by Dennis Dalman
A former Sartell mayor, Joe Perske, sharply criticized the current city council at its June 12 meeting, claiming a land sale it approved has brought “shame and disgust to this community.”
Perske, now a Stearns County commissioner, addressed the council during the “Public Forum” portion at the very beginning of the meeting.
On May 22, the council voted 3-2 to sell 81 acres of golf-course land to a Sartell businessman for $426,000. Voting for the sale were council members Tim Elness, Alex Lewandowski and Jill Smith. Strongly opposing the sale were council member Jed Meyer and Mayor Ryan Fitzthum.
In the purchase agreement, that land must be used primarily as a golf course for 30 years. The lease with the current golf course there, Pine Ridge Golf Course, will be terminated by the city after having been in place for 15 years.
The land sale caused much controversy, with many former mayors and former council members expressing strong disapproval of the sale and of the council not seeking enough public input about the proposal.
In his June 12 address to the council, Perske referred to those contentions. The land sale, he said, was “unforgivable and unforgettable.”
He noted there were former mayors and council members at the two council meetings in May, all on record as opposing the sale, and they were not allowed to speak during the long discussion about the sale. Perske also said council members did not respond adequately to the many calls and text messages they received from residents opposed to the plan to sell.
“You hid behind a page of questions and answers on the city website,” he said. “That’s not transparency. That’s no honest government. The whole process reeked . . . It (the land-sale proposal was sculpted to fit the needs of one of your business buddies.”
Perske maintained the 81 acres of land was meant to remain in perpetuity as parkland by Sartell residents who voted in favor of the regional half-cent sales tax that made possible the city’s purchase of that land in 2008. The city’s lease to Pine Ridge Golf course was merely a way for that land to be maintained for future parkland uses, Perske said.
Some council members, Perske claimed, created fictitious “problems” concerning the condition of the Pine Ridge Golf Course’s irrigation system and parking lot, claiming they were imminent financial liabilities to the city and thus justifying the land-sale, Perske charged.
He maintained the city will net only about $100,000 of $426,000 sale price because most of the funds will have to be given to the ice arena in the city for the next 10 years under an agreement made by the council some years ago.
“Where oh where is the financial stability?” Perske asked.
He said the council could have re-evaluated carefully the sale price and the rationales for the sale proposal but did not. Perske said the council should “correct that mistake.”
The purchaser of the land is Brandon Testa, owner of the House of Pizza and chief manager of Three Tees for which he bought the land.
Perske finished his address with this: “I ask Mr. Testa to do the right thing and give us back our parkland.”
Council members did not reply to Perske’s comments and accusations. Under council rules, they are not supposed to respond to issues raised by people who speak up at the “Public Forum” sessions.
