The mood at last week’s Big Lake City council meeting was light, as presenters battled to have the shortest presentation. Their efforts were rewarded, as the meeting clocked in just under one hour. Even so, some important topics were discussed.

DWI All-Star

Officer Tyler Sinclair of the Big Lake Police Dept. was recognized for his DWI arrest record for the year of 2019. He received an award from the DWI All-Star Team. Officer Sinclair arrested 43 drunk drivers last year, out of a total of 107 arrests for the entire BLPD. Officer Sinclair stated that learning to spot drunk drivers had become a passion of his since starting out as a police officer.

Officer Sinclair was awarded a baseball cap and a bat which was engraved with his name and the honor which he had won. Normally, these would be bestowed upon the officer at a Twins’ baseball game, but given the fact that they are not accepting any fans in the stadium at the moment, it was decided that Officer Sinclair would receive the award during the bi-weekly city council meeting instead.

New Restaurant Coming to Big Lake

Young entrepreneur Mike Nget applied for a liquor license for a restaurant he will be opening soon. The restaurant will operate under the business name Cambo Flare, LLC.

Nget plans to serve Asian-Fusion food, and says that the cuisine will be “a bit more high-end” than your typical, greasy, Chinese takeout affair. The location for the restaurant will be at 16777 Marketplace Drive, which is located on the north side of Hwy. 10 across from El Loro, in the same building as the gas station, and the former location of Hwy. 10 BBQ.

The board approved the liquor license, and it will now go on to receive approval from the state, a process which is expected to take about two weeks. Nget, enthused by the board’s decision, left the meeting with a triumphant call of, “Drinks are on me!” Mayor Wallen determined that accepting this offer may constitute bribery, so the meeting continued as planned.

COVID-19 Grant Program

The City of Big Lake received $863,098 from CARES Act funds. $550,000 will be given back to local businesses, which is just under two thirds of the total amount granted.

Thirty-three different applications were submitted from local businesses for funding. City staff recommended giving $100,000 to a non-profit which remains shut down due to COVID-19, $35,000 each to restaurants and bars which applied for funding, $20,000 to businesses which were not eligible or otherwise did not receive federal or state funding, $10,000 to all other non-essential businesses and non-profits, and $5,000 to essential businesses which applied. The idea was to give the majority of the money to the non-essential businesses which were most affected by the COVID-19 crisis.

The board approved the recommended model for distributing the grant money.

2020 Street Improvements

The city of Big Lake will be getting some upgrades to streets around the schools in order to ensure safe travel for pedestrian students. The project was awarded to Concrete Idea, Inc. from Plymouth, who will be able to provide the upgrades for $176,176. The Minnesota Dept. of Transportation will give Big Lake a grant of $115,331.20, or 80% of the cost, to help pay for these improvements.

The improvements will include adding a sidewalk to Phyllis Street, an improvement to the Minnesota Ave. and Phyllis St. pedestrian crossing, a new pedestrian crossing at Glenwood Ave. and Birch Ave., and new crossing flashers, like those seen on Eagle Lake Rd. N. (CR-5).

Big Lake is also looking to update city streets in a more general capacity, as some streets, such as Powell St., are in a substantial amount of disrepair. The city only received one bid from one company to handle the project, and it was nearly twice the original estimated amount they received from the engineer who first priced the project. It is believed that COVID-19 has affected the companies that the city normally reaches out to for these types of projects, and that is why they only received one, overpriced bid. City staff recommended taking all the separate components of the project and splitting them up to give to different contractors. It will mean a lot more time and paperwork for city staff and council members, but it will hopefully result in a large cost-savings over the long run.

Council moved to reject the solitary bid received. A plan for how to move forward will be presented at the next board meeting, Wed. at 6pm. The council noted that they regretted rejecting proposals in the past, as the situation has definitely worsened.

Streets and Parks

Big Lake has recently purchased some Zero Turn Mowers, which will make maintaining Big Lake Parks much easier.

There has been extra vandalism across several of the parks, which the city has been trying to remove as quickly as possible.

Some concrete pads for picnic tables were added to several parks. City staff is working on adding a table to Lake Side Park dedicated to the memory of Councilwoman Rose Johnson.