SE Council OKs new officer, budget carryovers

By FRITZ BUSCH

Journal Staff Writer

SLEEPY EYE -- The hiring of new police officer Jeremy Carpenter, $473,775 in 2002 budget carryovers and a hearing date for new sewer rates were unanimously approved Thursday at a special Sleepy Eye City Council meeting.

Carpenter, 24, of Mountain Iron, will replace Jason Fairbairn, who accepted a deputy position with the Brown County Sheriff's Dept. Carpenter will begin working in Sleepy Eye on June 3.

Sleepy Eye Police Chief Don Mickelson said he was sorry to see Fairbairn leave his department to take a Brown County Sheriff's Dept. job created by retirement.

"We'll miss him (Fairbairn)," Mickelson said. "He did a good job."

Budget carryovers from 2002 to 2003 totaling $473,775 approved by the council include police equipment/vehicles, $10,900; civil defense siren $9,000; fire truck replacement, $114,000; street dept. equipment $35,000; street lighting capital fund, $38,000; storm sewer capital fund, $22,500; sanitary service televising, $11,900; park and recreation dept. (future pool repairs), $37,000; and overall city improvements, $100,000.

Sleepy Eye City Manager Mark Kober said the city will lose $147,000 in LGA (Local Government Aid) money for 2003. Gov. Pawlenty's latest proposal calls for a one-year levy limit for 2004 but cities would get 60 percent of the difference ($88,200 for Sleepy Eye) in 2004.

"Everybody's getting it in the neck (funding cuts)," said councilman Wayne Novotny. "We'll just have to live with it."

The council approved setting a public hearing for 7 p.m., Tuesday, June 24 to consider a new sewer rate to aid sewer reconstruction costs. Sewer rates would rise from $4.50 for lower-valued properties to $45 per month for larger properties, according to Kober. The average fee increase would be $10 per month.

Residents paying sewer main reconstruction assessments or those that paid them within the past decade or so would be given credit on the sewer rate increase, Kober said.

Sleepy Eye residents Phil Heymans and Ray Mielke spoke to the council about raising sewer rates to create a sewer main reconstruction capital fund.

"From our history, it makes a lot of sense to create a fund to pay for sewer reconstruction," Heymans said. "What also needs to be addressed is the Public Utility Commission's autonomy (independence) and its skyrocketing profits. We are all PUC shareholders."

Heymans said PUC profits could go towards infrastructure improvements and that the subject has been avoided in the past.

Kober said state laws are very specific about what PUC money can be used for and that they they couldn't be used for sewer infrastructure. Increased city franchise fees could be used for infrastructure improvements, he added.

Councilman Wayne Novotny said Heymans' points were well taken and that the city is looking more and more at long-term infrastructure policy.

Mielke said higher utility fees and taxes are difficult for the elderly and other people on fixed incomes.

Kober said Sleepy Eye electrical rates are far below most those in most Minnesota cities.

Heymans said Sleepy Eye rates are comparable to other cities its size.