By Robert Williams

Editor

The City of Vergas Energy and Resilience Action Plan began in 2023 and has reached a full-circle moment with its completion, according to Mayor Julie Bruhn.

As part of the plan’s creation, the city completed a round of assessments, including municipal building energy usage and energy efficiency tests via Otter Tail Power. The University of Minnesota’s Architectural Stability program assessed the buildings in infrared and other tests.

“In all those assessments, they found improvement needs,” said Bruhn.

A Local Climate Action Grant received from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency was used to support the work.

Bruhn highlighted many of the agencies and groups that helped with the plan.

“It really took a lot to get this finalized,” she said.

The project team included: Julie Bruhn, City of Vergas Mayor; Julie Lammers, City of Vergas Clerk-Treasurer; West Central Initiative (WCI) – Griffin Peck, Energy and Adaptation Planner; Mark Kaelke, Community Planner; University of Minnesota – Heidi Auel, Central Clean Energy Resource Teams Coordinator; Jonathan Barcenas, Humphrey School of Public Affairs Graduate Research Assistant; Dan Handeen, Lecturer, School of Architecture & Research Fellow, Center for Sustainable Building Research; Garrett Mosiman, Senior Research Fellow, Center for Sustainable Building Research and Molly Zins, Central Regional Sustainable Development Partnership Executive Director.

Vergas is also eligible to receive $8,000 to help support follow up activities related to the grant and work with Empowering Small Minnesota Communities (ESMC).

The full plan will be available on the city’s website and on the University of Minnesota’s website once all parties have proofed the draft version and finalized the full plan.

“It’s long; it’s extensive, but I think that the actions speak to what we’re going to be doing which is our energy work, our greenspace work and emergency management relating to climate,” said Bruhn.

Vergas has garnered positive attention for its work in creating the plan. Bruhn was invited to speak at the West Central Initiative Solar Celebration last week and the League of Minnesota Cities annual convention in June.

The city created an Energy and Resiliency Advisory Board, chaired by Bruhn.

Vergas also joined the WCI Solor Cohort, a zero-cost program to install solar panels and batteries at the Event Center with multiple future uses, including as a city-wide backup power supply that could be used during an outage. A transformer upgrade is necessary to complete the project, which is expected to be done and online later this year.

The plan looks ahead 15 years with some multiple goals set at five-year intervals.

“It’s definitely a 15 but things can change,” said Bruhn. “We’re going to continue with our greensteps so there might be some redirection that comes with that.”

The City of Vergas received steps one and two of the Minnesota GreenStep Cities program during City Fest, the League of Minnesota Cities annual conference, at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center in late June.

In other board news, Cal Miller’s resignation from the Energy and Resiliency Advisory Board was approved by council. A replacement member is currently being sought. Contact the city office for more information.

Event Center

The council voted to dissolve the Event Center Advisory Board due to the efforts of Event Center Manager and Deputy Clerk Rachel Nustad and also to avoid duplicate work.

Council Appointee James Stenger reported on a unanimously-approved proposal at the last Event Center Board meeting to dissolve the board due to Rachel Nustad, the Event Center Coordinator, handling much of the event center operations, creating a duplication of oversight. 

“She is doing a great job and I think it is time to let her do that,” Stenger said.

The board had originally been created when there was no dedicated staff person and fewer rentals. Now that the facility had dedicated management and strong rental activity, the board’s original purpose had been fulfilled. 

Stenger also noted ongoing challenges with filling board positions and scheduling meetings that worked for all members. He proposed reassigning the board’s responsibilities to the Event Center Coordinator position and having oversight fall under the municipal building committee. 

That committee will provide input on the building’s physical structure, utilities and maintenance, oversight of improvements and maintenance and budgets and collaborate with the coordinator on needs and improvements. 

The rest of the building’s activities will fall under Nustad, who will report quarterly to the city council. The coordinator will also report to the Municipal Building Committee.

Cannabis

The council approved a cannabis license for Full Spectrum Wellness, LLC, at 235 East Frazee Avenue. The council initially approved an application from the business in July of 2025. Full Spectrum Wellness also received permission from the State of Minnesota for a cannabis dispensary. The application approved a cannabis microbusiness with a retail endorsement and lower potency hemp edible retailer. 

A cannabis microbusiness in Minnesota with a retail endorsement is a versatile, vertically integrated license type designed for small-scale operations. These businesses can cultivate, process, and sell cannabis products directly to consumers at a single retail location.

More information is available at ww.mn.gov under the Businesses tab.

Clerk/Treasurer Julie Lammers has completed a tour of the store to complete state-required inspections of camera systems, lighting, etc.

Vergas, the local governing agency, needs to confirm approval to the state, with a condition of final state approval.

THC

According to Liquor Store Manager’s Kyle Theisen’s monthly report, the liquor store has been halted from selling low potency THC edibles and products while an application to do so, submitted April 1, remains under review by the state.

The city converted to a low dose THC license in October 2025 and was permitted to sell while the application was in review status. The state denied the license application due to application discrepancies on March 30, 2026, which forced sales to stop on April 1.

The store cannot sell products while the new application is under review. All (727) THC products were pulled from the shelf and put into back storage.

Dust Control

Applications for Vergas city residents living on a gravel road that are interested in dust control need to complete an application by April 30. The application is on the city’s website under the City drop down menu > Applications and Permits.