New Richland City Council
By NICOLE BILLING
Editorial Assistant
The New Richland City Council held its second meeting of September at 6:30 Monday evening. All members of the council were present for the meeting. The council members approved the meeting agenda as revised with two additional items dealing with the softball field.
The first order of business was the fire department reporting on the condition of the building that the fire department wants to obtain for storage. The council authorized the fire department to contact Lester Wenzel, who owns the building, as soon as possible.
The People’s Service Report stated the city’s sewer repair budget was 60 percent used up for this year. It also stated they were making good progress on the reconstruction of the waste water plant. The in-flow and infiltration was down this month, because of no rain.
The care center report followed with the council approving the accounts payable. The council approved a recommendation for a new care center administrator. They approved calling and sending a offer letter to this person later in the week. The report talked about how they could increase revenue, with ideas of turning a storage room into a private resident room, as well as some of the double rooms being made into a private room.It also talked about how cars were coming up too quickly under the awning of the care center and requested a speed bump be put into place. The last thing the report mentioned was the residents got a new iPad they are able to use to play with and do activities on.
An Excel Energy spokesperson spoke about franchise fees. This would be adding a city fee to the electrical and gas bill. This is a way to collect revenue from the city. A public hearing, which will be set at a later date, will be held before there are any changes, however.
A public hearing will be set for the October 22nd council meeting to discuss an organized collection of garbage to save the city money. This would provide every person with a garbage can and it will reduce the cost most people pay for garbage now. The hearing is for whoever is interested in voicing their opinion about this matter.
Employee evaluations were discussed and in the end was pushed to the next meeting. The last item on the agenda was looking at applications for the recycling attendant and an offer was made to Matthew Johnson.