Pine City Council to seek recommendations from public works, ordinance committees about crosswalk proposal

The Pine City Council voted to send a crosswalk proposal from East Central Minnesota Pride to the city’s public works and ordinance committees for recommendations at Thursday’s meeting.

East Central Minnesota Pride planning committee chair Aaron Bombard proposed the crosswalk at Third Avenue Southeast and 5th Street Southeast to celebrate the organization’s twentieth pride event in 2025.

“2025 brings the twentieth annual East Central Minnesota pride event,” Bombard said. “It's the first and longest-running rural pride event not only in Minnesota, but also the country, marking a historical moment. This places Pine City as a pioneer and lets the world know our community is an accepting and diverse place to put down roots.”

The proposal is to alternate colors between the current design of the crosswalk.

According to Bombard, the organization received a donation that could be used for the project, and would be willing to enter a memorandum of understanding for crosswalk upkeep.

After a lengthy comment session during the public hearing, the council discussed working out a system for city crosswalks.

Council member Mary Kay Sloan suggested that future crosswalks proposed by community groups have no words, symbols, or letters.

“We’re just opening up the idea of nice crosswalks for Pine City. I don’t want it to be a political thing,” Sloan said. “I don’t want it to be that this is just a pride thing. We have a pride organization coming forward that wants to do a rainbow crosswalk. That’s okay.”

Council member Dave Hill proposed bringing the concept to the public works committee to “look at the legal ramifications” of the crosswalk project.

“I don’t think we’ve had enough time,” Hill said. “I think this is something that we don’t just want to rush into.”

“I love the idea of painting crosswalks,” said council member Gina Pettie. “I understand that we may need a system to kind of control that and make sure everything is following the rules, but it seems like this group has done their homework, and I think it’s a great idea. I think we should do more.”

A motion made by Sloan to bring the proposal to the public works and ordinance committees for their recommendations in January passed unanimously. Mayor Kent Bombard abstained from the vote.