Scouts visit Worthington City Council meeting for communication badge

Aug. 28—WORTHINGTON — On a mission to earn their communication merit badges, six young people from Scout Troop 134 of Worthington attended Monday's meeting of the Worthington City Council, earning a welcome from Mayor Rick Von Holdt and leading the local lawmakers in the Pledge of Allegiance.

The business of the meeting went extremely quickly, starting with the most routine of all meeting-related activity: approving the consent agenda, including the minutes of previous meetings and an application for a temporary on-sale liquor license for St. Mary's Parish/School, for a single-day fundraising event at Pioneer Village on Sept. 23.

The council moved on to quickly approve the third reading of a text amendment to an ordinance regarding local sales and use tax, making minor modifications to its language to comply with changes made by the Minnesota legislature.

Next, the City Council accepted an $8,659 grant from the Minnesota Department of Transportation, which along with $155,864 from the Federal Aviation Administration and $12,258 from the city, will be used to replace runway end identifier lights and do apron maintenance at the Worthington Municipal Airport.

MnDOT's funding is a companion grant that will fund 5% of the associated cost of the airport improvements.

Scouts also watched as the council approved the final plat at 1530 Airport Road — the Prairie Justice Center — which will allow for the creation of two new parcels of land. The new plat was actually already approved on July 24, but since then, city staff identified some additional easements that will allow the city to serve the area adequately with utilities in the future.

Then came the most unusual matter before the council — approving the transfer of a slender wedge-shaped parcel of land owned by the city to the Worthington Economic Development Authority, in order to prepare the land for potential sale later.

"This piece is another little cleanup piece prior to filing a final plat for the area around the Bioscience Drive extension going west of Highway 59, it's just a tiny little, weird triangle of land, essentially," said Worthington City Planner Matt Selof.

The triangular sliver of land runs over Bioscience Drive, roughly parallel with North Humiston Avenue, and the transfer was quickly approved so it could be brought to the EDA, allowing it to accept the property.

Council members then offered committee reports, of which there were only three.

Von Holdt noted he'd been involved with Troop 134 on a variety of levels and in multiple positions, and wished the scouts good luck.

Councilwoman Alaina Kolpin said the YMCA just had a meeting, and discussion included sending a job offer to a candidate for its open CEO position.

Finally, City Administrator Steve Robinson reminded the council of its next budget meeting at 4 p.m. Wednesday, as they continue toward setting a preliminary, "not-to-exceed" budget in September and final budget in December.

The entire meeting was complete in less than 10 minutes, and included a brief informal statement from Todd Wietzema, Public Works director, about how the hanging petunia baskets along 10th Street will be removed soon. Most likely, he said, the flowers died due to the recent intense heat wave, which featured several days of extreme temperatures that stayed hot even overnight.