By Robert Williams

Editor

In a succinct second city council meeting of March, council member Andrea Froeber encouraged council members and the public to support the City of Frazee’s state bonding request by contacting members of the Capital Investment Committee and asking for their support.

“I can’t say enough how important it is to Frazee that you click on the support state bonding request button on Wannigan Park and to tell all your family and friends,” she said.

Froeber was referencing a link provided at the very bottom of the homepage at www.wanniganpark.com that provides contact information of the Capital Investment Committee, instructions and an already-created template letter to send in support of House File 4036 and Senate File 4129 – the City of Frazee’s North River Drive Loop Bonding Request.

“As a council, we have to do this and we have to get our friends and families to do this,” Froeber said.

She also discussed having spoken to older residents and concluding that it would be beneficial to have a meeting dedicated to helping those residents who want to participate to be assisted by students to navigate the site and submissions.

“Can you imagine what having a successful bonding bill for Frazee is going to do for this community? I can’t think of anything short of the second coming. Please, everybody, even if you don’t live here, click on the button, just say please support this; it’s important to our community and sign your name and address and then encourage anybody else to do it, please.”

Mayor Mike Sharp acknowledged that he had already contacted the committee and Froeber doubled down on how impactful more communications could be.

“I would like to see a thousand requests to our representatives so they know that Frazee really, really wants this,” she said. “We can’t be apathetic.”

Each member of the council vocalized support for Froeber’s comments.

Widseth Engineering Landscape Architect Jillian Reiner also appeared via Zoom to discuss the Wannigan Park City Street designation resolution that was passed unanimously. The resolution includes some design changes.

Prior plans to include a roundabout near the entrance to the park have changed. Phase I of the development of the park now includes the construction of the main entry road into the main parking lot. That road will be constructed and maintained as a city street.

Reiner also discussed funding from the county for this specific project.

“The county was allocating $150,000 of what are transportation sales tax dollars that they allocated to Wannigan,” said Reiner.

The simplification of the design of the entrance was done to work with recent changes like the coming pickleball courts and parking lot changes, along with the bonding bill, which was not passed last round that was hoped to help fund the road.

“We didn’t want to be ripping up an expensive roundabout so we simplified the entrance and the county has still set aside this money and would like to pay for the access road into the park,” Reiner said.

The county wants one of the roads to be turned into a city street and the parking lot a public, city lot, as a request that goes with their contribution.

The resolution was to clarify that the city intends to designate the main entry road in Wannigan Park as a city street upon completion of Phase I of the park’s master plan. The master plan can be viewed online on the wanniganpark.com homepage.

Council also passed a resolution authorizing City Administrator Stephanie Poegel to apply for Congressionally directed spending for the River Drive North improvement project.

“This will create a dual track for funding those improvements,” said Mayor Mike Sharp.

The total estimated cost of the River Drive North improvements is $2.45 Million.

Donations

The council approved the following donations:

The Wolf Lake Snowmobile Club donated $75 to the Frazee Rescue Department and also donated $75 to the Frazee Fire Department.

Rescue

The council approved the resignation of McKayla Herbst from the Rescue Department.

A pair of standard operating procedures were clarified and approved, including the ride along program’s purpose, scope, definitions and eligibility criteria, among others.

The second was the dedicated standby emergency medical services contract which includes fees, response priority and general terms. The contract is for services whereby Frazee Rescue personnel and equipment are made available on-site during an agreed-upon timeframe.

Both procedure descriptions were passed by the personnel committee before coming to council.