LTE: Wastewater Treatment Plans

Letter to the Editor,

We are writing this letter in response to all the articles and talk of combining Kasson and Mantorville’s wastewater treatment plants. We feel strongly that if Kasson and Mantorville continue to be separate cities with their own taxes, mayors, and councils, each city should care, maintain and be responsible for their own city services, such as the water treatment plants. We are well aware of Kasson's need to upgrade our system and take responsibility for our town's growth and feel Mantorville should be responsible for theirs. There are many towns in our surrounding area that share schools but each continue to have their own services and tax. We feel, as citizens of Kasson, this should be voted on by the people just as other city improvements have.

                Thank you,
                Luke and Katie Ranvek

Mayors Memo: Kasson

At last week’s City Council meeting a resolution was discussed in regards to the Destination Medical Center proposal.  Essentially the discussion was around the importance of the Mayo Clinic not only to Rochester but to all of southeast Minnesota.  Right here in Kasson they are one of our largest employers.

A few weeks back we passed a resolution on the DMC showing support in general for the project.  On Wednesday the 10th we passed a resolution offering to provide assistance to the DMC project.  It is an offer only at this point as the State Legislature would need to enact our proposal. 

Since the Kasson Mayo facility was built back in the 70’s the property has been in a TIF, or Tax Increment Financing, District.  Essentially all of the taxes since then have been paid but then are rebated back to the Clinic to offset the infrastructure costs when the building was constructed.  This resolution that we passed would in many ways keep that general kind of financing plan in place.  We would dedicate the $35000 in taxes to be paid per year to the DMC for the next 20 years. 

What do we gain by this?  At the core we show we understand cooperation and that by working together with other communities and businesses all of southeast Minnesota can remain vibrant.  Potentially we gain infrastructure improvements.  Hopefully we gain the trust of those around us to show that we take seriously the vibrancy of our community and will find creative ways to ensure it.  It is safe to say that without the Mayo Clinic Kasson would not be the town that it is today. 

Furthermore, technically since the city has not received the benefit of the increased taxes since the clinic was built the cost to our budget is not the $35000 per year but is only roughly $2400.  I feel strongly that this is a wise and prudent investment.  

We don’t know where this will end up.  We do know though that this is potentially a once in a lifetime opportunity to engage and act on a proposal that could transform our area for decades. 
If you have any questions about this please let me know.  Thank you.

In your service,
Mayor Tim Tjosaas
mayor@cityofkasson.com

Letter to the editor: People's Energy Coop

Letter To the Editor:

The Minnesota Legislature is considering several proposals that would negatively impact the members of People’s Energy Cooperative and cooperative members throughout the state.
Although we understand the Governor’s and Legislature’s desire to increase the amount of renewable energy used in Minnesota, on behalf of our 15,000 members, we must remind them that the state’s electric cooperatives are struggling with the cost of meeting the current renewable energy standard (RES), which was signed into law in 2007 and remains one of the nation’s most aggressive mandates. Any expansion of the RES would require electric cooperatives to add un-economic power generation we do not need at a time when our members can least afford it.

When it passed out of the House Energy Policy Committee, House File 956, the Omnibus Energy Bill, would require utilities to purchase 4 percent of their electricity from solar energy and establish a goal of up to 10 percent from solar energy. This amount would be on top of the 25 percent renewable energy utilities are already required to provide. The bill also includes a 1.33 percent annual assessment on all utility sales to fund solar energy subsidies; this assessment alone would require People’s to charge our members an additional $400,000 annually.

At a time when solar energy is more expensive than other types of electricity generation these two proposals could cost Minnesota utilities and ratepayers as much as $10 billion in capital costs and significantly raise monthly electric bills. We do not believe this is the best use of our members’ energy dollars.

Although supporters of these efforts to expand solar energy claim the mandates could create thousands of new jobs, they do not seem to consider the very real job losses we would face when electricity costs skyrocket and businesses choose to relocate or expand outside of Minnesota.
Please join us in contacting your legislative representatives and ask them to oppose these costly proposals. Although we support the continued development of cost competitive renewable energy resources, we oppose additional energy mandates or expansion of the state’s renewable energy standard.

Sincerely,
Elaine J Garry, President & CEO
People’s Energy Cooperative
1775 Lake Shady Ave. S, Oronoco, MN 55960
(507)367-7000

Nuff Said!

It’s been a long winter, at least by recent standards.  Shoveling every other day, warming up the car to get going, it’s all getting old.  That darn groundhog said spring was just around the corner.  Looks like a pretty big corner!

There are ways to round this corner, to make this corner time fly.  We pretend and envision, we prepare for that corner to turn.  It’s a bit a of mind warming we have to do.  I like to do these mind warming things.

One good thing is Tackle Box Night in the kitchen.  Any fisherman’s tackle box gets tangled and disorganized during the fishing season.  A night in the kitchen with this tackle box mess is pretty fine.  Hmmm… these wax worms have seen their better days, well they’re dead moths now.  Toss ‘em!  Sure got a bunch of hooks and leaders.  They start out in plastic bags, organized by size.  Then they escape as used.  Tuck ‘em back where they belong.

And in this mess, I find the lures from days gone by, like the Dare-devil spoons I got from my Dad’s tackle box.  They got hit by many a Northern Pike, the ones that made it back into the boat.  There’s a couple Rapalas, the wooden minnow that dances across the surface.  In this mess, I also find… the church key.  It’s a bottle opener and opens cans, too.   Mine has ‘Pabst Blue Ribbon’ engraved upon it.  Probably older than me!  It’s good to have a couple bottles of beer, ones with a top that cannot be twisted off, along for a day of fishing.

I have fishing stringers, stringers to gather your catch, in this tackle box.  Most times they are not real strained.  A good picture will have a stringer full of the day’s catch.

Tackle box night is best done with friends, who also long for ‘The Opener’.  We can all tell our fishing tales.  Boy, do we have big fish in our tales!

So the tales of fishing, while organizing our tackle boxes, will help us turn the corner to spring.  And then, the new tales begin.
Nuff said!

by Mark Sannes

KARE wants former school back on market; Council moves ahead with demolition

Several representatives from KARE (Kasson Alliance for Restoration) were on hand at the Kasson City Council meeting Wednesday night to question why there is such a rush to demolish the building.
Kathy O’Malley, who marketed the building for Counselor Realty and worked with Sherman Associates diligently to attempt to get a reuse for the building, said there are a couple of interested people working to put something together so the building can be saved. Aaron Thompson and Trevor Westrom, are attempting to put together a business plan to have offices go into the former school.
KARE member Bruce Prescher asked, “Why is there such a rush to demolish the building again?” O’Malley added that the building was taken off the market, indicating there is no effort to want to sell the building. Since there is no “For Sale” sign on the property Prescher said he believes the city is sending the community mixed messages. He then added, “Kasson is so unfriendly to development”.
Mayor Tim Tjosaas said even though there is not a “For Sale” sign in front of the building the city would be glad to listen to other offers. “There is an idea. No offers,” said the mayor. “We have seen no business plan, no financials. How much more time do we waste?”

The Counselor Realtor pointed out the 90-plus letters of support by residents who were in favor of the Sherman Associates project. Copies were given to each council member. O’Malley encouraged the council to read the letters of support for reusing the building. She added that this was the most letters Sherman Associates had  received in support of a rehabilitation project they had proposed. “Those letters are the voice of Kasson,” added O’Malley.

If the 90 plus letters of support, 69 were from Kasson area residents. A council member said he did not believe 90 people could be the voice of Kasson.

Council member Matt Nelson said what he hears from many of the neighbors around the school is, “When are you going to take this eyesore down?”

There was talk of an injunction/lawsuit being filed to delay the demolition.  The mayor then commented, “So thank you for threatening a lawsuit.”

From what the council heard early last year when entering into a purchase agreement with Sherman Associates, they were the best in the business. If they could not make something work nobody could.
The council did make a recommendation to approve the salvage of items from the school by non-profits. Members of the Dodge County Historical Society were in the building a week ago Saturday looking around.

There is believed to be pieces of woodwork, flooring and period doors that could be salvaged. The items can be salvaged at no cost by the non-profits, but these items can’t be resold. What is left can be salvaged or sold by the contractor that wins the demolition bid.
Items are to be salvaged by February, 2013. The pre-bid demolition meeting for contractors will be in March.

Letter to the editor: Miles

Letter to the editor:

My daughter has been involved with JO for the last 4-5 years. She loves the program, and looks forward to it every year. She is always great about practices and tournaments. Unfortunately, last year the big tournament in the Cities (President's Fest), was cut short for us as I received a call on Saturday night that my son was found without a pulse in his vehicle, which we found out upon autopsy was due to accidental carbon monoxide poisoning. My daughter kept to her JO volleyball practices in just days following his death. She found a lot of support in being around her teammates. The whole JO community was great and supportive. This year my daughter decided she would like to do JO once again, and I had left the decision up to her, knowing the big tournament of the season would also be associated with the loss of her brother. She was unable to try out at designated time, due to a work conflict. Every year there has been a make-up session for the skills assessment, so we enquired as to when that would be, receiving no response. A few days later, we received a phone call stating two girls had been cut from the entire JO teams, my daughter being one of them. They did not need her to try out as they were very familiar with all the girls and what spots they needed filled. I soon sent an email to each KMVB board member asking about their decision and why it was that two girls were cut, with no response. It's been four weeks and I have still not received a response of any kind, even after sending second request for response. I've read all the information on the KMVB.org site, front page/home page stating no girls would be cut. I also read on the site that each team would consist of 8-10 girls. The team my daughter would be on has 11 girls, so why wasn't another girl cut to make it an even 10 as stated? There were other questions I asked to be addressed, obviously receiving no answer to any of them, not even the promised refund for the skills assessment test, as she was never able to participate.

In summary, I'm appalled at the exclusion of two girls from the JO volleyball teams, a decision made by adults. With all that's happened in this small community, more thought should be put into what would benefit ALL of the youth wanting to participate. Bullying has been at the forefront, which often times starts with exclusion. How can we expect our youth to develop a wide circle of friends, without excluding, when they aren't taught this by example? Not to mention, the recreational drugs readily available to our school-age youth, keeping them otherwise occupied in healthy ways is a must. I wish the emphasis would be less on winning and more on all the players required to make a good team.

                     Sincerely,
                    Christel Miles

Letter to the editor: Musolf

Letter to the Editor:

In last week’s paper, Matt Nelson, a former volunteer firefighter and current city council member, had a Letter to the Editor published.

First, thank you Mr. Nelson for explaining the difference between Best Value Bidding and straight bidding.  In the Advertisement for Bids, Kasson Aquatic Center, Multi-Package Bid, etc., printed in the DCI, it states “All bids will be evaluated according to the Owner’s “Best Value Contracting” procedures as detailed in the bidding documents.”   In the Kasson City Council Regular Meeting Minutes of August 22, 2012, Public Forum section, it states that Chuck Coleman asked if Best Value was used on the bridge or the aquatics center.  City Administrator Lenth stated that Best Value was not used on the 16th Street Bridge project because of use of federal funds; but it is being used for portions of the aquatics center, of course the key word being portions.  It’s obvious why citizens might be confused.  This being said, I go back to my original point.  The taxpayers are paying $14,500 more than we should be.  We are not allowed to know why the City paid a settlement instead of going to court.  I understand this is normal procedure in many settlements, but the fact remains that we do not know.   

Second, if Mr. Nelson read my letter he would know that I NEVER questioned the NEED for a new ladder truck.  In fact, I stated that my husband, a former Kasson Fire Chief, assured me that the department DOES need a new ladder truck.  I may have had issues with the way some things were done in the past concerning the fire department, but obviously I, like all citizens, place the importance of our own safety and the safety of our firefighters above the importance of saving money.  I simply questioned the need for a truck with a ladder longer than any truck the Rochester Fire Department has.   

Of course we need to be thinking about where Kasson will be in the future, but I think it’s safe to say we will never be a “Rochester”.

Third, thank you for correcting me on the number of employees retiring.  Out of respect for my friends in the Public Works Department, I have no further comment on that issue.

Yes, Mr. Nelson, it has been about a year since I’ve attended a council meeting, and quite honestly I’m not sure what it would take to get me back to one.  I don’t feel it would be in my best interest to talk about my perception of the meetings I did attend.

I do not intend to involve myself in a back and forth war of words in the form of Letters to the Editor.  However, I felt a need to address this inaccuracy.

Georgiann Musolf