| City still negotiating on riverboat |
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| Wednesday, 21 January 2009 | |
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Union Editor Negotiations are still underway between the city of Anoka and Skipper Liner Industries to bring a riverboat to town. Anoka City Council Monday took a second look at a draft lease currently being negotiated between city staff and the La Crosse, Wis., based boat company. The goal is to bring the 149 passenger La Crosse Queen to Minnesota where it would dock in downtown Anoka and offer tours of the Rum and Mississippi rivers. While final approval of the lease was on the agenda for Monday’s meeting, after discussing the terms at an earlier work session, the item has been postponed until Feb. 2. “We are in good faith negotiations,” said City Manager Tim Cruikshank. “The goal is to minimize the city’s risk, the city’s exposure and the city’s expenditures.” At the same time, city officials have said they hope the launch could be successful, both for the tour operator and the downtown businesses that would stand to benefit from increased traffic in Anoka. Cruikshank said the sticking points on the lease the city, along with attorney Scott Baumgartner, are trying to work out include payment to the city for catering revenues, upgrades to docks and utilities and concerns over water depth in the Rum River. At the earlier work session, members of the city council said they are willing to offer any guarantees on the water depths of the Rum River. Skipper Liner had expressed a concern about being able to operate on the Rum in low water. According to the council, alternate docking at Peninsula Point Park in the Mississippi would be available if the boat could not navigate the waters to get to the dock at city hall. “We’re...feeling good about this,” said Mayor Phil Rice during Monday’s meeting. “We remain positive but we still have some legal work to do.” Rice said that while the city has tried to act quickly in order to have the boat operational this spring, the details of a contract are taking longer to iron out. The riverboat would offer sight seeing and dinner cruises through the spring, summer and fall, and could remain operational for catered events while frozen in during the winter months. Mandy Moran Froemming is at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it |
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