Called To Order

President Carlsrud called the meeting to order at 3:30 PM.

Roll Call

Members present: President Carlsrud, Commissioner Magnuson via Zoom, Commissioner Bishop, Commissioner Gulmon, and Commissioner Erickson

Department Reports

Sanitation Supervisor Swart reported Jamestown Communications finished installing the cameras on the trucks.  The Transfer Station is now closed on Saturday’s though May and we have a part time employee that started. 

Water Superintendent Hesch reported this as the first weekend we tried running without Sunday and it will be just fine.  We just have to monitor it.  Commissioner Bishop asked about the standpipe and the water tower up by the armory.  The standpipe has not been fixed.  After inspection it was determined some of the caulking was bad resulting in pinhole leaks.  It will need to be drained and have a contractor some in to fix it.  Clint has information regarding the water tower.

Electrical Superintendent Senf reported zero outages for the month of October.  West end underground project is finished.  Gaukler 36-plex underground is in and we are waiting for the transformer.  Waterfront Meadows contractor will be digging the trench for us.  In regards to the ordinance on the agenda, to make if fair if you aren’t in city limits we would like them to pay the full price vs us paying the 200 feet since they aren’t paying taxes.  Inside city limits they would have to for the overhead after 200 feet.

Fire Chief Magnuson reported the covid third shot will take place at the firehall next week.  We picked up some additional businesses for fire extinguishers.  Should out to the members of our department and the community.  We are getting new doors installed and the funds came from some of the fundraisers we have held.  The building shipped today and should be here on the 5^th and then Enterprise would be here next week.

Police Chief Hatcher reported that on Thursday at 1:30 up at the DOT office the highway patrol colonel will be in town to present some awards to one of the local highway patrolman as well as one of our police officers that helped out on the highway.  One award is a purple heart, very prestigious and not awarded very often.  It’s open to the public.  We are full staffed and the last person finished their field training last night.

Operations Supervisor Klemisch reported the flushing of the hydrants will be wrapping up in the next day or so.  There is a startup planned tentatively for Thursday for the west end lift station.  Construction is wrapping up for the year with some seeding taking place.  Snow equipment is ready. The NW water tower by DQ is in rough shape.  We are trying to get money in the budget but anything we do is pretty minimal right now until we figure out the plan. 

City Administrator Crawford requested to move item 5 with 3 on the agenda.  Discussion has been taking place about c

City Attorney Martineck introduced Katie Henderson, our new Public Works Administrative Assistant. 

Review Monthly Bills/Reports Finance Director Richterreported we are at $1,780,770 which includes debt service at $137,419, Forestry & F&B Grants at $33,461, PFP CLOMR, $14,670, Fire Hall Addition at $85,186, West End Lift Station at $276,799, construction projects at $418,313 and MRES at $288,800.  The remaining $526,122 is for our regular operations.

Discuss Public Works 1.

City Administrator Crawford stated due to some of the hiring issues, the cross work that goes on in different departments and to become more of a team, we are proposing for 2022 is to merge the Street Specialist 1 and Sanitation Specialist 1 to now a Public Works Specialist 1 at the B-21 level.  The Public Works Technician is at the A-13 level for those that come in and don’t have their CDL yet.

Discuss NDPERS.

City Attorney Martineck stated we have looked into NDPERS for a while and have now made some progress getting it here.  There will be a couple different options, one for safety employees such as the FD and PD and another for non-safety employees.  The city would still put in 10% and the employee makes up the difference.  Any current employee can keep their current retirement plan if they choose or go on NDPERS, any new hires would only have NDPERS as an option.

Discuss NDDOT Urban Grant Program Application.

Chad Petersen stated this was discussed earlier in January and the city has benefitted from this program before.  This opened for applications and the deadline is December 31^st, 2021.

Discus NDDOT Urban Grant Program Application for Wintershow Road Shared-Use Path.

Chad Petersen stated this was discussed previously and there was support that this path was desired.  The document shows 8^th Ave to the Regional Technology center split into two phases. 

Discussion regarding Vacate Four Bottle Road Frontage Road.

Electrical Superintendent Senf stated the electrical poles are out of the ground and there is one that is starting to tip.  It would be expensive to even do just the bare minimum fix.  If vacated, the current property owners would gain the additional land up to the right of way.

City Administrator Crawford added that it is currently on our Urban Roads program and we need to get John Deere added.  In order to add one you need to remove one.

Adjourn The meeting was adjourned at ­4:53 PM.

Called To Order

President Carlsrud called the meeting to order at 2:30 PM.

Roll Call

Members present: President Carlsrud, Commissioner Magnuson, Commissioner Bishop and Commissioner Gulmon, Commissioner Erickson (2:45)

Commission Topics

Discussion took place around the following topics:

Commissioner Long Range Planning Ideas,

RRVWSP information

Department of Water Resources Funding

Department Reports

Sanitation Supervisor Swart requested people try to get closer to the piles when dumping in the grass site.  We are looking for another two new employees.

City Administrator Crawford presented some additional options to try to bring in new employees on the sanitation department.  They will post for part-time positions at a higher wage but no benefits.

Water Superintendent Hesch reported he and Clint will be going to a convention next week and Sherry will be recognized for her Operator’s Award.

Electrical Superintendent Senf reported they have given a manufacturer west of town a bid for 3 phase.  Finished up Smith Lumber today.  We’re having trouble getting quotes back for the WAPA sub.  Everyone wants concrete and its sounds like they are hard to push into the ground.  Either we do the work or hire someone in to do the work.  People don’t want to bid since it’s a foundation.

Fire Chief Magnuson reported this week is Fire Prevention week.  We’ll be waiting until spring to have our open house after we get the addition done.  10 true calls of service last month.  Building is on schedule.  Battle of the Badges is next week.  We picked up all the Summit and Bergan’s properties.  It is working and the numbers will increase.

Operations Supervisor Klemisch reported the next couple of weeks will be busy getting everything wrapped up for the season.  Will start flushing hydrants either this week or next week.  We are a little slower since several of the street crew have been getting sent over to sanitation.  

City Administrator Crawford reported that we are still under our contract funds in the engineering and contracting services.  Planning and Zoning is more than what the original plan but we never could have guessed that we would have all this going on.  There is a walking trail that Bobby is trying to establish near the property that Dave Zubrod recently purchased.  We agreed to have the trail on the back side of that property but after some discussion with Bobby is sounds like he would like it in another area but Zubrod is not in agreement with the new area.  Discussion took place and it will still in the original location.

Review Monthly Bills/Reports Finance Director Richterreported we are at $2,383,808.22 with MRES at $459,000, purchase of Valley Implements at $470,000, BND debt $348,400, Bluescope for the Fire Hall addition invoice of $78,000, Infrastructure and construction was $372,000 the other two sirens were $21,500.  Payroll was high at $428,000 due to paying the annual fire department payment.

Discuss Image & Enhancement and Food and Beverage Grant Requirements

City Administrator Crawford requested we change the name of the Food and Beverage Grant to the Valley City Tourism Grant due to people not being clear on what the grant is for.  Reading it now it seems it’s for restaurants but it’s not.  The other is that for $1000-$5000 they are required to provide their financial information.  Many have decided not to apply due to this, they are concerned in providing this information for their competition to see.  It’s also cumbersome for $1000, there is no encouragement to apply. 

Commissioner Gulmon added that the two most critical things required should be that the taxes are paid and credit check.

Decision was made to change the name of the grant and removing the requirement to provide financial statements.

Discuss Request for a Path/Trail along Wintershow Road

Chad from KLJ stated this was discussed as a need at the Longest Table event.  We have a few letters of support for a trail along the road.  The discussion happened before the grant information opened up through the DOT.  The application has a deadline of December 31^st, 2021 and the funding is for the 2025 construction season.

Discuss Benches on Main

City Administrator Crawford stated we found out that we cannot put anything on the sidewalk areas that are the white concrete because of ADA.  So originally the thought was to put the benches with backs against the buildings but now that can’t be done and if we set them on the red they don’t work well.  We’d like to get backless benches on Main and move the ones with the backs on Central.

Discuss recommendations from the Special Assessment Commission regarding the 5^th Ave NW Reconstruction Project.

Deputy Auditor Klein stated the Special Assessment Commission met last Wednesday night and had the hearing for 5^th Ave N. They were fine with the amounts listed but if you saw in the minutes they had recommendations.  They would like the city to work on the landscaping, grass on the boulevards and the other was about the seal coat.  They would like it completed sooner than later and the city pick up the cost of that sealcoat.

Commissioner Bishop asked if we are able to withhold payment from the contractors until they fix the issues.

Chad from KLJ stated we are withholding 2% of the contract, we do still have punch list items that need addressing.

Discuss Stan Ryan Easement

City Administrator Crawford stated basically there was an easement previously developed with Stan and he no longer wants it developed that way.  City Administrator Crawford presented another drawing that has been discussed that will allow further development in that area.

Adjourn

The meeting was adjourned at ­4:53 PM.

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.

Department Reports

Water Superintendent Hesch reported that usage for August peaked on the 18^th at 1,381,000 gallons.  The total pumpage from January 1^st to current is 33,254,000 and the average daily pumpage so far for the year is 1,108,000.  It’s usually around 700,000-800,000 but due to the weather it’s up.

Fire Chief Magnuson reported the pumper will be gone for about a month.  The paint is starting to crack and it’s under warranty but it will take about a month to get it fixed.  The rural board is allowing us to move their pumper up to that spot and hopefully in about 2 weeks the new pumper will be here.  They will be marking the catalytic converters on some of our trucks this week.  Preconstruction meeting for the addition is on Thursday, site work is slated to start on the 13^th.  Sunday is the 9/11 motorcycle ride with Gwen as our speaker.  Extinguishers billed out was $2474.82 and we didn’t get $1000 billed out yet for this month. 

Police Chief Hatcher reported that dispatch has moved.  There was also another resignation in the department.  The officer is moving to highway patrol.

Electrical Superintendent Senf reported 2 outages for the month.  One was lightening and the other was failed cutout.  Installing sirens for the fire department.    

President Carlsrud moved to item 5 and 7.

Discuss EV Charging Station

Superintendent Senf stated there has been questions if we will have one.  Superintendent Senf recommended waiting as he is pretty sure the three main dealerships in town will have to put them in on their own and maybe a couple of gas stations.  If we were to do one it would have to be a fast charge and that would be around $80,000 without including the installation or wiring.  Also Tesla installs their own charging stations approximately 200 miles apart due to them having a different type of plug.  You could put one in for about $6,000 but it’s a minimum of 5 hours to charge so if you put that down town, who’s going to stick around for 5 hours to charge their car?  Senf recommends holding off on installing the stations at this time.

Discuss Increase in Cost WAPA Substation Repairs

Superintendent Senf said WAPA asked for additional $80,000 for the sub.  The electrical department can do some of the work if everyone’s okay with it.  It would save about $100,000.  Commission decided to let the electrical department try it and go from there.

Operations Superintendent Klemisch reported there is still an open position in the sanitation department.  We received the cameras to go on the garbage trucks.  Also a reminder of the 32 gallon can limit.

Street department received their new graders and are ready to put them to work.  Also working on some curb stops and old maintenance issues. 

Finance Director Richter stated we changed our agenda format. 

City Administrator Crawford added that Bobby Koepplin had a request to get tree prices on trees for a grant the Beautification Committee had gotten.  The request has been reviewed and there were a couple of changes so at this time it has been sent back to him with the requested changes.

Review monthly bills/reports

Finance Director Richter reported $2.3 million in expenditures for August.  $283,000 in PFP because of purchasing the maintenance building and also the two vacant properties.  The new equipment lease for $68,000, BND some PFP debt service due for another $64,000, invoice for the FD addition for $53,000, construction projects are around $750,000 and MRES is another $460,000.   

Discuss Gravity Drain by the Elks

Chad Petersen from KLJ stated they plan to increase the capacity of the storm sewer system along Main Street.  We have reached out to contractors for pricing and suppliers for availability of materials.  We have found one contractor to do the work this fall.  The issues are we are already in September and we don’t know what kind of fall we’ll have.  We’re recommending waiting until this spring to complete the project.  This project will be KLJ’s project and no dollars will come from the city.

Discuss Removing Cats from Lease Law Requirement

City Administrator Crawford stated there have been requests to remove cats. 

Police Chief Hatcher stated he always thought it was silly to have a leash on a cat but he feels the “animal at large” would still apply if the cat was caught outside their house. 

Review offer to sell City Lot Located North of West Main Street in NP Additions 5 and 6

City Administrator Crawford stated his offer is the same amount but there is an additional section to make the access work.  The other thing requested is that he knows the closing will take a bit so he is requesting to do dirt work prior to closing.  City Administrator Crawford recommended accepting the offer.

City Attorney Martineck stated we would have him sign some sort of agreement so if everything falls through and he already started the dirt work we would be protected.

Ordinance Review

President Carlsrud stated there are several ordinances that are no longer valid.  We will want to start going through and cleaning them up.

Discuss Retirement

City Administrator Crawford stated there has been discussions about different options such as NDPERS.  I would like to have Carl look into it to see what a better option is.  Anyone who is currently employed can choose what plan they want.

Adjourn

The meeting was adjourned at ­4:35 PM.

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.

Department Reports

Electrical Superintendent Senf working on straitening poles and replacing a couple of lines as well.  There were 4 outages, 1 bird, 1 tree and 2 squirrels.  Goal is to complete downtown sub next fall.  There is a request to put security cameras on the new poles in the Rosebud parking lot.  Dickey Rural Network will quote it but before they do they want to know that it’s not going to be something that won’t be allowed.

Water Superintendent Hesch reported that it is still very dry and I do see a lot of usage in the night so that’s good that people are watering at night.  Right now it doesn’t seem that we will have to go on a water restriction.  No concerns with algae bloom since we have the satellite.   

Sanitation Supervisor Swart reported that they are finished screening the compost so they have some really nice black dirt.  We are also looking to hire another employee. 

Operations Superintendent Klemisch reported water and sewer department has been working with the electrical crew upgrading some motors in the lift stations.  We’ll probably be looking at painting the lines next week. 

Discuss Offering for Sale Lots 63-3450012 and 63-3440047.

City Administrator Crawford stated we have an individual interested in purchasing 63-3440047 and a small section of 63-3450012 at $48,200.  The assessed value is $49,200 plus a little more for the extra feet into the other plat.  They need to figure out some information with the DOT regarding the right of way which may take several months, so at this time there is not a time line as to when he would build on it. 

Commissioners requested additional information to better determine the value of the property.

Review Preliminary Budget.

Finance Director Richter stated we do have a change on CVB but it doesn’t affect the mil.

Mary Lee Nielson stated they are in process of looking for a new Marketing Rep for town but in order to do that we are asking to change the payment for the parking lot to $5,000/year so the other portion can be put towards that position.  It’s the same amount in full just spread out for a longer period of time.

Review Monthly Bills and Reports.

We are at $1.9 million for monthly expenditures for July.  We had 3 payrolls, busy in the construction season and those are the majority.  That brings us down to our regular operating charges.

Fire Extinguisher Services Financial Report.

Net income is right around $8500.

Discuss Policy Manual Change.

City Attorney Martineck stated he would like to update our policy to align better with the state’s guidelines and define eligible members that the sick leave can be used on.

Review NDDOT Draft 2022-2025 Valley City Urban Roads Program.

Chad Petersen reported last week the DOT sent out the draft for their Urban Roads Program.  Discussion took place to change 5^th St NW to a later timeframe and add 2^nd Ave NE to 3^rd St NE project so I am looking for confirmation that is still the plan so we can let the DOT know.

Discuss Bids for the Master Lift Station Upgrades Project.

Chad Petersen stated bids were open back in July 16^th.  One bid was received at $464,000, engineers estimate was about $230,000.  We’re over the budget for the year and due to the timeline of everything it may be best for the city to reject and rebid this fall.

Discuss General Resolution that Authorizes the City Administrator to Sell City Property if it’s below a Given Amount and Determine Given Amount.

City Administrator Crawford said this is for personal property under a certain value, not real estate.  Commission agreed that $2500 was a good amount.

Adjourn

The meeting was adjourned at ­4:48 PM.

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 (3:40), and Commissioner Gulmon.

Department Reports

Electrical Superintendent Senf reported one outage.  Finished up the underground in Webster Subdivision.  Finished the alley rebuild and will be getting some locates called in Donny’s subdivision.  Bad news is that our downtown sub, one transformer is out of commission.  Waiting for a quote from HDR.  I would like to convert it to a 115 line vs the 69 line so reinsulate some new poles and possibly a transformer.

Sanitation Supervisor Swart reported the numbers for clean-up week.  We brought in 164.10 tons of garbage since September’s clean-up week and inert was 77.74 tons.

Kevin Jacobson reported for the street department.  Stated there was a little bit of a pressure problem but that’s worked out.  Seemed to be a bad PRV.  We’re working with Grotberg on getting the fire pumps up on both Crestwood and the Industrial Park. 

Water Superintendent Hesch reported the demand for water is going up.  We trying to let people know if they are going to water, please do it in the morning or evening so it can soak into the ground.  Try not to water every day.  Your grass needs to learn to handle the stress in case there is a reason any restrictions have to go on in the future.  Also, for those that fertilize your grass with your hose, get a vacuum breaker on your hose so there isn’t any chance of the fertilizer getting sucked back into the hose and ending up in the system.

Fire Chief Magnuson stated the Fire Department will be holding their Dedication Ceremony June 19^th.

Police Chief Hatcher reported they did some interviews for the open position.  We now have two open positions as another officer has submitted her resignation.  We’ve worked through a few junk areas with the Street Department.  The notices are going out and we’re notifying them and have been trying to work with them to get it cleaned up.

Review monthly bills/reports   

We have just under $1.3 million in bills and expenditures for May.

Discuss NDDOT Urban Grant Program

Chad Petersen from KLJ we have tapped into this program with the Phase I project on Central Ave along with the current project on Main Street.  This is a competitive grant program.  When we started we were just looking at using it for the Streetscape project but there are other components that are in the focus area that could benefit from this.  I wanted to see if there is interest in pursuing this.

Discuss Change Orders for 7^th and 2^nd

City Administrator Crawford stated change orders will be presented differently than before.  Instead of just one lump sum of a change order at the end we will discuss the change orders as we go so everyone can understand where they are coming from.  The first one is us contracting out removal of trees in order to get to the services.  The next one was the manholes.  We had to go up sizes on the pipes and make the manholes bigger because of the pipes.  There’s no way to know this until you get down to in there to see it.  The next was we knew how many services we had but we didn’t know a lot of the PVC pipe went from a house to clean-up.  There were about 14 services that looked like they would be PVC but when they got in there it was clay tile.  Approval was given for the clay tile being replaced with PVC. 

Discuss 2^nd Ave SE in Front of Senior Center

City Administrator Crawford stated this was actually going to be done last fall with the project on 5^th but with the plant shutting down early due to the snow it didn’t get done.  Now we have two different projects going on with two different companies that we’ll get quotes done and then it will be done in October.  The money had already been set aside but we may get a better deal this year.

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 (3:38), and Commissioner Gulmon.

Others present: City Administrator Crawford, City Attorney Martineck, Deputy Auditor Klein, Public Works Accountant/Manager Jacobson, City Assessor Hansen, Fire Chief Magnuson, Police Chief Hatcher (4:00), Chad Petersen from KLJ, Electrical Superintendent Senf (4:00), Operations Superintendent Klemisch, Sanitation Supervisor Swart, Water Superintendent Hesch (4:00)

7.  Discuss offer for Purchase of Property Located at 476 5^th Ave NE.

City Administrator Crawford stated we were contacted by Valley Realty and they are looking at working with the Vo-Tech Center and build a property there like they did with the property just north of the school.  They have offered $5,000 for the property.  There was previously asbestos work and there are no current taxes on it.  The school needs it ready the beginning of August so Valley Realty would have to have the foundation done by then.  This is also not one that can be just hooked back up to water and sewer.  We have to come back in because it was cemented off.  It is in the flood plain so my recommendation, as long as they can work with everything, is to go ahead with it for the next meeting.

Consensus was made to go ahead with this.

6.  Discuss amending Resolution 2292, a Resolution Approving Plat of Hyland Park District.

City Administrator Crawford stated this was the Resolution that was approved last meeting.  There was more information brought to the table.  Working with Bruce we were able to come up with a plan on putting sidewalks on both sides.  This also starts the residence that we’ve been talking about.  There is an ordinance that says sidewalks are required and we have more moving forward so this is what will be. Going forward Joel will have that worked out before when presenting plats.

9.  Discuss Small Paving outside of Hyland Park Estates.

Operations Superintendent Klemisch stated he drove through the Hyland Park project the other day and in my mind with all this being developed we will have a small stretch of road that will be left unpaved, it’s like 200-250 feet.  I think it would be really smart of the city to work with these guys and look at paving this section of the road so it’s all nice and paved.  It would be easier on us to maintain and the homeowners don’t like the gravel getting thrown.  City Administrator Crawford stated just the paving project alone was $80,000 which was curb and gutter but did not include the groundwork so we are waiting for Bruce to get us the final number.  It is a project and would need to be assessed but if we were to do it as an assessment in its district you would have to go through engineering and pay more.  One of the things we can do is to go to the owners, talk to them about waving that need to do the assessment district and then they could split the cost.    

1.  Department Reports.

City Administrator Crawford stated several Department Heads were on a training call and will stop in to give their reports when it is over.

Operations Superintendent Klemisch stated the new pick up showed up.  We have worked all the valves for the upcoming 7^th Ave project and the 2^nd Ave project we found one bad one.  We have been working on painting curbs and lines.

2.  Review monthly bills/reports.

 Deputy Auditor Klein stated we have a pretty big number this month but that’s due to the refinancing of the refunding bond which was $1.275 and we did get that amount back.  With that and the TIF payments that came to just over $2.5 million.

3.  Review City Administrator Contract.

City Attorney Martineck stated historically when we hire executive level positions we enter into an agreement for a certain amount of vacation time.  When we hired Gwen we came an agreement that she would be given a certain amount of vacation up front to use.  What happens after is that historically on the first anniversary that person starts accruing more vacation time.  What should be happening is there should be negotiation for vacation time up front and then the time should start accruing immediately so there is a bank.

4.  Approve Designating Funds from the Cares Act Relief Funds in the amount of $25,000 for lights to Place on the Elk’s Foot Bridge and in Veterans Park and $5,000 for the VC Park District to add concrete corn hole games to Chautauqua Park.

Deputy Auditor Klein stated these were some requests that came in and the lights were previously discussed. 

City Administrator Crawford wanted to clarify that the $25,000 is for lights and additional decorations as needed.  For the VCPD, last year they lost over $150,000 for having to put memberships on hold and closing the doors due to covid.  They did get some Cares money but not enough to offset their losses.  They are looking at replacing 4 of the horseshoe playing areas and adding concrete cornhole.

5.  Discuss Bluescope Contract.

City Administrator Crawford stated we have some other pieces to get to before you guys pick the final project but you have to have the contract signed.  We need to decide if we want the additional 12 feet.

Commissioner Bishop stated his preference would be to put in the additional 12 feet right away.

City Attorney Martineck stated he saw in the contract there may be an additional $10,000 charge for patching, is that something that’s needed?

Fire Chief Magnuson stated they added that in case they needed to tie into a sewer line or something but they may not even use it.  Our guys might be able to do the job too if needed and we wouldn’t have that charge.

1.  Department Reports (cont.).

Electrical Superintendent Senf reported that they are working on Woodland, there’s a lot of cables to cross.  Finished up an alley rebuild west of Washington school.  We’ll be working on those in the future now that we’re getting caught up on a lot of our underground.

Water Superintendent Hesch we do have a Valley City aquifer.  We received a letter from North Dakota Department of Water Quality asking if we would like to upgrade our wellhead protection signs.  I would like to get one out in the North Valley are and one on each exit coming in from the east to the west.  They said there is a grant and it would cost about $40/sign or less if they have a lot of funding or not many people that have to upgrade their signs.

8.  Discuss VCFD GMC Commercial Rescue Contract.

Fire Chief Magnuson reported that a lot of the used equipment that is out there is a great deal right now.  A type of deal like this truck doesn’t come up very often.  We just don’t have the room on our current truck for everything we need right now.  There are a lot of things we can’t carry and if we get a call we have to load the specialized tools in the back of the pickup.  To build this truck it would cost over $425,000 so this is a pretty good deal.  I do feel this is a need. We have to put $30,000 down on it now but it won’t be available to us for a year, until the person that has it now gets their new truck.  We can use what’s in the truck fund right now and next year cover the remaining balance.  Our truck right now is a 2003 and fit what we needed it for at the time.  We have since grown and bought new equipment and can’t fit it all on our truck. 

City Administrator Crawford said she saw in the budget under the fire truck reserve that it had $440,000 needed for next year.

Fire Chief Magnuson stated that was set aside to replace number 2 but that still passes so it doesn’t make sense to replace a truck that doesn’t need to be.

Commissioner Magnuson stated if our 2003 rescue truck goes down for any reason, which it did go down for a week last year, you are digging the rescue equipment out of the back of a pickup.

City Administrator Crawford also mentioned that we were just at a County Commission meeting and they specifically asked if you need another truck and your response was no.      

Fire Chief Magnuson stated he doesn’t see the county having an issue with it.

Commissioner Bishop stated he sees the need.

Adjourn The meeting was adjourned at ­4:50 PM.

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, Water Plant Supervisor Hesch, Chad Petersen from KLJ, Tracy Eslinger from Moore.

1.  Department Reports:

            Water Plant Supervisor Hesch stated he received his consumer confidence packet and has been in    touch with ND Rural Water.  They should be coming next week and it’s all set up to go to the printer.            The quality of water coming in from the river is good for the winter time.  We’re buffering it with the          well water right now so it’s staying at the 46 degrees.  We received our tractor combo which has            helped clean away all the snow.  We plan to get lots of good use out if that.

            Electrical Superintendent Senf reported three outages for the month.  Wind and ice were a factor,     one was a connector and the other was the rolling black out which was out of our control.  Other than     we’re trimming trees and doing a thermal scan that we had done by MRES and fixing those issues.

            Fire Chief Magnuson reported 15 fire calls last month, ten city, four rescue and one rural call.  We     started having drill the second Thursday of February.  Extinguisher business is going well.  Since we            started we have sold 45 fire extinguishers, 76 inspections, 26-6 year services and so far to date we           have taken in $4,634.  We did get our ISO audit back and it was a good report.  The city stays at a   level 4, for a volunteer department that’s good.  Our rural did get a better rating. They let us use some         of our city infrastructure.  The biggest issue that gets us is the hydrants.  We were probably about 5 points from moving up to the next level.

            Sanitation Supervisor Swart reminded businesses to have the areas clean around their dumpsters.      Also, for everyone to have their garbage out by 7 am.

            PW Superintendent Klemisch reported they went around town and got as much snow off the streets they could.  We’ve also been going around trimming trees.

            Police Chief Hatcher reported they have been busy with some large scale events that have taken        place recently.  Due to the nice weather we are able to get our windows replaced sooner.  We received           an AED grant so those will be getting replaced with the next generation.

            Finance Director Richter reported that we are selling Chamber Bucks at the Auditor’s Department    now.  Kudos to Brenda and Brandy, they are really doing a nice job taking care of the people that are          coming in for them.

            City Assessor Hansen stated the Equalization Meeting is scheduled for April 13^th.

2.  Review monthly bills/reports.

Finance Director Richter reported for February we had bills of about $1.55 million and some of the items included paying our annual WSI bill of $27,000, we have $200,000 in the Chamber Bucks promotion and $12,000 above that for labor and promotion that we paid out to the Chamber.  The PD purchased their Durango which was about $26,500, the electrical department had their substation repairs at about $56,000 and also purchased a skid steer at about $65,000.  The water treatment plant purchased their mower for $46,000 and the slope mower that will be shared by a couple of different departments for $58,850 and also our monthly purchase power for about $371,000.  The balance is payroll, benefits and operations.

Commissioner Gulmon added that due to the increase in fees we were able to remove the Midwest Inspection $50,000 from the Cares Act funds so that will leave a balance in those funds from 2020 to $88,117.

3. Discuss Load Pass.

            City Administrator Crawford stated that we had several times this year where people would     apply for an overweight permit and all the City would collect was the $25 permit fee.  We were          not collecting the amount for the actual overage fees.  With Load Pass you pay the $1500 set up          fee and $500 membership and they do all the work and the city would still see a profit.

4.  Discuss requesting funding from the State Water Commission for Storage Building and site costs for a 2022 project.

            City Commissioner Gulmon stated the committee keeps coming back to the lime pit area even   though there is a significant cost in site prep which is some of the reason we’re proposing a 5000         sq. ft. building instead if the 10,000 sq. ft.  We agreed we should move forward in requesting funding from the State Water Commission.  If we move forward it would be a 2022 project.  The   main goal for this project is to get the flood walls protected.

5.  Discuss bids for Paving Improvement District 119/119B (7^th Ave W/4^th St NW/2^nd Ave NW).

            Chad Peterson from KLJ stated we opened bids for this project and received three.  The            engineers estimate for the project was just under $3.3 million.  The bids ranged from $2,925,187     to just under $3.5 million.  Sellin Brothers was the low bidder.  At this time we are not ready to        recommend awarding the project at the commission level.  We do need to review the bids with   the NDDOT to make sure everything is in order.

Adjourn

The meeting was adjourned at ­4:25 PM.

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 20^th, 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 19^th.  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.