INTERNATIONAL FALLS — Sharon Ball is scared for her community.
The former fraud investigator is semi-retired but said she still has two jobs: her dog boarding business and digging into the city budget.
“I have 5,000 pages that I have had to go and formally request ... I have read every bit of information. I have looked at the budget. I have confirmed things two or three times,” she said.
“ ... I sit up until 3 a.m. poring through these piles and piles of paper.”
Ball was one of nearly 200 residents who petitioned the city of International Falls for a special election on a proposed public works project.
As taxes rise and the city’s population falls, the community has been increasingly frustrated with the city’s spending habits. Ball said she paid an extra $1,150 last year, almost 40% more than the year before.
Capital improvement bonds are typically just approved by the city council. But if enough people petition, they can force the measure to be put to the voters.
This is not the first petition effort in International Falls this year. Amid a heated debate over a multimillion-dollar police headquarters project, councilors were caught calling residents, including Ball, vulgar and disparaging terms, the Star Tribune reported in April.
City residents attempted recall petitions against the councilors and received hundreds of signatures but later learned that the petitions lacked information required by state statute.
Now, the city wants to borrow $2.8 million to renovate two garages. The ballot says approving the bonding measure would raise property taxes, a statement required by state statute. But the city instead plans to use already levied funds to pay down the bonds.
Ted Brokaw, director of public works, told the city council in April that the project had been in talks for two years. Two equipment storage garages are over 50 years old and have serious plumbing and health and safety issues.
“With the age and condition of the facilities, we need to put some money into them,” he told the council.
The bonds would be repaid over 15 years, costing about $244,000 a year. Brokaw said the money is already budgeted to be saved for projects like this.
Mayor Drake Dill was the only member of the council to vote against the bonds, noting that he saw the need for the project but couldn’t give approval "because of some of the issues facing the city right now.”
Dill was elected as a write-in candidate in November, beating four others on the ballot. Ball was one of those candidates, but she started campaigning for Dill as early as September.
“As far as I’m concerned, he’s doing a great job,” Ball said. “City council has made his life an absolute misery.”
Dill did not return a request for comment.
Ball said she’ll be pushing for new councilors in upcoming elections. She also intends to petition more bonding measures.
“We’re going to do that with everything they want to spend that we can get a referendum vote for,” she said. “That’s my intent, and I think a lot of people feel that way.”
If voters shoot down the bonding measure, the city has to wait 180 days before it can ask again. If voters were to say “no” a second time, the city would have to wait a year.
Early voting at the City Administration Office is available 7 a.m. to noon Friday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday.
Polls will be open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day, Tuesday, Aug. 12. The East Ward polling place is Evangelical Convent Church, Center Ward is the Bob Walls Memorial Union Hall and West Ward is St. Thomas Aquinas Hall.
