April 8, 2026 Regular Council Meeting Minutes

Call to order:

The regular Randolph City Council meeting was called to order at 7 p.m. by Mayor Marie Jacob

Roll Call:

Present were Mayor Marie Jacob

Council Members Tony Price, Randy Ferguson and Keith Sande, Treasurer Sandy Nicolai and Clerk Mary Haro.

Also, in attendance was Bolton & Menk engineer, Matt Blazer and legal counsel Greta Bjerkness of Kennedy & Graven.

Approval of Agenda:

Motion to approve the agenda was made by Price and seconded by Ferguson.

All voting in favor, none opposed, motion passed 5:0.

Public Comments:

A citizen asked about dead trees and noted that there was one on the corner of Dawson and 291st Street.

Prior Meeting Minutes

A motion to approve the March 11, 2026 regular council meeting minutes was made by Price, seconded by Ferguson.

All voting in favor, none opposed, motion passed 5:0.

Treasurer's Report and Payment of Bills:

Motion to approve the payment of bills was made by Price, seconded by Sande.

All voting in favor, none opposed, motion passed 5:0.

Old Business

Building Inspector

We have had some conflicting messages regarding our building inspector. A lot of the local communities have moved to Inspectron for their building inspections. There have been complaints regarding our building inspector. Since there has been people questioning items regarding their permits, we will look into getting bids from other companies. We will have some companies send us a proposal. We asked what is the process to change. We did appoint him at the beginning of the year so we would need to do a resolution to make a change. There may be a termination provision that we would need to give him some notice. We will put this on our May agenda to discuss further.

Ordinance Update

No amendment needs to be made for the parking ordinance because we already have the authority to enforce it. The fire department has no problem with adding more signs to the parking lot with arrows of no parking between certain areas. We need to do an ordinance amendment on the fee schedule to add “per structure” for roofing permits. We need to check on the JPA with the County to see what they do enforce for us.

New Business

Dakota County Deputy

A deputy reminded us that motorcycles are out so watch out for them. Curfews will be changing to the spring hours. There will be road construction starting in the area with two roundabouts – the first to be done will be on Hwy 3 and 86 and the second on Hwy 56 and 86. He noted that the stop lights are now functioning at Hwy 52 and 46 in Coates. There was a complaint about a white pickup that has been speeding through town way too fast. He will note this to Deputy Brook at school. The speed sign coming into town is still not working. Deputy Brook put in a notice to the department of transportation but it hasn’t been repaired yet so Mayor Jacob will contact Mike Slavik.

Mowing Contract

We need to have a resolution prepared because he is a council member. Greta will prepare a resolution and we need to make sure we are clear on what the actions are. We are approving a mowing contract with Keith. It is increasing to $225 per week. He will start when he needs to. He does have insurance and will send a copy of it to Clerk Haro. Greta will prepare the resolution and the affidavit that needs to be signed. Mayor Jacob made a motion to accept Resolution 26-03 approving the mowing contract for Keith Sande for 2026, seconded by Price.

All voting in favor, none opposed, motion passed 4:0. Sande abstained from the vote.

Abandoned Vehicles

Greta sent us a memorandum regarding our nuisance ordinance. We don’t specifically have an ordinance regarding abandoned/junk vehicles. We need to update our ordinance to include something. We have an ordinance that indicates they can only have 4 cars. We need to discuss being more specific about having abandoned/junk vehicles sitting around. We should take some time to review the memo that Greta prepared for us. We need to be a little clearer with our expectations. We need to start working on cleaning up the city and move forward with it. Where do we see enforcement – nuisance has its own procedure It is not easy. We will check some of the other cities to see how they handle and enforce it. There is an abandoned and junk vehicle section in the code and the process for removing the abandoned vehicle – we can act under nuisances. We do not have anything listed under nuisances as junk. We need to do something to make things look better. We will put this on our May agenda.

Randolph-Hampton Fire Department

Kyle representing the relief board attended the meeting and indicated that the fire department is going to purchase 50 picnic tables and asked if they could store them in the garage by the water tower. Clerk Haro indicated she would like to have some shelves to store some boxes in there. We gave them the go ahead to store them in the garage. Keith Sande gave an update on the addition that they wanted to put in the back of the fire hall which is either on hold or discontinued until further notice. If they decide to pursue it down the line, they will come back to the city with bids. They are going to repair the back wall that is necessary. The are working with Charlie Willie to get it completed.

Sewer Project

Greta and Matt spent the month trying to get a response from NGE regarding starting to work and change order. They requested some financial information and we got that back to them right away. They finally heard back from them at 4 pm today. We will have to approve the change order before they can start. Matt will review the response and will have a change order ready to be approved at our next meeting. If we can get it sooner we will do a special meeting. There are some odds and ends that need to be completed. Matt will be doing a walk through to see what needs to get done. A citizen asked if the property corner pins will be replaced. They should not have been removed and indicated they are usually buried. Matt indicated they will be put back as long as they did find them the first time. They mase a survey back in 2020. He asked if there will be bollards going in by the lift station in the fire department parking lot and was told they will be installed. He also asked what the sewer fees will be and they have not yet been decided.

Council Member Reports

Mayor Jacob and councilmember Sande will drive around to see if there are any other trees that need to be trimmed or taken down. They will have the two stumps grinded down.

There is a lot of broken glass in the park. We need to talk to the deputy to patrol in the evening around the park.

Clerk Haro received an email asking about a letter for Waterford Township regarding the quarry. We don’t know enough to write a letter. Randy will discuss it at the watershed meeting.

Sandy noted that there are some homeowners who have not paid their water bills for quite some time and they owe a lot of money to the city. She asked what can be done. We can assess their taxes but we want the money now as we could use in the water department. She will send them a notice to set up a payment plan and will hand deliver the notice and invoice to those that are delinquent. We may discontinue a utility service including water and sewer for failure to pay any charges. Greta will prepare a memo outlining what we can do regarding nonpayment of water bills.

It was asked if we are going to put up the speed bump or maybe we should put in more stop signs on 291st Street. Marie will talk to Jason about the speed bumps.

Marie discussed the lawsuit in Hampton regarding data practices. She discussed using private emails. Clerk Haro will check with Midco into getting separate emails for all councilmembers.

Mayor indicated that the school was looking for projects for the senior class. It was mentioned that they could paint fire hydrants. We would have to get the paint if they agree.

It was mentioned that Dakota County did a speed study on 88 and indicated on average people are traveling 30 mph. They are looking at moving forward with the study by going to the state for a possible speed study or negotiating for a school speed zone. They wanted us to be aware that they are working on this. There are complaints about parking on Danel. Mayor Jacob created a newsletter that we will be going out with the water bills or we should prepare one each quarter or twice a year

Adjournment

Motion to adjourn the meeting made by Price, seconded by Ferguson, the meeting was adjourned at 8:29 p.m.

All voting in favor, none opposed, motion passed 5:0.

Respectfully submitted, Mary Haro