BAXTER-Three Baxter City Council members, re-elected this fall, were officially sworn in to mark the first meeting of the new year.
Mayor Darrel Olson and council members Todd Holman and Mark Cross were sworn in Tuesday to start the council session by Kelly Steele, interim city administrator.
In other business, the council:
Approved council appointments for 2017 with: Quinn Nystrom serving on parks and recreation and the Community Behavioral Health Hospital Advisory Board; Steve Barrows serving on the planning and zoning commission and The Center; Cross on the utilities commission, architectural review committee, and Joint Powers Wastewater Board; Holman on the long range planning commission, and Joint Powers Wastewater Board; Olson on the Brainerd Fire Advisory Board, Joint Powers Recreation Board, and Northland Arboretum Board.
Approved a special event permit for the Aug. 26, 2017, Kiwanis Kids Triathlon at Whipple Beach. About 500 participants are expected along with 85-100 volunteers. This will be the event's 10th year and now surpasses the adult race for participants. The city noted staff members from parks, streets and police assists the club in the set-up for the event and the actual event. The special permit is needed as the course routes, for both the bicycle and run events, require partial road closures in the area.
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Announced 2017 designations. The Brainerd Dispatch was designated as the official newspaper. Other designations included city depositories: Bremer Bank; Stifel, Nicolaus and Co.; Wells Fargo Securities and PMA Financial Network. Holman was designated as acting mayor. Police Chief Jim Exsted was designated emergency management director. Trevor Walter was designated city engineer. Consulting engineers are Widseth Smith Nolting, Short Elliott Hendrickson, WSB & Associates and Bolton & Menk. Attorneys are Brad Person for civil matters, Matt Mallie for prosecution, Kennedy & Graven for bond counsel and Madden Galanter Hansen for personnel issues.
Agreed to purchase $5,000 of advertising sales from the Brainerd Dispatch in 2017 to receive a discounted rate of $12.44 per column inch. The city reported it has met the annual contract amount, purchasing $5,820 in 2014, $6,733 in 2015 and $6,973 in 2016.
Approved the CBRE Inc. contract for appraisal services not to exceed $7,500 for BNSF property in relation to the planned 2018 Cypress Drive improvements. The city reported purchase of right of way and easements from multiple parcels is needed for construction and appraisals are one step in the process.
In addition, a CBRE Inc. contract for appraisal services, not to exceed $8,900, was approved for the 2017 lift station No. 3 reroute improvements project in order to determine land value as pending and future utility improvements are expected to generate excessive annual permit and license fees.
