By Carrie Moritz, Gazette
UPDATE 11/13/23: In the initial printing of the Gazette we reported the city expected the “old steakhouse” building to come down on November 13. This has been moved to next week Monday, November 20 (tentative).
The Garretson City Council met in regular session on Monday, where they looked at the possibility of changing website providers for the second time in three years, approved all liquor license renewal requests, and changed the meeting times back to 6:30 p.m. for future meetings.
In February 2021, the council had voted to move forward with a new website provider and host called MyGov, which was highly recommended at the time by municipalities such as Brandon and Baltic. While the new website did bring a needed refresh for city employees, the system was purchased by a software company named Catalyst, according to City Finance Officer Paetyn Dreckman, and will be increasing their fees substantially in 2024.
According to past records, the city was initially slated to pay $8,150 up front, then $500 per year. However, next year, that rate will be jumping to $3,500 with zero new features, and another 6% increase will be expected in 2025. This encouraged Dreckman and Economic Director Jessica Fueston to look into new options. They came upon Apptegy, the same website provider utilized by the Garretson School District. While Apptegy markets itself to schools, the software provider has also set up websites for small cities, such as Greer, South Carolina and Mustang, Oklahoma.
Apptegy sales representative Blake Meyer joined the meeting via Zoom, and gave the council a run-down of the features they offer. He pointed out several user-friendly options that would be available to the city such as one-spot posting to multiple sites. Two apps that can be downloaded to a phone are available, one for city employees to use for adding content to the website, and one for residents to use for viewing the content. The app would be similar to the one from the school district, and offers an event calendar identical to the one seen on the school website and app, which is highly utilized by parents and students. Push notifications would be an option for users, allowing the city to very quickly communicate any alerts.
Councilor Jackie Rotert pointed out that she uses the school app daily, and thought an app option would be more heavily utilized than the website, as most people likely don't visit the site on a regular basis.
Currently, city employees must post individually to Facebook, email, and text message to communicate with residents, and the calendar feature is not user-friendly, discouraging employees from posting events onto it.
While the features appealed highly to the council, councilors were taken aback by the price tag, which was twice the amount of the 2024 MyGov price, on top of an onboarding fee. Meyer stated they normally have a cost of $7,000 plus $0.10 per resident as a yearly cost, and an onboarding fee of $9,500, but as a November special to small towns, they were reducing the prices to a flat cost of $6,900 for a yearly subscription and $5,500 onboarding fee.
When asked by Mayor Greg Beaner if the price increase would be worth it, Dreckman pointed out that growth is Garretson's biggest goal right now.
"We have younger people moving into town... I think the app part of it, would be a really big deal. I think it would see more traffic than our website does right now. I'm all for it."
Councilor Bill Hoskins wondered if there was possibly something else available, that would provide some of the best features of the proposed system but wouldn't cost as much.
"I'm a little reluctant to spend that much," he stated.
While Dreckman agreed the cost was substantial, she pointed out that the city would be able to afford it, and that the customer service from Apptegy has, so far, been much better than what they've received from Catalyst. At the same time, she agreed to look into other options, especially since the software the city uses for accounting, utility billing, and payroll is also requiring users to upgrade their systems by 2025 to a cloud-based system rather than a desktop solution, at a much higher yearly price than the desktop software had been.
Later in the meeting, the council voted to have Dreckman upgrade the accounting software at a cost of $23,000 minus the $16,846 she had already paid for the 2024 subscription. The council decided, after some discussion, that the upgrade for the accounting software would be worthwhile, as it has streamlined quite a few processes in the office, which helps to save employees time and stress.
Liquor licenses renewed
Next on the agenda, the council considered the renewal of liquor licenses for The Gulch, Sports Cabin (listed as The Combine 2), Dollar General, Palisade's Oil, Annie's, and Jesse James Country Store/Mini Mart.
When asked about any compliance failures, there was chatter among the council that one had failed this past summer, but no proof was offered and no press release found by the Gazette on the Minnehaha County website. In the most recent sting conducted a week ago, all Garretson businesses surveyed, Dollar General, Jesse James, Palisades Oil, and Sports Cabin, passed.
Due to that, and after noting that it was the responsibility of the Department of Revenue to pull liquor licenses for failure to card, all applications were voted in for renewal.
Earlier meeting time re-examined
After two meetings at an earlier, 6:00 p.m. time, the council opted to move back to 6:30 p.m. Despite all councilors being in attendance, it was pointed out that the earlier time was causing issues for both councilors and any potential meeting attendees who may be traveling from Sioux Falls after work. However, meeting dates will stay on the first Mondays of the month.
Other areas of note in the meeting:
The "old steakhouse" building at 608/612 N Main is scheduled to be demolished next Monday, November 13. While it will be sad to see one of the oldest buildings in the community come down, it was determined to be a hazard to others when a piece of facade fell off this past summer, causing damage to the building next door. It has been cordoned off since that time.
"Coffee with a Cop" was held with the Minnehaha County Sheriff at Annie's last Saturday, November 4. The event was well-attended.
The next meeting of the Garretson City Council will be held on Monday, December 4 at 6:30 p.m. at the American Legion Dugout.
