The Becker City Council met Tuesday to discuss the Oak Savannah Project, an easement vacation, streets and trails, the 2020 preliminary levies and the Farm Friends Barn move.

Farm Friends Barn

Jean Johnson gave a brief overview of the scheduled barn move from the Industrial Park to the Cox property near the Sherburne History Center.

Johnson said she was every excited that the project was becoming a reality. Wednesday, a moving crew will pick up the unused barn on the Northern Metals site and move it through the streets of Becker to its new home.

“At 9:30 a.m. the move begins,” said Johnson. “We should be able to reach Co. Rd. 8 by around 10:15 or 10:30 a.m. We will then move across and up Hwy. 10 to Edgewood and move the barn through a farmer’s soybean field.”

Johnson pointed out she has permission from the farmer to cross their land.

“The foundation at the new site is ready and the barn will be placed nearby on Wednesday until they can place it on the foundation the next day,” she said. Wednesday, we plan on having festivities and events for kids and families.”

A couple of drones will be following the move to take video and stills and Johnson mentioned Boyd Huppert of KARE11 is possibly going to attend to do a story on the move.

Oak Savannah Park

Gina Hugo of Sherburne County gave a brief presentation on the Oak Savannah project to replenish the forests and vegetation.

She presented council with an outline on what the county plans to do to resurrect the park and “restore fire dependent plant communities to a disturbance regime,”

Hugo also mentioned they plan to hold a public meeting Oct. 17 from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Sherburne History Center.

Streets & Trails

Bill Zidon of SEH said bids were opened Monday for the 2019 street and trail improvement project. Zidon said the bids are for the 3rd Street trail from Donnelly Street to Brenda Blvd. and for Parkview Drive from Sherburne Avenue to Forrest Drive including all cul-de-sacs. Also included are Northway Circle, Park Manor Circle, Frontier Circle and Julian Lane.

Work will also be done on Hole #9 of the Local 9 to help with storm water drainage from Parkview Drive. Zidon said work is proposed to be done in the off-season as to not impact golf activities.

Zidon told council seven bids ranging from $977,406.60 to $1,378,842.25 were received. The engineer’s estimate was for $1,009,700.

Knife River Corp. was the low bidder and council approved awarding the contract to them for the street and trail project.

Easement Vacation

Marie Pflipsen said staff completed an application for the vacation of a drainage and utility easement located on the property identified as 60-486-0205 and legally described as Lot 1, Block 2 of Energy Park Fifth Addition. 

She said the 40’ easement lies in the western ½ of the property and was originally dedicated as part of the Energy Park Second Addition Plat. 

Pflipsen said staff is recommending the majority of the 40’ drainage and utility easement be vacated except for the northernmost 20’, as there is a manhole there that the city needs to maintain access to. The 30’ drainage and utility easement on the north side, the 10’ drainage and utility easement on the south side and the 10’ eastern drainage and utility easement would remain in place. 

Pflipsen said the original outlot has changed multiple times since the original plat. The change in parcel layout has eliminated the need for the 40’ easement. Staff also found that the easement contains no utilities except for the aforementioned manhole. 

Council approved calling for a public hearing, for an easement vacation to be held at the planning commission meeting Oct. 28.

Preliminary Levies

Connie Robinson said earlier this spring, staff started the budgeting process. The state requests that all jurisdictions with tax authority certify proposed levies by Sept. 30. These levies are used in preparing parcel specific notices of proposed property taxes for each parcel of property for taxes payable in 2020. 

Robinson said at $1.7+ million, Becker will see a 3.64% increase from last year’s budget.

After the short presentation, Robinson asked council to approve Resolution 19-56  to establish preliminary levies for the city and EDA, as well as schedule a public hearing date and time for final budget and levy approval in December. 

Up Next

The next Becker City Council meeting is Oct. 1 at 6 p.m.