Council agrees to extend Blair swimming lessons

After some debate the Blair city council agreed last week Monday to add another session of swimming lessons.

The council heard from pool director Gwen Kidd who said they have had an unprecedented number of kids sign up for swimming lessons, leading to some scheduling issues. She said there is a high demand for people wanting swimming lessons in the evening hours because parents are unable to transport their children during the day.

Kidd proposed closing the pool during the evening open swimming season — 6 to 7:45 p.m. — to allow swimming lessons from July 19 to July 30. The plans would be contingent on getting enough children interesting in swimming lessons. She said it is a plan other area pools have implemented in order to fill the need, adding that she has heard of some families who are planning on taking their children to other area pools for lessons.

Council member Jill Anderson resisted the change. “We have advertised open swimming at that time,” she said.

Kidd said the hours the pool is open have been the same for 40 years, whereas other pools have adjusted their hours.

“This day in age, we have to be flexible and families have to be flexible and understanding,” Kidd said.

Kidd said that she would have at least 15 students in the evening swimming lesson session, but guessed there would many more should they offer the option.  She also noted that they had 53 swimmers at the pool at the time of the meeting. 

“My concern is that you close it for 15 when we have 53 right there,” council member Paul Syverson said.

Anderson added that the 53 are “paying customers.”

“Is it more important to accommodate 20 families — and that might be a stretch — who might be upset or is it more important to teach our children to swim?” Kidd asked.

“I get it, kids need to learn how to swim,” Anderson said, “but we’re not going to be able to accommodate everybody’s whim and fancy either.”

Council member Dennis Stephenson suggested having swimming lessons from 5 to 6:30 instead of closing the pool in-between morning and evening sessions and offering open swimming from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. for those weeks.

“I don’t think we can eliminate one to accommodate another,” Anderson said.

“We’re not eliminating anybody,” Stephenson responded. “If she gets enough we to ought to give her the option to teach those kids how to swim.”

The council unanimously approved the recommendation.

In other business, the council voted against the recommendation of police chief Kent Johnson to deny an alcohol server license to Crystal Brandenburg.

Johnson said his standard has been to deny applicants if they had been found guilty of operating while intoxicated (OWI) within the last 10 years. He said Brandenburg had a citation from eight years ago and another last year that is pending.

City attorney Mark Radcliffe noted that if the council denied the application based on the pending charge that Brandenburg could request a hearing, indicating she would be awarded the license, because a pending OWI charge does not meet the statutory requirements for denying the license. Though, he said, the licenses are largely discretionary and the council could use the prior conviction to deny the license.

Johnson said that approving the license against his recommendation wouldn’t hurt his feeling, but he was trying to set a consistent standard.

The council voted 5-1 to approve the license with Stephenson voting against it. They did note that the license could be revoked if she were found guilty.  

The council did agree with the recommendations of Johnson and Redcliffe in denying a license to Karen Wall, who they said did not include convictions on her application twice. The council approved a number of other applications.

The council heard from Jeremy Tranberg who said he is planning on rebuilding the Blair Haus Bar and Grill and would like to include apartments on the first level. He was told he would have to apply for a conditional use permit, which has to be published in the Trempealeau County Times twice. Tranberg asked if the process could be streamlined, but Radcliffe said the only option he had would be to hire a lawyer to help him full out the application correctly so there were no further delays.

In other business the council:

• Voted to share with Taylor a salary of $4,000 for summer months and $2,000 for fall and winter for a park and recreation director.

• Voted to open the swimming pool up to all people — not just Blair-Taylor School District residents — up to 50 percent capacity.

• Heard, but did not act, on a request to close portions of Gilbert St. for the July 3 fireworks celebration. They heard that event organizers wanted to limit people who park near the lake to watch the fireworks without paying for access. Those people also reportedly wanted to sell parking spots.

“It’s hard to sell a spot you don’t own,” Stephenson said, noting that the spots in question are city property.