Grand Marais City Council’s first meeting of 2011 began with newly elected members taking the oath of office. Shown sharing a handshake following the ceremony are, from left, Councilor Bill Lenz, who was reelected in the November 2010 election; new mayor Larry “Bear” Carlson; and new councilor Bob Spry. City Council meets at 4:30 p.m. the second and last Wednesday of every month at City Hall.
As usual for the first meeting of the year, Grand Marais city councilors spent most of their time Jan. 12 deciding who would serve on the various boards and commissions that meet periodically and bring recommendations to council.
The first order of business, though, was the swearing-in of new mayor Larry “Bear” Carlson. Also taking the oath of office were new council member Bob Spry and incumbent councilor Bill Lenz. Each won election to the council last November; the mayor will serve a two-year term, while each councilor has made a fouryear commitment.
As the list of board appointments began, City Administrator Mike Roth said there is currently nobody on the cable board, nor does it have much of a purpose any more. Council has previously discussed the resumption of videotaping meetings, Roth recalled, but no action was taken. City staff has taken over the task of running the PAC-13 cable access channel out of City Hall (with limited updates), said Roth, but that’s about the extent of the operation.
Spry complained that many of the cable channels available on Mediacom (the city’s provider) “are constantly blinking out…and people shouldn’t have to put up with that.” Roth said, however, that neither the cable board nor the city can do much about that until the next franchise negotiations, which will not be for another 10 years or so. The cable board was left vacant.
Councilor Jan Sivertson, who has served on the Cook County – Grand Marais Economic Development Authority (EDA) board as council’s appointed representative for the past two years, said she would prefer to fill the city’s vacancy on the library board instead. The EDA is at a good transition point, said Sivertson, and she has an interest in helping the library move forward with its expansion project. Coincidentally, Spry said he would like to serve on the EDA board as long as he could fit the meetings into his work schedule. As requested, council appointed Sivertson to the library board, and Spry as the council representative to the EDA board.
In other council appointments, Sivertson will remain on the North Shore Management Board; Bill Lenz will remain on the park board; Carlson will join Lenz on the personnel committee; Tim Kennedy was re-appointed to the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), planning commission and safety committee; and Spry was named to the Public Utilities Board (which hears appeals of PUC decisions, as necessary) along with Lenz and Sivertson.
Additionally, Lenz will continue to serve as council’s liaison with the nowdefunct Animal Advocates (should it or a similar group re-organize) and Sivertson will continue as liaison to the North House Folk School.
Turning next to citizen appointments, Paul Anderson was reappointed to the park board; Jim Shinners was re-appointed to the planning commission; and Karl Hansen was named to the PUC.
Roth said that still leaves several openings: two residents are needed to serve on the park board; one library board member is needed; and one more person is needed for the planning commission. Interested persons are asked to call City Hall or any city councilor.
There was some discussion about decreasing the number of members on the park board (from seven to five), but Lenz said the board has discussed the question and prefers to leave the number at seven if enough interested residents can be found. He said the park board has “never not had a quorum” during his four-year tenure there. “No doubt it’s an important board for the city,” Lenz said, noting the park brings a lot of revenue and visitors to Grand Marais.
Finally, Kennedy was voted acting mayor, and as such will preside over council meetings and fulfill other duties as needed in the absence of the mayor. Kennedy, who filled the role last year, said the only benefit he ever received was “having the honorary first fishburger at Fisherman’s Picnic when [former mayor] Sue Hakes was out of town.”
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