City continues work on Climate Action Plan

The Grand Marais City Council met on Wednesday, April 24 and the primary topic of discussion was the city’s Climate Action Plan.
Climate Change Coordinator Shane Steele gave a presentation to the council on the action plan, which is intended to be a “roadmap” that identifies a city’s carbon emission levels and seeks to reduce them sustainably.

Steele told councilors that the survey to gather citizen input on the plan will be available on the city’s website until May 10. The council encouraged citizens to take a few minutes to complete the plan.

Steele said after May 10 comments would be compiled and reviewed. The comments and the draft plan will be made available to the city council by May 22, to be discussed at the city council meeting on May 29.

The Climate Action Plan and survey are available on the city website.

At the previous meeting, the council asked for some clarification of the proposed contract with HKGi, the company with the lowest bid to conduct an inventory of city housing and to recommend possible solutions to the need for more housing in the community.  The city and HKGi agreed on changes to the contract to better reflect the work that the firm will be doing.
The council approved the contract for the work at a price not to exceed $14, 550.

During the recent Highway 61 redesign process, it was noted that the fuel tanks at Buck’s Hardware are in the public right-of-way for First Street. The city approved an agreement with Buck’s which will allow the station continued use of the space, while releasing the city from any liability.

There was also an announcement regarding a subdivision under development by Anton Moody, who is also a city councilor. His eight-unit Winterstone plat will be going to the Grand Marais Planning Commission on May 1. There was discussion of how matters like this should be handled, with the city’s attorney, Chris Hood sharing his recommendations.

WTIP’s Rhonda Silence speaks with Grand Marais Mayor Jay Arrowsmith DeCoux about these topics and more.