October 8, 2025 Randolph City Council Regular Meeting Minutes

Call to order:

The regular Randolph City Council meeting was called to order at 7:09 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.

Approval of Agenda:

Motion to approve the agenda with adding the land use application to the agenda, was made by Jacob and seconded by Price.

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

Public Comments:

A citizen noted that at the end of Cynthia Path they put in a gravel road and asked if doesn’t that change the land structure for the water to get to the pond since there is no culvert. Matt will look at the area.

Prior Meeting Minutes

A motion to approve the September 10, 2025 council meeting minutes was made by Price, seconded by Jacob.

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 Jacob, seconded by Price.

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

Old Business

Water Tower Bryce discussed the repairs to the water tower that we need to made after the mishap with the broken shaft. We were lucky to have found parts to repair it because ours is obsolete. We could replace the turbine with submersible. He is getting bids for that. We cannot just put a new turbine down with a new motor because it will not pump enough gallons per minutes. It won’t meet the capacity. He discussed this with the fire department and found out in order to get to the gallons per minute we would need to do a new submersible with a new 480 electrical service to the pump house. He started to get bids but because of the road construction he stopped because bids are only good for 30 days. He wanted approval from us first before he goes out for bids. The cost could be between $80,000 - $100,000. We finally have a dial tone in the well house; however, our call center has been destroyed. He was told not to fix that because you will be throwing money away as we will have to update with the new equipment. The submersible is the way cities are going – they are readily available. They can do this during the winter months and think it will only be down for a day. If we get the bids, they will get the parts ordered and they will get everything ready to go. Tony would like to review this, so he will get together with Bryce and Brent to go over everything.

Bryce will plan to flush hydrants the last week of October 27 – October 31.

Bryce indicated that he received a call from C&S Chemicals that their meter is acting up. He indicated they have to do some work to make the new meter fit. They need two working shut offs so they need to get a plumber to make the necessary repairs to get the meters installed. Either we have to hire a plumber and bill them or they have to hire a plumber. Sandy and Bryce will connect to find out what meters to purchase.

New Business

Deputy Sherer was present to discuss that scam attempts are ramping up again. The sheriff’s office will not call regarding missing jury duty and will not ask to send gift cards or cryptocurrency. He also noted that are numerous bus stop arm violations. If you see this, try to get a license number and call them to report it. He noted that they have a few more park rangers hired so they have now reached their capacity. Also, a reminder to keep dogs on a leash especially if it is known that the dog bites. He noted there is a horse missing in Eureka which is now considered stolen. He asked if we would like a speed trailer placed in the city and we indicated we would like one on County Road 88 by Dickman. It was noted there were some young teenagers in the city that were ringing doorbells and kicking in doors – they were caught. It was discussed about e-bikes and it was noted that you have to be at least 15 to ride an e-bike.

Liquor License for R Bar The R Bar would like to renew their liquor license. Clerk Haro indicated she received all the paperwork from them to process the license. Motion to approve the liquor license for 2026 for the R Bar was made by Haro, seconded by Ferguson. All voting in favor, none opposed, motion passed 5:0.

Storm Siren Relocation Mayor Jacob indicated that she was told that many cities are going away from the storm sirens because it comes across their phones but it was noted that many cities still use them. 2 Keith Sande presented a bid of $9,800 to relocate the storm siren pole to the east side of the fire hall. He indicated it would cost more to move it towards the park. They are eliminating the light on the pole because they already have lights on that side. Also Matt noted that the city’s septic tank is in the parking lot. It will be installed more up the hill. We will be without a siren for a day to a week. We just need to notify the residents. It was asked if the fire department was paying for any of the costs – they thought it should be covered by the city. It is necessary to move the siren to get the back wall fixed. The rest of the bids for the work on the back wall have not changed and everyone will honor the bids from last year. Motion to approve the bid for the relocation of the siren was made by Jacob, seconded by Haro. All voting in favor, none opposed, motion passed 4:0. Keith Sande abstained from the vote.

Sewer Project: Matt received a schedule from NGE. They are getting Dickman ready to pave. The other streets will be paved next week and then the restoration will start. The concrete curbs on Dickman are 2 – 3 weeks out. They will also be pouring some of the driveways on Dickman. Next week the driveways on the rest of the streets will be paved. Dickman is the last street to be completed and we are looking at a completion date of the first week of November. The pond site still needs a change order from NGE and then it has to come in front of the council for approval. It is hopeful that they will start this fall but the liners won’t get done until next Spring. It was noted there is a pile of dirt on Dixie by mail boxes with a sign to move the pile so they get to the mail boxes. Matt will look into this. It was noted that the sod that will be laid this Fall is guaranteed to next Spring. The street signs and mail boxes will be put back up before winter. A citizen did ask about the project and if it is on budget and at this point it is on budget but the delay claim held us back from getting the work done on time. She indicated all she was asking for is that the council be honest and that the citizens be kept up to date on the project.

Land Use Application Based on the recommendation from the planning commission, Clerk Haro made a motion that we take the recommendation of the Planning Commission and deny the land use application from North Pro Rail, seconded by Sande. All voting in favor, none opposed, motion passed 5:0. At the next meeting we will have to adopt findings of fact denying their application, so Greta and/or TJ will get that done.

3 Water Rates Sandy discussed the current rates that we charge for water usage. The last increase was in April of 2022. Our rates are currently .01451 for the first 1000 gallons and then is .00439 after 1000 gallons. In December 2019 it was .00225 and increased to .00325. Then in April of 2020 it went from .00325 to .00439 where it is today. The minimum charge is currently $14.50, in 2019 it was $10.75 and in April 2022 it was $13.00. We also have a state surcharge, a water meter maintenance fee and a water tower repair fund fee that are added to the invoices. We need to discuss business rates as well. In order to change the rates, Greta indicates we would just need to amend our fee schedule which would be an ordinance amendment. It was noted that we could just change the rates to - the more you use, the more you pay. Just increase the rates for higher usage rather than have a residential and business rate. Greta will gather the tiered rates for us from other communities before our next meeting.

Council Member Reports

It was asked about the transloading of the windmill parts and how they are being transported out. There was a temporary easement built in the township for them to transport them out by Dubbels Trucking onto County Road 56. Dickman is not wide enough for them.

Clerk Haro noted that the front door has not been latching so when leaving you should make sure to pull the door shut. It may just need a new handle.

Also the carpets need cleaning so she will contact Service Master to set up a date to come and clean them.

Mr. Kelley discussed the holding pond by the football field and indicated they are going to put a fence up on the school side so no one cannot get to the holding pond. We have a dead tree by the water tower. Marie will look into getting it taken down.

Marie has been getting calls regarding the speed limit in the city that it is too fast. It is a county road so we don’t have any say in the limit. She contacted Mike Slavik and was told to change the speed limit you have to petition the state to have a speed study done, which is expensive, and the results become the new speed and unfortunately seldom does it go down but often times it goes up. He did indicate that with the support of county transportation that he contacted the school about starting the process for a school speed zone which we can do because they have a School Resource Officer (SRO). Marie noted that the parking on Dawson by Felton’s is tight especially for buses. Please drive by and look at and see if we should consider putting up no parking signs between certain hours. Matt noted that we should make a decision at next month’s meeting if we decide to put up signs.

Adjournment

Motion to adjourn the meeting made by Ferguson, seconded by Haro, the meeting was adjourned at 8:47 p.m. All voting in favor, none opposed, motion passed 5:0.