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The Babbitt city council met for 90 minutes on Tuesday evening.
Mayor Andrea Zupancich again raised questions over the city’s fund balances and the report provided in the agenda packet.
After correcting the dates from 2024 to 2025, Zupancich asked why the account balances from 12/31/2024 weren’t the same for 1/1/2025.
“We approved December 31st, so those numbers should be in here on January 1st?” Zupancich asked clerk-treasurer Robecca Jaeger.
“Yes, yes,” said Jaeger.
“Well, there’s a bunch of discrepancies where they’re not the right, they’re not the same number as 12/31/24,” said Zupancich. “And on undistributed receipts, when I added across, it’s not that number.”
Jaeger said she wasn’t sure why the total was incorrect.
“I myself don’t feel good with it because there’s a $15,000 plus discrepancy in general on it. So I’m just not sure if we’ve maybe got the wrong copy, if there’s another one that we should have gotten,” said Zupancich.
Jaeger said she would look at why the balances were incorrect as well as the other errors and report back to the council.
Council member Duane Lossing also questioned the minutes of a previous meeting on funding for docks at the beach.
Jaeger said she would put some financials together and bring them to the next meeting.
A motion to approve the financial report failed when Zupancich and Lossing voted no resulting in a tie vote with council member Joe White absent.
The council discussed applying for IRRRB funding to help pay for the $110,000 cost to extend water and sewer lines to the Hideaway along with annexing the property. Jaeger said she believes the agency will pay for half of the cost.
Of the remaining monies, the Hideaway will pay $30,000. Where the remaining $25,000 to $40,000 or more would come from was discussed. The city has a fund with a balance of over $200,000.
Jaeger said the city agreed to pay for the infrastructure costs up to the property line.
The city is also looking to do the same with Timber Bay, although those costs are believed to be much higher. The resort is being sold but hasn't been finalized and the city hasn’t received a letter from the new owners yet.
A motion to proceed with the annexation of the Hideaway was changed and approved to apply for funding from the IRRRB and research what the city did when the Junction was annexed.
The PUC requested being able to meet at 2 p.m. as has been tradition instead of the new council mandates that no meetings can be held prior to 3:30 p.m.
The council denied the request when the motion to approve the request failed on a 2-2 vote with Lossing and Zupancich voting no and John Fitzpatrick and Jim Lassi voting yes.
In other business the council:
•Heardanupdateontheupdates being made to the heating system in the Municipal Building including better temperature control.
• Heard that the Babbitt Snowmobile and ATV Club donated steel I-beams for use to build a dock for the Babbitt Beach. At a special meeting on March 24, the dock project was approved with donations also from Prospector ATV Club of lumber, Friends of Recreation for $700 and an anonymous donation of $2,000.
• Approved a leave of absence from the fire department for Brad ley Bayliss.
• Waived rental fees for the National Day of Prayer event.
• Approved Peter Mitchell Fun Days Committee requests for support of the Walleye Whamma on June 14 and events June 20-22. Gambling licenses for the Friends of the Library and Peter Mitchell Days were also approved.
• Appointed Curt Koivisto to the Planning Commission.
• After recently increasing the amount firefighters can be paid when they retire, the council voted to increase the Fire Relief Association Budget Allocation by $12,000.
• Discussed the continuing saga of fixing the heating system in the Municipal Building including who would be working with a contractor. The matter was tabled over liability concerns. However, White will be allowed to clean up heat pump rooms since he is a city council member.
• Decided not to purchase iPads for council members.
