Clear Lake Township Chairman Gary Gray attended the Clear Lake City Council meeting Monday night to discuss concerns with the fire contract they have with the city.

 

Gray commended the Clear Lake Fire Dept. for their work, and said the issue they have has nothing to do with the department; it’s mainly verbiage in regards to equity. 

 

The tax base determines the percentage of the contract each entity pays; currently the city pays 8%, with Clear Lake and Palmer Townships paying the remainder. The townships also pay run charges, and the city has full control of how the fire department is run.

 

Gray told the council they were concerned the fire contract isn’t equitable to all parties, and presented them with research he’d done on what neighboring townships are paying.  He found all of them paying half of what Clear Lake Township is, and none paying run charges.

 

He also informed the council the contract states all run charges are to be returned to the townships, which hasn’t been done and was an oversight by all parties. 

 

After more discussion, Mayor Tim Goenner said he felt the township had brought up good points, and all three parties and the fire department needed to have a meeting.

 

Council Member Dale Powers thanked Gray for bringing the issues to their attention, and said until a new contract had been negotiated the city could at least start researching what their obligation is for reimbursing the townships for the run charges. 

 

A public hearing concerning rezoning the commercial property on the north side of Hwy 10 back to residential was held before the start of the regular monthly meeting. 

 

The rezoning request was made after owners began having difficulty selling the properties due to their commercial zoning designation. The structures on the properties are single-family dwellings.

 

Linus Gould asked if he would have to worry about the property getting rezoned back to commercial at a later time. Powers replied that although there were no guarantees, he couldn’t foresee a situation in which that would happen.

With no more public participation, the hearing was closed, and a motion was made and carried to rezone the properties from B2 to R1.

 

Assistant Chief Chad McKay, who is also president of the relief association, approached the council to ask for approval of two ratifications.

 

The first ratification was to increase years of service payout $100 per year to $1,600 in order to attract new firefighters and get closer to matching what neighboring departments are offering.

 

The second ratification was to abolish the rule that retired firefighters had to pay $10 each year in order to remain in good standing and receive their retirement pay.

 

Both ratifications were unanimously approved.

 

Keith Yapp from Stantec informed the council the latest test well was producing extremely well, and they should have the water quality results back in the next two weeks.

 

Gustafson Trailers will be leasing a spot with Walks on Water until a permanent property is found for the business.

 

Clerk Kari Mechtel informed the council there had been some minor park vandalism, however the perpetrators had been caught due to the surveillance cameras.

 

The sheriff reported 30 calls for service for the month of April, with one third of them traffic, followed by medicals.

 

Mayor Goenner informed the sergeant he had a request from residents for the police to make their presence known in the Hunter Lake Bluffs area, primarily due to teenagers not putting their fires out after parties. The sergeant indicated they would, and advised calling the department’s non-emergency number any time there is an issue.

 

The next Clear Lake Council meeting will be June 5 at 7 p.m.