The City Council of Garretson Met in regular session on Monday, Nov. 5 at the American Legion Post #23 meeting hall.
The meeting began with the regular approval of the agenda, approval to pay the city’s current claims and approval of the minutes of the last meeting.
The city council then dove straight into the meat of the meeting, first was to address proposed ordinances and resolutions.
First they considered a resolution regarding the Coburn Plat. Tom Coburn was there to showcase the plan and to answer any questions the city had regarding these plans. The city gave Coburn the floor.
Coburn said that his plans are for home developments on lots 2, 3 and 4, with 1 and 5 being buffer zones. After questions and answers from the council he said that not of this development would interfere with the city and Sarah C. Street. Craig Nussbaum said that the city engineer had agreed that city water and sewer would be able to connect to the property.
The council voted to pass this resolution, Resolution #2018-22 by a 4 to 1 vote, council member Greg Franka being the dissenting vote.
Next the council briefly discussed and then tabled a contingency funds transfer. They likewise did this with a supplemental appropriations ordinance, to give City Finance officer Anna Uhl more prep time to get the numbers ready for the end of the fiscal year. Uhl said that the city has had ha lot of extra expenses this year, from insurance costs getting higher and more expenses from the water and sewer project as well as payments for the dam’s repair.
The council then briefly discussed and then passed an increase in water rates. The increases were part of the scheduled plan, of incremental increases needed in order to continue to qualify for state and federal grants and loans for infrastructure projects. New water rates are: Surcharge of $5.45 & $.12 per gallon.
City council member Greg Franka then brought up a proposal that would repeal ordinance 625 regarding septic tanks. He made the case that the law was both unclear and opened up a can of worms and set precedents that the city simply didn’t want. He contended that the ordinance should have never been passed.
After a long discussion many councilmen agreed that they should at least change the wording of the ordinance to better reflect what the city’s intention with the law was. The idea is that on certain properties, gravity sewer won’t be able to do its job without help, i.e. requiring a lift station to make the sewage flow. When power goes out for days or weeks at a time, which it certainly has done in Garretson in recent history, those residents affected more or less can’t use their plumbing. That’s why the law provisions using a septic systems to be installed as a backup.
The council talked about this for a good while, debating on the merits of changing some of the wording of the ordinance, making it clear that all properties in the city of Garretson must run on city sewer and perhaps change the references of a “septic tank” to a “holding tank” instead. The council will revisit this again next month after potential revisions can be made for a proper amendment to the ordinance in question.
Moving into the Old Business category, City Maintenance Officer Craig Nussbaum gave a report to the council on the progress of the street project. At the time of this report, Garretson had just experienced another bout of 72 hours of straight rainfall, slowing efforts again to a crawl. Nussbaum said that the plan of the contractor was to finish as much as possible as soon as conditions were dry enough. Their plan was to gravel up to level and then pour asphalt to get Main Ave. drivable for the winter. Of course that means that asphalt will be torn up again when spring work begins and the project resumes. Also he wanted to mention to the council that Xcel Energy wants to place new power lines and so that will also require street work to install as well. When asked what the plans for the sidewalks were on main, Nussbaum said that he did not know what said plans were.
Council member Richelle Hofer was concerned at the negative reactions this project had garnered on Facebook and other social media. She said that the council was “getting blasted” by various people, from accusations of poor planning to calls for all of their resignations. She worried that communication between the city, the engineers and contractors and city citizens was not working and wondered if there was something they could be doing better.
Council member Jodi Gloe countered that she felt that if people really did have legitimate grievances then they would be at the council meeting. She felt the comments on social media were just people venting and griping.
The simple fact is that work on this project has been constantly stalled because of weather delays. It’s been frustrating for all parties involved, from the business owners and residents to the city and the contractors and engineers alike. Everybody is unhappy with how things have transpired. Sadly, Mother Nature does not care about how any of us feel.
The council discussed the brief pubic meeting they had in mid-October with several members of the community, business owners and residents alike, from 3rd street to main. That meeting had both the engineer and head contractor there to answer and address questions and concerns. People asked hard questions and the engineer and contractor handled them admirably. The council felt that maybe it was the time to have another one of those meetings in December. The council agreed that this should happen.
(Since the city council meeting, Garretson has had light snowfalls, but work is continuing despite them.)
Next the council skipped ahead in their agenda to talk with Fire Chief Jeff Frerk and get his report. In essence, they’ve been pretty busy with 98 calls so far this year to date. He’s gave the council a review of all the calls and working hours the fire department has put in since the summer and they’ve certainly been a busy crew. Commenting for himself and the department, he did let the council know that the GFD has moved back into their fire hall after its temporary relocation because of the street work, that their road and sidewalks are finished and that everything looked good.
Next the council talked about boulevard trees. It’s been a question for a while as to whether or not the city wants to regulate things like height, size and placement. When asked, maintenance officer Nussbaum said that yes, root systems to have an effect on water/sewer delivery, especially if it’s the old style pipes.
Many on the council, especially Dave Bonte said that they were leery of regulating trees.
“I’m all for trees and conservation,” he said. “I understand that some trees can cause problems, but I think they add beauty and character to our community.”
The council tabled the issue for now, wanting research done as to what the best kind of trees for use in residential areas and boulevards would be.
Next the city talked with Chad Hanisch and Cody Weiss about the water project to expand city services to the new area to be developed and the industrial park. Harkening back to their earlier discussion about septic system needed as backup, the engineer found several regions where gravity sewer would not be adequate, requiring a lift station to manage sewage removal.
Next, Hanisch and Weiss reviewed the 5 year Capital Improvement Plan with the city council. From data provided from the city council, city staff, and city residents, they had crafted a five year plan of what the city’s needs were, what priority those needs should have, what can be done and what it would cost. The council, and council member Hofer in particular was very pleased with how streamlined this was, and that it gave them a solid direction as to where they should focus their efforts in the coming years. The council approved and adopted the plan.
The city quickly reviewed and then approved the city’s audit report. Uhl said she was happy with report and has put in to practice all the recommendations that were made that we feasible for a town and staff of our size.
Next the city discussed with City Maintenance Officer Craig Nussbaum the replacement with trade-in of the city’s Pay loader. The gave him permission to sell the old, and to purchase a new one with funds budgeted post sale. Hanisch made a little joke, “And just like that the 5-year plan is out of date,” since a plan to replace said pay loader replacement was included on the list of city priorities in that plan.
A property owner had requested that the city pay for a security light for the area around an apartment complex, arguing that the light is for the public good so perhaps the city should pay for it. The council only briefly discussed this, saying that it would set a bad precedent for the city to start paying for power costs on property it did not own and felt that the property owner should pay for the costs themselves.
Finance officer Uhl reported that natural gas prices have been increased by 3 cents.
Next the council heard from the Parks Board. Kelly Schleuter of the Parks Board addressed the council. She had several requests. First was to install power on campsite #14 at Splitrock park. She also noted that the junction box on site 13 was in bad shape and needed to be replaced. She also suggested upgrading the parks general power output from its current 30 amps to 50 amps. The council thought that adding a campsite that had power hookups was a good idea and that it was probably time to make those upgrades and asked Schleuter & Nussbaum to get in touch with Steve’s Electric to get pricing.
They also talked about updating camp registration to the modern age, making online reservations possible as well as being able to accept payments via credit and/or debit cards. Parks Board Member Carrie Moritz was unable to attend because of parent/teacher conferences going on concurrently to the city’s meeting, so they discussed tabling the discussion for now because she had done research on how to make it viable. Finance officer Uhl made the argument that she was dissatisfied with the city’s current website, and wanted to revamp it anyway, so online registration options for camping would be something they could certainly make part of the new website in the future. Council member Hofer also noted that if they were to do this, and if camp manager Bruce Rekstead was to accept digital forms of payment on site for example, that would require an amendment or an appendix be added to his lease contract. More on this will have to be discussed at another time.
Next the council got a report from the Garretson Ambulance. They had been dispatched on 157 calls since their last reporting. They have 3 new members taking shifts and just received their new rural license from the county. They will soon be offering EMT qualification classes to be held Tuesday and Thursday nights at a cost of $750. If a student completes the course successfully the county will reimburse the trainee for a quarter of that cost and if that EMT serves in the program for 1 year, they will get another quarter of that tuition reimbursed. Uhl also noted that there are 3 spots open on the Garretson Ambulance Board of Directors, and can be filled by anyone in the community.
That was the end of public discussion of the meeting and the council then went into executive session.
