The city of Newport has two new fire captains.
Approved via resolution in the Thursday, Jan. 22 consent agenda, Jason Hennagir and Tyler Hiveley will fill the two paid on-call fire captain positions, at a rate of $25.21 per hour. The council conducted interviews for the open positions prior to the Thursday meeting, with Hiveley having three years of experience in fire service and Hennagir having six. The two will now join Newport Fire Chief Derek Marson at the helm of Newport Fire. Established in 1953, the Newport Fire Department is made up of 22 paid-on-call firefighters responsible for responding to emergencies in Newport and surrounding communities, and is involved in public safety education, fire prevention programs, and community events.
Also from Jan. 22 council at Newport, meanwhile, the council approved a lawful gambling permit for the St. Paul Park-Newport Lions Club, the application made for lawful gambling at Tinucci’s Restaurant on Feb. 8. Tinucci’s is located at 396 21st Street, with the St. Paul Park-Newport Lions conduct raffle, pull-tabs, tip boards, and paddlewheel gambling as part of the permit.
Closing out the Newport Council update, council members heard several reports, including from city engineer Jon Herdegen of MSA.
“Mayor, Council, I have nothing to report this evening but happy to stand for questions,” Herdegen said.
There were no questions. Following Herdegen the council heard from Superintendent of Public Works Matt Yokiel, who gave a like report.
“Mayor Elliott, council members, I also have nothing formal this evening but I’m happy to stand for any questions,” he said.
“Are we getting many people out at the ice rink,” Mayor Laurie Elliott asked.
“Yes, we’re getting pretty good attendance,” Yokiel said. “When it’s cold like this, it obviously decreases. We still plan on having the warming houses open, but if you’re planning on coming up and dropping off a kid just double check when it’s this cold. Make sure no emergencies that came up where we couldn’t have the warming houses open.”
“Thank you,” Elliott said. “And as usual we have the bags of grit in the foyer if you need something to make your driveway less slippery.”
Council Member Bill Sumner shared more on the grit bags.
“Comment on the bags of grit, they are 25 pounds,” he said.
Newport City Administrator Joe Hatch was next for council reports.
“Mayor, members of the council, nothing formal tonight but happy to stand for questions,”
“Any questions?” Elliott asked. “We’ve had some busy and long council meetings over the last couple of months, so this is probably the result. One that doesn’t go quite as long.”
Elliott then shifted to Mayor and council reports, sharing news of the planned Family Fun Night Saturday, Jan. 31.
“I do want to remind people that we are going to have the Family Fun Night on Saturday, Jan. 31. It will be from 6 to 8 p.m. at Loveland Park. And Loveland Park is located at 1500 Glen Road. They do some games, they have a bonfire. There’s some snacks and drinks and they’re going to have an illuminated trail walk this year as well. So I think that sounds like a really fun event. You’ll get to meet some new people, some neighbors, generally it’s pretty well attended so I would encourage people to come out and do that.
“I also wanted to let people know we’ve talked off and on about our federal application for community funded programming, often called earmark. I think I announced eight or nine months ago that we ended up getting on Senator Klobuchar’s list, Senator Smith’s list, as well as Representative Craig’s list. Those lists have made their way through the appropriate appropriations committees for the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House, and they have moved on and been voted on. In the House and the Senate and are now awaiting Presidential signature. So we are hoping those go through smoothly, it’s a little more than a million dollars towards inflow and infiltration projects here in Newport…it’s one of those infrastructure problems that nobody sees but that it’s really important you take care of. And that’s all I have to report.”
Council member Sumner reported an event that night at the library.
“I am very happy to report that this evening at 6 o’clock in our library and community center there is a dinner preceding a winter storytelling event,” he said. “At 7 o’clock it is going to be done by members of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. It’s going to honor the fact that in the winter the natives would gather around the campfires and tell tales. Tonight it’s going to be put on by the Laughing Fox. One reason we can hurry to get out and at six we have dinner and at seven we have a presentation in our public library.”
Newport Council meetings are held the first and third Thursday of each month at 5:30 p.m. in city hall. The public is invited to attend.