Isanti City Council took its first look at a potential joint powers agreement it would enter into with Isanti County on the CSAH 5/East Dual Boulevard intersection as part of its Tuesday, May 7, meeting.
The city has been working with Isanti County on creating a roundabout at that intersection,
“I was hoping the County Board would have some discussion on that agreement at its meeting this morning,” said City Administrator Josi Wood. “However, it was not placed before them, and there was no discussion.”
Wood said she sought input from City Council on several items in the agreement, including snow plowing.
“The city will, at its cost and expense, maintain the snow plowing and snow removal on the center island,” Wood read from the agreement. “County Engineer Justin Bergerson said it’s typical that the proper agent to remove the snow would be the city.”
She added that Bergerson said the county’s equipment would have difficulty in removing that snow.
Two other items she wished to discuss that upkeep of the boulevard would be the city’s responsibility, and that the county engineer asked that the city be responsible for lighting, especially traffic signals.
Council, as you might expect, was not happy with paying for these costs.
“We talked about this at length, and the county was adamant about a two-thirds, one-third split,” Merrill said. “Now they want us to pay for this 100%.”
Mayor Jimmy Gordon noted that the two-thirds, one-third split was for the cost of building the project, and these items involve upkeep after the project is completed.
For the snow removal, Wood was concerned about how this would affect snow removal for the city.
“Our guys are good at systematically going through the city and clearing the snow,” she said. “If this takes priority, and if there’s a standard for how often it needs to be plowed, [that is a concern]. We don’t have a large crew.”
Eventually council decided to speak with Public Services Director Matt Sylvester to see if it is something the city could handle. It also will investigate ways to get the county to assume some portion of the payment for the work.
For the lighting portion, Gordon noted that the county would be responsible for a stoplight. He also noted that the city handles lighting along the street, but he wondered if the city should be responsible for signals and traffic control.
“The [county] is basically saying, ‘If you want it to be lit, you need to pay for it,” City Engineer Jason Cook said. “At the roundabout, lights are required for safety.
“But those would be the only lights that the county would be responsible for, so that’s worth talking about.”
Council seemed set on staying on the two-thirds, one-third system for paying for the roundabout lights.
Playground update
Isanti staff reached out to M&E Plastic Repair, which is based in Sioux City, Iowa, for plastic welding for the two chute slides as well as the rock wall on the Clifford Playground at Bluebird Park.
“We have similar equipment in three other parks, and we could repair that equipment as well,” said Stephanie Hillesheim, the city’s community development director. “And the part that we thought we could get replaced on the Rum River Hills slide, which was cracked by its bolt, we cannot get a replacement.
“But [M&E Plastic Repair] can repair it for $450 – and that’s a substantial savings from what the replacement costs are.”
The cost of the repairs at Bluebird Park is $1,950, and those repairs were approved unanimously by council.
Clean audit
Council received an audit report from Abdo, an accounting firm based in Edina, regarding the city’s 2023 annual financial report.
Justin Nilson, a partner at Abdo, said Isanti received an unmodified clean opinion and received no compliance findings. He also presented a chart that showed that, while the city budget rose from $4,661,356 in 2023 to $4,787,600 this year, the unassigned fund balance rose to 54%, surpassing the 50% minimum fund balance policy for the first time.
“You can see a positive result for the city – it’s trending in the right direction,” Nilson said. “It rose from 31% in 2019 to 54%, and that’s a positive.”
The city’s cash and investments balances rose last year to $15,630,975 – “That’s also trending in the right direction,” Nilson said.
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