Posted: 12/14/06
Humphrey recalls good, bad times as mayor of city
By Joel Stottrup
The "shock" over the death of former Mayor Don Whitcomb more than four years ago is what outgoing Mayor Brian Humphrey has found most memorable about being mayor.
Humphrey reflected last week on his four years and eight months as mayor that will soon end.
Humphrey did not win his November re-election bid, losing to first-time candidate Jeremy Riddle.
Humphrey, a freelance carpenter, had been on the Princeton City Council five years and three months when Whitcomb died on April 7, 2002.
Humphrey already had the title of acting mayor, a position one council member has to fill for when a mayor can't be at a meeting or function.
Humphrey said he wouldn't even have had to be appointed mayor, as the job of acting mayor was to take over the mayoral duties until the end of 2002.
Humphrey was elected in November 2002 for a two- year term, and then reelected two years later.
Humphrey said that when he first took over the mayor duties, he thought he maybe would not be "up to snuff" as mayor.
"Don had more time [for the job]," Humphrey said.
But Humphrey said he didn't need to copy everything that Whitcomb had done.
"I wanted less contentious meetings," Humphrey continued. "I wanted to find a balance between letting people speak their mind but not allow them to go on or to make personal attacks."
Humphrey added that he felt he succeeded.
"I really appreciated Don though," he said. "He was a great mayor."
Still, things came up that made for emotional expressions at council meetings after Whitcomb was gone, Humphrey continued.
One example Humphrey gave was when City Administrator David Minke pushed for the idea of locating a new off-sale liquor store next to Oak Knoll Cemetery.
"Citizens and out-of-town people really latched on to that issue," Humphrey said. "I committed to not letting the liquor store site be located next to the cemetery."
Then in the fall of 2002, Minke left for a job elsewhere.
"We, as a council, were very fortunate to get Mark Karnowski on board," Humphrey said. "Even though the pool of candidates was not very deep, we found a good administrator."
Karnowski was hired in the spring of 2003.
The transition from one administrator to a new one did "muddy the waters" regarding the Solid Ground Development Company proposal that emerged to build a 519-unit housing development, Humphrey said.
The proposal, which was originally known as Lakes of Heritage Village and later just Heritage Village, was first floated in front of Minke in the form of submitting the idea of annexing the site into the city, Humphrey noted.
Then, with a new administrator and a change in the council, it became a little more difficult to continue the process with Solid Ground, Humphrey said. Maybe Solid Ground had expectations under the other administrator and the other council that couldn't be met with the new administrator and council, Humphrey indicated.
During Humphrey's time as mayor, some of the more heated comments were made toward the council than had been at City Hall for some time. It came from opponents of the proposed Heritage Village development, starting with the city annexing 60 acres at a time of the 200-acre piece.
What's difficult in a process like that is a landowner petitions to be annexed "and they have plans but you haven't approved anything they want to do," Humphrey said.
When annexing land, the city says it will prepare to provide services like city sewer and water, snowplowing and "so forth," said Humphrey.
"Three-plus years later we are making those services available. . ."
Humphrey was referring to the city getting court approval to acquire land easements through eminent domain to extend city sewer and water mains west. The city is currently in the middle of the eminent domain process to acquire most of the needed easements.
Eminent domain became a "hot button issue" at the same time because of a court decision that said eminent domain in a Connecticut case could be done for private development, Humphrey noted.
But state government can limit the use of eminent domain and Minnesota, in light of the Connecticut case, did that, he added.
The Connecticut court case did not pertain to Princeton's plan for eminent domain, as sewer and water extension is considered a public need or a public good, Humphrey said.
Humphrey added that if the Princeton airport hadn't been where it is, then a different route could have been chosen to extend the sewer and water west.
Humphrey acknowledged that it wasn't fun at the council meetings when the council heard strong opposition to annexing the 200 acres that was to be proposed for Heritage Village.
Now Minnesota state law allows cities to annex up to 120 acres at a time, he said. Humphrey was explaining that if the Heritage Village annexation was done now it would have taken two council meetings instead of the four it took then.
"I certainly don't regret it," Humphrey said about the annexation of the 200 acres for the Heritage Village proposal. "There's the balance between people expressing their opinion and concerns for the area and people's right to be annexed."
Humphrey was asked about his thoughts on the many citizen complaints about downtown traffic congestion.
People have options, Humphrey replied. An example, he said, was having recently encountered backed-up traffic on Rum River Drive, slowing his attempt to go south to get to Highway 169 and continue south. Instead of continuing south on Rum River Drive, he said, he took West Branch Street to catch Highway 169 .
"I know traffic is a concern of a lot of people," he acknowledged.
Drivers have to wait awhile at certain times to get through the downtown, but drivers are often polite in letting people get onto the congested street, he added.
Once the anticipated development takes off along the interchange of Highways 169 and 95, there will be less downtown traffic, Humphrey predicted last week.
"More of a concern, I think, is having another crossing over the river," he said.
A lot of drivers, it appears, don't have to drive through the downtown but do so to see what's going on there, Humphrey said. He said he got that idea one day in talking with someone who said their son commutes to and from the Twin Cities and drives through Princeton's downtown to see the sights there.
Accomplishments
Accomplishments Humphrey pointed to happening while he was mayor include:
• establishing a trunk main utility fee so new development bears more of the cost of new city utilities put in for the development's sake.
• the city's bond rating going up.
• getting the state permit to expand the wastewater plant, though it is now held up by an environmental group's court challenge.
• a city splash park.
Humphrey added that he hopes there will be "leadership to pursue city growth because the area is growing."
Having housing density that uses municipal sewer processing is better for the environment, he said. For one thing, the higher density takes up less land, he explained.
"It's been a wonderful experience being mayor and representing the city," Humphrey said.
Among his favorite times were giving greetings at Veterans Day ceremonies and taking part in many Mille Lacs County Historical Society events. One that he said he enjoyed was the Historical Society's gala in which he portrayed one of Princeton's pioneers.
"What an honor," he said. "It's nice to be young and look back at what you did while on the council in the last 10 years and see how your decisions fared."
Princeton Union-Eagle
P.O. Box 278
Princeton, MN 55371
Telephone: 763-389-1222
Fax: 763-389-1728