City council holds first meeting of the new year

In the first meeting of 2019, the city council worked efficiently to approve the consent agenda, with a motion to add the Highway 61 project to the discussion. An official list of depositories for city funds was approved, as was the decision to follow the federal tax rate of .58 cents for mileage reimbursement.

There was a bit of discussion regarding current council appointments and vacancies. As a result, Councilor Craig Schulte was appointed to the park board and the Public Utilities Commission. Councilor Kelly Swearingen was appointed to the North Shore Management Board.

A motion was also passed to approve the citizen appointments for city committees. For 2019, Anton Moody will serve as acting mayor. In this role, Moody can perform the required duties if Mayor Jay Arrowsmith-DeCoux is unavailable. In years past, Councilor Tim Kennedy has filled this role.

Garnering a bit more extensive discussion, was the motion to approve the Cook County News- Herald for legal bids. It was noted that the city of Grand Marais could opt not to publish in any outside print media, since they have the capability to do so on the city website. As in previous meetings, there was obvious discontent from council members at repeated issues with the paper. The council is hoping that the staff will put an emphasis on relaying facts instead of allowing so much opinion to color news stories. In the end, it was agreed that many locals expect to find public notices in the paper and so the council voted unanimously to accept the legal bid for 2019.

Councilor Moody then made a motion to adopt the model of the aesthetics policy for small cell wireless facility design standards, making the necessary changes so that it works for the city of Grand Marais. It was seconded by Councilor Swearingen and approved unanimously.

City Attorney Chris Hood clarified that in doing so, they have created a placeholder to preserve the city’s rights to set regulations. This document may be modified, since the League of Cities is now working on a plan.

“This is an aesthetic design guide set up to stop a cell carrier company from coming in and randomly adding nodes or utility pole sized objects that might disrupt the aesthetic look of the downtown,” City Administrator Mike Roth stated.