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Mayor’s Report For August 2010
If you have driven around the City of Holdingford lately you will have noticed the beautiful “Go Green” Holdingford Banners. This is the project of our newest “HIP” (Holding In Partnership) committee member Michelle Kiley. She has hit the ground running with a wealth of new ideas for our Holdingford area community. She has collaborated with Robb at Everything Signs for the design and hanging of the Banners, and has approached and received funding from the Holdingford Lions Club to pay for the Banners. On behalf of the Holdingford Community, I would like to thank Michelle, Robb and the Holdingford Lions for the great work they do in our community.
Also if you have driven around the City of Holdingford lately you will have noticed a new sign on the Cyril Ebnet softball park. This sign has been donated by Tim Berscheid. The old sign was getting faded to the point that it was hard to read and Tim has graciously volunteered to donate a new one. On behalf of the residents of the City of Holdingford I would like to thank Tim for this great donation.
We are having some plumbing issues in the men’s side of the Wobegon Shelter bathroom. It will require purchasing and installing a couple of fixtures along with a privacy wall to correct the problem. We have been vandalized again, both at the Wobegon shelter and at Veterans Park. The Vandals are getting more brazen, which means we are going to have to invest in some sort of security system. It’s frustrating when you have to divert tax dollars that are needed elsewhere to protect City property from irresponsible persons.
August is budget time. It’s the time of year City Council members and employees prioritize our needs with the amount of dollars we are expected to receive. We need to budget in August because we must certify our levy to the County by September 15. Because of State Budget shortfalls, it’s been getting very difficult to determine expected budget income the last few years. Cities, schools and the state’s most vulnerable citizens always seem to be the target when the Governor and the Legislature are looking for cuts in State spending. It seems to me a lot of cuts could be made in our bloated State bureaucracy for a change and give the rest of us a break.
Our maintenance guys are spending a lot of time picking up dogs and taking them to St. Cloud lately. This is very costly and time consuming. Dog owners you need to keep your dog home. A responsible pet owner takes care of their pets and obeys all laws concerning their pets. It’s not fair that taxpayers have to pick up the tab for irresponsible pet owners!
Respectfully Submitted by Mayor Ernie Schmit
Holdingford Daze 2010 with the theme, “Take me out to the Ball Game” was very successful. I have it on good authority the Cancer Walk and Car Show on Friday night had the same or better participation than last year. Saturday both the kiddy and large parade had good participation and good spectator numbers. Congratulations to the remaining members of the Ebnet Baseball team for being the Grand Marshals of the parade. Also congratulations to Ramona Fedor and Arnold Voss for being our City Mother and Father this year! The activities throughout the day were very well attended including the Vintage Baseball game which also was very entertaining. The Fireworks again were spectacular, and the Street dance was very well attended even though this year a cover charge was added for this event to cover security.
At this time I would like to say “Thank You” to all the dedicated Volunteers who made this event so memorable. It’s because of these Volunteers that Holdingford Daze enjoys such great success. A special “Thank You” goes out to Mary Stalberger and Karen Solarz for co-chairing the Holdingford Daze committee and working so hard to pull it all together. The Holdingford Daze committee will soon start planning for next year. The committee needs more members; we can’t expect the same people to stay on the committee forever. We need new people with new ideas to help us out. We will let it be known when the next Holdingford Daze committee meeting is so new volunteers can become involved with planning.
We have had several instances of vandalism already this year. Twice someone has tried to start a fire in the Wobegon Shelter bathrooms. On the men’s side someone keeps stuffing the toilets with debris. The River Birch building has also been broken into and vandalized. We need everyone to keep watch and report this kind of activity as soon as you see it. The Stearns County Sheriff’s number is 320-251-4240; please call if you see this kind of activity going on. Remember, this affects all of us; it’s our tax dollars that pay for the repairs and cleanup of vandalism!
As one can see by all the ads in the media, this is an election year. Minnesota’s Primary will be Tuesday, August 10, 2010. City of Holdingford residents can vote at the City Center from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. that day. As long as we are on that topic, filing for City Mayor and Council positions will open August 3 and close August 17. We will be voting for Mayor and two Council positions this year.
The Initiative Foundations’ “Healthy Communities Partnership Program” has again awarded a grant to our “Holding in Partnership” committee to fund various projects in our community such as the Garden Club, Area Historical Society, Economic Development and Tourism, Community Picnic to name a few. Because of budget cutting, the Initiative Foundation awarded $9,000 this year instead of its customary $10,000. What the Initiative Foundation has done for this and other communities can’t be described in words; it’s the best thing that has ever happened to this community! Thank You Initiative Foundation!
Respectfully Submitted by Mayor Ernie Schmit
June
The sewer/water/street project is moving forward again, the contamination that was found while doing soil borings was not as bad as first thought. It can be dealt with during the street excavation process. We are now just waiting for Rural Development Engineers to get done scrutinizing our Engineers plans and specs. We are hoping to get shovels in the ground yet this year, but if it gets too late it might be best to wait until spring.
A side note to this project, as part of the grant every homeowner and business will be receiving a new water meter. These meters will measure in gallons and will also be radio read, meaning each one will have a radio antenna attached to it. This will enable City personnel to read meters just by driving up and down the streets with a receiver in the vehicle. The data collected will then be downloaded into City computers and the utility bills generated, making this whole utility billing process much more efficient. All our present water meters measure in cubic feet and many are very old and not very accurate anymore.
The 3rd annual Lake Wobegon Trail Marathon was again a big success. We had runners from 20 states, Washington D.C. and Canada. One wheel chair athlete and 236 runners were signed up for the race and 196 runners finished the course in the 6:00 hour time limit. Brian Aurelio, from Washington D.C. won the men’s race in 2:53:25 and Wanda Gau from central Minnesota won the women’s race in 3:17:22. Congratulations to all runners and Thank You to all volunteers, this marathon would not be possible without our great Volunteers! We will be doing it again next year.
The Holdingford Municipal Liquor Store is now set up as a Wifi hot spot. You can bring in your lap-top computer and have free access to the internet while you enjoy your favorite beverage or snack.
Since we now have a City compost area, some citizens have been asking if we will still have garden waste, lawn and leaf pick up the first Friday of the month. Yes, absolutely, not everyone has a way to haul their compost to the City site. We still have pick up the first Friday of the month, it started May 7th.
We are still looking for volunteers to help out with Holdingford Daze and the Car Show the night before. If you can help out please call the City Center at 746-2966.
Start cleaning out your garages and storerooms, our annual Holdingford City Wide cleanup day will be Saturday, June 19, from 8:00 a.m. to noon. It’s a good time to get rid of your unwanted items such as old furniture, appliances, electronics, tires, mattresses, bikes, toys, etc, etc, etc. There is a charge for some items, but it’s cheaper and better than hauling to a landfill.
Respectfully submitted by Mayor Ernie Schmit
We had a visit from our County Attorney Janelle Kendall at our April city council meeting. For those of you who don’t know, the City of Holdingford contracts with the County Attorney’s office to handle all our criminal prosecutions. Comparing with the four previous years, crime went down in Holdingford in 2009. We only had 21 misdemeanors and three gross misdemeanors in 2009.
On behalf of the Holdingford area community, I would like to thank Blattner Energy Inc. employees of Avon for the 3400 pounds of food and paper products they donated to the Holdingford area food shelf. This is a very generous donation that will help many people in these difficult times. Thank You!
The water/sewer/street project is moving along and we have set up a couple of dates for residents to come and see the plans for the project and how it will affect everyone. We also welcome any ideas you may have about the project. We have scheduled two days; Monday, April 26, 6 to 7:30 p.m. and Thursday April 29, 6 to 7:30 p.m. Both of these meetings are at the City Center and will be set up as an open house so citizens can come and go anytime during these meeting times. Our engineers and two City Council members will be on hand on both dates to give an overview of the project and answer questions. City of Holdingford residents, this is a once in a lifetime project, come and offer your suggestions.
“Holdingford Daze” July 9th and 10th will be here before you know it. This city celebration has grown to the point that the Commercial Club does not have enough people to work all the activities. We are in dire need of volunteers for both days. We need approximately ten people for the car show on Friday, and as many volunteers as we can get for Saturday, the more we have the less hours each needs to work. If you can help us out call city hall (746-2966) or e-mail the city center at clerk@holdingfordmn.us.
The Legislature has passed a partial budget cutting measure which included cuts to Local Government Aid. They need to cut approximately another $900 million to balance the State budget before they adjourn so we may see more cuts to our LGA; stay tuned.
We had a sewer main backup in the evening of March 10. A tree root was growing in a manhole on the corner of Main and Park Streets, and with the rush of water from the fast snow melt the sewer main was partially blocked by the root so the sewer backed up into one home. The root was removed that night and the city’s insurance carrier was notified. We will be moving up our sewer inspection schedule so this does not happen again.
Mark your calendars, this year’s city wide clean up will be Saturday, June 19; everyone will receive a notice in the mail with the annual “Water Consumer Confidence Report.”
We have an abundance of chipped wood mulch by the wastewater treatment plant. It’s free, please come and get all you want!
Respectfully Submitted by Mayor Ernie Schmit
We had a water main break on Prairie Street, just west of 3rd street. It was repaired the same day it was discovered. This is one of the lines we will be replacing when we do our water, sewer line project. Speaking of the project, things are moving along much slower than we had hoped. We wanted to start digging in April so the project would be done by October. Not going to happen; we are still waiting on engineering comments from the State engineers. Also, when doing soil borings for the project, we ran into some contamination in three spots around the City. We will need to get together with Minnesota Pollution Control on how to address this contamination issue which will also slow us down. It may be July or August before we get shovels in the ground.
We will be having a public hearing on this water/sewer project Monday March 15 at 7 p.m. at the City Center. We want to get public input on the curb and gutter portion of the project, and how we will pay for the ineligible costs of the project.
The census for 2010 has, in most cases, been delivered to homes in Holdingford. If you did not receive one, please call the City Center at 746-2966, if no answer; please leave a message including your name and street address. It’s imperative that every home in the City of Holdingford fills out and sends in their census form! It will benefit all of us.
On behalf of the City of Holdingford, I would like to thank Council Member Sue Marstein and her employer Dubow Textile Inc. for the donation of a conference table, to be used for our Council meetings. Anyone who has been to our Council meetings know this table was badly needed, Thank You Sue!
The Board of Equalization meeting to discuss 2011 property assessments will be Tuesday, April 13, 2010 at 7 p.m. at the City Center.
This is an election year, and the Primary in Minnesota this year will be held Tuesday, August 10. Also, anyone wanting to run for Mayor or City Council will need to sign up between August 3rd and August 17th to get on the fall ballot.
Respectfully Submitted by Mayor Ernie Schmit
Mayor’s Report For February 2010
Stearns County HRA has submitted the Home rehab request to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. Twenty homes in Holdingford and 36 homes in Belgrade are listed in the application for funding. The amount of funding available will determine how many of these homes in our two communities will be rehabbed.
We have finally received feedback from Rural Development on our utilities project. They have deemed approximately $700,000 of the project ineligible for their grant and low interest loan program. That means we will have to finance that on our own and that puts us over the yearly payment threshold we calculated we can afford without raising taxes. We have two options; cut out parts of the project or raise utility fees. What I mean by cutting out parts of the project is, we would not be able to do all or parts of the streets. Rural Development only pays for water and sewer utilities projects, not streets unless a street must be torn up to get to the utility lines, and then only the part of the street the line is under. For example they will only partially pay for the cost of rebuilding our wider streets and not pay anything for streets that have no pipes under them. So we could just replace the lines and patch the streets to save on the ineligible costs. Our second option is to add a monthly capital improvement fee of $10 to $20 (depending on the bid and length of the loan) to all of our utility bills to pick up the ineligible costs of the project. We will be having a public hearing March 15, 2010, at 7 p.m. to discuss these options. City of Holdingford residents, this is your City, please come and give us your input.
Starting in March every household in the U.S. will be receiving a Census to fill out. People of Holdingford, it’s Very, very, very important that you fill it out and send it in. As in the past, all Federal and State programs in the next 10 years will be based on population and income. For Holdingford to get its fair share of these programs, we need an accurate and complete count of our citizens. So please fill out your census form and send it in.
The City has now completed the purchase of the old grocery store. We will be asking for bids soon to demolish and remove both the grocery and hardware store buildings. Our intention is to have these buildings removed and the lot filled in by the end of May.
The annual Board of Equalization meeting will be held Tuesday, April 13, at 7 p.m. in the City Center. This will be the time to come if you feel your property valuation for year 2011 is too high or too low.
We still need more Volunteers for the Annual Lake Wobegon Trail Marathon being held on Saturday morning, May 8. If you can volunteer, please call the City Center soon at 746-2966 and leave your name and jacket size so we can get your windbreaker ordered.
Our two maintenance employees have voted to join a Union.
Respectfully Submitted by Mayor Ernie Schmit
Mayor’s Report For January 2010
Sharon Hobbs the creator of the Lake Wobegon Trail Marathon has contacted and informed me that the 3rd annual Marathon will be May 8. She is again looking for volunteers to help out with the start of the race and block roads for the runners just like last year. The Law Firm Sharon works for (Reinke Noonen) is donating wind breakers with the Lake Wobegon Marathon logo on it to all who volunteer this year. She would like to get an early list of volunteers so the wind breakers can be ordered. If you can or want to volunteer please call or e-mail the City Center and leave your name and jacket size S, M, L, XL. Email: clerk@holdingfordmn.us
The 3 phase electrical power that comes into the City of Holdingford is very unbalanced. This does not affect our homes and light businesses because they all run single phase power. But it sure has raised havoc with our city well pump drives over the years. Our maintenance department has been working with Excel on this issue, and Excel will be setting up power monitors around town to see what is causing the imbalance in hopes of correcting it.
The City of Holdingford’s name has come up in a couple of national publications. Mike Odden has informed me that the City of Holdingford was mentioned in an article of the New York Times. The article had to do with water quality throughout the country and how it’s tested. They also listed our test results and how often we are required to test our water. By the way our water meets or exceeds all Federal Government Standards for clean water.One of my Sons also informed me that the City of Holdingford was listed in an article of the National Onion. I have never heard of this publication, but supposedly the National Onion is a popular satirical magazine that is read throughout the country. The article had to do with someone in Rice, Minnesota bragging they have a better water tower than Holdingford, Minnesota.
The City has completed the purchase of the old Our Own Hardware store. We have delayed the purchase of the old grocery store because of asbestos issues. Hopefully we can resolve this problem in the near future and purchase this building also.
A small number of people have not purchased their dog tags yet. The purchase of a dog license is the only way the City can verify dogs have up-to-date rabies vaccinations. This is a public safety concern that we do not take lightly. We don’t want a repeat of several years ago when a rabid skunk came into the City and bit a dog that was not vaccinated, just think if no one had seen this happen and the dog went on to bite a child. We will do everything in our power including using the court system to keep our citizens safe. Please, if you have not done so, bring in your dog’s proof of rabies vaccination and get those dogs tagged.
Just a reminder, the 2010 census will be mailed out in the next several months and it’s VERY important that we all fill it out and send it in.
Respectfully submitted by Mayor Ernie Schmit