About a month after the opening of South Haven’s new city hall, donations from area organizations continue to pour in for the project.
The South Haven City Council fielded four new donations, discussed remaining work such as landscaping, and handled payments for the building during its meeting on Tuesday, May 7.
Of the new donations, the largest came from South Haven’s Fire Relief Association, which contributed another $20,000 from its charitable gambling funds toward the building’s construction.
In addition, Norm Bodeker of the Sportsmen Club presented a donation of $2,000, and Dale Fischer of the Fairhaven Lions contributed a check for $1,000. Those funds will be used to purchase two refrigerators and a microwave for the city hall kitchen. Some of those funds could also be used for additional tables and chairs.
Finally, Darlene and Willie Looman of Fairhaven Electric donated a chair and table set for the lobby.
Council members expressed sincere appreciation for those contributions, noting that the donated funds were helping to make the building usable for the community through rentals and other events.
Councilor Kandice Voigt reported that all went well with two rentals on April 7 and May 5, and the council held a discussion on key code accessibility, noting that one key code box has been installed just for rentals and will be changed after each event.
Remaining work
Council members also discussed remaining details on the hall construction with Leo Kill of Liman Post and Beam.
A snow stop will be installed over the back door, and councilors requested additional cement work to be done from the west side of the building to the alley. The contractor will also be sweeping sand away for parking lot striping, and offered to sweep the streets at an additional charge, which the council approved.
Also, landscaping work was expected to start last Friday and be completed in about a week.
And finally, new occupancy signs that will be put up list the capacity of the hall at 157 people.
Payment
Following discussion, the council agreed to transfer $47,000 into the city hall project fund to cover outstanding city hall construction claims.
Councilors also agreed to pay $47,426 to Liman Post and Beam for work done and to withhold $20,000 for work not yet completed.
The council learned during the evening that the city hall building has been insured at a replacement cost of $400,000.
Insurance
Insurance agent Ed Fisher attended the meeting and presented 2013 coverage with the League of Minnesota Cities Insurance Trust.
The total premium for property and liability insurance rose $113 for April 4, 2013 to April 4, 2014 to $23,969, which includes liquor liability. Liquor liability actually dropped slightly from $10,218 last year to $10,095.
The biggest increase came in the Workers Compensation category. Last year it was $5,338. The renewal notice listed $7,451 with a net deposit premium of $6,544. It was noted that there were some Worker Compensation claims in the past year.
The city also received an LMCIT Insurance Dividend of $1,383 for the previous year.
Other items
In other action during the meeting, the council:
■ Received an early update on planning for South Haven Days. As in years past, the celebration will take place during the last full weekend in July and include a parade along with many other events.
The planning committee has requested the use of the city hall during the weekend, and committee member Brenda Nicka plans to attend the June council meeting.
■ Learned that the city office will be closed due to the clerk’s vacation on May 24 and for Memorial Day on May 27.
■ Heard a report from municipal liquor store manager Bonnie Shadduck, who noted that April was a good month overall.
Big events like the fish fry on April 5 and the smelt fry on May 4 helped generate good business, and Shadduck said the extra activity generated by the smelt fry was even higher than last year.
Shadduck also requested that the fire department flush the storm drain in front of the store and voiced concerns about a possible "off-sale" delivery service in the area.
■ Fire Chief Oscar Laney submitted a written report noting that the department handled three fire and two rescue calls in April.
Laney also said the smelt fry was a big success, serving 660 people.
As far as equipment, Laney said the department’s new GPS has been working well, that batteries needed to be installed in Tanker 2, and that foam installation for the No. 1 pumper truck has been put on hold.
■ Heard from councilor Russ Christinsen that there may be some delay in flushing hydrants because of the late spring thaw, but flushing is still expected to take place in May.
■ Directed Clerk Carol Banken to purchase six stop signs and six all-way or four-way signs.
Councilor Anthony Stanley also said his street report that he will look into having the ditch that the storm drain runs into cleared out.
■ Approved applications from La’La Bar & Grill for hard liquor, wine and beer set-up licenses for July 1, 2013 through June 30, 2014 contingent on the payment of fees and provision of a certificate of liquor liability insurance, along with compliance with all requirements of the application.
■ Approved wine and beer licenses for Mom’s Place effective July 1, 2013 through June 30, 2014 with the same contingencies mentioned above.