The first meeting of February for the Paullina Council spent much of its time finishing drawn out decisions. Council was treated to a presentation by Shalene Van Beek and Becky Dau about the proposed improvements to the South O’Brien Community District facilities. It also approved amended minutes from the September 26 meeting. Part of the city’s agreement with Iowa Public Information Board was to approve an informal agreement with Marcus News, Inc. and to include the full text of the agreement in the minutes. The minutes did not include the full text. That oversight was corrected on February 6, 2023.
The returned check fee policy was updated to reflect more current costs for accepting a bounced check. The new cost for a bad check to the City is $30.00. Council also approved a proposed contract with Bunkers Lawn and Tree Service for spraying city property and a new copier lease. The existing copy lease ends. Supplies and maintenance would no longer be covered.
Agenda item 14, “Address TCA Board appointment was presented in a confusing manner. Mayor Brenda Ebel Kruse indicated that concerns about attendance to TCA meetings by the appointed person was of concerning. Several conversations broke out just before the vote was taken which ended with appointing Jay Jones to the TCA Board.
Summer Youth baseball/softball funding request was presented with council asking a representative for the organization to attend to explain the additional request. Youth baseball/softball in Paullina has been funded at $3000 for boys and for girls. The request this year is for $3500.
A discussion of if public notices would be published locally or with an out of town newspaper was addressed for the third time. After a brief disagreement over language of the motion, whether the chosen newspaper would be “official” or not council voted to continue publishing its required legal notices in its hometown newspaper, O’Brien County’s Bell-Times-Courier.
The February 21 meeting of the Paullina Council was filled with annual reports and budget requests. Youth baseball/softball explained their increased request. Shalene Van Beek explained that coaches were getting more difficult to attract and it was hoped that a little extra pay would help.
Lauri Struve from the Paullina Ambulance with Sherry Wittrock presented the Ambulance budget request. The request for the upcoming budget is for $79,911.00. This request includes anticipated on-call pay and a small raise to EMTs when responding to a call. The budget presented shows income to the ambulance of $20,000 per year from the city to pay for responding EMTs and $20,000 from the city to cover on-call weekend pay ($2 per hour) based on 60 man-hours per weekend. It also shows $20,000 from O’Brien County to cover costs of daytime on-call pay and other incentives for miscellaneous duties. The budget also showed other operational expenses. It did not show revenue from any fundraisers or insurance reimbursement.
Ryan Harper, Paullina Fire Chief presented a stable 5-year budget plan including anticipated vehicles replacements and/or major repairs. He also noted that half of their budget comes from townships, the other half from the city.
Brian Fisch, airport asked for a consistent budget of $10,381 and indicated he is still looking for a solution for the building. Police Chief Nathan Bremer provided a budget request very inline with past years, also presented. He noted that the biggest expected change would be to salaries and wages with benefits. Until a new officer is hired and trained that cost is unknown. New Library Director Matt Dengler also put in his request. He is looking at $79,810 overall in expenses with an estimated $12,300 in income from various outside sources. Some previously approved wages were amended so that some library staff would get increased wages.
Two public hearings about city finances were set for Monday March 20 at 5:30pm. The current year’s budget needs to be amended. Also the Maximum levy for 2023-2024 budget year is also on that date.
The public hearing for the electric switchgear project is set for Monday April 3 at 5:30pm.
Councilperson Jean Unrau, seconded by Steve Heeren moved and seconded the motion to appoint Jay Jones to the TCA programming board. Councilpersons Lexy Hohbach and Carol Honkomp were not present. Jones could not be involved with the vote as it involved him. The motion was rescinded because after the vote to appoint Jones council discovered there was not issue with attendance as shown by minutes of the Programming Board and there was no conflict for the attendee with another meeting. John Ihle, has served as Paullina’s representative to the Programming Board for years and is currently the chair of the board.