Called To Order
President Carlsrud called the meeting to order at 3:30 PM.
Roll Call
Members present: President Carlsrud, Commissioner Magnuson, Commissioner Bishop, Commissioner Erickson, and Commissioner Gulmon.
Others present: City Administrator Crawford, City Attorney Martineck, Finance Director Richter, Deputy Auditor Klein, Public Works Accountant/Manager Jacobson, City Assessor Hansen, Electrical Superintendent Senf, Police Chief Hatcher, PW Superintendent Klemisch, Fire Chief Magnuson, Sanitation Supervisor Swart, Chad Petersen from KLJ, Tracy Eslinger from Moore.
1. Department Reports:
PW Superintendent Klemisch recognized Tyler Martin for passing his pesticide applicator certification and Nick Yokom for passing his waste water collection exam.
Sanitary Supervisor Swart reported the cardboard is going well with having the dumpster. We are hiring so if you know someone that would be a good fit send them our way.
Fire Chief Magnuson reported 17 calls for January, a lot of CO detectors this time of year. Fire extinguishing business is going great. We are 99.9% up and going. We are receiving a lot of great feedback that they are happy the City took it back on. We had the rural board meeting and we have a lease agreement that has been sent to Gwen and Bob Bruns for approval and back to Carl and hopefully for the next 5 years we have a good program in place.
Electrical Superintendent Senf reported zero outages last month. Darwin finished the pole counts. Recognition was given to Alec Storhoff for receiving his journeyman linemen certificate.
2. Review monthly bills/reports.
Finance Director Richter reported $1,261,000 in bills for the month. $254,000 in annual payments which includes software, payment with Development Corporation annual insurance, annual HSA payment to employees, PD investigation fees and the last payment for the Winter Show. We have two payrolls and a quarterly payment to the park which brings it up to about $900,000 with the balance being operations.
3. Discuss changing the April 20th, 2021 Commission Meeting Date for NDLC training.
Deputy Auditor Klein reported the NDLC workshop falls on the same date as a commission meeting. Is there enough interest in people wanting to go that we change the meeting date? Consensus was made to change the commission meeting to Monday, April 19th. Will add it to the next meeting agenda.
4. Discuss making whole the negative cash balances in the Water (-95,748) and Street (-136,175) funds.
PW Manager Jacobson reported we ended the 2020 year with two negative balances. The water fund is mainly due to the large amount of repairs due to the water main breaks. We budgeted a loss for the street department of about $258,000. We came in at about $100,000 loss mainly due to the COVID money that was used. The sewer fund has $1.3 million cash balance and since the water goes hand and hand with that we would like to use that. For the street fund I’m asking for the funds to come from the electrical department which currently has $3.6 million. Will add to commission meeting.
5. Discuss offering a bill credit for $5 for utility customers agreeing to go paperless by proving an email address.
PW Manager Jacobson stated about two months ago our billing process was moved into our new finance package causing us to go to a regular paper bill which is also put into an envelope. Due to the number of bills we purchased a stuffer but it’s not working as smooth as it should. With that and the increase in postage we would like to remedy some of this by utilizing the email billing. To encourage customers to change over we discussed a $5 change to paperless campaign. Will add to commission meeting.
6. Discuss Residential Building Permit and Inspection Fees.
City Administrator Crawford reported that we would like to clear up the Master Fee Schedule based on the different job duties of Lance and Mike.
7. Discuss SRO Agreement.
Police Chief Hatcher stated traditionally we’ve been on a contract with the schools for the SRO. In the last budget process our agreement was becoming a little unbalanced on percentages being covered. I asked the Superintendent for an increase in the fee with a commitment from us that we will enter into a longer contract. Looking for approval to present to the school board. Consensus was given.
8. Discuss 2021 vehicle bids.
Operations Superintendent Klemisch reported all three bids come in under budget. Looking for approval to go with the Miller Motors bid.
9. Discuss Main Street Seal Coat Project.
Operations Superintendent Klemisch stated he feels we should move forward with this project. Typically you should seal coat a new surface in 2-3 years and we’re pushing 4 years.
City Administrator Crawford added the federal funds weren’t available for us before. 50% will go to local share then the other will come out of R&R funds which is plenty because of the cost share the federal program was doing.
Chad from KLJ added Main Street was overlaid from Budget Burger east with the exception of a small segment west of the Rainbow Bridge. Communication took place with the District Engineer late in 2020 who felt if we got it in soon we could get the funding for 2021.
Finance Director Richter stated the DOT estimated the local share to be just under $13,000 so half would be assessed to the property owners and the other half to the R&R fund.
Adjourn
The meeting was adjourned at 4:07 PM.