One "typical appointment" by City Council Monday night could have significant impact

Normally, an appointment to a city board or commission is not big news.  But when the Decorah City Council meets at 5:45 p.m. Monday at City Hall, what's normally a minor agenda item could have big repercussions.

City council members will be asked to approve the appointment of John Jenkins to the Board of Adjustment.  Decorah's Board of Adjustment has had only four members since the retirement of long-time chairman John Moeller the first of this year.  The Board of Adjustment is one of the city committees which will determine the fate of Menard's application to build a new store in the Freeport floodplain.  The board will vote on requests by Menard's for variances from city zoning code for the proposed new store.  If three Board of Adjustment members vote in favor of Menard's requests, the requests will win approval, no matter what the size of the board.  But if two board members vote against Menard's requests, the requests would fail with a four-person board, but pass with a five-person board.