City of Russell
Council Meeting
July 1, 2019
Present: Duane Bedford (Mayor), Council members: Chris Feehan, Terry Newcomb and Casey DeHoedt,
Jay Pierschbacher, Fire Chief Brian Beaty, City Maintenance Jim Larrington, and
City Clerk Cindy Smith
Public Hearing
was called to order at 7:05 p.m. by Mayor Duane Bedford regarding the U.S.D.A. R.D.
Grant request for the Fire Department.
Fire Chief Brian Beaty discussed that the fire department is requesting
a grant for eight (8) self contained breathing apparatus’s, each apparatus is
approximately $6.000.00 per unit. The City will need to sign the grant on
behalf of the Fire Department.
Casey
DeHoedt motioned for approval to apply for the grant on behalf of the fire
department and this motion was seconded by Terry Newcomb. Vote to carry was as
follows: Chris Feehan – Aye, Terry
Newcomb-Aye, Casey DeHoedt – Aye, Jay Pierschbacker – Aye. Motion was passed and Resolution 2019-06 was
passed.
Regular
Council Meeting was opened by Mayor Bedford at 7:15 pm.
Minutes from
the June 3rd meeting were reviewed and motioned for approval by
Chris Feehan and seconded by Casey DeHoedt.
Aye’s – All
Approved
Nay’s – None
Expenses
were reviewed there were some questions asked as to whether some of the
payments made should have been in the previous fiscal year as the new year had
just started. All payments that were
from June were paid in July as they had been in the previous years.
Terry
Newcomb motioned to approve income and expenses and this motion was seconded by
Chris Feehan.
Aye’s – All
Approved
Nay’s – None
Officer
Tyler Jefferies was unable to attend the meeting but he supplied a report on
where he is in the process of Junk and Debris ordinances. He has met with
several residents and has been giving out letters regarding clean-up
requirements. As long as he is seeing
improvements, he will not do any citations, but if he does not see any
improvements there will be a $200.00 a day fine until the clean-up is
completed. The radar in the squad car
has been checked and certified and he will be issuing citations as needed. Council did bring up what can be done with
cars in parking area’s that have not been moved for a long period of time. Mayor Bedford will discuss this with Officer
Jefferies and also with the Sheriff’s department to see how we can get these
vehicles moved.
Fire Report
was provided by Chief Beaty, he stated again that he has been working with the
USDA on the grant as earlier reported.
They will soon be practicing for the fire convention and will be using
Maple Street from Shaw where city offices are located to the fire station.
Water/wastewater
report was given by Jim Larrington.
Water loss for June was 22%. He
will soon be working on installing new curb boxes at some residences and will
need to rent a ditch box and would like to purchase a small 1” pump to keep
water out of the pits while he is working on the boxes. Council approved for him to purchase the pump
if under $500.00 and to get pricing on renting/purchase of a ditch box. He will also be needing this equipment for
the installation of 4 new fire hydrants.
Two (2) of these hydrants were purchased last fiscal year and 2 more will
be purchased this fiscal year. Mr.
Larrington will be getting pricing on the 2 new ones but he believes they are
at the same price as the two (2) purchased last year. Mr. Larrington also stated that he has passed
his Grade 1 waste water and is now certified.
Per the council with the passing of the test Mr. Larrington will receive
a $1.00 pay rate increase starting July 1, 2019. With Mr. Larrington now certified, our
contract with Zach Bedford will be half after December 31,2019, of what his
contract is as Mr. Larrington will now be taking on half of the reporting the
Mr. Bedford had been doing. Zach will be
working with Jim to get all records transferred and showing Jim how he has been
reporting to state.
Street
report was given by Jim Larrington.
L&L Pelling will be coming towards the end of July to finish the
east end of Smith Street. We will also
have L&L Pelling look at Corse Street to see why it is starting to crack
and if it can be repaired as this was just completed last year.
Discussions
were made on what streets to work on next to prepare for next year seal coating. Council members and Mr. Larrington will
review the roads and will meet again next Monday at 6:00 pm to work up a
schedule of roads. Some streets will be
worked on as they can and then do final repairs after the repair of the sewer
line.
New
resident, Mr. Harwell, has spoken with Mr. Larrington regarding what can be
done with the standing water that he gets in his ditch. He also wanted to convey his appreciation of
the fire department blowing out his culvert.
Mr. Larrington discussed options of what can be done on this curve. He will rent a transit to determine if we can
redirect the water in some way.
Old
Business: City Clerk discussed with the
council that she had received the necessary votes to approve the tobacco permit
for Last Chance and has issued the renewal permit.
Christmas
decorations were also discussed as they are on sale right now. We have received $150.00 in donations and
money was budgeted this year for this purpose, Council approved purchase of
hopefully 3 new decoration for $1300.00.
Cindy will work on getting a snow flake design purchased.
New
Business: The city is going to be
increasing the solid waste disposal to residence by $2.00 per canister as
prices to us have increased and at present we are losing money on garbage
collection including the recycle trailer that currently sits in the City Park
area. Council discussed moving this trailer
over to the north garage as there is room there for it and it will allow more
parking in the City Park area. All
members agreed and Mr. Larrington will work on getting this moved along with
the signage.
County
Supervisor Larry Davis has spoken with Mayor Bedford regarding the recycle
trailer. They currently take and bring
in an empty trailer every 3 weeks. Mr.
Davis informed the Mayor that the city could transport the trailer, pay the
recycling fees, etc. with an accompanying reduction in charges by the county or
receive the trailer from the county and do everything ourselves. The
council discussed who would be able to take to the landfill every time that it
would need to be emptied and costs associated with the county, landfill and
time to transport it. At this time, we
will leave as is until Mr. Davis supplies the city with figures for the cost
differential.
Council
member Terry Newcomb stated that he had a resident contact him regarding a semi
blocking his driveway on Maple Street and how best we could assist in having
this remain unblocked. We will place
yellow paint on the curb near his driveway entrance to prohibit parking near this
drive entrance. There currently is a 72
hour truck parking sign in this location.
We will try the paint first before considering a no parking sign.
A meeting
was scheduled for July 8, 2019 at 6:00 pm for review of street repair and for a
reading of the rate increase for solid waste disposal to residents.
Casey
Dehoedt motioned for adjournment of meeting, this motion was seconded by Jay
Pierschbacher.
Aye’s – All
Approved
Nay’s – None
_________________________________
Mayor Duane
Bedford
Attest:
__________________________________________
Cindy Smith
City Clerk
