January 2 Council Meeting

A reasonably short meeting, and we had all council members and city staff, so that was nice. We had a little discussion about the plans for asbestos testing at the property north of the old library building. We received a grant for that, and I signed a contract with the DNR regarding those tests.

The council had a discussion on whether to waive a high water/sewer bill at a property that apparently had water running for awhile while unattended. The council denied that on 4-1 vote. There were a couple reasons for the deny based on statements by the council members. For me, I don't have a vote, but in the request, the "lawyer bomb" was dropped. I don't dig that. Our council has been very gracious in the past on such requests, and work with homeowners for something equitable for all parties. But when the request comes and before the conversation even begins, it includes a "lawyer bomb", my attitude turns very sour. Even before the council says yes or no, somebody asking something starts threatening lawyers---my interest in helping you really wanes.

That was pretty much it on the agenda. During mayor/council comments, I proposed a work session to do some general planning for 2013--to think about where we want to go. And then tie it in with budget work, which is beginning now for the 2013/2014 budget year. Since we have a 5 Wednesday month, it looks like we will have that meeting on Jan 30.

In the council comments, we were notified of something, which I will touch on in my next post.