City superintendent contract in the works for Councilman Dunn

Contract negotiations are currently in progress for Grant City Superintendent Candidate Edward Dunn.

After interviewing Dunn and Jeff Pederson of Wisconsin, Mayor Lisa Schmitt recommended Dunn for the position at the council meeting April 9. With Dunn abstaining, the three remaining council members voted to give Schmitt the authority to proceed with contract negotiations. 

Assuming a contract is signed, Dunn will have to resign his seat as a council member. 

In this case, following the protocol laid out in state statute, Schmitt would nominate a qualified registered voter to fill the vacancy and the council would vote upon the nominee. 

If the nominee failed to receive a majority of the votes, the nomination would be rejected and the mayor would nominate another qualified registered voter to fill the vacancy, continuing to nominate qualified registered voters and the council continuing to vote until the vacancy was filled. 

In lieu of filling a vacancy by nomination, the mayor and council may call a special city election to fill such vacancy.

AWOS

Moving to the next step in the installation of the Automated Weather Observing System (AWOS), the council voted to allow Schmitt or City Clerk/Treasurer Jessie Faber to sign sponsor certification documents for project final acceptance, equipment/construction contracts, plans and specifications, conflict of interest and selection of consultant for the project. 

Leon Kumor, who serves on the airport advisory board, often speaks with the pilots who fly in with Medical outreach and Flight for Life. He’s been behind-the-scenes as the city has worked to get AWOS for the last 20 years. 

He spoke on the importance of Medical Outreach having access to arrival weather through AWOS, and the detriment caused by having to cancel flights due to not having the system. 

Public comment

With the passing of the new code book at the last meeting, the public comment portion of the meeting is now scheduled before old business instead of after new business. 

Schmitt said they chose to move it to give the public the opportunity to make a comment before business is discussed. 

“Keep doing a good job,” commented John Long. 

Denny Hansen asked if there was any plan to reactivate the economic development committee. Schmitt said there is. 

Potential litigation

The council went in to executive session to discuss potential litigation by request of City Attorney Tawna Holmstedt.