Hoyt Lakes council hears state representative on taxes and helium; approves hires, Ranger Club lease and candidate-forum fee waiver

Hoyt Lakes — The Hoyt Lakes City Council approved a series of routine items Tuesday evening, including personnel hires, a temporary equipment lease for a local club, a fee waiver for a candidate forum and the first pay application for the city arena project, after a public comment by the area’s state representative on regional tax and resource issues.

State representative Roger scraa opened the public-comment period and identified himself as "the state representative of this area," urging continued work to reduce property taxes in northern Minnesota and describing recent state actions. "We had the 500,000 for a year to tear down on the old school," he said, referencing a state appropriation he discussed that is intended to address local demolition needs. He also described efforts to increase Medicare reimbursement for rural ambulance services and an ongoing DNR process to draft rules related to a recently reported helium find and how royalties might be shared with local communities.

Those remarks framed the meeting’s broader discussion of local services and development. Council members and staff reported that the city food pantry remains low on donations and that trail and ball-field work is under way. Mayor Gr and staff acknowledged community concern about meeting procedures and civil conduct during public meetings and asked council members to consider a written rules-of-procedure document that would codify how motions, recognition by the chair and audience conduct are handled.

In new-business votes, the council unanimously approved a temporary lease allowing the Ranger Club to acquire a tractor and asked staff to add the equipment to the city’s insurance; the club has already paid the lease fees, the council was told. Roy borgard, speaking for the Ranger Club, thanked the city for agreeing to serve as the club’s fiscal agent for grant reimbursements and highlighted that the trails bring economic benefits to local businesses.

The council also voted to waive facility fees for Iron Range Today to host a candidate forum, after the organizer described a format of submitted and timed questions, and noted efforts to record or stream events when feasible. "We filtered the questions through us," the organizer said of prior forums.

Personnel actions included approval of three seasonal part-time hires (names as presented by staff), hiring Matthew bank as a full-time paramedic contingent on any changes to his background being reported prior to start, and approval of a casual part-time paramedic position limited to 14 hours per week.

On contracting, the council approved the first pay application from Max Grade Construction in the amount of $9,872 for arena work. After that vote the council adjourned the regular meeting.

The meeting contained no formal ordinances or resolutions for first or second readings. Several speakers urged clarity about the city’s rules of procedure; the council took the rules discussion as informational and directed staff to return a drafting option at a later meeting. The council did not set a final schedule for adopting written rules during the session and no implementation deadlines were announced.