Litchfield City Council Meeting
The Litchfield City Council began its meeting last night with a couple of annual items – the Board of Review hearing, and the audit report. Both items are usually time-consuming, but neither of them compared to the time given to the discussion regarding a planned unit development request from the Planning Commission.
The Meeker County EDA is proposing that a 60-unit, 4-story building be erected at 415 South Ramsey Avenue. City Planner Hannah Rybak says the first story of the complex would be a parking garage with 88 parking stalls – including an outdoor parking area. She says the Planning Commission approved of the development on April 8th on a 6-to-1 vote – with 15 conditions – and she went through all of those conditions. The City Council approved of it last night on a 5-to-1 vote – with Darlene Kotelnicki abstaining, and Sara Miller absent.
The Council then heard from Jason Aarsvold with Ehlers regarding a preliminary TIF termsheet for the Midtown Lofts project which was accepted on a 5-to-1 vote with Kotelnicki again abstaining. Lisa Graphenteen from Meeker County EDA then spoke about a Minnesota Housing grant application, and the Council approved of applying for the grant for the project.
City Administrator Dave Czoik spoke to the Litchfield City Council last night about the Litchfield Area Recreation Center. The Council approved of the scale and scope of the project, including a project for Civic Arena interior improvements as the LARC will be attached to the west side of the arena.
The Litchfield City Council also approved of hiring Katie Buhr as administrative accounting technician, and Payton Aller as administrative utility billing technician. The Council approved of the Dassel-Cokato Enterprise Dispatch as its first choice for official newspaper and the Eden Valley-Watkins Voice as a second choice, depending on who Meeker County chooses – as both are seeking newspapers to publish their official notices as the Litchfield Independent Review will publish its last newspaper on April 24th. The Council also had another closed session last night to discuss a purchase offer for the restaurant at the Golf Club.