During the Hastings City Council meeting Monday night, permission was given to downtown Hastings restaurants to work with city staff to use sidewalk space and a limited number of parking spaces in front of their restaurants for expanded outdoor dining through the end of August. A few restaurant owners made the request in order to help accommodate more patrons while maintaining required distance between tables, and complying with current restrictions on indoor dining capacity. The City Council waved some of the normal fees and ordinance requirements in order to support the downtown restaurants.
In other action,
The Council approved a resolution to increase Water and Sewer rates and service connection fees as of July 1st. Water rates will increase 16% this year and sewer rates by 5%. The rate hikes are to cover projected costs in the years ahead, particularly for replacing lead service pipes as required by the state in future years.
A separate resolution was approved revising rates for various services provided by the city, effective July 1st, with increases for a few things like fence and driveway permits, and haz-mat recovery fees.
