by Carrie Moritz, Gazette
On Monday, March 1, the Garretson City Council gathered for their monthly meeting. The top pieces on the agenda were natural gas prices and the community center/city hall discussion, but other important items included moving the fireworks display and setting the date and time for the equalization meeting.
The meeting began with a request from City Finance Officer Anna Uhl to spread natural gas payments out over six or more months for customers, as the week-long price spike in February raised natural gas rates over four times the norm. This wreaked havoc for March's billing cycle, as customers saw their heating bills jump to over $600 or $800.
Initial estimates were gory, with the City being charged over eight times what was paid in January. The City ended up paying over $400,000 for the month of February. January's final bill was only $43,000.
This cost meant that individual Garretson natural gas customers are paying over four times what they paid in January.
And due to the cold, customers used far and above their normal amounts, substantially impacting their bill.
For January, small residential customers paid $0.95 per Ccf (100 cubic feet), which is the unit of cost the City of Garretson uses to bill its customers. For February, in-town small residential customers were billed at a rate of $4.16 per Ccf. Out of city limits residential customers were billed $4.20 per Ccf.
Receiving the final bill was painful for Garretson residents, and well above what many customers could pay in a single month. For instance, if a residential customer used 200 Ccf, their final bill for natural gas would be $832, which is $683.73 above what they paid in January for the same amount.
"I am proposing we have a 6-month payment plan above and beyond normal usage with an ok from the council to go longer if needed," said City Finance Officer Anna Uhl. She outlined how she intended to cancel auto withdrawal for the February payment, and allow customers to contact City Hall to set up how they would like to pay any excess.
"Some will just want to pay it all at once and be done with it," she said, "but others will need options."
If a customer contacts City Hall, is in good standing with the City, and makes good faith payments, she said, she wanted to be able to work with residents to go longer if necessary. She would start by charging the same amount for February that was billed for January, then split the excess across the next several bills without charging a late fee or any interest.
For the 200 Ccf user, this would be six payments of $113.96 above their normal monthly bill, which also includes charges for sewer, water, current natural gas usage, and branch pile.
"I don't think that we have a choice," said council member Jodi Gloe, on whether the council should approve Uhl's request.
"We're fortunate that we have the excess money to pay for it," said Council member Dave Bonte, referring to the City paying for the full amount up front and being able to even offer a payment plan. According to the council, other communities have been struggling to find ways to pay their final bill.
Members of the council first sought assurances that March, April, and May's natural gas bills wouldn't be higher than normal. Uhl noted that prices were already below what they were locked in at.
With that question answered, they approved the proposal unanimously.
Next, the council heard from Jesse Fonkert, executive director for Minnehaha County Economic Development Association (MCEDA). He announced that MCEDA and LCEDA, the Lincoln County Economic Development Association, had merged to form the Sioux Metro Growth Alliance.
Both organizations have been around for over 25 years, and they have been working together for the past several years as Sioux Falls and surrounding communities have grown. To do that, they worked from the understanding that sharing resources would be the most effective way to help economic development in the area. The merger would allow the development association to serve the entire metro area, including McCook and Turner Counties, and not just Minnehaha and Lincoln Counties.
Fonkert noted that their main goals would remain the same: to increase business development, retention and growth in communities surrounding Sioux Falls. He pointed out that growth helps to fund local schools and programs, and to do that, the Alliance intends to continue providing as much value to communities as possible.
He requested the council appoint someone, whether a council member or a city employee, to be on the board of the Alliance in order to help outline the proper goals for the organization.
The council then approved paying a $100/year price increase for the Devils Gulch lease, and heard a presentation from J.R. Hofer about the July 4 Legion fireworks display.
The Legion had asked Hofer to help with their display this year, as he has successfully set up personal displays in the past that rivaled theirs, and is able to do it safely.
Hofer was requesting to use the Jaycee Complex south softball field for the display, as the school had requested it no longer be held in the area to the northeast of the football field. They were concerned about potential damage to the Astroturf if a live firework should land there, and were objecting due to the difficulty of cleaning debris from the field.
Hofer proposed using caution tape to block off several areas around the complex, so that no audience members would be in the vicinity of the fireworks' potential path, and pointed out where parking and seating could still occur. Central Valley Dairy had offered the use of a tarp to cover the pool in order to protect it from any potential debris if wind direction required it. Council member Greg Franka, whose home borders the complex, expressed no complaints about the proposal.
The council approved Hofer's request, then moved on to setting the equalization meeting date and time. The meeting will be held on March 15 at 6:30 p.m. at the Legion.
Next on the agenda was a discussion on the Jaycee Complex concession stand. A 2-year contract had been requested by Mona Decker, who had rented out the stand in past summers. She had made some investments into the facility, and was hoping to ensure a longer-term rental.
In the past, the agreement had been a handshake agreement, with the renter taking care of the bathroom facilities and inventory, and the City taking care of electric, water, and the building.
Council member Gloe proposed a $100-per-summer rental agreement be attached to the contract. In the past, there had not been a rental fee, but she argued that with a longer-term contract, it was not unreasonable to ask for some of the costs of electric and infrastructure be covered, similarly to how the City contracts with the Split Rock Park Campground.
After some discussion about the actual profitability of the stand, the council approved the rental fee and the 2-year contract request.
As the final piece of business prior to moving into Executive Session, the council discussed the new community center/event hall/City hall proposals.
Over the past week, the City Council had been wrestling with the initial design proposals given to them by ISG Architects. The main issue, was, as always, cost.
A meeting had been held on February 22 over Zoom, where more finalized plans had been presented, and the council had requested more time to think about what direction they wanted the facility to go. The main questions surrounded whether it should be one facility or two, and if the architects' ideas of an event hall and community center matched up with what the City's ideas of that type of facility were.
Complicating the matter was the cost, as Uhl stated the City could afford to put forward approximately $2.8 million in initial funding without tapping into the debt limit or reserves, and ISG Architect's Josh Muckenhirn's proposals were all above $4-5 million.
Some of the questions they wrestled with were, one building, or two? Stay on Main, or move everything to the JC Complex area off Dows and Center? Make a land purchase, or save the funds to put into the building(s)? What kinds of functions does the community really need, versus what's wanted? Do we want to prioritize enticing people to come to Garretson that normally don't, work hard on increasing quality of life for residents, or both? Will more staff be needed in order to run an events center and/or community center? Does the City want to make extra funds from the center, or just break even?
"We need it to serve as many functions as possible, and not paint ourselves into a corner," said council member Bill Hoskins. He and other councilors outlined several functions highly desired for the community, including a space for elections, funeral luncheons, after school programs/kids' indoor space, walking track for adults, and a performance space. Some of these functions can be held in the Legion, but that building does have space constraints.
"We have to figure out what our true intentions are for this space," said Mayor Greg Beaner. This included determining, officially, what the definition would be of an events center versus a community center.
The council appeared to be in agreement that a high-end, wedding-barn events center was not something that best served the community, and felt that would be best handled by a private entity. But they didn't want to limit themselves to a space that is too small, either.
"Cost effectiveness is key," said council member Richelle Hofer. However, she said, there's benefits to two facilities instead of one, and requested a feasibility study be done between the two options.
MCEDA/Sioux Metro Growth Alliance Director Jesse Fonkert agreed that a feasibility study was a good idea, but wouldn't necessarily be undertaken until the council decided on one facility versus two.
What that meant was, the council needed to take community need into account, finalize priorities, and make a hard decision of how much to spend into the future. No decisions were made during the meeting, and the council voted to enter into Executive Session shortly after.
The next meeting of the City Council will occur at the Equalization Meeting on March 15 at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall. The next regular meeting will be at the Legion on Monday, April 5 at 6:30 p.m.
