 for the years of 2020 and 2021, while still retaining another million in their own account. These are unprecedented numbers, and far above what the city had budgeted. There was some discussion about channelling extra funds to special projects, like they did to fund McDowall trail before. This would give the liquor store the opportunity to advertise that they are using profits to pay for, as an example, a park update or other special project. The council was thrilled at the prospect, excited to provide special projects without needing to burden the taxpayers.
In Other Business, the Council:
• Approved the hiring of Bruce Frandle and Randy Bader;
• Accepted the resignations of Dustin Vickerman, Dave Sperling, and Dean Nelson;
• Agreed to advertise to fill the positions of Planning Commissioner and Planning Technician;
• Heard a presentation about the city’s audit for the year 2020;
• Accepted the resignation of BLPD Chief Joel Scharf;
• Made a change amending the city’s ordinance regarding solar farms and solar gardens in the city;
• Made changes to the city council committee appointments to reflect Noding’s appointment to the council;
• Discussed the process of finding a replacement for Chief Joel Scharf;
• Heard department and committee reports.
