Roseville Council Petitions to Dissolve Grass Lake Water Management Organization

Roseville’s City Council this week petitioned to dissolve the Grass Lake Water Management Organization (GLWMO). The GLWMO had requested an increase in funding from $37,000 to $150,000 to comply with state law.

“We’ve more or less washed our hands of [the GLWMO],” council member Tammy McGehee said. “I was very impressed with the plan that the GLWMO came up with, but I don’t think the financing was there to make that plan a reality.”

The organization, which is jointly funded by Roseville and Shoreview, is tasked with protecting city water and stormwater quality through management of the Grass Lake watershed.

“The Joint Powers organization has met the needs in this watershed for nearly 30 years but changes in water regulation and watershed management mandates require a level of professional management and technical resources that might be more efficiently provided by an adjacent water management organization that has these resources in place,” Public Works Director Wayne Schwartz wrote in a city document.

Roseville support 50 percent of the GLWMO through its storm utility fee. If the GLWMO is dissolved, the storm utility fee will either be reduced or dedicated to other uses. The new entity that would manage the GLWMO would be selected by the State Board of Water and Soil Resources and would have its own funding source—a tax levy or a fee collected from cities.

, members of the GLWMO said they needed to overhaul the organization’s structure in order to fulfill state requirements for water quality, and suggested instituting a stormwater utility fee to finance the organization.

City officials from Roseville and Shoreview met early in January to discuss dissolving the GLWMO. Shoreview’s city council will vote on dissolution on Feb. 6.

The GLWMO board will vote on dissolution, and then Roseville and Shoreview will make a final decision of whether to dissolve the organization.