Ellendale City Council
By SCOTT GROTH
Contributing Writer
The Ellendale City Council met Thursday March 22 with Mayor Engel, Councilmen Helland, Reiter, Goebel and Groth all in attendance. Also at the meeting were Jeff Johnson, Jeremy Reese, Clerk Louks and Gwen Reiss.
After approving the agenda for the evening, Mayor Engel called on Johnson to give the monthly fire department report. The total pay request for department bills was $1637.93. Chief Reese brought to the council’s attention that the department will be looking to buy different radios in the near future. Reese explained that with Steele County dispatch and law enforcement updating to the new 800 mhz, the department is looking at getting new pagers and mobile radios.
Reese went on to explain that to set the department up in a relatively good fashion, the department will probably spend somewhere in the neighborhood of $22,000. The department will likely look into buying ten pagers, four portables and four units for the trucks. Reese was asked by the council what monetary compensation the city could provide.
Reese and Johnson both replied that the fire department has enough saved for the first round of radios. Reese provided prices and descriptions of three different kinds of radios. After some discussion, the council felt the fire department should look at getting better quality radios right from the start. Reese stated he would bring back to the council the fire department’s recommendation for radios to purchase. The council thanked Johnson and Reese for coming to the meeting.Next on the agenda included council review of the Street Capitol Improvement Plan. Mayor Engel told the council that he had been in contact with city engineer, Wes Brown. Brown hoped the council could give him a dollar amount the council would like to earmark each year for street repair.
The budget currently has $30,000 marked for street repairs. The council looked over the budget and felt they could tell Brown to use $50,000 to start.
Gwen Reiss was next on the agenda to update the council on the Municipal Liquor Store. Reiss told the council that a leak on the west side of the building has been detected and should be fixed. The council will contact two companies to see who could look at the situation the soonest. Reiss also reported that the concrete in front of the north door steps has the potential of being a tripping hazard.
The council decided to get a contractor to look at it. Reiss asked the council how they felt about the Texas Hold’em events. The council felt they had made a commitment to go ahead and hold the card event through May and then reevaluate.
Reiss commented that the seals on the beer cooler have still not been fixed. The council will look into finding another contractor that might be able to find a solution. Reiss told the council that the cook at the MLS will be having knee surgery in the near future and the MLS will need to get some temporary help lined up.
The council reviewed the price quotes for a new computer system in the city clerk’s office. After discussion, the council moved to get the system, which included a server for the city, from Radio Link Internet services.
The council moved to accept all financial reports for the month. The council also accepted the minutes from the March 8 meeting.
Mayor Engel stated the city has been reimbursing Maintenance Supervisor Roger Swearingen $25 for cell phone use and was wondering if the city shouldn’t do the same for City Clerk Louks. The council approved going the same rate for Clerk Louks.
The council discussed putting some gravel in the Country View addition to make the road more passable.
The next meeting of the Ellendale City Council will be April 12 at 7:30 p.m.