by Dennis Dalman
Sartell resident Karell Sartell offered an interesting “deal” to the Sartell City Council at its Sept. 23 meeting.
She proposed she would donate $2,500 to one of three good causes in exchange for the city giving her a variance so she wouldn’t have to replace a culvert on her property.
The three good causes, she noted, are The Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity and the Celebration Lutheran Church’s Community Store.
That money, she said, would “benefit the community more than a new culvert.”
Sartell spoke during the Public Forum segment of the council meeting before official city business was discussed by the council. Under rules of the Public Forum, speakers are limited to three minutes each to present their concerns, and the council cannot comment on those concerns although it can refer them to city staff.
Sartell and her family live on 13 acres of property along 19th Avenue S. on the city’s west side. In her opening statements, Sartell said she is disappointed with annexation by the city of township property.
She said after the city made promises based on her questions, she agreed to have her property annexed. But soon after annexation, she kept getting confusing or contradictory information from the city about her wish to possibly sell lots on the property, that the city said they would need to bring in water and sewer after they were first told they wouldn’t have to and the city telling the Sartells to take down a temporary storage shelter. There were also mixed signals from the city about tree limbs the Sartells cut down and placed on a boulevard. A lot of city directives and advice were either contradictory or did not make sense, Sartell told the council.
The final straw, she said, is when the city told them to replace a 12-inch-wide metal culvert on their property with a concrete one or remove it.
Sartell ended her talk with a faint twinge of irony with her let’s-make-a-deal offer.
The mayor thanked her for expressing her views.
