Jessica Stölen
Editor
jstolen-jacobson@cherryroad.com
One of the topics of conversation at Monday evening’s meeting of the Granite Falls City Council was a request to have an ADA accessible restroom at the Senior Center, located below the library. “In having conversations with Public Works, John (Aus – Director of Public Works) said that what they can do is take the two restrooms there, modify them to make them unisex and have one be ADA compliant. If we are to do that, of course, to be ADA compliant, there is work to the mechanisms on the door that needs to be done that is beyond Public Works scope, but they can do the work on the interiors,” said City Administrator Crystal Johnson.
The work on the door could be completed by French Glass, and an estimate of the cost received would be $5,650. “This is not a budgeted item, so if approved it would come out of the Capitol Items budget however, given that it is requested and it is a public space, I would advise the council to move forward if we have the capability,” said Johnson.
Mayor Steve Nordaune said, “I think it’s time and since its something that can be done I think strongly that its in our best interest to do that, and it’s good that Public Works can step up and help us out here and do some of the work themselves.”
The motion passed to approve the request.
The council also approved a request to call for bids for the restroom project in Rice Park. City Engineer Mike Amborn has submitted the final project plans to the council to solicit bids from volunteers for a permanent restroom structure to be constructed. The funding for the project is coming from some additional Local Government Aid funding from the state received for 2024.
The council also discussed recent work to clarify language in some of the ordinances specifically those that will be most at the forefront this season.
The council conducted first readings on a couple of ordinances. The first, regarding fences within city limits. “We’ve added clarification language answering questions Christine (Kleven) gets on a regular basis,” explained Johnson. “I read it several times and it explains it very well,” said Mayor Nordaune. “I’m happy we’re getting it cleaned up and it looks real good.” “And there’s language in there that says the City is not going to get involved in a civil feud, it’s up to the property owners to know where the property line is,” added Johnson. “We just added some good clarification language.”
The City has also worked to clarify the language in the pool ordinance. “There used to be a lot of confusion, especially when an ordinance is required. What was being discovered is people would get these temporary pools and realize how difficult they were to set up and take down so they’d leave them up and they’d become permanent. So we added some language that clarified based on size,” Johnson said. “Being pool season I wanted to get this in front of council, but be aware there may be some more clarification changes to language by the second reading.”
The council also heard an update on the DMV. “The wages and employment committee has continued to meet regarding the DMV and next steps and best ways of moving forward. We do have our supervisor who is hired. He is currently training in the Willmar office. He will have our office open here on the 28th. Specifically the question here is does it make sense to move forward with hiring part-time employees or to instead hire a full-time employee. Part time allows for more flexibility with office hours and cash flow in that department is not positive so it helped alleviate costs in that department. The down side is part time employees leave for full time jobs and there’s a lot of training involved. The state has been very involved in this transition and they shared the feedback that they’d like to see a full-time person as well. So we reviewed that very carefully and what would be best for that and at the end of the day we did plan on moving forward with advertising for a full time position rather than a part time, so that’s the plan,” said Johnson.
“What’s best for the City going forward long term is what drove the decision to look for a full-time position,” added Mayor Nordaune.
The City Council meets next on Monday, May 20th at 7 p.m.
