The next item of business was the maintenance report by Ryan Nissen. December’s bacteria tests came back negative, which is a good thing. If it had come back positive, they would have to run additional tests on the water. Two residents’ water were shut off because of unpaid charges. One of the residents seems to have left the house, so the city will be stuck with the bill. The other resident paid the water bill a day after it was shut off. Nissen requested the council approve a two-night training seminar so Cody Dobberstein could be able to achieve Class C operator level. The council approved this motion.
The fire department report was given by Jeremy Parpart. The council approved appointing Tony Svoboda to the department. The rescue training was pushed back to March because of them needing more people to attend. Parpart then gave the ambulance report, asking for the council to approve three more members to the crew, which the council agreed to. He then asked the council to consider raising the call time pay for the ambulance workers by 25 cents. The council decided to push this issue to the next meeting. The next item to discuss was Parpart asking the council if they would pay $119 for training for him for two days, which was approved.
Next, the council went over raising the sewer and water rates with the idea being that each year the city is selling less water because people are conserving more. The city has to generate enough revenue in order to pay for their expenses, and they need to build up enough cash in order to pay for maintenance to the water tower that is going to come up in a few years. They then went over some fees that were raised and approved the amendments.
The next order of business was to discuss the street lights. To take down the street lights and put up lights in their place would cost $1,000. To put street lights across the street, they would have to place electrical wire and tear up the sidewalk and it would cost $4,000. The council is going to look at the costs and decide if it is economically feasible to buy the lights and they have to look into if the lights are in good condition.
Watonwan Farm Service asked that no parking be allowed across the street except for trucks. The council decided to take no action regarding this until further details could be discussed.
