Ordinance to aid in snow removal

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

New York Mills is joining a growing list of communities who are restricting parking on city streets during the winter months.

During its regularly scheduled meeting last week, the NY Mills City Council officially approved a calendar parking ordinance that will be enforced from October 1 to April 1. As part of the ordinance, no vehicle or equipment will be able to park on the side of the road featuring odd-numbered addresses on odd-numbered days and even-numbered addresses on even-numbered days.

After one of the snowiest winters in several years, the City of NY Mills hopes the new calendar ordinance will allow for more effective and better snow removal throughout the winter months. Last year several streets in the community featured large snow piles and snow tunnels from vehicles that were parked on the streets during large snow falls. Violators of the ordinance could have their vehicle impounded, but NY Mills Police Chief Bobby Berndt said the goal is to educate the public throughout the fall, rather than just immediately impound vehicles. 

“I think we need to (focus) on informing the public in the month of October,” said Berndt.

Prior to officially adopting the calendar ordinance, several city council members said they received positive responses from residents about the looming change.

City councilman Latham Hetland said he asked a number of people who live in town about their thoughts on the new ordinance and he said most people said the new ordinance made sense for the community. 

NY Mills Mayor Marsha Maki said she received a similar response from people she spoke to as well. 

“I asked people who live in town and they seem to understand it,” she said. “I think we are seeing a lot more communities going to something like this.”

Meanwhile, councilman Jerry Nesland said a calendar parking approach is a much better approach than simply restricting all parking on city streets during a snow emergency, like a few communities in the area have adopted. During that ordinance all parking is restricted on city streets, which could be a hardship for those people who rely on parking on city streets for their vehicles. 

“It is a much better solution than taking all of the cars off the streets,” he said.

The new ordinance will go into effect on October 1. 

In other news

• Heard the monthly liquor store report that showed combined gross sales for the month were down 3 percent from the previous year. Meanwhile net revenues for the month were up 10.93 percent as a percentage of sales from the prior year.

• Approved the purchase of a new pumper/tanker truck for the NY Mills Fire Department. The truck is estimated to cost of $441,974. NY Mills Fire Chief Ryan Brasel said some of the money has already been set aside for the truck and the department is hoping to get some grants to offset part of the cost. 

• Approved the hiring of Tim Schaefer as a part-time police officer. 

• Heard the police department responded to 167 calls for service during the month of July, including 2 citations, 11 warnings and 2 arrests.

• Heard from Jeff Oakland concerning the mobile home park. Oakland said he has put quite a bit of work into cleaning up the park and inquired about opening up the park to RVs, as well as mobile homes. 

• Heard the public utilities department continues to remain busy with locate tickets. In July alone the department responded to 138 locate tickets and has made approximately 300 tickets to date. 

• Approved a quote from Corey Keskitalo for repairing the block and foundation on the northeast corner of the fire station. Over the years ice and water have damaged the block, leaving a large void that is washing out and becoming a safety hazard. The total cost for the repair is $3,800. 

• Heard that Otter Tail County is discussing curb side single sort recycling, which will require licensed haulers to provide curb side single sort collection to cities in the county with a population over 500. The county is currently planning to continue operating the source operated collection bins at the current locations with the opportunity to adjust based on future collection amounts. The county requested a meeting with city representatives to discuss single sort recycling in NY Mills moving forward. 

• Accepted a $50 donation from Cheryl Bannes for the dog park project.

• Approved a resolution declaring the cost to be assessed and ordering a preparation for the North Boardman Ave reconstruction project. The total cost of the project was $759,197, of that $236,042.86 would be assessed to property owners. 

• Heard that a joint meeting was held with representatives from Otter Tail County and the communities in the county concerning the statewide legalization of recreational marijuana use in the state. City Clerk Julie Roberts said the staff members from the city preferred to have the county take the lead on how to regulate the use of legalized marijuana in the county since they have more resources available to them than the cities. Even though recreational use of marijuana is legal in Minnesota as of August 1, smoking it in public places is not legal as it is only legal at home or a licensed event. 

• Approved 3-0, with Jerry Nesland and Richard Grotheer abstaining, a new contract with the police union. As part of the agreement each member of the union will be moved ahead one step on their pay scale. Throughout the discussion Nesland and Grotheer expressed a concern for voting on something that had not been reviewed by the council until the afternoon of the meeting. Roberts said the contract was just signed by the police union that day.