BLUE EARTH– The Blue Earth City Council approved council member Jacque Drew’s request to discuss the Blue Earth Community Library and Fossil Discovery Center on Monday.

Drew, who is a member of the Library Board’s Fossil Discovery Center Subcommittee, moved for the city to hire a moderator to work and communicate with Fossil Discovery Center donor Jim Pollard and the City Council.

Pollard, who has many valuable items on display at the Fossil Discovery Center, has requested more creative control over the exhibit, but some members of the Library Board and Fossil Discovery Center Subcommittee have felt uncomfortable meeting his terms.

“The subcommittee has failed to find common ground and can’t move forward in any meaningful way to be able to accommodate the donor,”  Drew summarized.

Apart from struggling to reach an agreement among its three members, Drew said the subcommittee is also struggling to identify a common interpretation of an agreement which was approved between Pollard and the city last June.

Some council members initially suggested it would be beneficial to clearly define the agreement’s parameters. They observed that the agreement dictates how the collection itself will be handled, but does not do much to address updates to the Fossil Discovery Center exhibit itself, such as rearranging furniture or repainting walls.

Eventually, however, the council decided that the most pressing issue was the subcommittee’ s inability to agree on a proposal to draft in response to recent requests made by Pollard.

“We need our committee to agree. If they don’t agree, a mediator isn’t going to make a difference,”  Mayor Rick Scholtes said.

The council first voted on Drew’s motion to hire a moderator to go between the City Council and Pollard. While Drew and John Huisman voted in favor, the remaining council members and Scholtes voted down the motion.

Council member Ann Hanna then moved to direct city attorney David Frundt to meet with the Fossil Discovery Center Subcommittee to clarify the requests Pollard has submitted, and help the subcommittee draft a proposal to submit to Pollard. The motion carried unanimously.

In other business, the Blue Earth City Council:

— Reviewed a proposed City Housing Tax Abatement Program to provide incentives for construction of owner-occupied and residential rental units for single-family and multi-family housing units. Qualifying residents would receive five years of 100 percent tax abatement for the city portion of property taxes on qualifying housing units.

The council directed Kennedy to draft a resolution for the program to present at the next City Council meeting.

— Approved Ordinance 23-02 for the sale of city-owned property at the Prairie View Addition to Joshua Anderson and Cora Haas for $21,500.

— Approved a recommendation from the Personnel Committee to reallocate the duties of office specialists Tammy Davis and Rayne Hanevik.

— Approved the hire of part-time Blue Earth Wine & Spirits employee Kathy Johnson, contingent on her successful completion of a background check.

— Approved the hire of Andrew Thorson as a full-time police officer.