Fridley Bid to Join Coon Creek Watershed District Bogged Down

The future of water management in the north end of Fridley is bogged down, leaving the city without a watershed district for that area.

Because of that, the city now is not in compliance with a state law requiring all land within the metropolitan area be in a water management group.

The north area of Fridley had been in the Six Cities Watershed Management Organization, which dissolved itself in February this year due to financial concerns and pressure to improve its performance.

Petitioning the State
The Fridley council voted Monday night to join with Blaine, Coon Rapids and Spring Lake Park in directly petitioning the state Board of Water and Soil Resources for help getting into the Coon Creek Watershed District.

That Fridley council action came on the heels of a 3-2 vote by the board of the Coon Creek Watershed District at a special meeting June 8 to rescind its own petition to the state to enlarge the district boundaries.

The Coon Creek board already had agreed in July 2010 to enlarge the boundaries and had submitted a formal petition to the state water board in March 2011.

Reversal of Fortune
James Kosluchar, Fridley public works director, said the watershed board reversed itself in response to concerns about new tax levies being imposed and increased costs in taking on new areas.

Kosluchar reported a new watershed board member had requested the special watershed board meeting.

Watershed board member Brad Johnson, appointed by the Anoka County Board of Commissioners this year, said the move to enlarge the district’s boundaries lacked due diligence, according to approved minutes from the June 8 special meeting.

Watershed board president Bill MacNally, appointed to the board in 2004, opposed the motion to rescind. He added that he trusted and relied on the judgment of the cities’ elected officials who acted in the best interests of their citizens.

Levy Now or Much Later
If the cities joined the watershed and recorded it with the secretary of state by June 30, they would be able to levy taxes in 2012 to support the watershed’s work, according to watershed staff. If they didn’t make the deadline, authority to levy taxes would be delayed at least a year.

Johnson told the watershed board to wait for the Anoka County Board to take up the issue, according to its minutes.

However, Fridley’s Kosluchar reported to his council Monday night that the Anoka County Board had met in special session June 16 to discuss water management. Board consensus was to wait and see what would happen over the next two or three months.

The county board could accept responsibility for water management or could direct Coon Creek or Rice Creek watersheds to accept the areas, Koslichar reported.

He told the city council there had been a hearing by the state board May 31 and the state board had been expected to act June 22 on the earlier petition.

Fridley Taxes
The taxes on a $250,000 house in the Coon Creek district in Fridley could go from zero to $18.06 in 2013. Presently the city takes $6,000 a year from its general fund for water management, without any water management levy.