Call to order:
Roll Call:
Present:
Mayor Robert Appelgren
Council Members Sarah Podritz, Jacob Friedrich, and Todd D Carlock
Treasurer Sandy Nicolai and Clerk Mary Haro
Public Comments:
None.
Prior Meeting Minutes
A motion to approve the March 10, 2021 regular council meeting minutes was made by Friedrich, seconded by Podritz. All voting in favor, none opposed, motion passed 5:0.
Treasurer's Report
Sandy indicated the water bills have been prepared and will be going out in the mail. She also noted that we received a check with no notations on it from Dan Wenstrom for the full amount of the outstanding Bolton & Menk invoices that he owed to the city.
A motion to approve the Treasurer's Report was made by Friedrich, seconded by Haro. All voting in favor, none opposed, motion passed 5:0
Approval to Pay Bills
Motion to approve the payment of bills as written was made by Podritz, and seconded by Friedrich. All voting in favor, none opposed, motion passed 5:0.
Old Business
Dan Wenstrom and Holding Pond
A letter was sent to Dan in March regarding the holding pond and it indicated that we wanted a response by this month's meeting. Matt indicated his engineer contacted him on April 13 and indicated that there may have been an error in the original model and that they are looking into it. They will send Matt an email to let him know what they have found and what they plan to do. Matt will coordinate with them regarding the pond. This will be tabled until next month. It was noted that this cannot continue to be put off as this has been going on far too long already. We need to check with his bank on the letter of credit to find out what needs to be done to get money in the event it is needed.
New Business
Appointment of Commercial Building Inspector
Our building inspector, Mark Ceminsky is limited for inspections up to 3000 sq. ft for commercial property and has not been able to complete his commercial license due to COVID and hopes to have it completed at the end of this year. Benny has agreed to be our commercial building inspector and work with Mark until Mark gets his license. The state requires an appointment by us as a commercial building inspector and Benny would like a contract. The contract allows us to cancel at any time with a 30 day notice. Benny will do the plan review and Mark will work with him on the inspection. A motion was made by Friedrich to approve Benny Svien as the commercial building inspector until our building inspector, Mark Ceminsky, is approved for his commercial license, seconded by Podritz. All voting in favor, none opposed, motion passed 5:0.
Randolph School – Permit for Shed
Reed Kosir on behalf of the Randolph School came to discuss that the school would like to build a new 40 x 50 shed. They would tear down the old blue shed and use that for parking. It was noted that we do not allow tin sheds. He indicated it would be a stick frame with metal siding. They want all buildings to match. They would be replacing the current building so they could be grandfathered in. The school students will be assisting in building it. We will do some research on this. Building inspector did indicate he looked at the site and indicated that it would meet all setbacks.
Ehlers, Financial Planner
Todd from Ehlers passed around a sale bid. He discussed the bids on the bonds. We got the AAA rating on the bond from the state so it is guaranteed. We received three bids and the best bid is from United Bankers Bank with an interest rate of 0.25%. We decreased the bond by $20,000 because of the cost of issuance and the underwriter fee being lower. The closing is set for April 29th. Total cost for us is $56,000 for the bond issue, which is our responsibility and does not come out of the grant. We can budget this amount over the next several years. It was asked how much we will recoup back from the investments. Todd indicated he can find that out for us but it does depend on the interest rate.
Motion to pass Resolution No. 21-04 Authorizing the Issuance, Sale and Delivery of $1,630,000 General Obligation Temporary Sewage Disposal System Bonds, Series 2021A was made by Haro, seconded by Appelgren. All voting in favor, none opposed, motion passed 5:0.
Sanitary Sewer
Update Bolton & Menk continued to reach out to property owners in the area for the holding pond. They have two properties that are interested in the spray irrigation and one for the ponds. They ordered appraisals for the properties and once they get them back they will have another discussion with the property owners. The properties are not within city limits. They are in Randolph Township and are in areas that the township is potentially okay with. Once they talk to the property owner then they will have a discussion with the township. Sarah indicated that she attended the township's planning commissions public hearing that they held and it sounded like they wanted to put a limitation on it for it to be within a half mile instead of a mile and half. We want to keep this friendly. They have also been looking at some of the maintenance costs for people who will be using the system. The biggest expense will be for the person who will be operating the system. Also money to be put aside for future improvements. We can hire a company that will be our public works staff for us for the sanitary sewer – which is an option. The cost is approximately $25,000 a year or hire someone part time to be the water and sewer operator which is the $65,000 - $70,000 range. It was asked about future homes and when they will be able to hook up to city sewer versus putting in a septic system. Once we move forward we would have answers for homeowners. They may want to wait rather than spend the cost of putting in a septic. We will know by August. It was also asked regarding if someone is currently going to sell and they have a failed septic – will they be required to replace rather than wait to hook up. Commissioner Slavik had a discussion with Brad Becker at Dakota County and they indicated if it is a current single family home and being sold as that and not causing environmental harm they are being exempted from installing a new septic. However, if the use of the building is being changed then it needs to be updated. It asked if they could just install a holding tank under a management plan if the sewer system is moving forward. The Historical Society building in being sold as a public institutional and being changed to a residential zoning so then it would need to be updated
Permit for John Banazewski
John inquired about adding a third stall onto his garage. The building inspector, Mark, had done a site review previously on his property but was questioning the concrete path on the north side of his house. After discussion it appears he meet all setbacks. A motion was made by Friedrich, seconded by Podritz to approve his building permit. All voting in favor, none opposed, motion passed 5:0.
Miscellaneous
Storm Siren
Reed discussed with the company that maintains the siren and they indicated everything is fine on their end. Reed said it should be a steady wail. The company is aware of it.
Fire Hydrants
The fire hydrants will be flushed the week of April 26 between April 27 – 30. Clerk Haro will post a notice and send a notice to be posted on the website also.
Mike Slavik
Mike discussed the County Road 88 project. He indicated that the railroad did not accept the design so the Western half is in the redesign phase. He indicated that the goal was to award the contract this year and do the utility work this Fall and do construction of the Eastern half in 2022. He indicated in a lot of these projects the utilities get moved a year prior to the construction. It is a 3 year process, first we do the design, buy the land and then build. On the rural projects you may start to see it become a 4 year project. He discussed the dam project and indicated there is a camera to follow what is happening on the project. He also discussed the curfew that was placed on Dakota County with the recent unrest in the cities. He had a discussion with the Sheriff and noted that nothing happened in the southern part of the county past Coates. He also indicated that the southern part of the county is very supportive of law enforcement. It was asked about traffic control for the reroute of trucks onto Hwys 86, 56 and 19. The township had concerns because some trucks have not been following the detour and traveling on other county roads that have a weight limit. They are working with the state regarding local roads. He indicated if there are concerns to reach out to him and he will send to the director of transportation to work with the state. It was also asked about the Hwy 88 project and Mike indicated it is in a CIP and it would be a joint project with the city and county. He did indicate it would be a good time to do some beautification at the same time and they did a school study and did an analysis of 15 schools in the area in the county and short long term plans on doing some school safety. The time to do those improvements is when you do the work on the road. It was noted to Mike at the end of Dixie Avenue, the County should have more patrols and put up a sign that says no camp fires. Dixie Avenue is also in bad shape.
Permits
It was noted that payment needs to be received by the city or the building inspector prior to any work being done on permit.
COVID
We are supposed to get more COVID money and the rules what we can use it for has not been determined yet. We will have until 2024 to use the money. We should receive half in the next several months. Sewer and water infrastructure is one item they have deemed it can be used on.
Park
Mayor Appelgren noted he wanted permission to hire a welder to fix the swing set. He was given the go ahead. On the north side of the park outside of the fence the grass does not grow and people park there – look into getting bids for gravel to turn into parking spaces. Looking getting it paved. Jake will get bids from Bituminous and Bob will get bids for gravel and we can discuss next month.
Internal Revenue Service
Clerk Haro noted that we received a notice from the IRS with a penalty of $3,700 due to them not receiving the W-2 forms from the City of Randolph for 2017. Clerk Haro has been working with the IRS to try to get this worked out.
Adjournment
Motion to adjourn the meeting made by Podritz, seconded by Friedrich, the meeting was adjourned at 8:15 p.m. All voting in favor, none opposed, motion passed 5:0.
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