At their recent meeting, the Big Lake City Council had on their agenda an appeal for a denial of a massage license, a Goldenrod Gled development application, and the annual library report. 

Therapeutic Massage License Denial

The city recently denied a massage license for Xiaoyan Wu. Ms. Wu appeared before the council at the March 22nd meeting to appeal the decision. 

Leah Koch, city attorney, briefly went over the reasons for the original denial, including Wu’s failure to disclose denials of other license applications, a previous conviction of providing massage services without a license, and a previous municipality and employer under which she was licensed. These reasons all lead to staff denying the application. 

Wu was called upon to give a statement as a part of the appeal process, but her translator had not shown up to the meeting as planned, and she responded by communicating that she did not speak much English. The council became immediately concerned that Wu would not be able to adequately defend herself or understand their questions, so the issue was tabled for such a time as she could have her translator with her. 

Goldenrod Glen Development 

Aeon Big Lake Station LLC applied to develop a senior living apartment building. The building will be four stories with 75 units. It will offer underground parking and outdoor amenities. 

The developer also requested to take ownership of a drainage easement on Station St., currently owned by the city. To use in their development plan. They planned to implement another drainage solution instead. Council did not agree to this at the meeting, but did hold a public hearing regarding the issue. No one spoke during the hearing. 

Annual GRRL Library Report

Margot Berry of the Big Lake Great River Regional Library came to give the annual presentation. 

Last year, the library added three additional operating hours during the week to better serve patrons. There were 55,981 items checked out of the library during the year, and there were 80 new borrowers out of 2,317 total borrowers. 

Their Locally Growin’ campaign was unsuccessful, only raising $155 out of a goal of $750. Their goal this year is to raise $300, which they will use to bring new STEM items into the library. 

Berry noted the library’s gratitude to the Friends of the Big Lake Library group for their support, as well as to other community organizations who support the library.