Mayor, councilors finish out terms with a bang

At the final Cloquet City Council meeting for the year and before heading into closed session, city officials and fellow councilors said goodbye to outgoing Mayor Dave Hallback along with council members Dave Bjerkness, Jeff Rock and Barb Wyman. All four ran for re-election but were defeated either in the primary or general election.

As one of the final business items of the year, the council voted 4-3 (Bjerkness, Roger Maki and Kerry Kolodge dissenting) to approve a tentative settlement with the new Teamsters union for the Cloquet police command staff, including the police chief and two commanders.

Bjerkness was part of the negotiations with City Administrator Aaron Reeves and Human Resources Director James Barclay, but he questioned a late addition to the contract that would place any of the command staff — whose positions were eliminated due to restructuring — at the top of the hiring list for patrol officers.

“I’m astounded that this is still in here and that the other Teamsters union would allow this,” Bjerkness said.

Reeves responded that the other union (for police officers and sergeants) contract doesn’t address hiring, only promotions. He added that it’s a good way to hang onto good police officers who might want to finish their years before retirement.

Kolodge expressed concern that the department might be tempted to keep a patrol spot open “as a fallback.”

“It really is a clause of guaranteed employment, which is what I struggle with,” said Bjerkness.

In other matters Tuesday:

• Washington Avenue will get a serious facelift next summer as Carlton County reconstructs the road from

Minnesota Highway 33 to County Highway 45. The biggest change will be the addition of a 10-foot-wide multipurpose trail along the south side of the road, which will eliminate any on-street parking on the busy roadway.

Plans also include adding a turn lane for eastbound traffic on Washington at the intersection of Washington and 20th Street, at the middle school entrance. The county will also add push-button crossing lights at that intersection, along with radar speed boards in both directions that would coincide with school hours.

• The council also passed a resolution (6-0 with Rock abstaining) ordering preparation of plans and allowing staff to solicit bids for a sewer extension along Washington Avenue between 12th and 14th Streets to service four homes that currently have septic systems.

The council and staff discussed the proposed project at length, in part because of the expected expense to homeowners along the extension, which could range from $7,700 to $12,900 per property for the cost of the sewer extension. Rock, who owns one of the four homes, said he thought the homeowners should be charged the city’s standard hookup fee of $3,500 each rather than being charged by the foot since they pay full city taxes already. Public Works Director Caleb Peterson explained that the city uses the same formula for everyone in cases such as these, except for “fill in” lots located close to existing sewer and water. He said the city is already charging only 50 percent of the assessment rather than 100 percent usually assessed to the benefitting property owners because the project could benefit other properties in the neighborhood that were connected in the past in a “weird configuration.”

• Two citizens spoke out against the city’s decision to reduce CAT-7 manager Eric Lipponen’s job from full-time to half-time, and any benefits with it. Marty Hill praised the highly professional work Lipponen has done filming Wilderness hockey games, along with council meetings and many other community events.

“I recommend you suspend all actions regarding his employment until the new council can move in and investigate,” Hill said. No one from the city responded.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been corrected to reflect a 4-3 vote on the contract for the police administration union. The originally story incorrectly had Roger Maki voting with the majority. He did not. We apologize for the error.