The Breezy Point City Council learned Monday it will have to search for a new city engineering firm.
Phil Martin, with Landecker and Associates, Inc. in Pequot Lakes, has been the city engineer for Breezy Point for more than 10 years, and he said Monday the city should start searching for his replacement.
"Due to the economy and our lack of work, we decided to make the tough decision to wind down our business. We're going to be working at a greatly diminished capacity, and we are going to hand off our contracts to other firms," Martin said.
Martin said he will work to make the transition for the city as easy as possible.
He can still work in an advisory position with the city, but once the city needs anything beyond that, such as surveying, Landecker and Associates, Inc. of Pequot Lakes will no longer be able to provide those services for the city.
The council voted to have Martin and Landecker and Associates work as the engineer for the Sand Beach Drive improvements, since those improvements do not require a lot of engineering work.
Breezy Point contacted the League of Minnesota Cities, which said the city could still use the responses received last spring in response to a request for proposals from various engineering firms.
As long as the firms' proposals did not include an expiration date, and they are still willing to honor those proposals, the city can still pick from one of those engineering firms.
The council directed staff to pursue the engineering firms who submitted proposals last spring and bring that information before council so a new engineering firm can be chosen.
Public safety
Breezy Point police responded to 198 incidents in January. 85 were traffic related, 27 were assisting another agency, 49 were miscellaneous, nine were animal related, nine were accidents and eight were medical.
The Breezy Point Police Department recently joined Crime Stoppers.
In other action Monday, the council;
Approved a resolution ordering improvements for Sand Beach Drive. After a public hearing where some residents expressed their concern with or disapproval of the project, the council decided to move forward as previously discussed. The road improvements will be made to the 265 feet of the northerly part of Sand Beach Drive, and 100 percent of that cost will be assessed to the property owners along the affected property.
Approved a request for proposals for a new city attorney. The city is currently not in litigation so the council decided this was a good time to start looking for a new city attorney.
Approved the 2010 budget for the city. The expenditures total $2,818,831 and the total revenue for the city totals $2,963,299.
Approved a motion to direct staff to enter into negotiations with Danrich Inspection Services about the payment of back rent owed to the city, as well as rent payments to the city for the future.
