United States of America to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> You looking. >> Uh we will start with the consent agenda. Items listed below are
considered routine and non-controversial by the city. Uh there will be no separate discussion of these items unless requested by a council member, staff, or citizen. If removed, the item will be discussed at the end of the regular agenda. Item A, 135 First Street
North, business subsidy agreement, authorized payment of 25,000 to Mr. George Maguire according to all conditions of an ex of an executed promisary note, mortgage, and business subsidy agreement between the city of Winstead and Mr. Magguire fulfilled at
135 First Street North. Item B, 2026 property and casualty insurance renewal contract liability insurance coverage waiver form authorize the mayor uh to execute a liability coverage waiver form allowing the city of Winstead to not wave the monetary limits on municipal
tort liability tort liability established by Minnesota state statute 466.04 04 or the 2026 property and casualty insurance contract. Item C, 2026 property and
casualty insurance renewal contract excess liability insurance authorizes city administrator to purchase 1 million in excess liability coverage for the 2026 property and casualty insurance contract. Item D, 2026, property and
casualty insurance renewal contract, no fault sewer backup insurance coverage, authorizes city administrator to purchase no fault sewer backup insurance coverage for the 2026 property and casualty insurance contract. Um item E, claims, approve the claims
list uh for December 2nd, 2025. That is the consent agenda. I would uh entertain a motion. >> Mr. Mayor, a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. >> We have a motion. Is there a second? >> I'll second.
>> Uh we have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? All in favor? >> I. >> Motion carries. Uh we're going to skip ahead to our department uh report before we do the public uh hearing meeting. Um,
we have uh the municipal uh representative from the municipal development group here to uh introduce herself and talk a little bit tonight. >> Thank you, mayor and council. U my name is Holly Craft and I'm a planning consultant with Municipal Development
Group and I'm here tonight to have a meet and greet if you have any questions of me. Um John Anderson has decided to retire. He uh his capacity isn't there with his um other job that he has. So um
Joe Fa, the owner has to be willing to step in to this position. So I'm here to answer any questions that you might have. >> How long have you been with group? I've been with Municipal Development Group since um
2016. Okay. >> My background um I've done mostly planning economic development and then I was a city administrator as well um in Bel Plane um community development director in Victoria for 8 years and
then um community development director in Bplain for six years. So I first started not to date myself in the late 90s as the assistant zoning administrator for Mloud County. Familiar with this area as well. >> Welcome. >> Thank you.
>> Yes. Good luck. >> Thank you. >> Any questions though that I can answer? >> So you're the contact for the city? >> I would be the contact for any planning or zoning items for municipal development group.
>> Will you be doing the inspections? um not the building inspections, but any sort of planning and zoning items or planning commission items. >> Okay. So, for instance, Tom, I just um we're going to have a new build in Westgate and uh I just gave Holly the
the plans and she'll be checking for setbacks and making sure that they're following all those zoning ordinances. >> Okay. And then um those types of things and then safe built will manage the Yes. They're putting up a structure that
should be safe to live in. >> Okay. Well, hopefully you'll be busy next year. >> Yes. That would be nice to see some >> for many years to come. Right. >> Right. >> And Holly has done you've done some EDA work and different things that I've met
with you on I guess. >> Yes. Yes. Most recently, I was the economic development consultant for Lester Prairie. Um, and so I worked with them and was um successful in getting the deed grant for the industrial park if you've been watching that along
>> county road 9. So, >> where's home? >> Um, I live in Arlington. >> Okay. >> Um, so, but I work my day job is in Victoria off of Highway 7. So, it's a relatively straight shot for me to come here. So,
>> okay. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you for coming, Holly. I just wanted you to come and introduce yourself to the group and >> Yes. And um Neil has my email, so if any questions come up afterwards, feel free to reach out. But I look forward to working with the city next year.
>> Thank you. >> Good night. Um, so next we'll have our uh we will have our public hearing. Uh would entertain a motion to open the public hearing?
>> Make a motion to open the public hearing for second and taxation. >> I have a motion and a second. All in favor? >> I >> uh Neil, if um are you doing this or am I Yeah. So Neil, give us a presentation. >> You want to? >> No, I do not.
Okay. >> All right. Um going through first. Thanks, Mr. Mayor, audience, and uh council for being here. You, too, Austin. Uh little bit of an overview. Recommended 2026 budget
process. We'll talk kind of how we got to this point. Recommended 2026 general fund budget expenditures and revenues. and then recommended 2026 general and debt service property tax levy
and then you know now led us to here where we're at this truth taxation hearing. So in July and August we start preparing um kind of seeing where we're at for the current year. So in 2025 where we were at what do we need to adjust um start bringing
things to council. So August 19th was our first work session to review recommended 2026 general fund and uh our tax levy and then obviously you guys know we had other talks on the 2nd and the 16th
and talks continued but our main one would have been on October 21st where we met for um big budget hearing that included all the enterprise funds which are not included in the general levy. with the airport funds, capital funds,
fire funds, some general obviously, and then sewer and water included everything. That one was our all-encompassing meeting. And then um had a another work session just to make sure this is where we want to settle in
at. And today we have the truth and taxation hearing. And then on the 16th, the city council will adopt the recommended 2026 budget and certify the recommended levies. Um, this is the same model that's been
used prior to me being here, but 5-year budget model allows city council to better understand both general conditions of the city's budget, but also examine the impact of particular decisions on the financial position of the city. The model makes a variety of assumptions including but not limited to
uh the 1% in fees, fines, and permit revenue that may be a little bit low, but that's um done on purpose, right? Because you want to make sure that your expenses aren't more than your revenues and and you wouldn't want to over
project that. We have 5% fire department per unit fee, 5% general property tax levy is kind of where we're starting. So that when you look at these numbers, they're going to be the ones that we're projecting out for the 27 and 28 and beyond. Um the 3% materials and supplies
going up, employee wages approximately the 6% and we up the employee benefits to about 11% and you'll see in throughout the presentation why that was necessary. Looking at the budget summary here, I
know this can be a lot, but the main things I want to point out are these variances that are highlighted in yellow. These are the ones that are we're spending more than we're actually bringing in. Now, these are coming out of funds. Well, these two are coming out
of funds that we've been saving in. Right? So, the capital improvement um fund, some of the main things that are going to be purchased out of there would be the new snow plow, another lawn mower. Um th those were the bigger
purchases in there, the street lights that we've spoken about on County Road One. So, those items add up to this, the the big number here, the 741. We've budgeted approximately $420,000 to
go into that account. So that account will that balance will go down that $311,000. Um airport operations is the other negative one. So in lie of getting a big
influx on sales of fuel or new buildings or something out there, we will be at a negative for $14,000 approximately just for the operations funding. And then the fire department here,
this will also be cutting into their balance of three, you know, approximately 307. And this big number here is to repair the concrete in their in their parking lot and garage
council. Good >> in addition to the concrete soil correction happening and >> right correct it's the whole project. Yep. soil corrections and
basically re starting over almost to some extent in that position. So as I mentioned we have conservative revenue and expenditure assumptions. Um but what the general fund is taking into account here implementation of uh the new 2026
compensation plan. If you guys recall, we're in the second year of that in a study that was done by Flareity and Hood. Um, and what their suggested 2026 rates would be, uh, we had a 22,
well really 22.99 cost increase in the employee health insurance benefits. Um, so that was a, you know, an a rather large jump. Historically, we've been under that. uh reallocation of current resources based
on needs and actual history. So really just taking a look and seeing what have we actually been spending and how can we adjust those pieces. And then this supports our current full-time
employees which is uh 14 right now. and then one additional seasonal position which will be somebody to do a little bit more lawn mowing for us. Other
things that uh this budget takes into play support the street capital improvement program is adopted in 2017 budget um economic development authority funding lawn services with an additional park time mower and supports CIP increases to
parks facilities and trails. Uh, as you are aware, we have a trail project with the extension of the loose line from Baker Avenue to Mloud. Um, some of the facilities pieces that we have um might
include repairs here and some upgrades here and into the building that we're currently sitting in and making some of those improvements to Hanland Park that we've been talking about now for a couple of years. So these are the increases that are over
$1,000. Uh auditing seems to come on here every year. So this is just the audit is more than this. Um it's approximately 43 to $44,000, but this is the portion that comes out of the general fund. So it's $2,000
there. Other parts of that are allocated to water um in our other enterprise funds. We have an election year this year. So, we have a $5,000 cost to that where obviously last year we didn't have an election that we held
here. So, we had no cost. This professional services, this is the agreement that we put to our portion, I guess, of the county GIS system that they're updating. So, we had agreed to put that 3200. That's where that
professional services piece is. I have electric utilities on here a couple of times, but it is really across the board. Excel is going up 9%. So, we're going to be on every line item that we have that has electric utilities. That's
their, you know, part of the budget going up there. uh the repairs and maintenance. Uh you guys saw earlier again today we've had numerous repairs that have been required
on our boiler and our air conditioning units here and just some general maintenance needs that are going to uh need to take place for this particular building in order to function properly. Uh the CIP transfer went up
375 to that 420. Again, that is helping to take care of some of the projects that we were looking at as far as that county road one light project, the trail, and again continuing that funding for the Hanland Park project.
Fire protection went up approximately 5%. And then um in the public works department, every other year we are setting aside money for street crack filling and um
street seal coating and the 50,000 and 20,000 wasn't covering what we ended up needing to do. So we had to up that number of ways here. City beautifification also an item that we've been over in our budget a few times
here. flowers and different things are getting more expensive. So, we up that part of the budget. Um the mosquito control is this is our actual contract now. So, we had to go up to that. And then again, you see the
electricity utilities from the public works side of things. This is just a visual of where we get our money from. So where the revenues come from approximately 64% comes from property tax and then we have the 28%
comes from uh the state aid and uh LGA local government assistance and we fees fines permits um this would and and then the miscellaneous revenues some of those are
you know our tower rentals and and things like that that may come into play. So again, most of that is in the general government looking at about a 5.63% increase in revenues, expenditures. I had a fancy chart in
here and it didn't really look right because there's so many different categories. So this just gives you a little bit of a breakdown of of what we would be having. And so this general government, the main portion of this is that $420,000
transfer that goes to the CIP. And obviously the rest of these are public works, public safety things that um they include our wages, you know, administration. Any questions there? Right. And then this is just another view of
the expenditures. You know, we're up 3.19%. That's mostly from the audit. Um the administration, most of these pieces are going to end up being either the benefits or just employee boss. We didn't add a ton of different things there. Um the assessor office is um we
pay for Mloud County to uh do our assessments and the entire county does. uh legal counsel went down a little bit and that is not necessarily through our
litigation lawyer attorney. That's that would be kept separate in the police department fund. This is more when we need our general counsel. Um engineering is at 33,000. That's it
has been for most of the time that I've been here and the way it looks for last number of years. We budgeted the 33,000 but a lot of engineering fees get put into specific project funds. So just so you understand that.
Um general government went up, planning pretty much stays the same. Um public safety up a little bit. Again, a lot of those things are just going to be our our wages and different pieces
filled in there. So, as we project out, um you can see here we cut our last year this 11,000 kind of buffer the 7,32 leaving us a little bit of space there
just in between what our what we're spending and what we're bringing in. Um, if you look here in 2028, we have this big drop off. Um, as far as Okay, now we have $299,000 in
revenues. As the council's aware, that is when we were talking about um taking on some of those street projects and taking a bite out of that. So, I don't anticipate that to look the same. But until we really approve those projects, I wanted
to just leave that in there, but I wanted to make sure to mention that that's pretty much yepen for. So, recommended property tax levy per state law, city council must certify a preliminary property tax levy on or
before September 30th of each year. Um, we did that and we set it at approximately 12%, then the final property tax levy may be lower than the preliminary property tax levy but can't exceed it. The city property tax levy is comprised of two parts. The general
levy, which is what we're levying for the operating cost, and then the debt levy, which is really money that's spoken for. Not a lot that we can change there. And that equals our total property tax levy. where these taxes come from. Winstead
about half come from homes, 36% come from commercial and then we have um a spot that's zone egg and then some non-residential but homestead so lots and things like that.
Here's our debt service levy. And as I mentioned, some of these items are falling off. So we will have a couple bonds where our last payments will be in 2027 some of those refunding bonds. So this we also have additional debt that's
issued through water and sewer and for water and sewer improvements and those are paid through for out of the enterprise funds themselves. So the the fees that residents pay for usage goes directly to those debt services uh debt
debt issues financed by the other ones that we had just spoke of. So proposed debt service levy. Oh I got these who no worries. Uh this is actually not the debt service levy. I'm sorry I have these in the wrong order. The proposed
general property tax levy would be 8.89%. 89%. The debt service levy would increase by.22%. Resulting in a total property tax levy increase of 6.99%. So down from our preliminary and what
everybody would see on their tax statements um their preliminary tax statements anyway. So again, this is just reiterating the same numbers. um 1,688,472 general levy, a debt levy of 446,500
getting us to 2,134,972 for our total levy amount. um looking at other years and including some of those projects in here, estimating. These are all obviously all of these are
estimates, but just um for you to look at here. And here's some of the debts that are falling off on the enterprise funds in the next year or two. Okay, those numbers again, 1,68,472
for the general levy, 444,500 for the debt levy. Totally $2,134,192 total property tax levy. This one's a little bit hard to see, but um kind of the history and the analysis of of where we've been at. We were able to reduce
the debt capacity um our net tax rate, I should say. Yeah, see not much but a little bit into that 70%. Uh, accordingly an estimated median home value of 312580 and Winston would pay an increase of
$149 per year or $1241 per month in 2026. The recommended 2026 property tax levy responds to cost pressures but continues to the strategy established in 2012 to reduce the amount of bonding costs.
That's that transfer money that we had talked about earlier. Improves the funding rate for the 2017 street project. Improves funding rate for the park cip strategy. um certain recommendations of the fire department strategic operation plans satisfies the
goals of the EDA funding through general levy tax dollars and reflects uh difficult EP economic climates resulting major inflation factors for a lot of our operations as you have seen looking at this budget cost calculator
um and just kind of taking you through some of the other pieces. So the raising of the water rates at approximately you know 4% and 3.45 and 3.5 and 3.5 on the sewer rates. So across all the funds and
activities the recommended 2026 budget results in a total increase of about $243 which is $2021 or 5.26% per household based on the usage assumptions. I think we use 6,000 in
this, which is probably a little bit high, but again, just estimated on the high side, 6,000 gallons of usage. So, what's next? This meeting is your opportunity to address your 2026 budget and tax levy concerns with city council. City council will consider this
testimony and adopt a final 2026 budget and tax levy at their next meeting on December 16th. Property owners can challenge their assessed values in the spring during the annual local board of appeals meeting. Um that is done at the
county, not here as they are the ones that do the assessment of property values. >> Hey uh any of us have questions? >> No. We uh now take this opportunity to invite anybody in the audience to come
up to the podium and ask questions. Uh is there anyone here that would like to do that? Come on up, state your name and address and talk about uh my name is Milo Durban. I have a hanger out at the airport, hanger 23.
Just looking at what you just said about the property values of 300 some thousand dollar and it was only going to go up 140 bucks for the year or something like that. >> Now that's going from their value right from what they had. Yeah. >> Yeah. My Yeah. My hanger valued at
$99,000. >> Or we don't. >> Yeah. County does, >> right? Yep. >> Why is my taxes going up $20 and some dollars at and it's only 99,000? >> Is that >> So this is just the city tax. Is it just a city tax that's going up that much?
See, I tried Milo after we had spoken. I tried to look up your stuff. I can't find that because for whatever reason I'll bring it on there. I'll get it to you next week so you can look at it. >> But it's also not going up that like I had mentioned because it'll be a little bit less. Well, it'll be probably if we were at 12%, so you'll be roughly at 60%
of that amount would go up. >> Yeah, cuz right now my taxes are going up 30 uh 5% something like that. How much did your valuation go up percentage-wise? >> We went from 76,500
to 99,500. >> So, >> and then what you had me at last >> had me at last year was 819 for taxes and now it's going to be,5.
So the total tax assessment says it's going to be 30.15 at at this >> at what it was. Yeah. At the the >> All right. >> Right. Mary in >> I appreciate we had a great conversation the other day and I want to keep following up on this because I I think
it's a box on a piece of land that I don't own that I pay you guys another assessment that'll be coming up for the uh is it 18 cents a foot? We pay >> the rental >> for the square foot. Yeah. So, we pay that. That'll be another $600 on top of
my 2,288 right now. So, it's a little frustrating for, you know, I'm semi-retired. I'm still working when I can. I'm on social security. And to see that big of a jump. I have I have a
12acre property in in Wright County and I'm playing I think right around $4,000 for that without buildings. It's a farm. And that's assessed way more than what this is. And I'm I'm basically paying
for a, you know, a ram building that's a box with heat. And I have no utilities. I just have heat, electric. It's no bathroom, no water, no, it's not a house. It was really interesting that, you know, it's tax that high.
>> Yeah. And uh like I mentioned, I think you know if your tax you're looking at your um value has gone up that >> 30%. But that isn't you know we don't control that value. >> Oh yeah, I totally understand it. I'm just here to >> about your part your part what we talked
about. >> Yeah, I got it. >> And I mean everybody's complaining but nobody comes here and that's why I'm sitting here tonight. >> You know, >> I'll send a letter. I'll call. You know, I called you and we had a great conversation. And so I thought >> I drove all the way from North Minneapolis. I live in Delano and I
worked out there today. And so I was like, I got to get here to this meeting. We we need to address the I know we had talked about the cost for building out there. I did you find out what that is yet? >> It's 4500 for the >> I I personally think you guys should
really look into lowering it because I think Lichfield's down to a dollar for 99 year lease or something. >> Oh, really? you should look into it because there's guys that coming out buying these hangers because it costs more to build than what they're paying for these hangers. And if you could get
that cost down in in your part would help generate revenue right away, you know, for the county, for the city, for everybody else. >> And like we talked about the money I spent in this town, my loan was at the
bank here to buy that hanger. I got a $70,000 loan from the this bank. I spent a lot of money in this community that I wouldn't never spend you if I didn't have the hanger. >> Sure. >> Yeah. I mean, I know you're not going to get
the answer that you want. >> No, I I'm just too Nobody complains. >> What I do want to say is I appreciate you coming out here to >> Yeah. >> to voice your opinion. It's, you know, >> going to obviously come off a little bit different or better than me just
reiterating what you said on the phone. So, >> right. And I just it's frustrating because it could push, you know, it'll push me out and somebody else buy the hanger, whatever. So, I don't know. Um, just so the council's aware, there
have been a few sales out there and um, I think that that's part of what's driving up that the valuation for these hangers. >> Sure. >> Um, which in turn then likewise is driving up a lot of the taxes. But, you
know, it's not unknown to us that the the taxes have been raised all the way through the city and >> right, >> you know, we try to do our best to keep them as low as possible >> and still >> complete some of the projects that we need to do.
>> So, are those a commercial? >> They are. Yep. They're they're out there as commercial, right? >> So, which I don't understand that >> why it's a commercial building. Nobody's running I'm not running a business out of there. There's other people that are
doing we've talked about >> I'm sure everybody in the council know >> they know that. Yeah. >> Everybody's on there for that piece >> be classified as >> it can't be residential. I don't know what else it would be, you know, because you can't you don't have water. There's no >> Mhm.
>> Yeah. The only thing we have is the ad building to go to the bathroom in, >> for example. >> I mean, it could be industrial, but we can't do that either, obviously, because there's not going to be industrial. What is a a mini storage complex zoned as? Is that commercial? >> Commercial. >> Mhm. >> All right. >> Y >> got it.
>> There's probably no way around it. >> What are the dimensions of your building? >> 48x 48. >> And sidewall height? >> I think it's 12. >> And it's insulated. >> Insulated. Yes. >> You're not going to build that building for 100,000. >> Correct. I know that. >> No, I mean the
the assessment amount is lower than the actual value, >> right? Same with same with my property where I live, too. Sure. >> Yeah. >> You know, >> or most of us. >> Yeah. I mean, everybody, we're always assessed less than what the value of our properties are. >> Mostly.
>> Yeah. >> I'm just here to, you know, voice my opinion. Hopefully, it will change somebody's mind and we can get some taxes down cuz, >> well, we're we're doing the best we can on our end. Our expenses u continue to
increase just like everybody else's, right? So, uh, we we understand your your situation and and, um, somewhat helpless on our end to do much about it, right? Other than to listen and >> Yeah. >> maybe convey it to the
>> the assessor's office, but >> Yeah. And and people have said that it's some of the taxes are cheaper in in Buffalo and and Gleno, and I don't know. I you know, I have one guy checking. >> That would be something I I actually tried to look at. you should and I can't
find I have to get you know I could maybe get that through the county I suppose I couldn't get it off of where I normally you know I can get every other residence I can get every you know almost everybody else's but um I can get it probably directly from them I just couldn't get it off of the the website I
typically would use to try to check those values so it would be interesting to know that for sure >> of what those valuations look like >> and and look look into what you can do to get more buildings built And from what I hear, it's like it's a lot of, you know, extra money. If it's
$45,000 on top, that's a lot of dirt work that somebody could do to to build that hanger. >> Yeah. >> Cuz we need more hangers. I mean, I have I I have my name on your new ones you're building cuz I have five airplanes
shoved into my hanger just cuz that's the only place I can put them. You know, I build airplanes and blah blah blah. So, >> I don't know. Thanks for your time. >> Yeah. >> Appreciate it. >> Glenn, did you have anything you wanted
to Oh, okay. Um, we take a motion to uh close the public hearing. >> I I will uh real quick just because I did have a couple of other hanger owners with uh similar
concerns as Mr. Duran did. So I just wanted to make that sure that that's on record as well. >> A motion to close the public hearing. >> Have a motion as our second. >> I'll second. >> All in favor?
>> I public hearing is closed. Um the administrator updates and announcements. Well, pardon me. I we also would offer a open forum. Uh, is there anyone here that would like to participate in our open forum this evening? Uh, if you like
come up to the podium and state your name and address and the name is Glenn Wyel, 540 Street North, Winstead. I'm here tonight to share two words with you. that don't get used very often in this
side of the room. Three years ago, I started attending the council meetings about our sidewalk in the 500 block of North First Street and I came the next year and I came this spring and this spring I was told going
to get done sometime this year. I'm here to say thank you. I know those words don't get used much. On behalf of the residents on the 500 block and myself, uh the project is done and compliments
to the city staff finishing the grooming of the walk and the concrete was done and they were in planting the seed and the black dirt. They did a very nice job. >> So again, I just here to share two words with you. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Thanks, Glenn. >> Right. Is there anyone else that would like to uh participate in the open forum? It appear Oh. Uh, >> members of council, make it very short. Um, just a reminder, no parking on the city streets between 2 a.m. and 6:00
a.m. And if you need to park on the street, we ask that you call the police department 320-485260. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh, city administer update and announcements. >> I don't have much. Just this Saturday
it'll be the winter festival. >> Okay. Um, Tom, do you have anything? >> I do not. >> Matt, >> I do not. >> Believe. >> Nope. >> All right. With that, we would entertain
a motion to adjurnn. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> We have a motion. Is there a second? >> I'll second. All in favor I. >> We are adjourned.