Tower council requests harbor agreement edits, accepts $7,500 tribal donation and proclaims Oct. 15 as Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day

The Tower City Council on Sept. 26 asked legal counsel to revise the proposed harbor development agreement to remove a letter-of-credit requirement, add language permitting a Pay-as-You-Go tax abatement option and to include project and funding-confirmation timelines.

Councilor Anderson moved and Councilor Matich supported the council's request that counsel include specific dates in the agreement: April 1, 2019 for notice to proceed with bid letting and infrastructure construction; July 2019 as the construction start date for the first unit of six townhomes; July 2020 as completion of that first unit; and a June 1, 2019 deadline to confirm Pay-as-You-Go tax abatement funds. The motion was recorded as carried unanimously.

Separately, the council adopted a resolution accepting a $7,500 donation from the Bois Forte Tribal Reservation to assist the Tower Fire Department; the record indicates no goods or services were exchanged for the donation and the motion passed unanimously.

The council also adopted a proclamation recognizing Oct. 15, 2018 as Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day at the request of Infants Remembered in Silence (IRIS), a 501(c)(3) organization that marks the date with candle-lighting observances; the motion carried unanimously.

The body voted to close the meeting at 7:28 p.m. for employee-discipline discussion and re-opened at 7:47 p.m.; minutes contain no public details of the closed-session discussion. After reopening, the council approved a motion directing the City Clerk Treasurer to pay all training fees associated with additional election training required by Saint Louis County and to place a copy of the county's correspondence summarizing mistakes in the 2018 primary election in the City Clerk's personnel file until the successful completion of the next election.

The meeting adjourned at 7:56 p.m.