The Silver Bay Council set the time and date for a public hearing regarding changes to the city code. The public will have an opportunity to review the changes and make comments on September 15th at 7:00 as part of the regular Council meeting. The code is being revised to better align with the city’s vision and to ad-dress current needs. These revisions are being done to update antiquated zoning ordinances and to address issues related to nuisance properties and the accumulation of unsheltered items like old appliances.
Sarah Swedburg, from Bolton and Menk, spoke with the council about the resumption of the water service line inventory which will start next week. The service line inventory is being conducted by the Minnesota Department of Health as part of the Lead Safe Community initiative. This effort will target lead water lines for replacement with service lines that are not made of toxic materials. Houses built in 1986 or after are not a part of the survey due to the fact that after 86, lead water pipes were banned in home construction. Residents who have homes that were built prior to 1986 and have not responded previously to the survey, will be visited by a team from Bloton and Menk. Inspectors will have identifying information on them and will inspect both the city owned and the resident owned side of the water line. Inspections will only take about 5 minutes and inspectors will leave a hang tag on the door of residents who are not home at the time of inspection. An open house will be held on August 25th at 5:00 at City Hall. Residents can also access information about the survey online at the city’s web-site.
The Council also discussed the conditions at the Mary MacDonald Center. There are concerns about needed repairs and upgrades at the center and the Council has set September 8th as a date to discuss the situation with the public. The meeting will be held at Reunion Hall at 4:00. The building is in need of partial roof replacement and the exterior envelope needs to be upgraded to stop water infiltrating into the building. The Mary Mac Committee has been discussing this issue with the tenants, and feel that decisions on how to move forward are complicated. While grants for funding of repairs are being sought, the Mary Mac committee is looking for a general brainstorming session to consider possible solutions.
The next Silver Bay Council meeting is scheduled for September 2nd at 7:00 PM.
