City of Dennison
Meeting minutes
July 11th, 2024
The July Dennison City Council meeting was called to order by Mayor Flaten on Thursday, July 11th, 2024 at 7:00 pm. Present were Councilors Diane Ruddle, Heidi Cooke, and clerk Jessica Page. Councilors Nichole Schloesser and Kaylyn Nygaard were unable to attend.
Councilor Ruddle moved to approve the May meeting minutes. Councilor Cooke second. Motion passed 3:0. Councilor Cooke moved to approve the Treasurer’s report. Mayer Flaten second. Motion passed 3:0.
Old Business/Committee Reports/Building Permits:
Administrative Issues:
1. Bryan Caffin from Bollig Engineering will be present to discuss the GIS proposal and answer questions about the PER progress (Preliminary Engineering Report. Regarding the GIS proposal, City wouldn’t have to pay the set up fee since Bollig is having to do a lot of it already for the report, would just be the annual fee.
PER isn’t ready at this time. Very close. Finishing draft and then a technical committee reviews it, then comes to the City for approval, then to submit to Rural development. It is an 800 page document.
2. Laura Ostlie from Bollig Engineering to discuss federal funding. Need more letters of support for the project to send to the senators. Should send them in sooner than later. Can be from anyone.
3. Opus and new billing system. Updates. Clerk spoke with Lauren regarding some billing issues. Taxes were billed to all residential users, for both volume and the base fee. Commercial users were taxed on the base rate. The Utilities debt was not billed, the service charge was not billed. The water and sewer volumes were correctly broken down into thirds. Lauren was going to work with her project lead to get those fixed. They will be billing again next week. Current spreadsheet is working to get numbers to Opus for local payments received.
4. City website. Heidi was going to check out Ionos Web Hosting and report back to the council. Heidi is working on some things for setting up and will continue to work on setting it up and will send it out to council when she is ready. Clerk asked regarding email inbox space. Can look at deals (annual payment vs monthly payments, add ons for more email space,etc.
5. Replacing the water heater at City Hall with a Point-of-Use Electric Tankless water heater. Per the council's request. Bids received from Keith Pumper and Cedar Lake Electric ($921.00 + $775.00 = $1,696.00). We’re still waiting for a revised bid from Paul's Plumbing Bid which includes plumbing $800 and $200 electrical LaCannes. Lions will make an additional donation to cover the cost of the water heater per Diane up to another $500. Councilor Ruddle move to accept Paul’s Plumbing quote. Councilor Cooke second. Motion passed 3:0.
6. Dennison 2025 to 2027 police contract rates. A letter was sent to the City on May 30th from the Goodhue County Sheriff's Department explaining the potential increase in the policing rates. Current 2024 rate is $40.07 per hour, 260 hours per year contracted. 2025 is projected to be approximately $87.46 per hour. 2026 rate is projected at $90.66 and 2027 is $93.73. Bellechester also paid the same rate and will be seeing the same rate increase. In 2024, towns like Wanamingo and Pine Island were paying $58.55 per hour. July 16th the County Board will vote, more than likely, to set the policing rates for the next three years. In talking with the Sheriff's Dept., the plan is to get a contract for us to review by September at the latest. Do we have any say as to hours they are present. Mayor will see if we can change. Clerk send out the sheriff’s reports to council.
7. June flooding update. Mayor attended the meeting at the Rice County Administrative building on July 2nd to discuss the Preliminary Damage Assessment with state officials. We have two areas that will qualify for reimbursement, our sewer pond road and sewer discharges in June. Each area will need to reach a threshold of $3,900 to be potentially reimbursed by the state. Once the City receives invoices for all work/time, then we will submit to the state for review. The same process/reimbursement is eligible for 5th Avenue Way in Goodhue County. Can we change the discharge dates in out new permit? State would cover 75% if we meet the threshold. Bill will clean the 5th Ave Way culverts up when he is able to. Bill will grade 5th Ave. after it rains as it needs to be damp.
8. Mayor attended the Nerstrand Fire Contract discussion for 2025 on June 26th. The fire chief is anticipating a 5% increase in our contract, $800 to $900. Due mostly to gear costs and pay increases. Fire Dept would like the hot water heater hooked up.
9. Update from the clerk about being out of compliance on our pay equity reporting, and potentially pay equity. Should have all needed information.
10. Need to appoint election judges for both the primary and the general election. Charlie Helcl, Jeff Flaten, Katy Gillispie, Heidi Cooke, Rae Rusnak, Lorri Wisnewski, Jessica Page, Kim Poulin, Dan Storlie provided all training and other requirements are met. For both the August Primary election and the November General Election. Resolution 7-2024-1. Councilor Ruddle move to pass Resolution 7-2024-1 to appoint the election judges. Councilor Cooke second. Motion passed 3:0.
11. MS Ride Across MN. City was sent a contract from the organization. Need to review and sign. They were wondering if the City Hall can be used as a place to rest, or in case of inclement weather. Requested some additional information. Council is okay with them using City Hall in case of inclement weather.
12. Update regarding Pete Lee's building on Main Street. Minor clean up, no repairs, buyer is figuring out what to do. 90 days will be expiring soon. Once the 90 days is up, what is the City going to do. Jeff told August 1 Pete needs to know what is going on. File a formal action?
13. Snow plowing contract. Diane changed dates on the advertisement. Contract needs to be updated to correct date, and #11 date change also 3-31-2025. Dates on signature page need to be changed. Twice in the paper Due September 4th. Should be in the paper the first and second week of August. Need to make sure there are instructions how to find it on the website.
Citizens Issues: Missing six tables. Diane will ask Joe. Some tables were broken during Dennison Days, etc. As well as some chairs. Clerk will get an updated count. Lions did donate some new 8 foot tables also.
Mayors Issues:
Utilities:
1) Update from Nate. See email from Nate.
2) LMI fluoride pump installed on 6-27-24. State reimbursed the City for the pump and payment received for the amount of $1,113.60. Travis and Nate did the swap.
3) Need pricing on a new DO meter. Nate provided in email $1500 for the DO meter. Would UC labs be able to use the old one? Sell it? Will try to see if anyone can use.
4) Review DO paperwork by the council, per the corrective actions response submitted to the MPCA. Will do next month.
5) Fire hydrants flushed on 7-11 in the afternoon. Nate noted that the water looking better than in previous years, so hopefully all the sediment from the well pump breaking is flushed out.
6) Water meters provided to Rob Taylor who is going to put in a second meter for irrigation on June 27th. TL Properties needed a new meter for their property as the old meter was leaking. Will need to order more meters as this would bring the City down to 1 meter.
Contact Luhrs about the second irrigation meter.
7) Spraying done by Bob Flom on the ponds. Would like to do another application this year to try to get it under control, and then be able to maintain with spot spraying. Jeff things we need to spray the driveway. Ask Bob to spray the Thistles. Nate mowed them down.
8) Streets need to be sprayed for weeds, as well as the City shop driveway.
Councilor Ruddle moved to pay the bills. Councilor Cooke second. Motion passed 3:0.
Mayor Flaten moved to adjourn the meeting. Councilor Cooke second. Meeting was adjourned..
Next meeting: August 1st at 7:00 pm.
