By Mari Radtke
The fierce winds the produced apparent tornadoes blew down several buildings in the eastern side of the county. It also broke one of the city transmission line poles on the east side of Mill Creek. Power to the city will be out Monday July 3. Several places are opting to close for the day including City offices and Mill Creek Clinic. There was discussion about items to include in the budget development for FY 2023. Some mentioned items are the fire truck, the new ambulance, pager needs and necessary repairs identified with the electric service inspection.
A resolution to approve or not the request by Rene Johnson to rezone his empty lot adjacent to the former railroad property on East Broadway near Harker and Wood Streets. The Zoning Board approved the plan to rezone from residential to general industrial. Johnson reports his plan to use the property to rent storage space to the public for running and properly licensed and insured vehicles such as boats or RVs. He will gravel the surface. There was a great deal of discussion about the project and includes if and exactly where a Right of Way (ROW) for Wood Street may exist. After the lengthy discussion the plan was approved. Johnson was given one year to complete the project but expects to begin work in the spring. The approval was a 3-2 vote with Jean Unrau and Lexi Murphy opposed.
Wage increases were discussed. It took some big changes to keep the staff that was in place to not lose the one last lineman. Kelly Topp, who had been the electric superintendent accepted the Superintendent of Utilities at a wage of $38 per hour. The lineman was kept by giving another extraordinary raise to $28 per hour. Two additional staff members were hired. But the office staff wages were not discussed until Monday December 20. City Clerk Sandy Fritz, who has been functioning by default as the City Administrator (by managing the budget) has been with the city for over 20 years. Her salary was adjusted to $65,000 to get the wage scale a little closer to equalized. The two new outside staff were hired at $18.50 per hour, which is higher than deputy clerk Whitney Engelke who has bee with the city for 3 years. She is part time making the equalizing a little more difficult. Discussions about her wage adjustment will follow.