Council member Sam Hanson was absent for the July 10 meeting of the Big Lake City Council while all other members were present.
Water Levels
Water levels are reportedly up on Big Lake with the lake now five inches below overflow. A year ago, the lake was 24 inches below that level. That means that overall, the lake level is up 19 inches. The main concern on the lake is milfoil and invasive species. City Engineer Layne Otteson shared pictures from the fishing pier which showed significant growth of curly leafed pond weed.
“If you threw your bobber and a worm out, it would sit on top of the weeds,” Otteson said.
He is working with the Dept. of Natural Resources to get permission to “treat beyond the limits that are now allowed,” to deal with the growth of the weeds.
County Road 43
Otteson also updated the Council on the current Co. Rd. 43 project. Water and sanitary work has been completed and the focus now turns to the mini-roundabout at Glenwood Ave. The project should be finished by Labor Day.
Joint Powers Board Meeting
The minutes were approved from the June 25 Joint Powers Board meeting as a part of the consent agenda. Those minutes describe a resolution to approve the creation of Plat 7 within the Big Lake Industrial Park. A resolution that was passed at the meeting. An additional resolution was passed to approve the sale of Block 1, Lot 1 to Lion Industrial, LLC on behalf of Rawr Organics. They plan to construct a 16,700 square foot building on the 6.98 acre site. The total sale of the land was $1.
Big Lake Fire Staffing Study
The minutes from the June 20, 2024 Joint City/Township Meeting were approved. Within those minutes were the results of the recently completed staffing study for the Big Lake Fire Dept. BLFD is governed by the Big Lake Fire Board through an agreement between the city of Big Lake and Big Lake Twp. The department is a paid-on-call department with 38 authorized members. Currently, it has 34 members who provide fire and EMS services to Big Lake, Big Lake Twp., and a portion of Orrock Twp. Those combined communities form a population of 19,660 people and occupy an area that is approximately 75 square miles.
The report also detailed the make-up of the department. The average age of the department is 41 years old. Twenty-seven of its members have less than 10 years of experience and 17 have less than five. In a review of the National Incident Reporting System, the study reports that 12.48% of calls were for fire, 41.79% Rescue/EMS, 13.61% Service Calls, and 12.72% False Alarms/calls.
The study recommends that the department adopt the policy of “only responding to lift assist calls if requested by the Police Dept. and/or law enforcement to respond.” It also states that a reduction in false fire alarms can be achieved through regular maintenance, public education, fire inspections, and immediate follow-up on all false alarms.
Easy Access to City Ordinances
Gina Wolbach began her presentation to the council to request adoption of the newly completed codification of the city code by stating, “This is my big deal here. I’ve been working on this for a long time.”
Wolbach explained that codification was done to make the city code “uniform, consistent, and understandable.” She also said it will be “beneficial to staff, citizens, businesses and potential developers to have immediate access to code language.”
Because the resolution was approved the city code of ordinances will now be available online.
