##VIDEO ID:4vngBusMcFw## this conference will now be recorded all right all right like to call the city of nland council meeting for August 26 to order um roll call everyone is here and we'll do the pledge allegiance Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible liy and justice for all approval of agenda I move to approve the agenda as typed out all second all in favor all right consent agenda items I have a question on that right away permit there's no measurements it's just it's just they're just they need it to to widen their driveway okay but it doesn't even in in the application it doesn't even say that it just says replacement but there like I said there's no measurements I don't know how wide it is how it fits into their yeah it's kind a drawing but I I said a 5-year-old kid could yeah it I can I can assure you it fits into the requirements of their dimensions of their lot okay it's just a it's for a homeowner it's a requirement and it's a formality and there's no no fee for them it's just a requirement that we have the paperwork to attach it to their lot so but I mean in the future would kind of like to see a little better draw I think with the measurements I think that would be measur more official yeah all right other than that I moved to prove the consent agenda second all in favor I all right public comments anybody would like to speak anything request and present request and presentations we don't have any okay um ordinance and resolution resolution 24-17 resolution ad adopting and updated City fee schedule um so the the resolution before you changes the adjustment to the water rates and Sewer rates basically to shore up the sewer Enterprise fund um as we spoke about with ABDO during their presentation the Enterprise fund for the sewer is a little underfunded as the water fund is a little overfunded so basically what we're doing is we're um lowering the water rate side a dollar for the base rate and a dollar for the per usage rate and then adding a 50 to the base connection rate for sewer rate and a $150 to the usage rate for the water uh on the sewer side so basically what it boils down to is a 50 Cent increase um overall to the rate for the sewer and a 50 Cent increase for the rate um for the useage rate on the super is that based on their recommendations that's basically on the rough calculation that I did to try to some of the increases so be a dollar increase for a do well it's a 50 c increase to anybody that just uses a base rate per month and then it's 50 Cent per thousand gallons for usage to anybody that uses more than the Bas R so so basically what we're doing is we're just taking that $2 a month and shifting it from the water fund to the fund and then increasing a little bit on to make up the the minus we have in the sewer fund to try to sh that up I move to adopt resolution 24-17 to fee schedule I'll second all in favor I Department reports Care Center report right on time y y people going on I see with a nice small Council that today is the day to ask for money right [Laughter] all right Care Center report um for the month of July we had an average census of 37.979467 uh that's probably 90 88% and we are currently at 95 half% very happy with that um all we have 43 referrals in the month of July accepted 20 uh admitted six 23 of them declined um they had we had many of the people that uh younger people many many younger people that's been a problem uh it's I mean we are getting down into people in their 40s that are requesting nursing home care uh this is this has become an issue they're they just hang out there they've been in the hospital for a very long period of time and the hospitals want to clear out get rid of them and they want us to take them well they're not appropriate for our Care Center they're not appropriate for the people that are around we don't have the expertise to take care of them for many of the treatments that they're on so we have to decline many of them for various reasons uh we did have a few people that actually declined us after we said yes um I live in oana why would I want to go to new richand I'm not going there from Rochester why would I do that kind of a thing so those type of things happen uh discharges we had uh six discharges two went home three passed away and one moved to an assisted living in July uh very good results uh for the month of July um my director of nursing is having you know some days it gets really colorful in their meetings when therapy says oh so and so's going to graduate from therapy today and they're going home on Friday and director of nursing well I've put all of this on it you got to be kidding me I gotta find two more people now because that's what I want uh Financial wise we profited approximately $40,000 in the month of July it was a fantastic month um and as you can see the agency use continues to go continue to go down from May June and July and in August you will see an upturn but not much in jul in September however you're going to see major upair and that's going to be difficult that's why we need the sansus at a high rate what's the reason because College got or School Mak sense we did have a big party for them when they left or before they left not when they left but yeah know how it is um so uh Opera income is very good in the month of July uh we did have we've still got some things uh we need to work out with Staffing as far as new things coming down the pike from the state of Minnesota from CMS from the federal government that will affect Staffing levels uh wage rates um holidays anybody hasn't heard evidently we have 11 holidays in Minnesota uh which is going to hurt the pocket book a lot so um it's great for the people that don't work it actually it's great for the people that do they get more money uh it's going to be more difficult for people to manage them um Staffing wise we sell have openings for certified nurse AIDS full and part-time days evenings overnights every other weekend my plug RN LPN same thing we need them we need them bad uh other stuff that happened we had a family picnic had a great turnout was there that was great yeah um we had some good music uh we had some food by all local vendors Red Leaf Cafe Nancy James and Judy Hendrickson brought some salad uh Todd had like I said had a great concert excellent turnout with with uh the residents and their families was perfect and the weather was perfect you couldn't ask for anything better it was nothing like it was [Laughter] today uh the silent auction dollars we raised about $800 uh will be used toward landscaping around the north patio that we just put in uh that the resident sent to watch the concert and we're doing that because the legions in Richland and the legions in was were gracious enough to get us a FL pool and we thank them that'll work for you that's going to work we're going to make it work and uh John Hol Peter said uh he's going to get the concrete put in for us so it's in there right he said I'll make sure it's done right that's good so we won't have a crooked flag but other than that that's all I got any questions this is where I asked for money right we [Laughter] better I moved to accept the Care Rep I'll second then all in favor thanks all right people service report hi guys hi hi sh okay first off now remember in 2021 when I started I made a list of the plan and all the all the problems well everything in green is what I fixed yellow I got two more are still an issue but I'm working on so just giving you an update of you know all the you have to read it now read later all the updates that I've gotten done out there so worked really hard to get them done and mrwa was here and we were televising Division and first from Aspen out um there an old sewer pipe out there and it is full of water so it shouldn't be full of water so it's going towards the creek so we can only make it out so far with it so next year I hope that section's on our list for Empire for televising because if that is where a lot of the extra water's coming from as soon as we get two Ines of water that's when I get the extra water so as soon as the cck gets so high it's coming in somewhere along the cek well you can't see anything right now it's all full of grass and I really don't want to can it so um it's coming in somewhere and I got sticks that came in Big Sticks so I know it's coming in somewhere so so once I you find it you know that'll be a Hallelujah day um otherwise not a whole lot's going on the AC unit is um going out it's been going out since I got there um and I think I can make it through again this year and hopefully next year but um if any AC units are if you're getting them in Bol please think of the waste treatment center because the control boards end up the whole place fills up with water and it just drips on everything so if you do get any new Mini Splits or anything please think of the waste treatment plant also and in the basement it's a a regular household dehumidifier like this my basement's huge over there it's very huge basement that little dehumidifier is on its last legs and it it can barely pull anything from 10 ft from it so if you do see any deals on the high dries dehumidifiers just to save the those pipes you know they're aging too and you hate to see them rust I mean it just you end up repairing things that could have been avoided did we put one in the water plant yeah how much is that around 2500 bucks so those are two if you want to extend the life of your pipes and your new valves and all your pumps down there and the electrical that's down there it's just a good idea to keep that in mind and think there's a whole lot February 12th I'm going to speak at um Minnesota Wastewater operators Association um they're having it an Albert Lee and it's all about the importance of standard operating procedures like the bypass and release and all the important numbers and all the things that you should know or things that we have found out through all the last eight bypasses so if you have anything to add to it when I finish it this next month if you have anything to add or want to add to it or anything that I forgot I would sure appreciate it so but it's a it'll be a good event definitely gets the word out so when is that again February 12th in Albert Lee H about it for do you guys have any questions no this list isn't it's amazing what you have accomplished since you've been here and appreciate that I mean there's a lot of things of those things hadn't been done in 25 years right so they were way worse doing it in 25 years it looks easy on paper but we know that not I was like that wasn't so bad you know well it was but yeah I just wanted to let you guys know that there are things getting done out there no one comes up there so it's hard to see anything that's actually getting done and all of my samples are just phenomenal this year so from last October 1st till September 30th is our year that's the npca year and um right now we are 100% everything is 100% so we have one more month to make it to get to right 100% and that's what we want you know that's where your your facility gets recognized I was say is there c yeah we just got one from last year and now if we make it one more month and we haven't gotten one for a long time so it just shows how much work you put into your plant to make sure it runs so how's the snail catchers working are they still giving you is it have you seen an improvement of having them in to yeah it catches the snails and other debris too you know it ain't even just snails anymore it's catching shoe strings and spaghetti and you name it I mean it catches everything so yeah I'm I'm pretty happy with that little invention there perect yeah all right thank you anything else oh I'll make a motion to accept Water Report second all in favor thank you thanks hi there hi uh this uh last month we only had 13 blue cards Heather's doing a wonderful job helping out with that um making doing contacts and stuff with people and get people lined up with it so what are we used to do 30 now we're down 13 so that's wonderful um so are we calling people before we even s payment plans and wri stuff taking care of do you see an improvement with that yes it's been wonderful uh Pearson Brothers uh finished up with the seal County um and then uh Bolton May came in uh on the 13th 14th and 15th to uh GPS all the um curb curb stops I think they did almost all of them other than maybe businesses businesses maybe didn't get all of them done um but that was a grant through the lead and copper that was due on um on the 15th so so that was wonderful having all that done um and then uh Elbert Le came they had the our Tapco um crosswalk of the school that was out you got a p bill for that so um last week uh BR and I put down a bunch of the crush crushed the asle on all their um and all their gravel roads be the on the alleys so that seems to be working pretty good uh then I got one other thing that I didn't have on here uh out at the lake we have about 20 trees that need to come down 20 20 and I don't know how we want to do that or um I prefer to have it done in the winter but I don't know if that's going to be possible or not but that's just something we should May to start looking into how we want to do it and is it a hash bar no it's it's Hulk trees so they're just dead old and it's a and they don't is what I've been told DNR has been here twice they're here this this year and they're here two years ago both times it's all from compaction so so what happens to them I mean it is dying oh they're dying okay they're dying y so if anyone's got any ideas and where to go from there um I prefer not to I prefer to have to some some someone come in and come up and keep the old they aren't tall enough and straight enough to get any Boards out of them are they well I think so Supply they're really good for whiskey barrels but I where to find someone that could take care of them so think any ideas let us know is it something we would want to do get bidding from different tree services well no I know let's do some brainstorming and I have called a couple places I've called a couple places in Wisconsin um it's not enough for them to come this this far and called Elbert Lee and uh supposedly they're sitting on so much white oak that they don't know what to do it is set the place by the or by the airport yes River yep that's what called No isn't there um sawmill in St Peter and um ler I don't know I'll find out for two people about that and then I can get a hold of when we try see what they say that's all I got questions the lead what the letter lead um cop is that been submitted then and everything's done okay we'll probably have a little better update for you after Thursday Cory's meeting with us on some other stuff so we'll update for you guys after that because Bolton and mink was submitting that all for us or we were we Bolton and mink were doing I move to accept the Street Maintenance report second in favor thank you thanks good all right new business we have check register anybody have any questions on it sing reimbursements yeah that's understand curious on the plaques on the first page May those are for retirement plaqu um water utilities about three4 of the way down it just says professional and you had budgeted 6,000 and it's 216% over what was the don't St me I'm not ready for that one yet yeah the trry I made all these notes and you're not even going to ask me a single question read off the red stuff $1,300 for Home Depot with no that's the washer and dryer for that you approved for the was oh okay yeah that I made a note on Wagner Foods 1868 that dis Char really body camer didn't we get those paid for before it's a monthly yeah it's a monthly Char got the service Fe then obviously all theing lesson reimbursements are for the first rounding lessons that they didn't want to come back for so right was that Houston engineering service for 3000 was that part of a bill or is that that's still that ongoing that you approves the the work that's been completed just next we should be done pretty close say it's got to be close I move to accept the July 2024 check register I'll second all in favor 20 July financials now I ask now you got it got it page 10 I don't know what the professional this is for way down to e601 49 400 300 Bud yeah so remember how um we're paying for a lot of that stuff out of the AA funds for for the water plant all the the Gat gate bells and and the well all the well upgrades and changeovers and stuff like that so all that has to come out of our general budget but then it'll be reimbursed by ARA funds at the end of the year through ABDO but so it's gonna we're going to go way over budget based on our stuff but it's going to come back through be reimburse what what is a category professional I mean what was the whole total name for that professional Professional Services is just Services it's yeah it's just it cuts it off that makes a little more sense yeah so that that I'm guessing that out of that Court category it was either um what's the meter company that was probably gu blanc's charges for that stuff probably so yeah there's going to be any there's going to be some stuff in in 601 and there's going to be some stuff in the street department that's going to be way over budget for the for the water meter stuff what's 601 uh 601 is the water fund 601 and I talked to AB to and I said is there any way that we can change that out and they said really there's no way to to do well is that because you have to pay for it then get reever that type of thing it's like it's counting but he said there's it's it's it's end of year accounting it's not during the year it doesn't make sense during the year but at the end of the year when it gets Reed it all makes sense yes okay yeah I don't have anything else see worried [Music] about all right I'll move to approved July 2024 financials I'll second all in favor updated city council pay policy for 2025 all right so um I know that the council has had some conversations or we've had some conversations about potentially the possibility of going down to one council meeting just because obviously we don't spend a lot of time on Council meetings and there's obviously a chance for an opportunity for us to go down to one council meeting a month um currently the policy for the council is a perdm policy where it's per meeting um if we go to this type of a policy it would be more of a salary type policy where the council would be paid for the year as opposed to as opposed to per so that way should the council choose to go to a single meeting a month or whatever type of meeting structure they choose to go to after the first of the year this would just be allow us the ability to do that as opposed to trying to go to separate policies per or separate pay policy so whether the council chooses to go keep the current structure wouldn't make a difference or if the council chooses to go to a different structure where we would do like a one meeting per month with a quarterly work session or if we did a a meeting in a work session a month or whatever the council chooses to do going forward this would just make the ability for that to be a lot easier um based on was it always down to two meetings just because people wanted more things to Dre us or to break it up just maybe not knowing that history I guess it just I think it was just the just a break up of departments on different nights and just usually took a lot more time to do stuff and I think um just the ability to have stuff to you a lot faster and a lot less discussion time and just easier and any any approvals on some you last lot quicker than waiting yeah yeah so but I mean Jamesville has gone down to one meeting a month a lot of places are going down one meeting a month um so we don't ever have to do that I mean even if you approve this policy it doesn't have you don't have to go to 1 million a month you can still maintain two millions a month um and you don't have to improve this policy but and I know that was a discussion so I figured I'd bring bring it forth because any pay changes or structures for the following year need to be approved prior to the to the next year so your choice we got a couple months I think to think about it yeah you don't have to prove it tonight if you want if you want us do on it that's fine too y dealer's Choice are you motioning the table table all right a motion mot a question is that a motion or yeah I'll motion to table a policy all in favor I okay city council appointment so you received three letters for Council seat Sam jedin Brandy Jacobson and Christina petsinger so it was up to you guys to choose what you wish to do that appointment would be until the end of this year if that's till the end of this year then doesn't that position also have to be elected in this next election yes correct okay yeah just because they would be appointed today does not mean they would continue to serve after the election who yeah they would s to run for election this is just yeah then the term doesn't start till January so they would still sit through December yeah y do you have any words on your neighbor last time you said he didn't know everybody when I was so I just one and honestly he's the only one I don't know anything about so I don't know if there's anything to share I think he would look at it so muchat sooner as I do you know look at to have things explained and stop and talk and sure you know have a discussion on things instead of just saying yeah let's go with it the letters I read I thought Mr Jacobson would be the best [Music] choice I concur with that based on the reasoning of I've gotten to know Brandy through Pharma City days committee didn't know much about her beforehand but she really was a blessing partially last year and this year to get on the committee very good at keeping track of our financials and keeping track of a lot of things just organized and it is exactly what we kind of needed to keep us on task and someone that we could trust to handle anything that came her way so at least I finally got to know her and see things in action and I concur that I my pick at the moment would be Brandy there's any other discussion I'm sticking with Sam okay got to be Lo my neighbor anybody have a motion at this point move to one or just vote per person make a motion and see what happens I move to nominate Brandy Jacobson to the vacant Council seat I'll second all in favor i i n any N I say I okay starting next meeting then correct in the next meeting city council chairs um one of the election judges made a comment that the chairs are not wonderful and they are not wonderful so I just did a little looking and found a nice upgrade and figured that might not be a bad idea to throw these out and we're sa Tony they ow 300 pound Cent future might be a good idea to just upgrade this and there there is a little money in the budget to take care of it so I usually walk away with a little black piece yeah they're not they they don't they don't look realff yours is mine yeah paid for it I can take my chair home there you go if you like the new one yeah you I think that's fair I think you should be able to take your JN I don't disagree all right so I move that we purchase six chairs at total cost of 37392 second all in favor right City administrator report um currently working on the renewal of the workers compensation policy I'm just waiting on one signature from the police department this is the last year that we can get a discount on our policy for um no nicotine usage um so I'm trying I just need one more signature to get that and then I'll turn that in um working on the budget yet I attended the Cannabis discussion on was County on Monday night it was it was a good discussion um um Wasa basically has everything done so um I think most likely what I'm going to suggest to the council is that we model our Planning and Zoning um descriptions for Stuff basically verbatim on their Planning and Zoning stuff and then um I would suggest the council follow janesville's model for retail sales um stuff since our attorney is their attorney um so it should be similar in language so we shouldn't have a lot of work to do but I think the general discussion um kind of was for the most part that I think there was a a general want to kind of have similar language among the county um for the most part um so I think that's kind of the whole um so that will be that'll be forthcoming at the next few meetings um we'll be starting to kind of have that stuff there'll be a planning a onlyon meeting coming up um to handle that kind of stuff and then uh Eric and I will be meeting with Bolton The Mink on Thursday regarding the 2025 Street Improvement project uh getting the numbers hopefully on what that's going to look like so that I can actually um get in touch with our bond agents and find out what that looks like for finances and if that's a project we can hammer out in 2025 or if that's a 2026 project um I'm out with K Meer from this from Ceda uh regarding our $115,000 Eda Grant had a really good conversation with him uh he was very excited about what's going on um he did do a drive drive-thru the community took a whole bunch of pictures and looked at a bunch of stuff um his plan is to have a initial um New Richland report overview of New Richland report of what he sees as an outsider looking into New Richland of opportunities and uh challenges from an outsider looking in as as an Eda representative um hopefully in the next week or two um to kind of give us an idea of of what he sees and maybe some ideas of where where we can use that $15,000 um Tina Wilson was here at our Eda meeting this afternoon um did a great job um communicating with a few of of the businesses that attended this afternoon um talked about her uh what her her value is to the city of New Richland and the businesses I think she's going to be a great partner um for our community for our businesses um not only for them but also to bring um potentially some businesses to town and some some stuff to town is she a private person or no she works for the county county and the county has been gracious enough to basically spit her out to Jamesville Waldorf and New Richland and say we want you to help these guys grow too because any growth in those communities is a growth for County so um I know you guys weren't here but if you have anything that you need help with definitely reach out to me because she has grant opportunities and and things like that too that she can connect you with too so um yeah she's she talked about coming around to all the businesses and maybe even doing doing a survey for some that don't want to actually talk directly to her um but that can be kind of anonymous to kind of get a feel of what people for businesses need um I think it'll be a really good opportunity for new and for existing building yeah yeah so that was a really good conversation um we I have a meeting coming up with FEMA Representatives about the last round of flooding and way this is a r conversation we seem to be having but um I don't think we're probably going to be getting anything because League of Minnesota City seems to cover most of our claims so uh FEMA won't cover anything that insurance covers so um we do have two open flood claims with the league um one is the park um and the other are the concession stand um and the other one is the park the park playground perk playround equipment um and then tomorrow we will have all of the USDA Grant documents completed so I'm happy to say that that'll be done tomorrow and hopefully um he will have everything he needs um by the end of the day tomorrow how was the siren that's the siren and the turn year uh Grant so that's about if I remember correctly it's about $110,000 for the that will come back to us so but that's uh that's that 80 or 90 page he isn't going to red mark it all up is he well it's not so Bas so the reason has been taking so long to get done is because it's it's it has to do with ADA requirements of the city building and so it's has to do with you have to tape measure tape photographs and document everything and so I've been trying to do that by myself and it hasn't been working because every time I get started that we get interrupted so tomorrow the entire city staff is taking an hour and we're going to have somebody with tape measure somebody with camera somebody scribing and for an hour we're going to shut off the phones and we're just going to get this done and then we're going to send it off to the USDA and have lunch afterwards and we're going to have lunch afterwards so but yes we're going to get this done and get it out to there um so that's taking care of and and and out of the door because it's sense taking too long so um the nice part about it is it's just a self evaluation so um because obviously we are obviously not completely 100% ad compliant with all of the different stuff so it's basically a self- evaluation with a piece that basically says what are you going to try to do for the to to make it to work and so um we obviously are compliant with the doors that we have in the bathrooms and things that we have here but there's some pieces that we'll have to try to to to work into some of our budget conversations for for you know some future stuff my question is this though why does a grant for a tornado siren and for turnout gear have anything to do it's Fally funded but I mean what does it have anything to do with Fally F they trust me I work for the um outside of that the last thing I have is the employee birthday caring col is on the ambulance birthday is onth September that's what I have for you any L LS talks heard okay motion approve the administrator's report that all in favor any Council comments or in favor