Present: Jenae Ulbricht, Irene Ehlert, Juli Scherping, Romie Gessell and Brooke Thieschafer.
Call to Order/Pledge of Allegiance: Mayor Ulbricht called the meeting to order at 7:02 PM
Approval of Agenda City Council: Romie Gessell made a motion to approve. Irene Ehlert supported. All in favor, motion carried.
Approval of the Minutes from June 2023. Romie Gessell stated a name misspelled and a month’s correction. Motion to approve minutes made by Romie Gessell. Seconded by Juli Scherpingi. All in favor, motion carried.
Approval of Bills City Council: Total Bills for the Month were: $4,887.65. Deposits totaling: $18,039.20. Large amount of the deposit was from The State of MN Local Aide Funding. Motion by Irene Ehlert, seconded by Juli Scherpingl. All in favor, motion carried.
Old Business: Handicap Railings at the Community Center-Men’s Bathroom have been installed. Female’s Bathroom will be installed.
Wi-Fi Community Center: Mayor Ulbricht has received the T-Mobile wifi box. She tested with a variety of usage including facetime inside & outside of the building. Worked fine. Pricing is $40 per month with T-Mobile 4G. Similar plan with Verizon was $55 per month. Having the internet would add value and allow the City Clerk to work from the Community Center a day or 2 a week. Additional costs have been cut such as the Mayor cell phone reimbursement and city website. City Council member Romie Gessell asked about the Arvig and hardwire. Mayor Ulbricht stated costs for that were about $80 per month, and there is no government break. With the T-Mobile option we would have to buy a router roughly $120. There is talk about towers going up in the area in the next year, and we could utilize an antena. T-Mobile is a month to month contract and we can cancel at any time. City Council Member Romie made a motion for a 6 month trial with T-Mobile. Irene Ehlert seconded. All in motion, motion carried.
City locks: Mayor Ulbrict hosted a volleyball tournament fundraiser at the Lions Park. With the proceeds, the Mayor has donated a portion of the funds toward the front door locks and office door locks totaling $200. Mayor found a free app to allow access to change code for a temporary time and assign it to individuals. This will work great when we have community center rentals. The Mayor did research other options for locks and the re-keying.
Romie Gessell suggested keeping it local. Mayor will get final numbers and quotes and a decision will be made at next month’s meeting. Looking for a motion to purchase 2 key doors inside, office and main door to test with wifi, which were funded by Mayor Ulbricht’s volleyball tournament and no funds from the city are affected. Juli Scherping made the motion. Irene Ehlert seconded. All in favor, motion carried.
City Sign: The city will contact the State to verify setbacks for signs. A company out of Long Prairie will be getting a quote for the signs as well as PJ Signs out of Grey Eagle. More to come. No decisions made at this time.
Office/Backroom: Screws for desk have been located. Next step is to put it together.
Grants: Todd County Housing Development grant was posted to the City’s Facebook page.
Building Permits: No permits were needed at this meeting.
Bollig Engineering: There will be a Special Meeting held on August 10th, 2023 at 2:30 p.m. at the Community Center to inform and discuss options for the city. Flyers to be made and posted on Facebook.
City Website: A work in progress. Mayor Ulbricht is writing and creating the content and Adam Ulbricht is making any edits. More to come as we progress forward. Looking to advertise to pay for the cost of the website. Website will feature forms electronically, upcoming events and dates, feature pictures, and utilities. More to come.
Road Signs: MNDot has been contacted. Unfortunately we can’t put up just any signs. MNDot has to conduct an assessment of the road. Assessment is scheduled to happen in 2-3 weeks. Nothing else can happen at this time.
Speed sign: Todd County Sheriff: current speed sign is not in working order. The Sheriff’s Office did let us know of Sourcewell to contact them about receiving a grant for the speed sign. More to come.
New Business: Picnic Table: The City is missing one picnic table. Maintenance will do an inventory and reach out to the former mayor for a potential location of the missing picnic table.
Building Art: Swanville School did hire a new art teacher. Looking to get a logo painting on the wall of the Community Center by students. More to come.
Snow Plowing: The city is having issues with the plow truck. It is in very rough shape. The city would like to look at contracting out the services vs. replacing the truck. Options could be to buy a truck for roughly $30,000, big tractor with a blade. The city will post and accept bids to contract the snow plowing. We will post on the Facebook page,
Flyer, Leader, and Hometown News. Herdering is not accepting new clients for snow plowing at this time. We could potentially raise money for a new truck/tractor. No action needed at this time.
Contract Policing: Pricing for the city’s policing with Todd County Sheriff’s department may increase. County Commissioners and Sheriffs Office are in negotiations. Current pricing is 12 hours per month at $42/hour. Negotiations should be completed by the end of the month. The city will receive a written document with any changes in the mail.
Todd County Siren: A company out of Eagle Bend will be out to service the siren in August.
Open Floor: Needing a cabinet for storage for paper products. The City Council will work on pricing and report back at the next meeting. The city is in need of a vacuum, the current one is not working. Screens in the kitchen need to be repaired. Screens need to be fixed prior to the bean bake. Mayor Ulbricht will have Maintenance bring to Grey Eagle for repair. The Mayor would like to acknowledge Debbie Strassburg, Sandy Prout, and Brenda Berling for cleaning up the kitchen. Burtrum Cabooze donated $250 to the City. Sandy Prout would like to pay for the Bean Bake Community Center Rental in one of the following years.
Adjournment: Motion by Romie Gessell, seconded by Juli Schpering to adjourn meeting at 8:04 P.M. Motion carried.
Next City Council Meeting is scheduled for September 5th, 2023 at 7:00 p.m.
Brooke Thieschafer, City Clerk-Treasurer
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