By Sara Strong
The city of Luverne Tuesday tried to resolve the issue of an abandoned dump by approving the purchase of part of it.
The city agreed to buy 13.5 acres from Jim and Cathy Rockman, Luverne, for $45,000.
Part of the old landfill was under the Rockman property and they feared being held liable for environmental or any other claims that might come as the result of the dump.
The city of Luverne will now be responsible for working with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency in any contamination associated with the dump.
The old dump is buried east of the intersection of Phyleon Drive and East Dodge Street. The Rockmans live on Blue Mound Avenue, but their property extended backward to the old dump area.
Previous tests have shown that about 60,000 cubic yards of waste are buried at the dump and that didn’t count what was under the Rockman property.
It is unclear when the landfill was formally closed and covered by the city.
New bonds
To help cover the cost of future interest payments and to pay for firefighter retirements, the Luverne City Council authorized four bond sales Tuesday.
In the case of fire relief, or firefighter pensions, the city issued a $560,000 bond at 5 percent interest to go to the relief fund.
The bond will cover beyond what the general levy of the city can handle within state-imposed levy limits.
Bonding allows the city to go around the levy limits, freeing up the general levy for other city general expenses.
The high number of retirees, the increased benefits in recent years and poor performing investment portfolios have meant the fire relief fund has suffered.
Retiring firefighters get $1,900 per year of service, paid by the city of Luverne in a lump sum as they retire.
Essentially, the fire relief fund has $1 million in costs and half that in assets so the bond will make up the difference.
The city still has a standard contribution to fire relief on the general levy. The bond is needed in addition to that.
Mayor Glen Gust, a firefighter, said he worried that the bond could mean salary caps for the department members.
Councilman Tom Martius, a firefighter, cast the only vote against the fire relief bond.
The City Council sets the retirement payment, and has steadily increased benefits from $600 per year of service in 1989.
Councilman Keith Erickson said the bond issue was really separate from the salaries because the city would support raises as needed regardless of bonds, as it already has.
Tuesday the council also issued three other bonds that refinanced other debt projects. The lower interest rate on those bonds combines to save the city a little more than $123,000 in interest over the life of repaying the bonds.
Kapperman property
The Luverne City Council also opened a hearing Tuesday to discuss declaring the Jerome Kapperman property on the 200 block of Southeast Park Street a nuisance. The property was destroyed in a July fire.
The building stored salvage material that Kapperman sells as part of his business. He has cleaned some of the rubble, but enough is still there to warrant attention from the city.
Kapperman indicated he would be willing to transfer sellable salvage material to another site if the city gave him time to do so and didn’t declare the property a nuisance.
The storage faciliy was located in a residential zone. After the fire, it lost the variance to have the commercial property in the residential zone because the structure was destroyed. Any new buildings will have to be residential in nature.
The city will review plans to clean the site in December and continue to work with Kapperman.