Lansing City Council names Radium Treatment Action Committee

by B.J. Tomlinson

The Lansing City Council met in its regular session Monday night, January 16. After the Consent Agenda was approved, the Council re-appointed Tony Becker as Fire Chief of the Lansing Volunteer Fire Department. The Council also approved a Lansing Lion's Club request for the City of Lansing to be the fiscal sponsor for several grant applications being submitted by the Club, including applications for grant funding through the Allamakee County Community Foundation, Alliant Energy, Mayo Health Foundation, Gundersen Health Foundation, ITC Foundation, Monsanto Foundation and Wellmark Foundation.

Dennis White, Regional Manager for People Service could not attend the meeting as planned because of the weather and road conditions, but submitted information by email and joined the Council's conversation via telephone for one particular agenda item. He and the Council discussed procedures and processes related to a radium treatment plan of action for the City's water supply.  White included in his materials a letter to be sent to several engineering firms that outlined the scope of the project, listed desired qualifications and suggested an evaluation criteria scale for use in making a selection. The Council approved the verbiage in the letter and named members of the Radium Treatment Action Committee that will help oversee the project. Those Committee members include Mayor Mike Brennan, City Clerk Katie Becker, Councilmen Ross Kolsrud and Curtis Snitker, and People Service representative Heath Draeger. White was named as the committee's advisor. It was agreed that the letters to select engineers will be sent February 1; notifications of interest are to be received by March 1.

In a related item, the Council reviewed and approved a proposed service fee increase of 1.7% in the Operations and Maintenance Agreement between the City and People Service. The increase is the same as last year.

In other business, the Council's review of a proposed excavation and safety manual was postponed until the next meeting. City Clerk Becker reminded everyone of a budget meeting to be held at 4 p.m. Monday, January 23. She also reported that two individuals have expressed interest in the vacant Council seat, and a selection to fill that vacancy is scheduled to be made at the next Council meeting.