Sand mine hot topic at school board meeting
By Kelsie Hoitomt
GLENWOOD CITY – The Glenwood City Board of Education held their meeting Monday night where Scott Teigen along with community members Barry Peterson, Jerry and Katie Leonard and Chris and Deanna Schone spoke about the proposed sand mine on the properties of Teigen and Bob Crosby.
There were about ten other community members that listened to Teigen speak about the latest updates on the sand mine that Vista Sand has proposed.
As of right now, Vista Sand has reconstructed their permit application over the past couple of months and it has been handed into the St. Croix County zoning office. The county Board of Adjustments will be making a decision on the permit application on either February 28 or March 28.
Teigen also stated that another informational meeting about the sand mine will be held tentatively on Monday, February 18 at 7:00 p.m.
At the meeting, those community members spoke out to the board members and asked that they again take serious measures towards the concerns about air monitoring, water quality, transportation and all around safety of the children.
The Board’s current action is to look for an attorney to represent the school’s interest as the attorney used before is no longer able to represent the school as a result of a conflict of interest.
In other business, the Board approved a resolution authorizing the issuance and awarding the sale of $1 million note anticipation notes.
According to the term of the Notes, the “Note Anticipation Notes” shall be dated February 22, 2013 and shall be in a minimum denomination of $100,000 or any integral multiple of $5,000 about such minimum denomination; shall bear interest at the rate of 3.000 percent per annum; and shall mature on March 18, 2013. Interest is payable at maturity. Interest shall be calculated on a 30/360 day basis.
This money borrowed from Hiawatha National Bank will be used for the purpose of paying the cost of improvements to school district buildings and sites including campus security/safety measures; high school/middle school science lab remodeling and/or addition; and renovations to track and football facilities and the campus parent and bus routing/drop off areas (the “Project”) and there are insufficient funds on hand to pay said costs.
The Board also approved the recommended seats available for open enrollment. The third Friday enrollment count says that that number is plus one with the two smallest classes being in the high school.
As for the latest budget updates, Superintendent Tim Emholtz said the 2012-13 budget is still on track and the $90,000 from insurance pre-payment is still in the capital account and available for use.
And as for the 2013-14 budget, things are looking more optimistic as the budget is around $160,000 short of being balanced, but that is still said to be a really good number and Emholtz is feeling good about being able to solve those budget issues.
