A great deal of time wa spent at Monday’s Clear Lake City Council meeting talking about possibly bringing a solar garden to the Clear Lake community.

 

Gordy Simanton of Solar Stone gave a quick presentation of his company’s goal to bring solar energy to Clear Lake.

 

Simanton said Solar Stone is a solar-based development company with 25 years of experience in renewable energy development domestically and internationally. He said SS currently has 19 solar “garden projects in for approval in 14 counties and he is asking the City of Clear Lake to become a subscriber as well.

 

Simanton said Solar Stone’s financier is NRG Energy — the largest electricity generator and solar energy developer in the United States.

 

Simanton said Solar Stone is not about putting solar panels on the roofs of houses but to put panels in decommissioned areas (unproductive land) to generate offsite solar energy and distribute that power directly to the existing electrical grid.

 

“In no way does this disconnect anybody from their current energy source, it’s just that we provide blocks of clean energy and the city gets credits from Xcel Energy for the usage,” he said.

 

The solar garden would require approximately five acres of land to produce one megawatt of power.

 

Simanton says the solar garden works with the sunlight being converted into a direct current (DC) through the solar panels and is then inverted to convert the DC to an alternating current (AC) which is then measured for production and distributed directly to the public utility grid.

 

Last month, council heard from SunShare Community Solar and will now look into consideration from both companies as they move forward.

 

Sgt. Chad Johnson of the Sherburne County Sheriff’s Dept. gave his usual monthly update, then discussed his findings associated with the Hwy. 24 gap study Tom Dumont of MnDOT instituted last month.

 

Johnson said during his times that he watched the turn lane where a small “no turn on red” sign had been installed, he observed nearly 66% of the drivers bypass the sign or ignore it as they traveled from Hwy. 10 to Co. Rd. 24. Johnson also said it would be hard for the county to write citations for all the violators because of the number and because the sign is either too small, ineffective or obscured.

 

“I just think the people approaching the turn lane probably don’t even see the sign,” he said.

 

Johnson made some suggestions on making the sign more obvious and cited a few other area locations in Sherburne County where a red flashing sign was put up and is hard to miss.

 

“I just don’t see how we can cite people for turning on red when there’s a good chance we will fail to win the case in court because of a sign that goes unseen,” Johnson concluded.

 

Council thanked Johnson for his coverage of the study and assured him they will talk with Dumont to see what further can be done about the situation.

 

Last month, Streets Supervisor Dustin Luhning said he received  a response on the variance he submitted to the Minnesota Dept. of Health saying that cities can  have fluoride standards lowered to .07.  Member Powers suggested at the time that Luhning look into getting the fluoride standard lowered to 0.0, saying that other cities’ fluoride standards are 0.0.

 

Luhning received a letter from the MDH saying the fluoride in the drinking water must have an average concentration of 0.8 mg/L and be within the range of o.5 to 0.9 mg/L.

 

A report on the operation of the water fluoridation plant must be submitted monthly to the commissioner of health.

 

Member Connie Achman was tasked last moth to look into finding out why the train horns have to be blasted at such high levels audibly.

 

Achman said she found out that locomotive engineers must sound train horns at least 15 seconds — and no more than 20 seconds — in advance of all public grade crossings. If a train is travelling faster than 60mph, engineers will not sound the horn until it is within 1/4 miles of the crossing.

 

Achman said train horns must be sounded in a standardized pattern of two long, one short and one long blast. The pattern must be repeated or prolonged until the lead locomotive or lead cab occupies the grade crossing. She said the rules do not stipulate the duration of the long and short blasts and said the maximum volume level for a train horn is 110 decibels. The minimum level is 96 decibels.

 

She also said most BNSF locomotives have an automated sequence that is triggered by a push of a button, however, the engineer has the authority to manually adjust the blast or blasts depending on the situation or area.

 

Clerk Mechtel contacted Sherburne County Auditor Diane Arnold in regards to the city’s levy, tax rates and tax capacities and how that can be better explained to citizens.

 

Arnold said it is best if the city takes their net levy (determined by the budget process and the amount net over revenues and expenditures for city operations) and divide that by the net tax capacity for the city. That would give the city a proposed rate which is then used as a multiplier by the NTC of each of the parcels in the city — finally producing a tax portion to be collected.

 

For example, determine the property’s estimated market vale (ex.: $200,000), then determine the property’s homestead market value exclusion ($19,200), then determine the property’s taxable market value by subtracting the two ($200,000 - $19,200 = $180,800).

 

Next, multiply the taxable market value by class rate to obtain the net tax capacity ($180,800 x 1.0%= $1,808). Then determine the total local tax rate by summing the tax rates of all jurisdictions authorized to levy property taxes (ex.: County - 45%, city/town - 35%, school district - 25%, special districts - 5% = 110% — now multiply the net tax capacity by total tax rate to determine the net tax capacity-based tax ($1808 x 110% = $1,989).

 

The market value tax rate is determined by summing the market value tax rate for all taxing jurisdictions authorized to levy property taxes (county - 0%, city/town - 0%, school district - 0.15%, special districts - 0% = 0.15%). Multiply estimated market value by total market value tax rate to determine the market value-based tax ($200,000 x 0.15% = $300).

 

Finally, add the net tax capacity-based tax to the market value-=based tax to obtain the total net tax ($1,989 + $300 = $2,289).

 

The regular September council meeting will be held Tues., Sept. 8 at 7 p.m. due to Labor Day on Monday.