June City Council Minutes

RUSSELL CITY

COUNCIL MEETING

June 1, 2020

6:00 P.M.

Present: Mayor Chris Feehan, Terry Newcomb, Casey DeHoedt, Jay Pierschbacher, Robert Smith, Kelli Anderson, City Maintenance Supervisor Jim Larrington and City Clerk Cindy Smith.

Mayor Feehan called the meeting to order at 6:00. 

Minutes from the May 4, 2020 meeting were reviewed; Casey DeHoedt motioned to approve the minutes from the May 4, 2020 meeting and this motion was seconded by Terry Newcomb.

Aye’s – All Approved

Nay’s – None

Motion Carried.

Minutes from the Public Hearing meeting held on May 22, 2020 were reviewed; Robert Smith motioned to approve the public hearing minutes from May 22, 2020 and this motion was seconded by Kelli Anderson.

Aye’s – All Approved

Nay’s – None

Motion Carried.

Income and expenses for May were then reviewed.  Payment to LL Pelling on the upcoming street repairs were explained.  Casey DeHoedt motioned to approve the income and expenses for May 2020; this motion was seconded by Terry Newcomb.

Aye’s – All Approved

Nay’s – None

Motion Carried.

Police Report:  Mayor Feehan read the resignation letter from Tyler Jefferies, he has been offered a full time position and has accepted this new opportunity for him and his family.  He will be working the month of June to finish up the work that he has started.  We wish him luck in his new position.

Mayor Feehan reviewed with the council a new person that may be interested in taking on this position.  This will be further discussed at the next meeting when he has more information.

Several council members have been approached about noise within the city.  We will meet with our new attorney at next month’s meeting and will be putting a new ordinance on noise and a new ordinance on parking and snow removal parking.

Fire Report:  Chief Beaty was unable to attend.  Mayor Feehan who is also on the fire department stated that currently no issues with the fire department.  They are still in the undecided on how to proceed with their annual Cookoff and Fall Festival at this time due to Covid and regulations that are still under mandate on crowd gatherings and also the cost of food that the country is experiencing at this time.

Water/Wastewater report:  Jim Larrington noted that the water tower is currently under repair and should be back in operation by the end of the week.   Water is currently being pumped direct from Rathbun. They have run across a few issues that have been resolved.  All electric has been cut from the tower except for the power needed for the towers on the top.  Rathbun will also be installing new equipment in the tower that they use for monitoring.  Water loss for May was at 30% .   With the repair to the tower this loss should be down next month.

Jim also stated that Menard’s made a delivery to a resident and broke a water curb box that had to be repaired, this repair cost will be submitted to Menard’s for payment.

Installation of the remaining water meters have been put on hold due to the Corona Virus, Jim will try to get some of these meters in if homeowners are ok with him entering their homes.

Wastewater – the new sewer project has been submitted to the state engineers Our engineering company has been working with the state engineers to resolve any issues and obtaining DNR permits that are required. Project is estimated to go out to bid in July.

Jim has also been working on the storm sewers, we have no mapping information on where these lines are located.  He will be running a camera down the lines and using dye to see where the lines run and find the breaks that have caused the road damage on E. Shaw Street prior to repairing the street.

New Business: 

There was a final review of how the spring cleanup day went, the council felt that this was a success and have scheduled the fall cleanup day for October 3, 2020 from 8:00 am to noon.

There have been several inquiries regarding the renting the community building.  It has been closed due to the Covid-19.  The Governor is starting to open public locations at 50% capacity.  It was determined that the building will be available for rent.  We will only be renting to one event at a time.  The capacity allowed will be 66 people.  The cleaning will be MANDATORY on all rentals.  There are cleaning supplies from the City to clean with.

It was also mentioned that a rental contract will be drawn up and that this will be discussed in the July meeting when we discuss several items with the new city attorney.

With the parks opening we will be installing the nets at the volleyball and tennis courts with current capacity at 50%.  If this mandate is not followed, they will be removed and closed until all mandates are lifted.

Mayor Feehan will be working with Paige Tree service to see about the final timing of tree stump grinding so that we can get the cleanup done on the trees that have been removed.

There is a new owner of the grain bin property as you come into town and they have requested some water installation that they would like to have done.  Jim is working up cost on what this would be then he and Mayor Feehan will meet with the new owner to discuss.

We have contacted a few companies for the railing to be installed along the post office / city hall new sidewalk.  Terry Newcomb motioned to go with the lower bid and this was seconded by Jay Pierschbacher.

Aye’s – All Approved

Nay’s – None

Motion Carried.

Ellen Werts has again volunteered to paint.  We will see if she is available to paint the curb prior to installing the new railings.  Jim noted that the bathrooms in the community center have also been textured and are ready to be painted, we will see if Ellen would like to paint those as well then the new sinks and flooring will be installed.

Council then discussed city clerk wages.  Cindy and Robert Smith both left the meeting at this time as he sustained himself from vote, due to conflict of interest.  These notes were taken by Casey DeHoedt.  It was decided to give her $1.00 an hour raise and pay her for 7 holidays at 4 hours per holiday as that is her allotted daily work hours.

Aye’s – All Approved

Nay’s – None

Abstained – Robert Smith

Motion Carried.

Cindy and Robert were called back into the meeting.

Jim Larrington has 3 week’s vacation. He will be taking the week of July 27^th off.  He will let the council know when he will take the additional vacation.  Jim is able to carry one week over to next year.  He will need to use by September 2020.

The County Assessor has requested to see a copy of the ordinance on determining new addresses within the city.  This Ordinance was located and will be forwarded to the Assessor.  The City Clerk assigns the addresses.  New mapping will be created to show current addresses, making it easier to assign new.  It was also noted during the review of ordinances that each house should have numbers visible from the street.

Casey DeHoedt gave an update on the redemption trailer.  She has received some quotes on this and is also looking into possible grant money that might be available to get this accomplished.

Casey DeHoedt then gave the council an update from the Garden Club.  They are requesting donation for planters to be installed around the city.  She asked if they would be allowed to put up flower boxes on the windows of the city building.  As this is a brick building, council would not want to put holes in the bricks, they can put up planters under the windows. 

They will also be installing additional shrubs and flowers around the bandstand/flag and parks.

The blessings boxes are up at the museum and there has been some use, Thank you to all in the community who fill and are able to use these boxes. 

It was also reviewed again the properties in town that need to be taken down.  Mayor Feehan has been in discussions with the mill owner that burned down in the fall.  He is also working on title searches and will discuss with the new attorney best way to get these demolished.

Casey DeHoedt motioned to adjourn the meeting and this motion was seconded by Robert Smith.

Aye’s – All Approved

Nay’s – None

Motion Carried.

Meeting adjourned at 8:00 pm.

_________________________

Approved by,

Chris Feehan, Mayor

Attest:

________________________

Cindy A Smith, City Clerk