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The city council discussed cannabis sales in Babbitt along with various other topics at the bimonthly council meeting on Feb. 20.
The first agenda item of consequence the council discussed was the recreation committee’s recommendation to host the circus for $2,000 per day at the city’s arena.
The circus will be coming to Babbitt in the springtime, and the council has been trying to figure out a fair price to rent out the city’s arena to the circus so they can perform.
At the last council meeting, the city had come up with the number of $3,000 per day, but the circus came back and told recreation director Caitlin Stern that $2,000 per day was their bottom line.
The circus had originally planned to perform for three days but told Stern they would now just be performing for two if they could find a fair price to rent out the arena.
The council unanimously approved the recreation committee’s recommendation to host the circus for $2,000 per day at the city’s arena in the springtime. The exact dates of the circus are yet to be determined.
The council moved to the next agenda item, which was to reschedule the next council meeting scheduled to take place on Tuesday, March 5.
This date is the presidential primary nomination election, and the building will be used for the elections.
The council agreed this date wouldn’t work out, but no other date worked for the council to meet the quorum.
“You don’t have to have a meeting,” said city attorney Mitch Brunfelt. “You can cancel it. It depends on how many urgent issues you have coming up.”
Brunfelt went on to explain how if the council has urgent matters present themselves, they can always call a special meeting to deal with it.
“If there are any issues, critical issues, you could just deal with them on a special meeting agenda,” he said.
The council voted unanimously to cancel the first city council meeting of March and to have a special council meeting if any urgent issues should arise.
Next, the council appointed the 2024 fire department officers, with Tony Chamberlin as fire chief, Andy Gerlovich as assistant fire chief, and Joseph White, Sheri Feiro, and Jeb Backe as captains.
“We have been operating the last couple of years with two captains, even though our ordinance is aligned for three,” said fire chief Tony Chamberlin. “I’d like to onboard a third captain again to get things rolling the way they should be.”
The council said that was a good idea and approved the motion to appoint the 2024 fire department officers, with Tony Chamberlin as fire chief, Andy Gerlovich as assistant fire chief, and Joseph White, Sheri Feiro, and Jeb Backe as captains, with White abstaining as he was one of the captains.
The council then moved to the last item of consequence on the meeting agenda, which was discussing establishing a smoke shop in town.
Councilman Jim Lassi put this on the agenda as he had heard about people with some interest in establishing a smoke shop within the city limits.
“There’s nothing in our zoning ordinance or city ordinances that regulate this,” said Lassi.
Lassi had Brunfelt forward all the council members a copy of Hoyt Lakes THC ordinance, as he believes it is a good template for them to follow in their ordinance.
The council believes they can use Hoyt Lakes THC ordinance almost word for word.
“What I’d like right now is for the council to forward this (Hoyt Lakes THC ordinance) to the Planning Commission for their study and public hearing, and then bring this back to the city council for adoption.”
Lassi said this whole process would take around two months to come full circle.
The council approve a motion for the city to begin a study of adopting a THC ordinance and to send the ordinance to the Planning Commission, which will bring it back to the council at a later date.
In other business the council:
• Rescinded motion to adopt resolution No. 2024-04 on Feb. 6, 2024.
• Adopted resolution No. 202404 appointing election judges and their wages.
• Approved Michael Rouse as an EMR for the ambulance department.
• Appointed Tony Chamberlin to the recreation committee.
The next meeting will take place March 19 at 5 p.m.
