you want this one is that well no because I'm not getting out now I don't know how it ended up over there I might need a lift assist to get out I'll text that's okay mine is up so high that my feet are
dangling oh you how we could start she's notes anyhow we will call the meeting to order and let's begin with the pled of Legion please stand up okay to the flag of the United States of
America and to the Republic for indivisible andice okay okay we'll let everybody get settled in their chairs and with their power cords and we'll get down to business all right
so um beginning with the agenda does anybody have anything to to add no Michael do you have anything for us I do not all right someone like to move to approve I'll make a motion to approve the agenda motion by Jenny is there a
second second second by Kelly any discussion any discussion any discussion all those in favor please say I I oose same sign motion Carri um the consent agenda we had minutes from February and
the sewer adjustments motion to approve to approve by Ed for a second a second second by Dawn any discussion any discussion just that Kelly should abstain that what should have seen from
voting I yeah I planned on that okay got it 240 gallons an hour went fast boy oh boy all right uh last any discussion all those in favor please say I I oppose same sign sh yes Kelly abstained okay uh
moving on to new business 4.1 the police policy so the police department with City council's approval did purchase the taser 10 they're the new um tasers um they're almost in we did get VR training on them recently um this is just a
public document that gives the police department guidance on when to use less Leal lethal options and some policy updates concerning the taser tens all right does anybody have any questions about that how many tasers did
uh we get five five okay you're happy with him when you on them coming up this month where Aaron myself and Reed will be instructors okay and then we'll be
able to train other departments I got P too I so move to I'll second motion by Kelly second by Don any discussion any discussion any last discussion all those in favor please say I I oppos same sign all right we have
the taser policy moving on to 4.2 update on the Park yeah so there is going to be a lot of activity in the park so I just wanted to kind of overview it for city council uh obviously the one of the updates is when you first come into the park the Veterans Memorial
um will start getting its panels put up May June um it really depends on when the panels get done uh the panels will be three different panels they'll be 6 ft tall and they're going between the flags and the tank so if you can picture
that kind of paved brick area right now it's um a little bit uneven we're going to fix some of that and then put the the panels up right by the tank um two years ago the tank was repainted resurfaced you're also going to see some loose
barricades put up so that um kids don't climb on the tank as a reminder it's a memorial it's actually not a toy um we have many other places in the park for that um but when they actually did all the restoration on the tank and repainted it it was actually the honor
guard that asked people not to climb back on it it took them a long time to get all the perck out and to get all the Nicks and grannies so that they could paint it um a lot of that was actually um donated and then the honor guard paid for the
rest the other um thing that you're going to see a little bit of change on is the the actual Splash Pad installation so we hopefully will break ground in May uh it only takes about 8 weeks to um do the entire project in
your Council packet on page 21 you'll see kind of a preview those are that's actually our Splash pack clearly the kids are not real um but almost the same um amount of color uh in our Splash Pad as as theirs
you know there there's some dump buckets and some less water options for kids that are maybe younger um and don't want to have buckets of water dumped on them the splash pad itself um takes up about 2,300 Square ft it's a pretty big area
so that is going to go just south of where the north restrooms are right now the trail that um is there right now is only 3 and 1/2 ft wide in places that is going to get
significantly bigger so uh 88 accommodations is 8 ft uh it'll be concrete from parking lot to parking lot and that will also Adorn some benches and lighting um the other infrastructure things that we're adding to the Park is
really about the future of what the Park's going to be so the pipe um and this can be found on page it's right after all of it um page 208 is a good page to go on if you
wanted a color portion of that um it's page 30 so on page 30 you'll see a blue line that goes from north to south that's the water line um the water line uh really only needed to be about an inch and a half
um but the preference of Public Works and um ourselves is that we're actually going to make that a 6in water main and the reason for that is because when we get the new bathrooms in we are going to want a lot more water going to it so if
you're at Farm City FunFest you'll know this to be true you're using the restrooms and all of a sudden there's no water pressure it's because there's sh that that line is just not uh large enough so they're going to kind of super siize that line for us that goes from
the the tower all the way to um a fire hydrant because it actually won't go in the bathrooms at this point until we remodel them and then the other significant Improvement that we're making uh and honestly this is just
about getting the water out of the park we all know that the park can hold quite a bit of water um it retains water for a long time that's because there's a lot of clay underneath that soil and it just doesn't drain very well so the green
lines that are on page 30 um that really is uh all of the storm sewer that they're actually going to put in there's going to be five different inlets and those inlets uh really um help get that water out of
there so that is going to connect to our our normal storm sewer system that's connected to Main Street um and that'll help get that water out of there and why is that important well because when and if we ever get new playground equipment you know we don't want that place to
flood or be underwater uh for any reason right now on that east side of the park it's usually standing water almost every single year so that um that will hopefully make some significant changes to that
the other thing that I want to note is that there is a very large oak tree um kind of just west of where the splash pad is going to go the blue line that goes straight is actually going to do a small loopd there it's going to do a
small Kink because we were trying to save that oak tree uh if we went under it with a 6in line we would probably smoke all of its roots um so we are trying to be as purposely purposeful as possible to make sure that we don't cut down U really valuable trees and shade spots
there are two maple trees that are on the pathway uh currently that will not make it and we can't move them because they're too big so um the other thing um about the park is uh you know Farm City FunFest is looking
forward to um doing things a little bit differently this year and some of that has to do with the way the splash pad is positioned to incorporate it so that the kids can have some place to play um but also we're trying to reduce costs so the
committee um heard city council they you know they understood the budget cuts had to come and so they're renting significantly less tents this year in fact they'll only be one tent in the park this year um they're going to use some other pre-existing shelters for
some of the beer garden options and the main tent is actually not going to go in the concrete this year it's going to go in the grass um main reason they're making that change is because they're trying to not put more damage to that parking lot if you haven't been there
it's basically gravel anyway um and I don't know if it's the best option um so uh you'll see some significant improvements to the park this year uh including like I said new lighting a new pathway uh we are doing another DNR
Grant uh for the rest of the pass that will be on the west side of the trail um so um you know on that Redwood uh Street side we want that path to go all the way around the park to make one large loop and so we're working on getting that
help getting that paid for through the DNR Grant are we planning on all of the walking paths being concrete or are some going to be eventually we would like them to be concrete but we also want to do some aggregate some things that are
wood chipped something that are less the one thing that uh it has in our comprehensive 20e plan is you know for Less mowing how can we put Gardens or areas that we don't have to mow as much I mean 20 acres is a lot
to mow it takes a very long time pick up the sticks and do all the things right um So eventually we want to start putting in some pollinator Gardens some stuff that we don't have to and the DNR will actually help pay for that they give seeds out so
excellent and then the splash pack group just wanted to let you know that they do have some fundraisers uh planned if you haven't seen the egg my yard is back this year they're egging I think given La yet
than wira obviously yeah so they're they're expanding their egg presence uh and they have they have a meat raffle or meat Bingo excuse me as well coming up so they do have some additional fundraisers coming okay um does anybody have any questions
about the park improvements yeah so all this was this this is already in the budget then it's already been approved M yes yep yeah this November November that
yeah yes I think it came in two waves they approved the infrastructure improvements and then the splash pad the next month yes and this is the we talked about the funding that we're in essence borrowing it from
our reserves and then paying it back so it was not it's not part of the tax levy it's no other than the payback from the capex account right and then um just the liability with the SPL with the splash pad that's
included under the city's whole um like a br liability policy okay did that was there an increase because of this or not no no it'd be so much Park liability is the same so we have a park exemption in
Minnesota if you kill yourself in a park basically we're not responsible um you can hurt yourself pretty bad in a park and you just we're not responsible in Minnesota so I mean there's very few exceptions to that rule in fact the gentleman that
unfortunately passed away at the vopa state park is coming under the park exemption and that's what they're they're arguing right now in court so I mean things do happen in parks and we did discuss it with our insurance provider it wasn't a problem
to have this it was it was actually no increase they were really happy that we were you know just to give you an idea Martha the equipment that's there actually poses more liability risk than um the splash pad going in because it's very old there's no guard rails on our
Slide the spiral wheel of death I don't know what you call that thing um there's there's no buckles on it when our liability insurance came for another reason and looked at our par she literally said I'm just going to walk away so some of those elements are
actually getting taken out because they propose more risk than yeah our Splash Pad will all right and anything else questions about the park thanks to the splash pad group for continuing the fundraise we do appreciate it how many
can how many uh yards do you have so far gosh we just opened it too and I think we're I think Bri opened it on Saturday night and she had 21 yards no 21 dozen um eggs sold by Sunday so that's
great does somebody have to dress up as the Easter body we were e ear with the job Michael that's what I heard Hipp hop Hipp hop somebody might have to have a camera one more question the panels that
are going up but are those with the names on it yes yep yeah the they'll have the five branches of service on the top and then the names below what are they made out of granite it is granite mhm they have quite the base under there then they do they're going to have to
dig and then while they're digging they're going to correct some of those papers I don't know if you've been down there just they over the time they just kind of Settle yeah Michael I have one more question about the par the uh benches and stuff
that people can donate if they want yeah so Ian maybe I missed something but we're we are going to wait until the splash pad gets put in okay and then we thought the next season we would do additional fundraisers for the benches okay and people could donate
money or donate a bench or yeah they absolutely could um we we really want updated costs on the benches and since the order got put in kind of last fall we didn't want to go in willy-nilly and say oh wait wait we need one more oh we need one more so
we're going to do like one fundraiser at the end of next year so that in the next summer they can get installed but there will be benches there there are benches original designed okay at the park thank you but like shade structures and stuff you know aren't within that bid price we
didn't really pay a lot for the shade structures um so if that's something that the community wants to add later on we definitely can look into it okay thank you and I would say that the speci head committee um made it so that you're
going to see I guess the best way to see is like a ground bubble those are areas where we can actually put additional water features so you'll notice areas where they're um it's like a water spell yeah and they can be added on to and we can trade features out if all of a
sudden they don't work like you thought yeah if we you know swap them we if we want to swap stuff out we we definitely can or add to it good so we can have some cameras on this stuff yeah we are actually getting quotes for cameras right now um we do have cameras in the park
um they're just not as adequate that we need for investigations we need a little bit more a longer voll right now like when we're catching vandalism in the park it only gives us a very short snippet of what's going on
and we really need a longer duration so we we are looking in for a camera option um in the park and they would go right on the light pools they would be power over ethernet Poe um we're hoping that we can get some quotes for you to see how much they are those have been there
a while cuz I think those were newly put in like when I was first the console 10 years ago so yeah it's been a while and lighting will that be that area be lit dur yeah the only um the so the lighting that we chose is uh we didn't want um so
the shorter the light the more lights you need to have yeah so we actually use the same lights that we are in the park already like in the parking lot that we replaced 2 years ago mhm we're just going to continue them down the path because then we only needed three
instead of putting like 10 of the little you know what I mean the little pillar ones the half they were really expensive and you needed so many of them and so we chose to go with the taller ones then we can hook the cameras up to them directly
it's just a lot more that get vandalized to yeah and is there a set time then that this the water is going to be going like who turns the water on and off there's actually a button that they push is there a oh so anybody at any time well
well it stops at I think 9:00 p.m. so there's a timer on it oh yeah there's a master timer but so there's two timers there's a timer when it starts during the day and when at night when it stops we can set that whatever we want and we find appropriate but then there's also a
timer that shuts it off when there's no one there I think most of you have seen it at splash pads there's a little button and you push the button and the water starts again and then I don't know 5 minutes later it stops again 10 10 15 minutes and then kid has to run to the middle really quick and turn it on and and you're the cool kid if you get
to the button first just letting you know but yeah there's a button that they push to make it go on and off but then there's also a master that turns the water on and off automatically nobody has to be there to turn it on in the morning or turn it off at night and just it just does it right and then uh Troy
is going to get his pool license uh CPO C CPO that's for the that's the yeah because it's a recycling recirculating one will be he has to get a permit for it okay all right good good stuff about the
park anything else any other questions okay then we'll move on to 4.3 the admin policy on accounts receivable so since we uh have really started uh um accounts
receivable we decided as a staff um that we really needed to nail down when we go into delinquency and when we send things to collections there is not currently a policy with the city of winr where we are very concrete about when we send
collections so if you look at item four on that it says delinquency and collection process those three steps are really what this policy is all about it's hey our initial notice to you is a Net 30 Terms you have to pay your bill
so what do we send accounts receivable out for well everything um you know City bills if they get a fire call and we have to send a bill um we we use the AR system a lot now and
uh we keep track of payments that come into the system it marks them paid it knows exactly how um to handle that stuff but what we really didn't have is a concrete way to say city council has authorized us after 90 days 60 days to
go off and send you to collections and so we really needed that okay from city council and that's what this policy um really goes after the other thing um that it allows us to do is make payment arrangements and so you're giving myself
and and Heather discretion on taking payment arrangements so person can't pay their full fire Bill maybe they're strapped for cash initially you know that's fine they just need to let us know so that we can make actual payment arrangements to the bill that's
outstanding um so I think that's that's the policy in the nutshell I think it's a pretty um easy comprehensive policy about when we send um bills to collections and when we make payment
arrangements and what Authority you're giving us to do so and the payment plan um you kind of have is it based on what somebody can pay so like if somebody's really kind of destitute they can pay like $50 a month or 25 or whatever
they're able to pay but you're not talking about utilities utilities is a whole different okay thing yeah be a certain time frame that they have to pay it in you know I think it's going to depend on on what they can
afford okay and what their situation is I think it's important to have this because it's consistent you know then you don't run into something that got put off and they didn't get the you know delinquent notice and the it didn't go to
collection for months and months and somebody else did go quicker I think it's good to have a very set policy yeah Council what your wishes I'll make a motion to approve this policy okay motion by Ed second by any
discussion any discussion any further discussion all in favor please say I I oppose same sign motion carried 4.4 city council code of conduct and I would just like to say thank you to Michael for doing some leg
work on this yeah it's not perfect yet we found some spelling here today at the K staff me so it's good um you know I don't really other than giving us some direction on which way to go we really wanted to make a um a code of conduct
but more like an orientation packet you know I've gone through a couple Council changes now and a few Mayors and every single time I I said man I wish there wasn't something that was a 150 page League document that said here just read this because it's really those documents
aren't easy to read so this gives you really a nine-page document um that that number one uses League of Minnesota City's language um and goes through very basic I would say things that City
Council Members should be aware of um you know that introduct pledge that says you know and we're not going to go line by line here but um you know that says hey I'm going to comply with the state laws and I'm going to comply with State Statute and I'm going to be consistent
with policy and respecting the process um but also you know down to like when can we accept gifts and donations which you know who even who even thinks about mentioning that to a counselor their first month so I I think
that the document um as it sits right now is really consistent with League of Minnesota City's practices um the city of bla is where this kind of originated from they shared it with League members I don't know a couple months ago we changed some
stuff because their City code's a little bit different than ours um but I do think that it's a good starting point and I um even the roles of council staff and Commissioners um is I think great for someone that comes on
to council and doesn't understand what their exact role is you know there's a flowchart there's some um some tables and graphs um to really um spell it out I think that there was some language that the mayor brought up about the um
the commission uh work which I think we could definitely change you know that that whole point about working with commissions is about you know you're not going to go in there and control the commissioner you're going to trust Planning and Zoning to make those decisions and
present proposals what they're trying to do is say hey we're going to delineate you from the decision-making tree until it gets to be your turn and I think that's that that's really important um so I think tonight I think
what we really want to know is is this document sufficient did you see gaps um what would you like to see different about it um you know that's uh five main section is really that introductory pledge complying in
enforcement comply with the law rules for Council staff and commissions and then working with the community uh is there anything that you guys see in there that you didn't like I thought the just overall I was at the league of Minnesota City's um
Advanced elected officials training this weekend and um they T referenced several times how important it is to have good onboarding information for new Council it's important to have this kind of um code of conduct and to remind everybody
about it frequently and um that they did we spent a better part of an hour talking about what is the city council's responsibility what staff responsibility what Falls elsewhere to committees and
commissions so um I think that is really critically important good so we'll get some of the spelling errors out and some of the wrong spacing and uh we'll have it for next council meeting I just wanted you guys to get that first glance and if you have stuff that you see don't be afraid
to put it in an email send it to us and and we'll get it fixed has the City attorney looked at this yet M okay Y and I haven't gotten any feedback yet okay there but I will tell you that the the lawyers at the league of Minnesota
City's bla City attorneys and Jared our other attorney for our um code had looked at it before under the open meeting law I I understand that um I didn't see anything
in here about closed meetings it's just good for everyone to know why close yeah that's great the seven five reasons that you can close the meeting yeah yeah we can definitely have that good idea especially if we using it kind
of as an onboarding thing for new council members it's to have that and it's refresher for a lot of us okay so the council code of conduct was more of an informational item today but does anybody have anything that they
want to bring up specifically that needs attention in the brushing up I think I looked all right okay if not we will move on to 4.5 the
paid family medal leave this is my favorite disc money isn't it uh okay so uh the state of Minnesota is instituting uh paid FMLA leave uh we unfortunately as a city do
not get out of this um and it applies to you it applies to ambulance it applies to Fire and uh it's going to get expensive uh so we actually are even thinking about paying City councilors differently we pay you quarterly versus
at the end of the year um because for reporting purposes it makes it extremely difficult to only report you guys once why I'm putting this on there is to make sure that you understand that although it will have a financial impact on the budget we're talking about less
than 1% um the employees and the employer get to get to get to help pay into this um so like myself and Logan and Heather will
all get this deducted from our taxes as well I will tell you that there's supposed to be a magical formula coming out that um is supposed to give us how much it's supposed to cost I included that in your agenda packet it's on page
46 do I think it's going to be right nope um but we'll see um but it will cost us we think it'll cost the city about5 to$ 7,000 every single year and so what this
does is it pays the employee up to 12 weeks initially of their wage normally it's up to 90% but it depends on what type of wage you are and it's there's a
formula for that as well um but then 88% that they're charging small businesses charging cities charging I mean this comes out of a volunteer firefighters paycheck isn't that ridiculous anyway we would be able to pay for them to be at
home while they're sick now there's an additional 8 weeks that can be intermittent so they could have up to and including 20 weeks of leave of absence from a job from the city from
the purifier service where we aren't really able to do anything about it this gets directly so this is under deed just like unemployment is this is under deed and it is going to be administered by deed just like
unemployment so it'll be another tax on your paycheck woo and um I don't think this is just my opinion this is not policy I don't think that you're going to you you're seeing a lot of push back
now from the Minnesota Chamber um and the regular Chamber of Commerce individuals are really starting to push back they were going to try to delay this um about a week ago and it got turned down and de got the permission to start this in
2026 so the clock starts ticking because we as a city have to have a policy put in place by December and we have to go over it with every single employee including all volunteers ambulance all Volunteer Fire and All City Council
Members um so anyone that gets a paycheck from winr City of winr has to be informed of the policy and how it's going to impact their paycheck um and that goes into effect then January 20 January 1st of
2026 so what is the difference between this and what we call PTO now a pay time off they this has nothing to do with PTO so just like a regular Federal Medical Leave Act the first 14 days or 2 weeks
you can use ESS you can use PTO you can use comp time am I missing one they don't know if to let use SST oh that's right that's a mystery and what is the SST emergency safe and sick time last that was last that was last year that's
still being decided yeah can uh employees say no I don't want it no nope nope I think it's I mean it's like an sort of an insurance policy like unemployment we don't have to have the cash sitting in our accounts we just yes
pay in and let deed administer it yeah so it's something that we wanted to bring forth because you're going to see policies and you're going to see decisions made here pretty quick because really you know by the time we by the
time we get this policy into effect it'll be summer fall you know we're trying to wait for some guidance from the state because we can't really say okay this is the policy but we don't have the formula calculator for any of the employees and we don't know any like
if I was an employee like if I was an employee at you know Cashwise and they said oh by the way we're going to take more money out of your check and you're covered out FMLA the first question I would say was well how much would I get paid if I W on
FMLA right it would be the first question but no one knows that formula yet so they're working on it that's what they told us so we we hope to have that policy put into place by you know summer
fall before the budget season so that we know how much it's going to cost the taxpayers how much it's going to cost the employees and put it into a policy that can someone can make sense of it okay any other questions about
that I I dare to say 1% is much better than I expected I was thinking that was going to be you know there's been some conversation is about them rolling it into unemployment completely um instead of having two separate programs it would be one and
then you would only get 20 weeks of unemployment but I don't know where that house resolution went so I guess there's going to be a little discussion and action on that in the next yeah I will say that it really
excludes zero people I mean even if you're a small business if you pay into the unemployment then you are going to pay this tax as well private contractors can also opt into it
yes and this is it's just Minnesota right now yeah I think there's did they say n 13th state 13th state one of the lucky 13 okay so moving on to 4.6 the update on the township player
contract could we ever CH be done with this yeah um well mayor trouble horn was at this meeting um I just wanted to give an update and give me give you my general thoughts so right right now we have a contract for
fire and ambulance um with the surrounding towns obviously um they've had this contract in hand for almost two years and um at the last minute at the last meeting they wanted some language
changed and Ken our lawyer looked at it and he said I I don't I wouldn't change it it's not it's not ambiguous at all it says after six years we may have to go out for some equipment I want to give you a zoomed
out 50,000 look at this contract what's really happening with ambulance and fire in general because I think it's really important to look at this as um a holistic view of what's happening
with emergency services so uh we have the largest population of um US citizens retiring and being in their home for longer periods of time we have an ambulance service which
is getting some Renewed Energy and uh new rules being thrown at them all the time we have rural clinics closing and I'm not saying we are going to see that but you never know look at Mayo Clinic look at Alina they have been
closing Ral clinics left and right and we have a service area that is the second largest volun service area in the state of Minnesota and it only wants to grow other townships have already contacted us and said can win cover our next 12 sections hey can winr cover the
next 12 sections of this fire is a whole lot of hurt coming our way so if you have not heard OSHA since September 11th 2001 has been feverishly at work for two decades looking at policies that keep
firemen safe well those policies would all but bankrupt uh small cities small cities large cities large cities I mean our liability Troy myself and Adam figured out that we would be out of pocket right
away we would have to replace almost half our Fleet it would cost us about $5.6 million and we would have to do it immediately the conversation with the townships um since I've been here um
have been ones of I guess mistrust and uh they've been really strained and I say that on record just to be completely blunt and honest their contribution to winre has been minimal at
best um and I think going forward our liability financially is going to just increase it's only going to get more expensive then we have things in this contract that and I'm just going to pick one
thing but this could be put out to multiples right there's a tanker there's an equipment policy within the contract that deals with the townships we pay 50% and then based on population and use it goes out to the rest of the the
townships excluding given because given has their own fire department um so we don't use tankers in town right we have fire hydrants and we have them for a reason but yet we still pay
50% of the tankers and I think before we sign this contract and we look at this contract we tell the townships around us hey that's great that we got more time to look at the contract but we're no longer paying for any tankers now they're probably not going to care immediately because we just replaced a
tanker it costs the citizens almost half a million it was almost a half a million dollar tanker um but I don't know why the city continues to pay for him so I was pretty new when that happened it was in 21 into
22 um and I just I mean just to be completely honest I don't think the city should be paying for them and I know that it was a good faith effort on us but um you know I'll let you guess how much they the townships pay into their actual operating budget every
year and it's less than 20,000 between all of them and just like last week we spend a significant amount of time at fire going to grass fires and out of control burns and I would say it's 50/50
and whether it's inside this town or out in the townships when you look at ambulance um you know it wains it goes from hey almost 50% of the calls are outside of up they're going to you know Gib in or
the other townships and sometimes I just don't think that the payment to our citizens is fair what we pay in is seven times more our tax levy that includes ambulance and fire is seven times more what the
townships are paying in so is that fair is it not fair I don't know I don't know what Fair looks like but I know that there's other resources that we can use including a taxing district that would spread out all of our expenses at one time to
everyone equally based on the value of your property and last year we presented to the townships the agreement the township agreement okay so the league of Minnesota cities they have that for the townships it's called the Minnesota
Township Association tww just like the plane those those two entities League of Minnesota cities and the township Association got together and they devised a formula that formula I presented last
year and it significantly would increase their payment but they would never have to talk about another Ann ambulance purchase they would never talk about another fire purchase it would just happen automatically and why I brought up the OSHA regulations and all the things that
are coming down is uh pretty soon we're not going to get a choice we're going to have to replace equipment like our tanker that the older tanker the small tanker that we have that is over 20 years old now so by
federal guidelines that thing should not be used seven years right it's seven years and then they got to go down the road and what we've done in the past is when we buy equipment we always go to the townships and we and and fairly I mean we give them lots of notice it's
going to cost this much we're planning to buy it you know January of year but it there's a lot of there's been a lot of push back and I I get that the townships are trying to be frugal with their dollars and save their
taxpayers as much money as they can but um Michael's right there's there's been a just the just the discussions about when to buy a a piece of equipment or the discussion about you know this or that line in the contract it does feel
combative and and it's I think that's really unfortunate I wish we could work more congenially and again on the winrop side you know we are providing a service plus all the admin plus all the the meetings and
extraness right that all comes from us that's our goal plus the people who staff the volunteers on the ambulance and the fire department are almost exclusively I mean there might be a couple firefighters that live right outside of town but they're they're residents of wind thrat so that cost
that cost of that which is real in people's time and energy that comes from our citizens too so this per section cost is that I think you're looking at ambulance um fire service fire service so fire and
I mean are they set up now so that we are recovering so it is we increased this almost threefold since I came because um they weren't even covering like 4% of the cost of running
a fire department so each year now they've seen increases so um you know we have incrementally they were paying 150 a section I think originally when I got here or
125 and last year we increased it to 37 off the bat and it goes up every year after that and so ambulance is very similar we take the sections that we serve and then each section is
$65 um Gibbon the city of Gibbon is a little bit different because we cover them with our ambulance um we don't charge them per section we charge them per call um because we do a lot of calls over in the
event correct me if I on but our our per section cost is less than like if you go further east yes yes that's what I thought it is still cheaper but are these covering our cost no no especially
when you look at the cost of everything going up you know I don't know Heather was it in 2022 we got together no it was in 23 we got together and no it was in 22 when you know we broke it to him that I think everyone thought ambulance was
just self-supporting itself and so was fire like that was so far from the truth um ambulance supplies ambulance oxygen mileage on the cars gas all of that got more expensive that's why staff
recommended this last year to raise right how much we were getting paid for calls because we are not covering our costs and either service um and I mean if you look across the state of Minnesota that is pretty
common right now I mean that is not it's not an anomaly we're not the only ones um so ambulance for instance got 67,000 is that even close 6 70 62 it was 60 some thousand um back from the state
of Minnesota because they know that this is such a problem and so for the first time ambulance probably came out ahead once you know that money was deposited but it is it's a problem and when our partners in the field don't even realize
that it's not a problem it was hard to get them to come around to it I mean I can give you an for instance so Princeton Minnesota has agreements with their townships you know how much their townships pay them every year every townships pays them almost $60,000
a year because they no longer contract with an bicker over the equipment or when to buy the next fire Tru or when is it the right time to buy the next ambulance which by the way we're going to go find a new ambulance at the end of
this year those things um are no longer a negotiation they just happen and those payments that you're using that was an agreed agreed upon contract between the township Association in the league of Minnesota
cities has embedded in it all of the cost for equipment and personnel and insurance and gasoline it it's all embedded so uh the reason that I brought this up tonight is because I don't think
we talk enough about these Mutual Aid agreements and contracts but I this is just my interpretation you know even if we do finally get the the townships to agree to this just know that you know
when we go out to bid for some of these trucks and stuff there's going to be be pushed back again um and I would add we've been very transparent the last few years I think if you go back five years or more sometimes the townships didn't
get an accurate report of how much things C you know how fire came out at the end of the year how ambulance if they you know broke even or not but the last few years we have given detailed detailed budget reports saying you know this is this is how much money we lost
this is how much the Runs cost this is how much supplies cost and we've tried to do that to back up everything we've been saying that this is and the other thing that that I keep coming back to is fire and ambulance service it it isn't a luxury you know you you have to have
that if if you are having a heart attack and you live in a rural Township you really better hope there's an ambulance that can get there and I mean I what is the choice that they have if they don't care for the rates that we have
can they so ambulance and fire are both different they're governed by different state statutes ambulance would have to get approval from the msrb um which is the ambulance board well it's not that anymore but no it's the it's the commissioner yeah they have
a board a new board because we like used to be the msrb and now it's the ambulance I can't even tell you I can't remember what the name of it is but they have to approve the move because they look at a lot of different factors um and whether or not that's even a good move for
them um for instance Maly would like to give us the rest of their 12 sections because they believe in our service more than um what they're receiving elsewhere and so to get that process started is
very involved I mean it's not just like a signing of the pen or even our decision it's up to the State Fire is a little bit different so if they choose to go with a different fire department they can but then they are not stuck with them they are obligated to be there
um for up to five years meaning if you're if you decide to go to Lafayette and let's just say Lafayette in three years folds because they don't have enough volunteers or they don't want to buy new equipment or they can't deal with a new ocean guidelines
whatever happens right um if that would happen they couldn't come back to us they would have to go to somebody else Minnesota office of emergency medical services ah there it is do they have an acronym o
oems o EMS I'm remember the of medical services that came from the crowd okay but it is there's just points of contention in the contract and then you know you really um I guess I I'll say it this way New Alm doesn't service anyone outside of new
W no one their fire department unless it's called for a big Mutual Aid structure fire like you know if the ethanol plant needed extra attention new doesn't go to their townships Mano they don't go to their townships and
this historically this is the reason why because they were paying for a lot of equipment that they didn't need and and that can't be charged fairly div toll
ships oh I think it definitely could be and I think that if we're going to sign a contract with them we should remove some of the purchases including tankers we I don't know why the city's paying half of that I I just don't aren't the tankers used in some
some cases in town here no no they hydrants we bring them out to bring people to block traffic yeah the other thing that a lot of the townships forget is that when a
firefighter gets hurt out on their field fire or their barn fire that's the city of wi that takes that liability all the work comp all that that falls on the city Township has nothing to do with that so if God forbid they get killed and we get
sued it may have happened out in the township but we're liable for it so I think if you know if any conversations happen to come up organically if you're talking to people who live in the rural areas you know I think the message that that I would like to give and I'd be happy to have that
conversation with anybody is you know we win is proud of our ambulance and fire service and and we want to continue providing really good service and and we want to have good transparent discussions but it it doesn't feel fair
to burden our taxpayers even more to benefit the the townships if they're not willing to come to the table and and at least share some of the costs I mean it's getting pretty expensive out there I don't think should be a question I
mean this is how much it cost us per section and that's what a tax District would do it would spread the cost out to everyone including Heartland corn products nutrient it would they're already getting taxed for it we should make that really clear anyone that's in town is already paying this
tax you know we we the last two years have put in the budget to lose money on ambulance and fire because historically the last three years that's what they've done so we are already paying that tax like Harland corn products is already paying that tax but this would be an
actual tax line on their statement that would give exactly how much they're giving to fire an ambulance right it's just an it's it's what a lot of towns are going to because it's just getting so cost prohibitive to continue
to run them and you need them right yeah your insurance rates would Skyrocket on your house if we didn't have an active fire department Harland corn products wouldn't be able to run neither would nutrient or UFC they would have to get a
private buyer service buy their own trucks I mean just very I just had a insurance review meeting for my homeowners insurance and one of the questions he asked was how far away is the closest hydrant yeah and I said well
it's in the corner of my property and he said that's good yeah that saves you about $800 yeah what uh what is the rural area in new almond what do they do for fire uh they go through
courland um Cals other small small towns service them it's not new home like man I mean nlet covers all the way up to the edge of North Mano I mean You' think that that's yeah yeah you
know it sounds goofy in your mind but they just limit liabilities they have enough on their plate and they and then we we have enough on our plate we have answered almost a 100 more ambulance calls than when I first got here every year that's a lot it's a lot
there's a lot of stress in it so when's the next toship meeting uh we have to schedule one still um but I wanted to bring it up as an informational item tonight maybe we can do a workshop next month um but I you know
just by the reaction of our City attorney and and some of that stuff I want to get some gain some more feedback on that but I mean I I do think that now that we have time to think about it maybe we should do something different I mean the tides are not in our favor on
expense that is true and if you get a chance to you know contact your legislators about the OSHA coming guidelines on fire departments um it won't hurt in fact I think that was one I just sent there was a and I should have had
the link you could fill it out once and it would automatically email your state and federal Representatives about it so yeah we put together when Michelle fishbach was here last week we put together like a leave behind brochure on the things that we're working on in winr
and a two-page spread was just all fire like it's going to cost us $5 million you've got to stop the insanity and it's it sounds like little things but it's not like clean in clean out stations so fire department comes back they have to have a clean in what does that mean
means they have to get undressed and cleaned before they can actually enter the building because of the carcinogens yes that are in there we are not set up for that even the way our lockers are positioned next to the fire trucks is not allowed anymore no they have to be
behind the fire trucks well we don't have enough room for that there I mean the oosha regulations even air packs Martha which is a great example we just bought new air packs they're draggers they're great they worked really well
for the fire department um you know under the new guidelines for oosha 3 years is the only life we get out of them and they are very expensive Grand they're five grand a pack they cost us $110,000 the first time can you imagine
every 3 years having to replace them they're they're their bunker gear the outerwear what is that now three years yeah tets that's two or three years now it's three I I think I think they were the same yeah yeah yeah it's it's crazy
and that's $1,000 a set hoses hoses are the same thing so we get rid of hoses when they don't work I mean it's a h they test them all the time they test they do host testing and all the time but they are I think it's a 5e maximum on that equipment now axes same way five
years then they're done you have to time stamp everything in and when it's done it's got to go out and I will say I mean I was I'm married to a retired firefighter I'm all for protecting the firefighters in any way we can but you
know this is got one of them I didn't know AES wore out that I know I think it's more for the bigger departments that are using them every day every hour I understand that part but then there needs to be an exemption air packs and turnouts when you're using them several
times a week is different than when ours go out a couple times a month right yeah it's way different yeah so I mean the idea is really great but the is going to bankrupt
us yeah I think they're there's going to be so much outcry there's going to have to be something yeah I think they've heard outcry the last six seven months and they just keep
because nobody there wouldn't be enough fire trucks to buy to re I mean if suddenly you can't use them as of January 1st they're two years behind as is exctly I know so we'd all sit here twiddling our thumbs with no firet trucks for a couple of years even if we had the money to buy them brand
new so okay anything else any questions about Township stuff I thought this was going to be quick sorry that no that I mean it's good that that's a really good discussion to have and it's good to be aware of um what's going on moving on to
4.7 we um are asked to accept the $6,000 PR Prairie Lakes Regional Art Council grant for Farm City FunFest very nice Prairie Lakes is um granting us $66,000 for the music that will happen at parm City
fest anybody like to I'll make that motion all right second second by Jenny any discussion any discussion any discussion all in favor please say I post same sign motion carried all right committee reports Michael what you got for
us a lot okay so um I'm going to make this as brief as possible last year uh in total we uh we received in the city of winr not the city itself but proper um we wrote grants for a lot of organizations um it came up to over
$330,000 worth of grants that we received from different entities from for the city so that's great um one of those uh happen to be rev uh and if you haven't seen my million emails there's a sprout of it EV and uh and Henderson
please come it'll be really fun um the southern Minnesota initiative Foundation is putting that on the RB group is still hiring um we actually have three very qualified candidates for our we cond entrepreneurship Mentor um people that
can meet and um speak with entrepreneurs we actually meet tomorrow night um and Gibbon before their city council meeting so it's got to be a fast meeting we're putting timeline that's on uh and so we hope to have them in place by April um so that they can start
meeting with businesses and giving resources um it's uh League of Minnesota city is on the capital on Thursday I will not be able to attend but some of our streams Partners will be there to help guide legislators to understand Wastewater uh we did meet with
npca last week for a 2 and a half hour conference call all about our project for streams we are now on um a second stage we're putting uh ourselves together a project priority list and so everyone
should have gotten an email invite um for later this month um that is for the streams project and we're really going to go over kind of the nitty-gritty on the project and really um how it will impact rates and where we're at
compliance wise I think that those are some questions that everyone has for the cities that is a joint meeting between the four City entities and we're going to answer all the questions all at one time so um and that's going to be here give me some
Grace yes yeah it'll be right here at City Hall U we we just have the biggest meeting spot so it'll be easier for us to do it um is that the one on the 12th that is the one on the 12th could you Reser
I did and Covenant isn't there that night um other than that we've been um really just working on policies in the office um we've also been um kind of decluttering you know this is the time of the year when we go through our audit but we also try to get rid of documents
that are from the 1950s that we don't need to keep uh and so we We are continuing to to work on on that stuff all right anything else I think so any questions for Michael all right
fire issues Corner Pizza the other night on a dime Adam called me um in the middle of the night said hey most of our guys are fighting this fire for last four hours we are hungry and we have a lot of clean up to do and so uh I
went to Corner PE pizza and you could just tell that she I was like I need a lot of pizzas for Firs and um you know she really worked hard within 30 minutes they had all the pizza down in the fire department so um thanks uh to Corner Pizza for that it was much much needed
that night especially since most of them work all day long and they were pretty hungry okay um let's see Library yeah so we um for the February meeting we had a
special work session for new board members that was on February 10th kind of an in boarding and um policy guidelines that type of thing and uh the next scheduled board meeting will be March 17th at 5
o'clock okay um any questions for Public Works um just that they're getting ready for the snow storm maybe rainstorm they don't know uh Troy was actually supposed to be at the the Water conference up in
St Cloud and he is going to stay behind obviously because we are afraid we are going to get snow um the other things that Public Works are working on um and all combine utilities on this is really just getting ready for spring um they're really working on the rest of the light poles on Main Street is is definitely
one of their larger projects um they already have them they're ready to put them up they're just waiting for weather to break and then uh they're they're also just um getting ready for the parks projects so that's what they're working
on okay a citizen thanked me for or wanted me to thank the city for cleaning up the pond too yeah that looks significantly better they did um both Retention Ponds the one that's east of town and then the one across from the
that was one good okay planning commission so they did meet um the Planning Commission is working on chapter nine of our city code um they're working with our City attorney one of our attorneys not our City attorney um
on on really making that a little bit more encompassing it's focusing uh really on building use and pimats and also um those storage containers so those are the two things that planning and zon are working
on okay um um RS fiber I don't think we've met since our last council meeting I would think we would be meeting sometime in March um so we skipped utility or we did utilities
ambulance um so nothing real significant going on uh this Thursday is the uh test out of the uh psycho motor skills for the students that are in the class class which means they go through their skills
portion and demonstrate that they understand how to do them and whatnot and um when they pass that then they move on to the more of the deep technical stuff in the in the EMS world you know the lectures and the
um how you want to really want to call it but you know St this is the This is how we do this stuff I guess you know the actual lecture part of the class so um we had a little discussion tonight we think we're going to um offer
that the students come up here because that is in this particular class that is a uh you can do that at home if you want to but uh we're going to offer them this space so they can all be together as a group and I'm here at all the same so
um that's coming up uh for that um because it's a hybrid classing person but now the second part of the class the second yeah done by Zoom yep U and then Michael alluded to the uh uh we're going
to set we're going to start shopping for an ambulance um the one that will be replaced as a 2014 um you know it's we have a 10-year um rotation on ambulances so um
I've purposely pushed this one off a couple of years years so that there'll be five years between each ambulance so that we're not hitting the townships every 3 years or you know three years we'll buy an Ambiance and then we wait seven and then we buy two in three years
again so push purposely push this off plus I don't have any place to put the new ambulance because that building behind us will not fit the new ambulance um so that's coming up I will start
contacting vendors here uh pretty soon they're about 18 18 months out for delivery so um I would expect sometime 2026 to uh take delivery of that
and hopefully we have a spot to put it um and I'll just touch on that too we did have a uh um conversation with the the new architect that we're using um they've got some preliminary plans put together for us they're starting to
throw some numbers at it uh so we can see where the budget is which is what we didn't have the last time and if it fits within our budget then we'll go into more details and start them on the uh construction documents and that kind of stuff so it is moving forward it's just
moving forward very slowly and and right now we're looking at adding on to the existing fire building um so we'll keep that building the way it is is with some remodeling to it and some uh moisture mitigation so
that stuff quits rusting and then we'll have the the new section of it which will have all the ambulance parking and it'll have the some office space and meeting space kitchen and things like that so when we get further along I'll share some plans and let you guys all
look at it but that's coming up too okay any questions about ambulance um please Logan good to see you see uh just a quick little update
um so made notice I was at the last couple meetings I was at training so um fill you in on that I went to the Cleo and command Academy up in Camp Ripley and I took a lot of information away from there uh to bring it back here and start implementing it you might us see
my email about the accreditation program so we're going to be starting that here soon um officer action is going to be starting K9 school here at the on the 10th uh with K9 Nash so we're very
excited who is just Ador he is he is very adorable haven't seen him yet yeah you'll have to stop by I think he he's be working later on this week um
the squad car is was built on the 24th of last month and it's going through its whole process right now of getting shipped off to another place to get the police features on it we should be getting that probably at the end of this month and then it will be outfitted um
up by St Cloud middle of April so uh probably end of April beginning of May we'll finally have the new squad car um Aaron squad car if you didn't see that email um has had significant issues so
yes we're we're just praying that it will hang on for a couple more months so thank goodness for a good repair guy in town yeah yes honestly um other than that I know what any
questions all right cool thanks for doing that leadership training too yes absolutely um cable commission so I think the highlight of that meeting we met on um February 19th and the uh a representative from the SI
East School Board was there asking for an owl like we have and we didly that's we're going to meet again on the 19th okay sounds good um part we talked
about Parks quite a bit I think yeah we haven't had a meeting okay um I that's all on the agenda to turn all right there's a motion is there a second second all in favor say hi hi I think you can oppose
that so we're Jed still want to try