[Music] Lakeland Currents your public affairs program for north central Minnesota.

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Welcome to Lakeland Currents.

I'm your host Todd Haugen.

For our show today I'm joined by a couple of officials of the city of Bemidji.

We have the mayor here his name is George Prince and we have Ward 2 council person and Visit Bemidji Executive Director Josh Peterson on hand as well.

They're both very busy right now and they've made time to join us for our show.

Welcome to Lakeland Currents gentlemen.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you good to be here.

Good to see you again.

Mayor it's a busy time in Bemidji and Josh you know that perhaps better than anybody else.

It's always busy in Bemidji.

There's never a downtime after all.

You especially are busy right now through your capacity with Visit Bemidji and your role with the Night We Light Celebration which is coming up.

Yes, it's as of November 1st we will flip the switch and transform Bemidji within the about two and a half weeks into full-blown Christmas City.

Nearing 1 million lights, we're about 750,000 this year and we're adding elements this year that no other city in the midwest has.

We actually will surpass some other Minnesota competitors I'll say.

We're converting the giant Paul Bunyan Christmas tree to pixel light so, it'll be like a giant television screen.

So we'll be actually doing animations and all kinds of things like that on the tree.

It'll be the tallest in the Midwest and one of the tallest in the United States standing at about 58 1/2 ft. Then we're also adding like seven other new larger than life displays throughout the park.

Now just recently added, we got permission we're adding a ice rink down at the lakefront now as of well whenever the ground freezes and we can get ice down there.

We'll have a small, we're in the planning stages of adding a small ice rink down there, fire pits with s'mores kits available at the tourist information center, the giant ornament you can walk through, there's a figure skating display, there is a ice fishing display, trying to think here.

We have the fire pits, ice fishing display, the giant ornament, the pixel tree, yeah and there's just like I said we're adding lights, we're adding lights to the tree canopies in downtown Bemidji, as well as the south shore trees, it's full-blown Christmas mode here in Bemidji as of today.

Actually as of a couple weeks ago we started the lights in the trees.

But you'll actually start seeing the physical displays and the actual very visible, larger than life displays as of November 1st.

Well, and as people watch this edition of Lakeland Currents that all is just days away so, we're looking forward to it.

November 24th fireworks return, parade's at 6, following the lighting ceremony shortly after and then fireworks as soon as the lights come on, the fireworks will go boom.

Last year we had record numbers in attendance as we all saw and we hope to have everyone come back again for one of the state's largest illuminated celebrations.

It's a great event Josh and, you know, Lori Paris and so many others worked hard on this for many, many years that before you did and you've really kept it alive and made it even bigger and better.

So, what's interesting about First City of lights is it started off as a city celebration with Mayor Doug Peterson.

It was a city sanctioned event which then the Chamber picked up the torch and carried it for many, many years.

Then the Jaycee's took it over and that's when I got involved with it in about 2015 was the first year and then now it's evolved so much that it's outgrown the Jaycees organization and for the third year now it's the First City Lights Foundation.

We're a 501c3 nonprofit.

Separate from Bemidji, separate from the city, it is its own standalone organization that year round we do Christmas.

So, it's grown to that capacity and you know we're going to trade shows and figuring out by taking classes on how to do things and learn new things and haul in.

That's where honestly a lot of these new displays and elements that we're adding this year are as are a result of the TransWorld Christmas Show that's in St Louis.

So, working with some people that are on the cutting edge of technology for Christmas decor.

It's hard to believe there's technology in Christmas decor but with what we're doing with our pixel tree it's state-of-the-art and one of the, like I said, one of the rarest and tallest in the United States.

So, we're excited to have that right here in Bemidji to make Bemidji a Christmas destination.

Well, a little more about that all when we wrap up the show today here on Lakeland Currents.

Mayor Prince here in Bemidji there's never a slow time like we we started off by talking about, but perhaps one of the biggest things happening right now is our new city manager the change in that department.

Who is our new manager?

So our new city manager is Mr Richard Spiczka.

He is currently the city administrator for the city of Pequot Lakes.

He will be beginning his time here in Bemidji on December 5th.

So, we're very much looking forward to having him join the city team and to kind of start a new chapter.

And you know for us it was really interesting because we had 33 people apply for this position at the beginning.

We were working with a search firm Baker Tilly to help us go through this process and kind of vet the candidates and out of those 33 candidates we came to have eight finalists.

And they were all very qualified people with a wide diversity of background.

From those eight we narrowed it down to three finalists and from the three finalists made a final selection.

I was very impressed with the quality of candidates we had.

You know there's always a concern because obviously workforce is a challenge and an issue for many different businesses but also for municipalities as well.

But to get I think that quality of candidate and then be able to make that final selection I think speaks volumes for Bemidji in the fact that there were people really looking at this position as an opportunity to be part of something unique and special so, yeah.

Josh in your work in the city council, I mean you were both very much in on all the interviews and the decision making it's not easy to do is it?

No, it wasn't an easy decision and I think I said it best when we were doing one of these meetings is if we could take a little bit of every single candidate we'd have like the All-Star dream candidate.

But I think we walked away with someone that has us excited, has the community excited, and the business community excited, and I think we're anxious to get him to work and see what see what we can do together.

Mayor, Mr Spiczka has been the city administrator of Pequot Lakes is that right?

Is that different than being a city manager?

It's a a little bit different because it goes back to the charter and what the form of government is for each city and Pequot Lakes is a little different than the city of Bemidji where the city council, in particular the mayor, has a little bit more power in Pequot Lakes than here in Bemidji.

So, there is some nuanced difference there between being a city administrator and a city manager.

But also the size of the operation, right.

Bemidji is a significantly larger city.

We have some unique partnerships, like with the Rural Fire Association, for example, where we're, you know, taking care of one of the largest geographical fire areas that anyone in the state has.

So, you know, we obviously have Bemidji State University here, Northwest Technical College those kinds of things that you wouldn't necessarily see in Pequot Lakes.

So, there are some pretty marked differences, but at the same time it's 60 miles away.

We're kind of in the same region, our natural resources and assets are a high priority for both of us.

Tourism is something that's important for both of us.

So, there are some parallels there but this is definitely going to be, I think, a step up in Rich's career, but I think he's ready.

Again we spent a lot of time really getting to know the candidates, to go through the interview process, to make sure we were making the best choice possible for Bemidji.

You know to Josh's point it was a real challenge because we had some very high quality candidates.

And for me it's always about not just the quality of the candidate and what they bring to the table but there is an aspect of this it's personality and also what does the city need today.

Because the city's needs change over time, right, and so I think a lot of those things went into my own decision making as I think it did for my fellow council members.

Do either of you see a time when the city charter for Bemidji might be amended to change our system of city government to having an administrator rather than a city manager?

That's a good question.

I'll take it .

Yeah, go for it.

You kind of look like you wanted a minute there.

All I was going to say is I think from time to time every city really does need to re-evaluate its form of government.

Because cities are changing, cities are growing, things are different in the world today than they were when this charter was first put into place or even for that matter 10 or 15 years ago.

So, I'm not here to say hey, we definitely need to make some type of change to the form of government.

But I think it's appropriate periodically for the council and for the citizens to think about.

Is this really working for our community?

Is this the best way we can govern?

So, I think to have that conversation is appropriate.

Where we would land on such a conversation I don't know.

And I would add, you know, I've spoken with a few citizens that have actually approached me about our system of government with being a charter city and all and some feel that it's, you know, we've outgrown the charter.

You see a lot of charter communities are smaller than what we are currently as the city of Bemidji.

So, I think it's something that should be looked at every so often, maybe after so many years annually.

Just to take a look back at is it working for the people and do the people still want that style or and form of government.

Is there currently a committee separate from the council that is considering some changes to the city charter?

Well, there is the charter commission, right, which is charged to do that type of work.

That is one way that you can get change to the charter is for the charter commission to bring forth something that would go on a ballot for the citizens to vote on.

Another way for that to happen is for the city council to request that something move forward as well.

So, in the past I think both the council and the charter commission have worked together to try to move things forward.

I think the most recent ballot question was in regards to the mayoral term changing from two to four years.

And I know I watched that as a citizen, obviously I wasn't in office at the time.

But I think there was a lot of conversation that went back and forth between the charter commission and the council as that worked its way through before it actually got on the ballot.

So, I think that's the most recent example of a charter change coming before the people.

One change that is happening in the city of Bemidji apparently is a move away from The Joint Planning Board.

And the city is going to take on planning and zoning itself in a different form without cooperation from Northern Township.

Is that what's happening?

Yes, and to be clear Northern Township came to the city council and requested to leave the Joint Planning, you know, Commission.

And that's how the the whole conversation really began.

As a council we took that under consideration and, you know, thought about what was best for the city and made our determinations as well.

So, as of December 31st, as it's currently planned, Northern Township will do its own planning and zoning and the City of Bemidji will do its own planning and zoning.

So right now we are actually moving our planning and zoning rules and ordinances through the three hearing process at the city council so that we're ready come January 1st.

Overwhelmingly we're adopting the existing code.

That's what will come on board.

I suspect we will be reviewing the comprehensive plan to which all ordinance have to align and some of the ordinances next year after we've taken them in house.

Josh, is that a process that seems to be proceeding reasonably to you?

Yeah, I think so.

I mean it's been interesting.

I sit on the Joint Planning Board now.

And I mean I understand Northern Township's reasonings for wanting to split away from the JPB.

For us, for the city, I think it's a great opportunity to look at what our needs are as a community.

And take a deep dive into that comprehensive plan because what necessarily works for us may not work for Northern Township.

So there's differences there and so I think this is a great opportunity for us as a city to really listen to the citizens first off and our business community and find out what's maybe working for our city and maybe what's not.

And for me I'm always looking at balance right, we live amongst tremendous natural assets and we have a duty to preserve those assets not just for ourselves but for generations to come we're entrusted with that, we need to be good stewards.

At the same time we know we need economic development and economic growth to fuel the city.

And so where do you find that balance between having a plan and ordinances and rules that are friendly to economic development, but at the same time are respectful of your natural assets and work to preserve them.

And I think that's a great conversation not just for the council to have but for the community to have.

Because, you know, when this comp plan was put together 10 years ago, you know needs change.

It's a community that's always growing as we've stated earlier.

So what are today's needs and how can we, you know, address those and look at them, you know, under perhaps a little bit different lens.

So, we'll see what happens.

But I agree with Josh I think it's a great opportunity to revisit.

And I think, you know, if we're real honest, originally the JPB was supposed to be a three-party agreement.

And the minute, you know, one of those parties left the Bemidji township it changed the very nature.

And so, you know, for Northern Township to reach its conclusions, for our city council to reach our own conclusions, I think, you know, had a lot to do with the actual intent of the JPB and the parties that first came together not really being there anymore.

And so, you know, it has been changing for a while.

Is any annexation on the front burner for the city of Bemidji at this point as far as either of you know?

I took the first one.

Oh well, for me, I always say let's take care of, this is my personal opinion, and I speaking for myself here, you know I think we need to take care of the residents within our city limits first before we look at expanding borders.

I mean we have residents within our city limits that don't even have sewer and water yet.

And I say let's get the services to them and take care of the citizens we have first before we look at expanding our borders.

But, there's those that differ from me on that stance.

Well, Josh and I agree on that particular point.

I've never been one that really wants to look at annexation aggressively simply because of a couple of things.

The first is we have plenty of things to do within our own city limits right now.

And we need to prioritize that focus on it everything from public safety on down are things that we really need to focus on.

And then the other piece of it is when you annex property.

Yes, you're getting that property tax coming your way but it doesn't happen overnight, it gets phased in over like a five-year period.

Also you have to take on the responsibility of that annex property.

Which means you have to police it, you have to take care of the roads, you have to plow, you have to do all these things.

And so for me just looking at it financially that's always the balance.

Yes you're getting X and tax revenue but what is it costing you to go out and provide that service.

So that's the financial side of it.

And then just the citizen side of it is does it make sense to annex that.

When I look at our last round of annexation, again just speaking for myself personally, we annexed some very large tracks of rural land, where people own 40 or 80 acre parcels.

And that led to some complications with hunting rights and animals and things like this, and I you know, again, looking at it and again I wasn't there so I don't understand all the facts.

But I'm thinking to myself why did we annex something so rural?

And there may be, you know, may very well be good reason but I don't want to be facing that in the future.

Where you know we're annexing such rural property that doesn't make sense for it to be part of the city.

One time when that discussion has come up lately, of course, is regarding extending city water and sewer to the north shore of Lake Bemidji.

And that pretty much stopped right?

Is that discussion still going on?

As far as we know Northern Township is moving on with its own system of some sort.

We haven't been in a lot of conversation about what that system would be.

But ultimately, you know, the council elected not to change its longstanding policy of extending city service without those folks agreeing to annexation and being part of the city.

And again, just as we were talking talking about the rural nature of not wanting to annex tons of rural property, the other side of it is if we're going to provide city services like city water and city sewer that's part of the reason to be part of the city.

That's a benefit you receive as someone who is an annex.

And to Josh's point, we have citizens in our own city who don't have that.

So it's hard to look at that and want to extend that to people when your own citizens don't have that.

And not only that there have been cases in the past along Birchmont, for example, where the conversation was if you want city services you have to be annexed.

People were annexed.

And now for them to have made that agreement and look to the city and say well now you're offering a different agreement to different people.

That standard just gets kind of slippery.

So from a consistency standpoint, I have personally endorsed city policy and I'm going to stand with that.

There was a need though at Ruttger's Birchmont Lodge to have city water and sewer services.

Was that extended to them?

They're in Northern Township I believe.

So, with Ruttger's they were dealing with a septic issue, and they had several ways to address that.

They could build their own new septic system.

If Northern Township does a system they could annex into that or they could request to be annexed to the city.

But there's some intricacies there for them to make that, you know, formal request which, as far as I understand they never actually did.

So, last I had heard they were building their own septic system, which is an agreeable solution.

I think at the beginning of this the idea was here's a great way to solve that septic issue for Ruttger's for a long term and in doing so protect Lake Bemidji and begin the process of extending, you know, sewer service all the way around the lake, which I think is a noble goal.

And unfortunately it didn't happen this time around but boy we had conversations about how many times the city and the township over, you know, probably the last 50 years have had these conversations about how do we get this done.

So that piece of it not happening was disappointing.

Well, I knew we would have more to talk about than we had time today.

We still got several minutes though.

The city of Bemidji has been talking about making a change with its City Hall after the the flooding occurred there and the basement was so damaged.

Where did that end up?

Is that discussion still going on?

Well the discussions are, I think they were going but then they've kind of been put on pause.

I mean our joint planning offices, which were displaced by the great flood, they're back now, back in City Hall, back in the lower level ,so the lower level is all fully functional and fully staffed again.

But as for, I think there's still a need and I think that's still a curiosity to explore what are opportunities for building a new city hall.

But also addressing the needs of the fire station one which is in greater disrepair at this time.

There was a little piece of that as well that related to funding.

I know I wasn't on the committee but I know that there had been some conversation about if we were going to do these renovations or new construction how would they be funded?

And one of the thoughts was potentially having a sales tax.

To potentially, you know, have some infrastructure dollars but of course when the state legislators decided to, you know, not allow that for two years that went off the table.

So, I think there's definitely a need especially as it relates to fire station, but the million or in this case $15 million question is going to be how do you fund it?

And along comes the county's vote which is, you know, typically voters are only willing to vote themselves so many tax increases.

In any event, on to the downtown rec center that has been proposed, that as it kind of goes and then it kind of had a setback this summer didn't it?

What's the status of that idea?

Well it is moving forward and it's moving forward with Greater Bemidji having having a much more active role in it than they had before.

As you might recall, at the beginning the idea was that this would be a private development and that the wellness center of it would be operated by Sanford Health.

So, along the way, Sanford Health pulled back on wanting to operate it.

And so it then became an issue of who would run the wellness center and so Greater Bemidji stepped in to look for potential partners who could do that.

And one of those partners that's rising to the top of the list is the YMCA.

And so it's entirely possible now that again that would be a private development not owned by the city, not operated by the city, but potentially owned by let's say an entity like Greater Bemidji who could then have an operator come in and lease it like the YMCA and still work with a development company like Krauss Anderson to do the full development.

Because we get very focused on the wellness center, but we're also talking about potentially mixed use retail down there, potentially some housing, etc.

It's a large piece of property.

Most importantly getting the pollution cleaned up because that's the one thing I don't ever want to overlook or make light of is, you know, that's been contaminated land for a long time and it would be great to make some headway there.

Absolutely.

I can't imagine there'd be too many people that would be against that happening.

There's some difficult choices to make aren't there?

Because it can't include everything for everyone.

And the last time I heard the estimated cost of what people might like to have there in that facility it was in the neighborhood of well a heck of a lot more money than we were initially talking about.

It has to have a limit somewhere right?

Yeah, I mean I know, you know, Greater Bemidji and the group that they've been working with Stanford Health and all the surveys they did I mean the community has a lot of needs.

But it's figuring out how those needs intertwine with the fundraising they've also done too.

Because a lot of the grant funding that they've received has contingencies that it has to have certain elements as part of the wellness center.

So it's going to be interesting to see what they come up with and how they're going to meet those needs.

And it could be phased.

I mean that's the one thing you know sometimes you don't get everything you want at one shot.

You look at what's core, get that going and then add to it, and add to it, and add to it.

So I think that's kind of what Greater Bemidji is trying to study here is what would be core.

You know especially if the YMCA was involved and then what could be added on to it over time and and how might that look.

But I certainly don't want to, you know, not acknowledge the type of philanthropy that's been brought to bear in this project.

I mean Sanford, despite not wanting to operate it, still committed $10 million to this project.

And I believe that Greater Bemidji has raised another 6 or 7 million as well.

So to have, you know, 16-17 Million ready to deploy in philanthropy on a project like this I think would probably represent one of the largest, if not the largest gifts that have ever come you know to Bemidji for a project like this.

Well I'm sure we'll be kept up to date on the status of that whole negotiation and proposal as it hopefully comes to fruition.

The Night We Light celebration, again, 6:00 p.m. on the day after Thanksgiving always remember.

Yes.

What's it cost to get in Josh?

It is 100% free.

So, actually Night We Light day, there will be activities at the Sanford Center, we have Santa's Workshop all day, beginning at 10:00 a.m..

So, Black Friday, 10 a.m. November 24th.

Photos with Santa, there'll be cookies, and cider, and hot chocolate, all those kind of things.

The s'more kits will be available, we'll have the fire pits burning in the Paul Bunyan Park Plaza.

And then we'll close down Santa's workshop temporarily at 5:00 to get everyone downtown for the parade.

The parade travels down Beltrami Avenue from 8th Street, down to Third Street, and then it will turn west on Third and head towards Irvine Avenue.

Get there early and do not park on that street, on those street,s cuz you will be towed.

Every year we say it, we preach it, and we still end up towing a handful of cars so.

But, you know, it's a great community celebration and it's become a tradition for so many families.

Back in the day I remember one of the reasons why Mayor Peterson wanted to bring this and start the celebration here was because to keep people in Bemidji.

Just to keep the locals in town from having to go.

But now we're attracting people, we're filling the hotels which is fantastic.

So we're making Bemidji a destination for the holiday season and that's what's so exciting about the growth that we've seen with this celebration.

Well, it is impressive when you especially when you're in that parade as I was many, many times.

You see how many people line that whole route.

It's not quite like the Fourth of July parade, but it's pretty close, I mean it's grown.

Well its last year estimated numbers were around 11,000 people downtown Bemidji for the parade and lighting ceremony.

That's almost the population of Bemidji.

I mean Bemidji's populations is already around what 16,000, you know.

11,000 people in downtown Bemidji at one time is pretty impressive.

With all, I mean you can't get much more Hallmark feeling than Night We Light in Bemidji.

Then the Night We Light doesn't really have a precise starting time right?

It's kind of when everything for the parade.

It depends on the length of the parade.

So as soon as the parade's done we give a couple minutes to let the masses cross 197 into Paul Bunyan Park.

And then we'll have the stage with a new giant light switch up there, kind of based in front of the Paul Bunyan Christmas Tree.

And, you know, we'll get everyone together.

There'll be carols singing, there'll be caroling, and all kinds of things, some special notes and speeches and we'll give out our few thank you's and we'll do the big countdown and we'll light up all 750,000 plus lights at once.

So we're excited to do that and then we'll cap off the evening with the Sanford Health Night We Light fireworks spectacular.

And we went many years without any fireworks.

Yeah, that was something we brought back at the Silver Anniversary.

You know the partnership with Sanford Health has been absolutely fantastic to bring that back.

And we work with Hollywood Pyrotechnics which is based out of the Twin Cities.

Which does the pyrotechnics for Minnesota Twins, Vikings, State Fair, like I can't remember all the different places.

They are a top-notch group and they put on a great show and they're fun to work with.

And all the community involvement and honestly this celebration compared to any others is a true 100% community celebration because it's all done by community, done by community volunteers, community sponsors.

There's no large corporate donations, it's all 100% community.

Josh we are out of time.

Thank you for your hard work on that and for all of your hard work both of you.

Mayor George Prince and Josh Peterson thanks for your hard work and thanks for joining us for Lakeland Currents.

Thank you.

That's it for this Lakeland Currents.

I'm Todd Haugen, hope to see you next time.