New chambers Staples City Council members got a preview of the new city council chambers Tuesday night at the Jan. 12 council meeting. They had carried the flags, their name plates and other items from the old council chambers to the new after adjourning a regular council session. The new council chambers are in the center of the new city hall, separating the city offices from the city library space. From left are JoEllen Einerwold, Stan Carlson, Roy Miles, Mayor Chris Etzler, Joel Quance, Don Flaten and Rob Schmieg. (Staples World photo by Tom Crawford) The Staples City Council on Tuesday, Jan. 12, appeared to give a preliminary okay to a slightly enhanced level of streetscaping for the Highway 10 turnback (Second Avenue) project set for this summer in Staples. Tim Houle, Widseth, Smith and Nolting project engineer, outlined the past procedures and results of three public open houses, including a Jan. 6 session at the Community Center.

Council members were not asked to vote but none of the seven members voiced opposition to the compromise amounts suggested by Houle. He answered questions about who would own decorative fences and if benches and other items along the route could be removed for winter storage.

Where the city receives a permanent easement to place a fence along the property line, the fence would be city property, he said. He said benches can be bolted down, but “We’re trying to set them up so they can be removed,” Houle said.

Moving out Mayor Chris Etzler and council members reacted to Houle’s final plans and cost estimates with several versions of a ‘fair compromise.”

The engineer’s estimates in January were pared down from figures roughly a month earlier. This was accomplished primarily by taking two items, concrete (colored) pavers and precast concrete wall caps (for retaining walls) out of the base bid and listing them instead as alternates, cutting $51,000 from the estimated total landscaping costs. In the past month, Houle and his staff cut their contingency percentage from 15 to 5 percent, dropping that from $69,000 to $37,000 in the bid estimate.

The engineers estimated a $778,000 total for an enhanced level of streetscaping, with the two alternates not included. (Exact costs won’t be known until bids are received this spring.) Although more than their basic level, this proposal is scaled down from their earlier enhanced streetscaping plans.

New terms The people filling the roles of mayor and three of the city council positions in Staples were sworn into new terms Jan. 12 at the first Staples City Council meeting of 2010. From left are Roy Miles, Mayor Chris Etzler, Joel Quance and Rob Schmieg taking their oath. Don Flaten (pictured) Stan Carlson and Jo- Ellen Einerwold have two more years left of their council terms. (Staples World photo by Tom Crawford) The project’s streetscaping costs will break down with the state aid landscaping funds contributing $85,000 and state aid lighting funds contributing approximately 50 percent of the lighting costs, or $147,500. Property owners along Second Avenue and also two blocks of Fourth Street would pay a $35 per lineal foot assessment for a total of $287,000.The remaining city participation (for landscaping) of $258,000 would come from property taxes and other city income. That latter figure seemed much more palatable on Jan. 12 than a $381,000 figure the council saw Dec. 22.

Houle was seeking a consensus from council members. Council Member Rob Schmieg felt it was a fair compromise between an expensive package and the bare bones proposal.

Stan Carlson told Houle he felt it was “a good outcome,” adding it was a good balance between impact on taxpayers and doing an

City council members Stan Carlson (right) and JoEllen Einerwold rolled up the flag in the council chambers in Staples Government Center building following the Jan. 12 city council meeting. They then carried the flag and other chamber paraphernalia a few blocks south to the new Staples City Hall. The first council meeting in the new city hall will take place Tuesday, Jan. 26. (Staples World photo by Tom Crawford) infrastructure project.

Mayor Etzler and other council members had similar comments.

In other matters at the first meeting of the year (and the last ever in the old Staples Government Center), the city council handled a number of first meeting tasks, including:

o SWEARING in of newly re-elected council members Roy Miles, Joel Quance and Rob Schmieg and Mayor Chris Etzler :

o DESIGNATED the Staples World as the city’s official newspaper for legal publications.

o NAMED the four local banking institutions (First International Bank and Trust; Mid-Central Federal Savings Bank; Mid- Minnesota Federal Credit Union and Unity Bank) and United Banker’s Bank of Bloomington and Bank of North Dakota of Fargo as official depositories.

o APPROVED legal services contracts with Brown and Krueger law firm of Long Prairie and Kyra Ladd for Todd and Wadena counties, respectively.

o DISCUSSED appointments to city boards and committees. Autumn Peacham and Mike Kedrowski were named to the Community Services Commission openings; Mary Ann Petersen was re-appointed to the Community Services panel; Stan Carlson and Candius Nichols were re-appointed to the Public Works Commission and Penny Nelsen was named to an opening on the city’s Green Committee. Bruce Nelsen will remain on the airport board, with Jeff Weitemier named to a vacancy there. JoEllen Einerwold was re-appointed to the Community Corrections Board.

An opening remains unfilled on the Planning and Zoning board, where Brian Niemann resigned.