Chamber Blog

Recently the Brainerd Dispatch published an editorial advocating for school districts to choose their starting date instead of abiding by the state law that requires K-12 schools to start after Labor Day. While the Dispatch references the 2005 bill amendment, this issue has been debated for decades, and Post Labor Day school start continues to be important to Minnesota.

Tourism business is still the primary source of economic prosperity in the Brainerd Lakes Area and an earlier starting date will negatively affect our business community. In these challenging economic times, the last thing we need to do is decrease business activity.

Increased learning outcomes are compatible with Minnesota’s tradition of summer. Our state relies on the sales tax revenue from late summer travel and our businesses rely not only on sales revenue, but also on the seasonal employment of high school students.

The Chamber’s Board of Directors supports a post labor day school start. I also serve on the Governor’s Explore Minnesota Tourism Council, a 28 member group of diverse tourism representatives from throughout Minnesota supporting a post labor day school start.

There is no research that substantiates that an earlier starting date will result in greater student achievement. School districts are free to set their calendar any way they choose to improve student achievement - as long as they start after Labor Day. There are many reforms proposed for K-12 education that can be accomplished with the current law: all day-every day kindergarten, longer school days, increasing the number of education days per year, consolidation of calendars among school districts, and many more. Reforms that compliment students, families, and the many businesses that depend on the current school calendar can be accomplished.

Let’s investigate other tools to increase learning outcomes – changing the existing law is not necessary to make progressive change in Minnesota’s educational achievement rates.

At the Brainerd City Council meeting last night, they heard a presentation from Brainerd Lakes Chamber CEO, Lisa Paxton about the budgeting priorities of government. Lisa shared highlights from the recent Chamber survey about the economy. The Brainerd-Baxter Business Council has offered to give assistance to the City in future budgeting discussions by sharing their experiences with budget cuts. What is the City's shared vision and what is the road map for getting there? An example of the managing for results process was distributed which highlighted measurable results.

The Council approved forgiving $100,000 of the Wausau Paper revolving loan after some discussion and hearing from two Brainerd citizens. No significant change in the environmental effects of the paper plant are foreseen with the expansion in production.

Whether or not to raise City fees for building, fire, and planning permits was an issue of much discussion last night. Several Councilors mentioned they received phone calls voicing concern over the fee increase and the Council did not approve raising fees for permits.

The Council approved paying the lease and continuing to use the BNSF parking lot north of Front Street in Downtown for the next year.

The Personnel & Finance Committee began a discussion of the City's business subsidy policy, but took no action on it. Sheila Haverkamp, BLADC, assisted with this discussion and will continue to do so as needed in the future.

As always, the Brainerd Dispatch has great coverage of the meeting.

Emily Northey, Chamber Main Street Coordinator, enorthey@explorebrainerdlakes.com

Labels: 2010 budget, BLADC, Brainerd City Council, Government, Survey, Wasau

The chambers were packed at last night's City Council meeting. Most of the people were there for a public hearing covering several street reconstruction projects in the city – mainly in residential areas.

The Brainerd City Council approved moving forward with only a few of the many street reconstruction and resurfacing projects planned for Summer 2010. All of the projects proposed projects were on the first year of the 5-year Capital Improvement Program because of their age and condition. Several residents along the streets spoke during the meeting with questions, concerns about cost or ongoing street maintenance.
Street projects approved include:

• North 5th Street – Washington to Bluff
• North 9th Street – Kingwood to Fir Street
• Holly Street – North 3rd to North 10th Street
• Kingwood Street – North 2nd Street to Washington Street
• Tyrol Drive
• NW 2nd Street – Washington to James Street

The Council approved doing background checks for people on City commissions, committees, employees, and license applicants.

The Council approved a 5-year lease for the Northwoods league (Brainerd Lunkers) to continue to use the Mills Field.

Currently the City Charter requires that property owners pay for sidewalk repairs 100% and the Council is considering changing this. To that end, they asked the Charter Commission to return drafted Charter changes with a recommendation of whether or not to have the public vote on this issue.

In an effort to become more competitive for state or federal grants, the Council approved having staff prepare these projects to be more "shovel ready":

1. City's 5 year plan for street and utilities improvements
   
2. Utility extension to the airport
3. Business 371 realignment and reconstruction

Emily Northey, Chamber Main Street Coordinator, enorthey@explorebrainerdlakes.com

Labels: Brainerd City Council, Government, Shovel-Ready, Sidewalk Repairs

I was in St. Paul yesterday for three meetings. The first was with Explore Minnesota Tourism staff to review research about lodging tax trends in MN with EMT staff, Scott Harrison from Lutsen Resort, and Fred Bobich, Ruttger’s Sugar Lake Lodge. The research was completed by the U of M Tourism Center at the rest of organizations in northeast Minnesota – the results will be released in about 60 days.

The second meeting was a public policy meeting at EMT, a committee I have the honor to chair. The Department of Health presented information changing the definition of lodging to include vacation home rentals, we reviewed resolutions to support maintaining the post labor day school start and the current law that designates lodging tax for marketing purposes, and draft language about online travel company taxes. All topics were discussed and positions recommended for the full EMT council next week.

In addition, there was intense conversation about the Coast Guard enforcement of licenses on waters controlled by the Army Corps of Engineers. Apparently the law has been in effect for years but has not been enforced. It affects Gull and Whitefish chains, and Mille Lacs. The current law requires a federal “six pack” license to operate boats commercially – this includes fishing guides, pontoon rides by resorters, resort staff transferring boats between docks, etc. The “six pack” was not designed for most inland lakes or rivers nor for small vessels such as 16-20 foot outboard boats. We are drafting a resolution to oppose this stringent requirement.

In addition, there is a requirement that all licensed mariners possess a transportation worker’s identity card (TWIC) - intended to help comply with security measures on larger vessels and commercial ports. Congressman Oberstar has proposed an amendment to HR 3619 to clarify that only mariners who enter designated secure areas of larger vessels need to obtain TWIC cards. The bill has passed the house but not the senate – so everyone is encouraged to call their senator to support the amendment.

Finally, I had the pleasure to attend the annual Minnesota Chamber Session Priorities dinner with a dozen volunteer leaders from the Brainerd Lakes area and Senators Koering and Olson, and Representative Ward and Howes. We enjoyed opening comments from Governor Pawlenty (you may have heard or seen some of his comments on radio, tv, or newspaper today), as well as interviews with House and Senate leadership about the session.

After a white knuckle drive back to the Brainerd Lakes area, we were home about 12:30 a.m. this morning.

During last night's Brainerd City Council meeting, City Housing Inspector Bill Kronstedt presented information on administrative citations. Other cities have used administrative citations to more effectively decrease nuisance calls, increase property values, and free up the court systems.

Typical violations addressed by administrative citations in other communities include vehicle, signs, trees, nuisance, building violations, hazardous conditions, etc. The current ordinance addresses administrative citations, but as soon as a violation is contested (e.g. the person doesn't want to clean-up their back yard) it goes into the court system causing delays and labeling citizens as criminals for what are essentially civil matters.

The Council had some questions about the details of such a system, but will ask those again once more research and writing has been completed. The City Council approved directing staff to begin drafting ordinances to implement an administrative citation method of addressing violations.

Mayor Wallin presented Robert Sherman with a Tower Award for his service on the Transportation Committee and Planning Commission.

The City Council approved recognizing multi-family housing as residential, not commercial, for the purposes of waste removal to encourage recycling.


Emily Northey, Chamber Main Street Coordinator, enorthey@explorebrainerdlakes.com.

Labels: Administrative Citations, Brainerd City Council, Government, Recycling

About 20 chamber members joined Jennifer Byers, Mn Chamber Vice President, to dialogue about proposed policy priorities for the 2010 legislative session. The priorities included state spending reform (projected spending increases are outpacing revenue), repeal of the nuclear ban (MN law actually won’t allow nuclear power generation to be considered), environmental permitting reform (guaranteeing a delivery time frame for environmental permits), K-12 education including alternative teacher licensure, and health care reform (implementing the laws passed in 2008). There was considerable discussion about ensuring that our future workers are able to compete nationally and internationally, as well as the high cost of higher education and the burden it places on graduates. Spending reform was also a high priority because of the projections for limited revenue increases for government – as well as the businesses that pay the taxes.

There was spirited but good natured bantering at Eggs and Issues on January 8th between Representatives Ward and Howes, and Senator Koering. Their comments ranged from the proposed bonding bill to voting records and positions on business issues. Two of the audience questions focused on K-12 – with attendees concerned about school funding disparities in our region vs. the Twin Cities and the unfairness of a law that will fine ISD 181 $200,000 fine if the teacher’s union contract isn’t resolved by January 15 without any penalty to the union. Others shared the difficult decisions they’ve made to reduce staff, wages, and benefits in order to stay in business, concerns about competitive bidding, new taxes on services, a unicameral legislature, and job creation.

Lakeland Public Television, Echo Publishing, and the Brainerd Dispatch covered the event. The Chamber also recorded it for rebroadcast on public access channels 8 and 15.