Newly-elected members of the Grand Marais City Council took the oath of office and participated in their first meeting Jan. 14 at City Hall. (L-R) Anton Moody, David Mills and Mayor Jay Arrowsmith DeCoux. There is still one vacancy on the board; interested candidates should contact City Hall.
Grand Marais City Council’s Jan. 14 meeting began with new members Jay Arrowsmith DeCoux, David Mills and Anton Moody taking the oath of office and getting to work on a lengthy agenda that included both council and citizen appointments, the future of a proposed district biomass heating project, and an energy efficiency assessment of City Hall.
Councilor Tim Kennedy— the lone hold-over from council’s previous board— was unanimously chosen to retain his position as acting mayor, a designation that allows Kennedy to fulfill the mayor’s duties in the absence of Arrowsmith DeCoux.
The list of other councilor appointments saw Kennedy appointed to the cable board, planning commission, public utilities commission (PUC) and Active Living/Safe Routes to School.
Mayor Arrowsmith DeCoux will represent the city on the library board, North Shore Management Board, personnel committee, public utilities board and the North House Folk School.
Moody will attend meetings of the Economic Development Authority (EDA), Arrowhead Regional Development Commission, public utilities board, safety committee, Animal Advocates and the Cook County Local Energy Project (CCLEP).
Mills will serve on the park board, personnel committee, public utilities board, YMCA board and Northwoods Food Project.
Arrowsmith DeCoux noted that once a fifth member of the city council is chosen, some of the assignments will likely be re-visited and revised to include the new councilor. Councilors were asked to be on the lookout for interested candidates, with an eye toward making an appointment at the Jan. 28 meeting. The appointee will serve for two years, filling the unexpired term of Jan Sivertson, who was elected last fall to serve as a Cook County commissioner. Arrowsmith DeCoux urged anybody interested in the position to contact him or call City Hall and put in an application.
Moving on to citizen appointments on other panels, Hal Greenwood was re-assigned to another six-year term on the EDA; Helen Muth was placed on the library board; Sally Berg and Kaye Tavernier will sit on the park board; Hal Greenwood and Michael Garry were chosen for seats on the planning commission; and George Wilkes will replace Adam Harju on the three-member PUC.
In a final bit of annual housekeeping, the Cook County News-Herald was chosen as the city’s official newspaper; Kennedy and Arrowsmith DeCoux were named to serve as official signatories; and a list of five financial institutions (Grand Marais State Bank, North Shore Federal Credit Union, Security State Bank, LMC and Morgan Stanley Smith Barney) was approved to again act as depositories for city funds.
New council accepts grant for district heating project
Moving on to other items, council voted to accept two grants of $50,000 each that will be used to fund the next steps of a proposed district heating project. Arvis Thompson attended the meeting to express some concerns she had with the project and asked several questions, as did council members. Most of the questions centered on what kind of commitment (financial or otherwise) the city would be getting itself into once the funds are accepted, and the risk involved to the taxpayers.
Councilor Kennedy, who is knowledgeable with the proposal through his work with CCLEP, explained that with council approval, the city will take on the project instead of relying on CCLEP. He said the portions of the project to be funded with the grants (seeking customer contracts, bidding out expenses and seeking financing through state bonding or other sources) are necessary to make a determination of whether the city has a project. “We need to know if we have the customers out there to support paying for this proposal. If we do, then we move on,” said Kennedy, adding that planners are now at the point “where we need to know.” The timeline calls for signed contracts to be procured by mid-March.
“This won’t fall on city taxpayers, or it won’t go,” Kennedy stressed. “It must be feasible. We’ve said that all along.” With their vote of approval, councilors also reasoned that previous councils spent $3,000 of city money to pursue the grants under discussion, and it wouldn’t be very wise to turn down the money now that it’s been awarded. City Administrator Mike Roth agreed, and said that if there are any misgivings once the next phase gets under way, “We can suspend it at any time.”
Highway 61 planning considered
Council next voted to accept maintenance responsibility for any infrastructure built as part of the Highway 61 redesign project. Roth explained that the agreement is similar to one the city has to take care of the Gitchi Gami bike trail that the state built through town. “This [approval] is a requirement to apply for the grant, not a commitment to build anything,” Roth said.
The grant money, if awarded, will fund such things as pedestrian and bike paths included in the TAP (Transportation Alternatives Program) project, but will not begin until 2019 at the earliest.
Assessment of City Hall under way
Finally, council talked about the ongoing efforts to make better use of the space in City Hall and accepted a bid from Building Performance Specialists to perform an energy and asset assessment at a cost not to exceed $6,120. Roth said the analysis will incorporate more than just energy efficiency and help determine “what is it really costing us to use this building?”
The result may be development of a long-range plan for the building or a recommendation to ultimately abandon it and relocate the city’s administrative offices.
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