Recently, the Clear Lake City Council met to discuss current business. One of the main topics at the meeting was recognizing McDonald’s Meats for their centurion anniversary.
McDonald’s Meats
Nicole Pelzer, constituent service officer for Congresswoman Michele Bachmann was present and read the Congressional Record Statement honoring 100 years of McDonald’s Meats.
Mayor Goenner also presented a plaque acknowledging McDonalds Meats on their 100th year celebration.
McDonald’s Meats began in 1914 when John Leo McDonald purchased the Fred Mosford Meat Market in Clear Lake with the intention to uphold its status as a community staple.
John’s son, Richard, acquired the family business in 1954 and the first addition to the McDonald’s facility was completed. Richard’s son, Dave, took over the business in 1989. He expanded the facility for a second time to keep up with production and began experimenting with jerky flavors.
The fourth generation, Travis and Jennifer, took over ownership of McDonald’s in 2009 and is leading the company into its 100th year of business.
EDA Participation
Dan Weber and Kathleen Heaney from Sherburne County presented council with a resolution that authorizes the city to participate in the Sherburne County Economic Development Authority.
This committee currently consists of county board members, city elected officials and Sherburne County employees.
Clear Lake City Council Member Dale Powers questioned whether Clear Lake has any representatives currently on the board. Weber said “no”, not at this time. This advisory committee meets every January and/or as necessary.
Maintenance Report
Public Works Supervisor Dustin Luhning said a quarter of the city sewer lines were cleaned and televised. Luhning also said he has sent out letters to those residents who were randomly picked by the MN Department of Health for water quality samples.
Luhning said staff has been noticing damages being made to park equipment and vandalism in the park area that has increased in the past few months. Luhning has ordered more cameras to be installed.
Clerk Kari Mechtel suggested that a park committee be organized to work on new park equipment placement for next spring. The park committee will be Mayor Tim Goenner, Member Claudia Page and Luhning.
Resident Tom Boelz questioned why the sewer only accounts are being gouged on a monthly basis. The council decided to look at the rates again before 2015 to see what can be done regarding these sewer only rates.
Water and Sewer
Powers advised council that the sewer authority has hired Shannon Marklowitz to fill the administrative assistant position.
Powers is still working with the sewer authority for a reimbursement for charges that the cities occurred during the months when the city asked residents to run their water to prevent freezing. Powers will keep the council posted.
With upcoming well head protection amendment due dates, it was recommended the current city clerk and public works supervisor be added to replace former employees that were listed as co-managers.
GPS Data Collection
Luhning feels residents may have been misled regarding past city utility mapping that was done by former employees. Luhning wanted to clarify that past employees had only located manholes, hydrants and newly installed water and sewer services. Past Employees had only been able to locate old services when those services needed attention but most of the old town had not been mapped out in past years which leaves Luhning trying to locate them from maps dated from 1978.
Luhning feels that by having this data collected, it would be beneficial to current employees and for future use and growth.
Luhning was advised by MN Rural Water and MN Department of Health that if a disaster were to occur and staff was not available, then Emergency Services would be able to come in and work on getting services up and running just by having this current data collected and available.
Luhning presented to the council that the previous quote of $7,500 stands and is good until the end of 2014.
A motion was made to move forward with having the GPS Data Collection and GIS Mapping completed.
The next Clear Lake City Council meeting is Oct. 6 at 7 p.m.
