Called To Order
President Carlsrud called the meeting to order at 2:30 PM.
Roll Call
Members present: President Carlsrud, Commissioner Magnuson (2:53), Commissioner Bishop, Commissioner Gulmon and Commissioner Erickson (2:39)
Others Present: City Administrator Crawford, City Attorney Martineck, Finance Director Richter, Administrative Assistant Johnson
Commission Topics
Discussion took place around the following topics:
The Little Dam
Snow Removal
Emergency Route
Department Reports
Electrical Superintendent Senf reported they are starting to take down the Christmas lights. The lights on Central will stay up a little longer. Finishing up inventory-the auditor comes on Thursday. Marshall also stated he walked through the library and noticed the lighting is outdated and updating everything would save them money. Eventually you will be forced to replace them due to them being outdated.
Operations Supervisor Klemisch reported the downtown took 4 nights for snow removal. Things are narrow so it will be an ongoing process. There have been equipment issues, the hook truck was down so we reached out to another company and they were hauling our garbage for us but both of their trucks broke down. We talked to Jamestown and they let us dump over there. We received the U-bolt and it is getting replaced now. There is also a garbage truck down but that piece should be in today. Everyone has jumped in and helped from different departments, it’s been a team effort.
Fire Chief Magnuson reported they received back their truck that was getting repainted and that looks good. They are still working on the addition. There were probably more rescue calls this year than we have ever had and some of the worst ones were in the summer which is odd.
Police Chief Hatcher reported they had about 10,000 calls for service. Congratulations to Officer Horner as their family has grown by one. We have been trying to get bids for our new car. In August we were told no one could bid anything so we held off until December. The closing took place last Thursday and the only bid received was from Stoudt Ross Ford. Should we wait since that was the only bid due to the current issues? Ford will not put in a bid unless there’s a sales order signed. We will have another car coming up that will need to be replaced. Due to the wait, should we order two now? Decision was to just purchase the one vehicle now and the other in 2023 budget.
Review the monthly bills/reports
Finance Director Richter stated there were $990,351 in expenditures for December which includes construction projects at $26,419; fire hall addition at $28,088; MRES at $265,106; payroll & benefits at $469,430; PFP CLOMR at $38,521; VCBCDC at $42,500 leaving $120,287 as the balance for operations.
Discuss Image & Enhancement Grant and Valley City Tourism Development Grant Requirements.
City Administrator Crawford stated we realized these needed to be revamped and have come up with the changes outlined in the packet.
Discuss Love’s Winter Road Maintenance
City Administrator Crawford stated she was not aware of all the issues but now everyone is on the same page. The calls of service are included in the packet outlining how many times we have been called up to sand, direct traffic or other services.
Operations Supervisor Klemisch added that a lot of the calls have been after hours. The trucks can’t make it up the hill so we pay overtime to sand. Sanding on snow doesn’t work so we have to call in the motor graders. The last snow storm we shut everything down because we couldn’t keep up while trying to keep the emergency routes open. Gilles Construction has been up there sanding and maybe that is an option to have them help us out. The DOT’s bylaws and regulations do not allow them to brine it for us. We are looking at other options for that. The sheriff’s department has been out there helping as well. We will do our normal sanding route but the extra calls to keep up is where we’re running into issues. Loves is not willing to pay Gille for the additional sanding.
Police Chief Hatcher added if there are any other roads that cause this many issue, we close them. This is the only entrance into Love’s so we can’t close it.
Operations Supervisor Klemisch stated he already spoke with Gille’s and they said they would help.
Commissioner Magnuson asked who approved this road and if all the traffic studies went to the DOT.
Chad Petersen stated the plans were submitted and reviewed and that he specifically commented to the designers and previous administrator that the grades meet standards but there he was concerned about the grand due to this exact situation but the comment back was that it meets standards. Back at that point it was originally going to stay Love’s road so maybe the city wasn’t as concerned with it but now it became the city’s road. There were several times the grade of the road was discussed.
Commissioner Gulmon stated it is what it is and if it is our road, we are responsible to keep it clean or contract with Gille to keep it clean.
President Carlsrud stated if we are paying overtime and are still unable to keep up it may make sense to contract the services out.
Discuss Transportation Alternatives Program
City Administrator Crawford stated this is the one we were going to work with the county. There are a few things that will be looked at but wanted to make sure you are okay with this because we would be paying half and the county would like an MOU.
Discuss Mobile Home Park Renewal for Viking Drive Estates
City Administrator Crawford stated information from David Wick is in the packet. We can hold off on the license decision until the next meeting to give more time to look through the information. There have been several different stories on what has happened in the past with this area so we are looking back to find that information. We do know that KLJ was asked to look into it in 1997 and basically said it will cost a lot of money to fix it and nothing further happened after that.
Discuss Rescheduling March 1st Finance and Commission Meeting.
This will be added to the February 1st meeting for a decision. There may be a conflict on this date.
Discuss Quarterly Finance Meeting start Time.
Quarterly meetings will continue to be scheduled to start at 2:30 if there are topics to discuss. If not, it will change to 3:30.
Discuss Bids for Police Department Vehicle.
Police Chief Hatcher stated
Adjourn The meeting was adjourned at 4:53 PM.