About 25 Baxter street names to be changed

BAXTER -- About 25 streets in Baxter will receive new names at the start of the new year because of E911 readdressing, but a few neighborhoods are having difficulty coming to an agreement on a suitable name change for their streets.

The Baxter City Council Tuesday approved several of the name changes but directed city staffers to help a few neighborhoods come to a consensus on renaming their streets.

Todd DeBoer, information services coordinator, informed the Baxter City Council that letters were sent to affected neighborhoods and a few residents conducted neighborhood meetings to vote on a new name.

Street names needed to be changed if they were a duplicate name or sounded phonetically similar to other road or drive names within the city or Crow Wing County. Any private roads or drives were named if the street serves three or more residences. Also, all roads north of Highway 210 were designated with a directional suffix of "N" while any roads south of Highway 210 were given a "S."

According to Baxter's new city code regarding street names, all names of north-south thoroughfares will be representative of plants, trees, wood, wildlife, natural or geological features and designated as a "Drive." East-west thoroughfares are named after cities and designated as "Road." Cul-de-sacs are allowed to be named similar to the street with which they intersect and designated as a "Court" or "Circle."

In other council action, the city set a public hearing for 7:15 p.m. Oct. 21 for delinquent utilities to be certified to tax rolls.

The city set dates for the following 2003 project assessment hearings: 6:30 p.m. Oct. 16 for Excelsior Road N.; 8 p.m. Oct. 16 for Bronson/Michelle/Travine Way/Paper Birch/Meredith; 7:30 p.m. Oct. 21 for Berrywood Drive S.; 8 p.m. Oct. 21 for Knollwood/Crow Wing County Road 48/Middle School; 8:30 p.m. Oct. 21 Mississippi Meadows; 6:30 p.m. Oct. 23 Knollwood North/Conservation/Arboretum/Highway 210; and 8 p.m. Oct. 23 for Clearwater Road E.

The city set a council workshop with department heads for 6:30 p.m. Oct. 6.

Name changes approved Tuesday include the following Baxter streets:

Cottage Grove Trail N. will be Camden Road.

Cottage Grove Lane N. will be Northwoods Drive.

Mapleton Road S. east of Highway 371, west of Forestview will be Maryland Road.

Mapleton Road S. east of Forestview, west of Scenic River Drive will be Medford Road.

Kentwood Drive S. will be Parkwood Drive.

Kentwood Circle S. will be Parkwood Court.

Charles St. N. will be Cherrywood Drive.

Forest Drive N. (north portion) will be Wildflower Drive.

Scenic River Drive S. (south portion) will be River Vista Drive.

Scenic Circle S. will be River Vista Circle.

Oakwood Court S. will be Knollwood Court.

Isle Road S. east of Highway 371 will be Hastings Road.

Noahwood Drive N. will be Springwood Drive.

Noahwood Court N. will be Springwood Court.

J and O Drive N. will be Shoreview Rd.

A bid for the Highway 371 N. Phase II/Edgewood Drive extension project was awarded to S.J. Lewis for $946,687.32.

Tom's Backhoe was awarded the bid for the Hampton Square Project contingent on if the developer approves the contract.

During the public comment portion of the meeting, Tim Quincer told council members he was told by a city staff member that they weren't allowed to give out council member's phone numbers or e-mail addresses and he felt council members should be more open to contact with city residents. He said he called Brainerd City Council and was able to get contact information for its city council members within an hour. He also said he would like council members to televise their meetings for those who can't always make it to city council meetings.

Council member Darrel Olson said he always calls people back when he gets their messages and took offense to a recent letter Quincer sent to council members about the difficulty of reaching them by phone or e-mail.

"In three years I've returned every call except for one and there were reasons behind that," said Olson.

"We're all published on the Web. I'm in the phone book. I don't have problems with people getting a hold of me," added council member Mark Cross.