At the Wednesday night city council meeting, Steve Whitcomb, committee chairperson, said “We have all our maps and costs together at this point and are ready to pass along the information we have gathered.”
Whitcomb met with the township on Aug. 24 and they approved establishing a joint meeting between the two entities.
Tom Foster, SEH aeronautical engi-neer, will be on hand to help answer questions.
The joint meeting will be held on Wednesday, Sept. 23, following the regular city council meeting.
In other business:
•The council approved a resolution requesting exemption for the city of Paynesville from Stearns County Ordinance 193 and 194.
Don Williamson, owner of West Central Sanitation, said the ordinance allows municipalities with efficient waste management systems to request an exemption from Stearns County.
“The resolution will give the city another layer of defense to prevent the county from taking over the city’s solid waste system. West Central is exempt because we have a signed contract with the county and haul the garbage where specified,” Williamson said.
“We are happy to work with the city and prefer dealing with the council face to face instead of through the county,” he added. “Without the exemption, the city loses the latitude as to who hauls Paynesville’s garbage,” he informed the council.
Many council members agreed with Williamson that garbage is a local issue and should be dealt with locally instead of through the county.
•Pete Carlson, city engineer, informed the city council that all the paving work is completed on the 1998 street improvement project. The sod work is finished except where the road was abandoned by the city park.
“We will be starting on the assessment roll and should have it ready soon to let the homeowners know their assessments for the project,” Carlson said.
Ron Mergen, public works director, said he has been talking with the residents along the project about replacing trees that were lost because of the project. “Many of the trees have been replanted with seedlings,” he added.
•The council approved the last payment to Kuechle Underground Inc., Watkins, in the amount of $5,946 for utility work completed on the Diekmann Business Park
•The council approved Gloria Ringstad, Lorraine Adams, Sarah Baumhardt, Cindy Gerding, Janice Zumwalde, Ken Ramthun, and
Carolyn Swyter as election judges for the Sept. 15 primary and Nov. 3 general election.
•The council approved changing the Nov. 11 council meeting to Tuesday, Nov. 10, because of Veteran’s Day, a legal holiday.