March 13th, 2023 City of Gladstone City

March 13th, 2023 City of Gladstone City Council Meeting Minute 6pm – 8:23pm Present: Randy Wyatt, Bill O’Connor, Darrell Sadowsky, and Paul Reinbold. Also Present: City Auditor Maria Kolling, City Attorney Christina Wenko, and City Engineer Jeremy Wood. Mayor Randy Wyatt called the meeting to order. The Council reviewed the February Meeting Minutes. Motion to approve the February Minutes was made by Bill, seconded by Darrell, and carried by an all-aye vote. The Council reviewed the February bills. Motion to approve the February bills was made by Darrell, seconded by Paul, and carried by an all-aye vote. Public Meeting: A Recall Petition for Councilmember Mark Erdman was presented to the Council. - Maria advised she certified it on March 6th after confirming a sufficient number of valid signatures were received. She advised a Special Election will be scheduled in June; Mark can also choose to resign within 10 days of the certification date. If he resigns, the Council can appoint someone to fill his seat. If he doesn’t resign, his name will be placed on the ballot. - Christina explained the ND recall statue in more detail. - Mark was not in attendance so Maria will send him a letter. Final Passage of the Dog Breed Fencing Ordinance and Chicken Ordinance. - Christina combined both ordinances into one. - She added definitions to the Dog Breed Fencing Ordinance as discussed at the second reading. - Bill brought up the necessity of the 6ft. max height requirement in the Chicken Ordinance. The Council discussed possible changes but decided to leave as-is. Motion to approve the Dog Breed Fencing and Chicken Ordinances was made by Bill, seconded by Darrell, and carried by an all-aye vote. Sheriff Report: Chief Deputy Kaylor and Sheriff Corey Lee were in attendance. They had no issues to report. The Council advised they’re still seeing the presence of deputies in town. Maintenance Report: The proposed Gladstone Welcome Sign was discussed. - Maria provided quotes from Quality Quick Print and Design Werks,. - The Council agreed to make a decision in May when the winter weather has passed, contingent on the quotes being valid until then. Maria will confirm with both vendors. Tony discussed a quote for a Bobcat snowblower. - He received quotes from three local dealers, the cheapest being about $9,000. - The Council agreed to discuss later in the fall to see where our budget is at. Tony discussed a quote for a 10ft. Henke Box Plow for the loader. - He found one for sale for $4,950. It’s angled and would get lower to the street. It also has rubber skids so it won’t damage the streets. Based on online LTL freight quotes, shipping it here would cost an estimated $800. Motion to approve purchasing the Henke Box Plow and freight costs, estimating a total of about $5700, was made by Paul, seconded by Darrell, and carried by an all-aye vote. A new furnace quote for the yellow shop was discussed. - Tony advised the existing furnace was repaired and is now working. He believes a new furnace is no longer a priority, especially with warmer weather coming, but it should be considered for next year’s budget. Attorney Report: A resolution for the sale of City lots was discussed by Christina. - She prepared a Resolution if the Council would like to move forward with selling the lots. - She discussed the BPO which is higher than the amount proposed by the Sorters. - Randy would like to set a minimum bid. - Bill said the City paid $30,000 for all twelve lots, which equals $2,500 per lot. - The Council agrees the offer of $600/lot is low but doesn’t want to set too high of a minimum so we can sell them and grow the community. - Randy would like them to pick different lots so the alley can remain accessible. - Bill suggests $1250 per lot as the minimum with the understanding that the City is not responsible for bringing in water or sewer. The Council agreed the minimum price / fair bid should be $1250 per lot. Motion to set the minimum price at $1,400 per lot was made by Darrell, seconded by Paul, and carried by an all-aye vote. The Winch’s pet limitation violation was discussed. - Paul confirmed they have three dogs. - Maria confirmed they’ve never had any pets licensed since moving to town, despite receiving two notices in the mail each year. Christina requested to receive copies of the notices. - Christina will send another letter. If no license, they’re in violation which is a penalty of $100/day. She will also look to see if we can do anything beyond a civil penalty. Ordinance enforcement update. - Christina spoke with the head clerk’s office and doesn’t expect they’ll be motivated to work with us, especially after the $20k impound bill for the Sorensen’s. We’ll continue with civil penalties. Safety Handbook - Christina advised the Council they need to decide if they want to implement it or not. - Darrell said he talked to South Heart and Richardton and neither have something similar. - Randy spoke to the Taylor and Richardton Mayors and confirmed they don’t have anything like and have a minimum number of full-time employees like Gladstone. - Bill said he doesn’t see a need for it. - The Council agreed we also don’t have anyone to police it. Motion to remove the Safety Handbook from the Agenda was made by Darrell, seconded by Paul, and carried by an all-aye vote. Engineering Report: The Council discussed potentially borrowing a curb stop locator from Jeremy. - Jeremy said they use a survey grade one which costs roughly $1,000. He said if the City just wants to use it and not purchase one, they’d be willing to rent it to us. - The Council will follow-up when the snow melts. Old Business: Maria provided a status update on Monte Martin’s insurance claim. - Maria advised the certified letter was returned to us due to being unclaimed. - Christina will send a letter to be delivered by the Sheriff Department, advising of a March 31 deadline to have it moved or it will be towed. Old City Hall repairs/proposals - No updates to provide. Randy will give Maria Spicer Construction’s contact information to get a quote. Transferring AE2S duties to Tony/Maria - Maria advised the City needs to get thirteen water samples from hydrants in town, in which Cal provided an approximate quote of $300 to get them. He said he can use the time to also train Tony. The other option for a lower cost would be for him to train Tony to do one and Tony could get the rest on his own. Due to Tony’s time constraints, Maria suggested Cal gets all of them and uses his time here to also train Tony on other things. Motion to approve Cal to get all hydrant samples, as well as use the time to train Tony, for $300 was made by Paul, seconded by Darrell, and carried by an all-aye vote. Unplugged’s quote to provide televised sewer inspections was discussed. - Maria presented Unplugged’s quote to divide the service between four years. - Lorraine Erdman asked if we received any other quotes; Randy advised it was put out for bid and one other company provided a quote. - Jeremy asked if we’ll receive a digital copy of the inspections; Maria emailed Unplugged and Josh quickly responded confirming we will receive a digital copy. Motion to approve the sewer inspection quote from Unplugged was made by Darrell, seconded by Bill, and carried by an all-aye vote. Maria asked the Council if they had any questions on the 2022 Financial Reports provided at the last meeting; the Council advised they did not. NDIRF recommended coverage adjustments. - Maria provided a copy of the recommended adjustments. Motion to approve the recommended adjustments, which result in a premium increase of $78, was made by Paul, seconded by Darrell, and carried by an all-aye vote. New Business: Mud issues on 8th Avenue were reported to the City. - A resident who lives on 8th Ave called to report the road being so muddy the school bus and package delivery services aren’t able to drive down it, which is concerning if emergency services would be needed. - The Council discussed grading it in the spring and adding 3 inches of gravel. Joe Harn wrote the City a letter with questions regarding his 2022 mowing invoices. - Maria researched past records and found his 2021 invoice to be incorrect with the total being less than our hourly rate. She also confirmed City Ordinance states the City shall send a notice via certified mail to advise of the violation and provide a date in which the city will mow if not done so by the owner by then. Maria said no mowing notices have been sent out to her knowledge in the last three years. - Christina recommends responding to Joe to provide answers to the questions in which we keep record, to remind him the current rate is listed in the City Fee Schedule, and to reduce his 2022 invoice total to be that of the most recent service. Prairie Dog Fund Grant Money - Maria applied for a grant from the State and was approved. The City received $40,800 in municipal infrastructure funding. She will research the parameters for spending and present her findings at the April meeting. A new computer for the Maintenance Department was discussed. - Tony requested a new laptop as his is old and slow. - Maria got a quote from Brian Kopp for $480 with a 2-year warranty. - The Council agreed it’d be a good investment for future inventory record-keeping and online reporting needs. Motion to approve the purchase of one laptop from Brian Kopp for $480 was made by Paul, seconded by Bill, and carried by an all-aye vote. The Gladstone Volunteer Fire Department submitted a gaming site permit application for the Council to review. - The Council reviewed the application. Motion to approved the Gladstone Volunteer Fire Department’s gaming site permit was made by Bill, seconded by Paul, and carried by an all-aye vote. Email billing and online bill pay options for the City water bills were discussed. - Maria expressed residents requesting we offer an option to pay their water bills online. She got a quote from the company Banyon partners with of approximately $200/month. The cost is higher for us as we don’t have enough accounts to reduce the rate with service fees. - Maria reminded the Council we implemented ACH automatic withdrawal last year which costs the City $10/month. - Maria also advised of the option to email the City water bills each month to anyone who signs up to receive them. It does not include an online bill pay option; it is simply emailing our bills. The cost would be $.03 per email which is substantially less than the cost of a postcard stamp. - Maria said both options require us to purchase an add-on module from Banyon for a one-time cost; the online bill pay module is $1,490 and the email billing module is $890. Motion to approve purchasing the email billing module from Banyon for $890 was made by Darrell, seconded by Bill, and carried by an all-aye vote. Maria reminded the Council of the MGM contractual rate increase for garbage service taking effect April 1st. The Council approved her to send a reminder notice to all residents. Motion to adjourn was made by Darrell, seconded by Bill, and carried by an all-aye vote. February 28th Account Balances General Checking: $343,932.17 Park Checking: $52,809.22 CD #0832: $50,590.12 CD #9423: $100,335.34 ARPA Funds: $42,039.61 February Payroll Jordan $700.00 Maria $3,075.00 Tony $1,386.00 February Bills for Approval AE2S $751.25 AE2S $892.25 CHS $1,600.18 Don’s Furnace $550.85 Forum $328.02 Mackoff $415.50 MDU $222.50 MDU $53.45 MDU $175.84 MDU $175.84 MDU $340.26 MDU $0.12 MDU $109.52 MDU -$63.64 MDU $122.03 MDU -$1,790.23 MGM $4,232.37 Midco $154.15 One Call $0.00 QQP $124.00 Rudy’s $110.00 Runnings $17.70 Runnings $63.28 SW Dist Health $50.00 SW Water $3,539.03 Visa $684.07 WPI $20.04 (April 12, 2023) 212167