The Superior Express -

The Superior City Council meeting room was packed Monday evening as a marathon of meetings was held by the council.

To comply with various state regulations, three separate meetings were held in succession. Each required the opening formalities of a flag salute, review of the open meetings law, roll call and recognition of visitors. After the stated business was transacted there was a motion to adjourn and a roll call vote.

The series of meeting which began at 7:30 continued past 10 p.m. The printed agenda required nine pages.

The packet of information provided The Express reporter present included nearly 100 pages and many of those were printed on both sides. The packets given the council contained even more pages.

Probably the matters of greatest general interest came near the conclusion of the marathon session when utility rates were set for the coming fiscal year.

The average residential natural gas customer in Superior uses about 103 CCF/month in the winter and 23 CCF/month in the summer. For that customer, the new rates mean the average summer bill will increase from $48.15 to $49.36 and the average winter bill will increase from $126.99 to $129.02.

The average residential customer uses about 15 thousand gallons of water in the summer and 7 thousand gallons per month in the winter. For this consumption, the monthly bill will increase from $45.20 in the summer to $46.25. Winter charge will increase from $27.75 to $28.25.

The average residential electric customer uses 1,148 KWH in July and 934 KWH in June. The average customer's summer charge will increase from $127.86 to $129.01. In the winter, the charge for the average customer is increasing from $99.83 to $101.27.

The percent change for each class of electrical customer is 1.541 percent for residential, 2.813 percent for commercial, 1.747 percent for the large general service and .0405 percent for the large primary customer.

Waste water rates will increase per month for the average customer from $44,87 to $45.81.

As part of Monday's meetings, the budgets for the various city departments were approved and the tax request finalized.

Because of valuation increases, property owners will see a slight decrease in the levy. The city will ask the local tax payers to contribute $335,320, the same amount as last year. Valuation increased from $75,965.56 to $77,761.52. If all money on hand and that expected to be received is spent, the budget provides for spending more than $8.5 million, however, it is anticipated a portion of the budget will be retained in reserve for future emergencies.

A public hearing was held to consider how the city will spend money received through a community development block grant for pedestrian mobility improvements.

The final plan changes some of the planned improvement routes. Instead of improving sidewalks along Sixth Street, that improvement has been moved to Eighth Street and will connect the schools with Bloom Street. A new sidewalk will be placed from Park to Bloom Street. Planned improvement of the walks along Bloom Street from Second to Third has been moved to Central Avenue from Sixth to Eighth streets.

Ordinance changes included the addition of computer data centers as a permitted conditional use in the light industrial districts, and welding, construction and other light manufacturing in the downtown commercial business district.

` It will soon be easier to obtain hard liquor within the City of Superior. The council waived the three reading rule and approved on first reading allowing the on and off sale of hard liquor daily from 6 a.m. to 1 a.m. Under current regulations, the sale of alcoholic liquors was prohibited on Sunday mornings. The sale of beer and wine was permitted.

The three reading rule was also waived for the zoning changes.

Members of the council agreed the owners of property at 1402 Kansas and 826 Central had been given plenty of time to correct violations of the city nuisance code and ordered the city staff to proceed with the forced abatement. It was noted this will be the third time the city has enforced abatement action on the property at 826 Central. The council noted considerable progress has been made to correct the problems at 618 East Second and allowed an additional 30 days to bring the property into compliance.

The mayor's appointment of Brenda Corman to the parks and cemetery board was approved.

The retirement of Robert Sloan from the sewer department was approved. With experience in the water, electrical and sewer departments, Sloan has worked 29 years for the city.

City employee salary schedules were approved for the coming year.

Final payments were made on the two most recent water main replacement projects. The projects are now considered to be completed.