“We blew it.”

 

That was the remark from one of the co-owners of the Deli Plus gas station at Tuesday night’s city council meeting  during a public hearing on tobacco violations.

 

Kristy Gilyard-Kelly, 60, gave her account of what happened on June 22 when the Becker Police Dept. and members of the Sherburne County Public Health agency conducted tobacco compliance checks for all area businesses selling tobacco.

 

“The person who sold to the minor was in his first week of employment,” Gilyard-Kelly said. “And I know that’s not a good excuse but it’s so hard to find good employees.”

 

The seller of the tobacco was an 18-year-old male and the minor, according to Gilyard-Kelly was a friend who the cashier thought was of age.

 

“They were classmates and our employee just thought they were old enough,” she said.

 

Despite her appeal, Gilyard-Kelly knew of the inevitable — a civil penalty and a criminal penalty for the cashier.

 

“I just wanted to say we will try and do better and hopefully we won’t be back here for this,” she said.

 

The civil penalty means the city can enforce a $100 fine for the violation and the store will have a full year to have it expunged from their record. However, if they are in violation for a second time, they could be facing a $250 fee along with a seven-day license suspension. For a third offense, the party could face a $750 fee and a 30-day license suspension.

 

As far as the criminal penalty, charges have been brought upon the cashier who sold the tobacco to the minor and he is facing a penalty from the courts.

The store, Good Spirits and Smoke, was also in violation of the compliance check and will face the civil and criminal penalties as weel. No one from Good Spirits and Smoke attended Tuesday’s council meeting.

 

Mayor Jerome “Lefty” Kleis announced that Treasurer Sarah Brunn, was named the safety award winner for the month of June for her role in promoting safety and spearheading work on a wellness program throughout the city.

 

Brunn was not in attendance at Tuesday’s meeting.

 

Kleis read aloud a document proclaiming Aug. 4, 2015 as Night to Unite in the City of Becker.

 

The Night to Unite event is held each year throughout the country and is designed for neighbors in neighborhoods to get to know each other, build neighborhood involvement and bring awareness to crime prevention and local law enforcement efforts.

 

Neighborhoods are encouraged to hold “block parties” or gatherings in their neighborhoods or at local parks to increase public safety for all citizens and work together to fight crime and victimization.

 

The Night to Unite event is held Tues., Aug. 4 thus moving the first monthly Becker City Council meeting to the next day — Wed., Aug. 5 — to accommodate.

 

• A partial pay request was honored to Rice Lake Construction in the amount of $17,150 for work done on the WWTF clarifier project. The payment Tuesday was the final payment due to Rice Lake Construction which brought the construction portion of the project right in on budget at $343,000;

 

• Citizen Roger Bigalke commended City Administrator Greg Pruszinske for lowering the flags outside of city hall to half staff this week in honor of the veterans who were killed in KY recently. Bigalke is also asking all residents who fly flags to continue to fly them at half staff until at least the end of the month or until every Marine and Navy officer is buried and placed to rest;

 

• Bigalke also asked the city to update the citizens of Becker on the progress of the quiet zones the city is putting in along the railroad tracks. Mayor Kleis said he would ensure someone got back to Bigalke and an update be given to all citizens at another time;

 

• Kleis reminded residents to fill out the Hwy. 10 corridor beautification survey by the end of the week;

 

• Pruszinske reminded citizens the bridge on Co. Rd. 24 will be under construction soon and detours will be posted in the area.

 

Pruszinske informed council that AT&T is asking the City of Becker to reduce the current monthly rent of the Nature’s Edge tower by 10% per year with a three-year rent guarantee. They also put in a request to add one additional five-year renewal term.

 

AT&T is currently under contract with the city for a monthly rate of $1,900 which escalates by three percent each year thereafter. Pruszinske said he is currently conducting a market research on the topic and wanted to know what council felt about the proposed restructuring of the contract.

 

Rick Hendrickson said, “I don’t think we are overpriced. A deal is a deal.”

 

Mayor Kleis agreed.

 

“I think we should hold to what we have in place,” he said.

 

Adam Oliver concurred, saying, “let’s play hardball.”

 

Pruszinske said he will finish the research and send out the results to council via email.

 

Police Chief Brent Baloun updated council on the progress he and Rob Zils have made in regards to adding security to city hall, council chambers, the police station and other city entities.

 

Baloun said he has been in contact with two security companies who have given him quotes on costs associated with putting up cameras on buildings, installing card readers on doors and beefing up windows and barriers. 

 

Both companies —Russell Security of Buffalo and Pro-Tec Design of Minneapolis — came in with quotes in the $25,000 to $30,000 range, depending on quality of equipment and software.

 

The next Becker City Council meeting is Wed., Aug.5 at 5 p.m.