Mike Carr, Engineer with DGR and Associates was present to update council on the Waste Water Treatment Facility. Sludge removal will be the first activity that will take place. He spoke about the use of categorizing rates for varied uses. He expected the project to be pretty quiet for now and would communicate if any information about the additional funding request from the CDBG grant came to his attention. Carr also accepted the responsibility of managing the paperwork for the funding or the project. Carr was asked about singling out a particular customer conducting activity that is believed to be “causing most of our damage,” by Councilman Tim Honkomp. The city uses residential, commercial and industrial rates. Carr explained that he believed Primghar only has one industrial user.
Carr also noted that there is black water coming up in the ditch near the ponds. He expressed concern for the potential development of a sinkhole on the black top. He encouraged looking for leaking either into or out of pipes.
Honkomp also asked about installation or rebuilding of a manhole. It is believed that manholes have been covered up by street repair. Council granted Mayor Kurt Edwards authority to sign necessary documents rather than wait for each council meeting. Change order number 1 was also approved and signed.
The Kids Kampus lease was reviewed by City Attorney Bruce Green. He noted that the tenant has the right to take all fixtures. He shared that the city is responsible for property taxes, but the city pays none. They do have an indemnity clause to protect the city and the 15 year lease with a 10 year renewal option. Because a lease of more than 3 years a public hearing is required.
Farm leases were discussed. O’Brien County average for high quality land is $386. The city is getting $400 and $410. The leases will automatically renew without action. Green provided a selection of options to council regarding the leases. Council approved allowing the leases to automatically renew.
Council reviewed a menu of rate options using different Revolving Loan Fund amounts for the water. They were looking to avoid doubling the cost to consumers. The concern is to not start with enough borrowed funds to finance the project and have to go through the borrowing process again. The revolving loan fund is a drawdown, so the council was to decide how much they would be authorized for borrowing. The discussion was how to pay back the loans, property tax or rates or some combination. The payment would be $250,000.00 per year. The loans are made partially based on the ability to repay. That’s an evaluation of operating costs and rates. Carol Chicoine, at her last Primghar Council meeting advocated for as immediate an increase as possible. Council decided to authorize borrowing as much as was available to them
Electric rates are getting attention as well. Electric providers have not increased rates to their distributors for a number of years. Rate increases are anticipated. The upgrades of the Primghar Electric Utility includes a diesel generator. That expansion allows the city to be an electric generator and can sell some of the current generated back to their providers, WAPA and MRES.
A small water increase is also being recommended.
Each rate increase is amending an ordinance. Each amendment also gets up to 3 public readings with opportunity for public input.
Dates and final plans are needed to request bids for street repair.
Councilmen had a long discussion about the golf course incentive program to grow the membership. It was a $50 bonus for each referral. The proposal was to not give the $50 in cash but to either a membership discount or for merchandise. This motion passed.
Deputy Clerk Sarah Rohwer explained the name change of the offset program to collect delinquent utility bills to Setoff Program. A memorandum of understanding was approved by the council to recognize the change.
The purchase of a stump grinder with the intent to rent it to Paullina was approved.
Three bids to excavate at the tree dump were submitted. DeJong & Sons R1 Excavating and Brian Feltman. DeJong & Sons proposed working for an hourly rate to level the ash piles. According to Steve Wittrock, Gary said it is too wet there to dig a hole and bury the ash. The proposal was to level and have city staff crush and move the ash. Honkomp asked about using the equipment. Mike Warnke explained that the excavators estimated the debris would take 100-150 side dump loads to remove the waste.
DeJong estimated his costs to be $1600 plus the cost of city staff time, fuel and the wear and tear on the equipment. R1 Excavating $17,510.00. Feltman’s bid is $35,000.00. The issue was determining how long it would take the city to do the removal and damage to the equipment. The other two bidders would remove the debris. Council strongly encouraged Warnke to try to get rid of the piles. Honkomp moved and Wittrock seconded having DeJong level the piles and city staff work with the debris to see if their equipment can do the work. The motion passes.
Council held two special sessions during the next week. On August 15 the first item was to decide if any additional streets would be part of the street projects.
Council members strategized on a way to get new concrete at Metcalf and Third without engineering fees. The intersection was left out. Costs will be assessed to adjacent property owners. Also part of the work is 1st St NE and 4th Street. A motion to approve work on these streets passed.
Council reported some interest in the Assistant Clerk possession. Two interviewees were discussed. One had no accounting experience. The other is not available but wanted to work part-time and learn the job. Neither interested party had made a formal application. Sarah Rohwer gave Council an overview of the process for the education progression for clerk employment.
Council discussed the current chain of command for inside the office and outside and approved contact people for both departments.
An update of nuisance properties was given. Out of the 5 properties discussed by Knute Klinker three are considered in need of an administrative search warrant to inspect the habitability of the houses.
Council met again on August 17. Council accepted the resignation of Deputy Clerk Sarah Rohwer effective September 8. Buck Smith reported that 2 interviews had been conducted on that day. He said both are very good candidates and both are willing to do the ambulance. In order to make an offer they would need to discuss what the offer would be. Both are local. These two interviewees were for Amber Mulder’s position and Sarah Rohwer’s position. Rohwer’s position has not been available for the required 10 days,
Smith recommended that each candidate be offered $19.00 plus $.50 for the ambulance. One of the candidates could start right away but can start part-time and do some training. It was reported that she would also be willing to come in evenings and weekends as Sarah would be available to train. Rohwer offered anything she could do to make the transition as easy as possible. Rohwer was hired to the City of Primghar May of 2019 and is leaving the city after 4 years at a wage of $16.89 per hour.
Rohwer cautioned the council of some of the required tasks coming up. She noted that electric customers using an even pay need to be notified twice each year. She recommended getting started on that evaluation notice and determining the new monthly budget next week. The next week is payroll and various taxes are also due before the month ends.
Council asked if Rohwer could stay on payroll and be available to provide guidance in some of the duties to keep the office running, A third candidate willing to learn the job but is not available for a period of time is interested in the position of Clerk. Council is willing to allow her to work parttime and do the schooling looking toward being available full-time in two years.
Wittrock reported that one of the candidates may not be willing to accept the $19.50 hourly wage. The $19;50 is the wage currently earned by Mulder with a portion of those dollars being paid from the ambulance dollars which came from a grant from O’Brien County. The focus of that funding is to attract and retain EMT personnel. Primghar applied for and received $30,000.00 for this fiscal year.
Some discussion of the tree dump work was had. Honkomp reminded council that the playground equipment needed to be removed, expecting the new playground equipment to be arriving any day.
Council spent a lot of time discussing cleanup at the tree dump.
Mayor Edwards reported that he had a conversation with Justin, the engineer working on the street projects. Edwards said the intersection can’t be done separately from the streets. Justin said there would need to be boring to find out what is happening to cause the concrete to fail. Council members discussed if city staff could cut the concrete and repour it.
Council discussed wages for Rohwer as a trainer and training wages for the first candidate who council is considered to be heading for the clerk’s position in two years. This person is expected to be willing to accept $15.00 per hour during training. Their regular hourly wage will begin with full-time employment. Council moved and approved $15.00 per hour for all training wages.
A special meeting was set for 5:00pm on Wednesday September 6.