Becker City Council discussed at length Tuesday how they plan to deal with a homeowner who so far has refused to comply to legal warnings and citations in regards to junk, garbage, storage and hazardous material violations on their property.

 

Attorney Scott Lepak asked council to consider determinating the extent of violation with the possible end solution of abating the property so the city (or county) can move to clean up the property and assess the charges back to the current homeowner or bank mortgagee.

 

The property — located at 12099 39th Ave. and owned by Gina Menard— has been subjected to violations over the course of the last two years. The property shows numerous heavy-grade vehicles (trucks) in the driveway that hold numerous barrels of hazardous material. The trucks surround heaps of engine parts, containers and other eyesores for neighboring homes.

The extent of the rubbish runs along the south side of the home and even into the back yard.

 

Lepak said that in August of 2013, the homeowner appeared before a district court judge who ordered the junk to be removed within 30 days. In September, Becker Police showed up at the property and saw that there was no compliance. The homeowner was given another 30 day notice to clean things up and the violations continued until around June of this year. At that time, BPD noticed the homeowner was making what appeared to be an effort to clean up the area.

 

However, a month later, the property returned to its original violated state.

 

As violations continued to be issued, the homeowner failed to appear for a criminal hearing on Sept. 13 so on Oct. 2, Sherburne County Planning and Zoning decided to get involved and they issued their own notice of violations.

 

Lepak said the criminal process is still ongoing with the homeowner continuing to be cited for the violations. Lepak said he was interested to see if council wanted to discuss, investigate and make an initial determination on the hazardous condition so the city can prepare a notice of a public hearing on the matter.

 

The public hearing would allow all owners, tenants, neighbors, mortgagees and any other lien holders to give their comments or concerns to the city at that time.

 

Council agreed the situation was in violation of city code and was affecting neighboring homes with property values and asked Lepak and staff to move ahead with setting up a public hearing and work with the county to get the property cleaned up.

 

Lepak said he and City Administrator Greg Pruszinske sat down with the police officer union representative to talk about establishing a new collective bargaining agreement.

 

Lepak said the contract is a three-year deal for 2015, 2016 and 2017 and allows for the city to set budgets based on the contract. A 2% adjustment was suggested for the first two years with a 2.5% adjustment for 2017.

 

In the agreement was increasing the uniform allowance to $25 a year which means in 2015, the uniforms will be at $625, then go up to $650 in 2016 and $675 in 2017.

 

Vacations were also discussed as part of the agreement as well as grievances changed from a selection of an arbitrator in seven days to 30 days. There were also some small sick leave adjustments made.

 

Deli Plus, Jubilee Foods, Jubilee Liquor, Cave Wine & Spirits and Pebble Creek Golf Club were approved for tobacco licenses for 2015 while SuperAmerica was also approved but will not have the license issued until all late property taxes are settled with the city.

 

Lepak said the city has sent out formal default papers on the Hunter’s Ridge lease and is considering all legal action in order to finalize the termination of the lease.

 

Pruszinske has been in discussions with Shelly Mattson, owner of Hunter’s Ride and Nix Bar & Grill, and her bank in regards to distribution of assets.

 

Lepak said the matter is being discussed at several committee levels.

 

Thirteen-year-old Mitchell Sakry was honored for serving the city and earning an Eagle Scout merit badge for his duties.

 

Sakry worked with Jamie Cassidy at the BCC and his staff to repair a portable sign that had been damaged during a summer storm last year. Sakry and his father, Tim, and Mitchell’s friends reconstructed parts of the sign that is currently being used along Sherburne Avenue outside the Becker Community Center.

 

“Mitchell fundraised and designed all the work himself,” said Cassidy. “He did an outstanding job. We thank and honor him.”

 

Mitchell then gave a short slide presentation showing his work on the project from start to finish.

 

City Planner Therese Haffner asked council to consider amending the city’s zoning ordinance to allow Becker Screen Printing within a highly commercial zoning district.

 

The screen printing business has a purchase agreement in place to buy the old Body’s by Ralph building located at Brenda Blvd. and First Street SE. The only way to allow for such a business in that district is for it to have a retail store in conjunction with the main business.

 

Becker Screen Printing says they plan to have a retail store in the front of their business occupying at least 15% of the building’s area.

 

• Shepherd of Grace was approved to bond at $8 million through issuance by the city. Brunn said the issuer (city) is in no way liable for any default on the loan and the city will in effect gain $20,000 as the issuer while the business (Shepherd of Grace) can get a better rate by going through the city;

 

• Mayor Lefty Kleis thanked Cassidy and his staff for the Christmas tree lighting ceremony held last Sunday at the BCC. He also thanked all the vendors and the patrons who showed up and acknowledged former Mayor Dave Graning for making the whole tree lighting event possible;

 

• Kleis also thanked the Becker Police Dept. for the city being named the 11th safest city in the nation according to a SafeWise survey. He also saluted the chief for receiving a certificate for his leadership in continuing education and community involvement;

 

• Member Rick Hendrickson also thanked the chief and the BPD for allowing him to go on a ride-a-long last Wednesday night. Hendrickson said it was busy and was eye-opening and was “one of my most memorable times as a council member.”. He thanked Sgt. Lawson for showing him what the police officers face on a daily basis;

 

• The proposed pre-school education program to be held at City Park was not approved;

 

• The 2015 fee schedule was approved with minor changes added.

 

The next Becker City Council meeting is Dec. 16 at 6 p.m.