Ellendale City Council
By SCOTT GROTH
Contributing Writer
The Ellendale City Council met Thursday, September 13 with Mayor Engel and all council members present. Eric Haefner of Bolten & Menk, Roger Swearingen, City Maintenance, Steve Louks, City Clerk, and Pete Paulson, Municipal Liquor Store Manager were also in attendance.
The agenda was approved as presented.
The first item on the agenda was the Road Improvement Plan. Haefner was recognized to go over the plan with the council.
Haefner and his firm have been putting together a plan for the city to improve streets, and has been working with maintenance to review street conditions within the city.
Haefner’s firm then prioritized them according to condition. The council went over the plan with Haefner and gave their input.
As Haefner stated at a previous meeting, this is just a plan for the council and future councils to follow. It is a five-year plan, but can be extended by the council.The council will need to hold a public hearing before they can adopt the plan. The council set the hearing date for October 11 at 7 p.m. There will be further notices in the Star Eagle.
The council then asked Haefner his feelings on Dutton Drive. The council has made a commitment to try and remedy the road to make it passable for next spring.
Haefner was concerned about the drainage in the road, as he felt without proper drainage there is no good fix. Swearingen told the council he has located the tile that runs to Highway 30 and thinks the city could tie into the tile.
Haefner also reported that the FEMA work to be done will be started next week.
Swearingen was next with his monthly report. He began by reviewing the chip seal project in Crown Ridge.
The streets need to be swept up soon, Swearingen stated, and he received a couple quotes for the work. Councilman Goebel also received some quotes.
The city of Owatonna was the low bidder at $95 an hour and they will haul the chip seal away. The council moved to have Owatonna do the work.
Swearingen next told the council he had two quotes for a door opener on the maintenance building. The one on the north side no longer works. The low bid was Viking Overhead of Austin at $633.19. The council approved the bid.
Swearingen next told the council he had been approached by Brad Field, sewer operation manager in New Richland, about the possibility of some neighboring towns sharing the cost of sewer line cleaning. The cleaning of lines appeared to run $.52 a lineal foot.
The company doing the work would like to see the towns involved sign a five-year contract. Swearingen told the council the company will be in the area as soon as next week to start.
The council gave the O.K. to clean some lines, however, the city will not lock into a five-year deal without a lot more information. Councilman Groth asked Swearingen if he considered putting in his resignation letter, so the council would have time to find a suitable replacement.
Swearingen will need to resign his maintenance position, as he is running unopposed for mayor. Swearingen said he will not tender his resignation.
Paulson gave his monthly report to the council. He stated that business had slowed down some in the past month, but reminded the council he was working with August numbers, the month of fairs and back to school.
Paulson noted that the pull-tabs were in and seemed to be going well. There are currently four games available for the consumers to play. He also told the council he purchased some new drink glasses.
Paulson then noted that the MLS needs to get new credit card equipment, as the current one is outdated and not printing. Paulson will get together with Clerk Louks to order the new equipment.
The claims were presented and approved as amended.
The minutes from the August 23, 2012 meeting were approved as presented.
The council approved rewriting the truck-parking ordinance to get it up to date.
The council will hold a public forum, in October, for the purpose of discussing and answering questions about the Sunday Liquor vote. More information will be available in the coming weeks.
The next meeting of the Ellendale City Council will be on September 27 at 7:30 pm.