and start with the pledge of allegiance iedge to the of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation God indivisible with liy um it there approval of the agenda does anybody have anything to
add nothing no all right somebody like to move to approve some motion by Kelly second by Ed any discussion any discussion any discussion all those in favor please say I iose same sign we have an agenda um the consent agenda any questions or anything if somebody would like to move to approve move to approve motion by Ed
I'll second it second by Jenny any discussion any discussion any discussion all those in favor please say I I post same sign motion carried um moving on to new business 4.1 police policy body warn cameras so recently the police chief who is not here because he has his training his police chief training um this week so uh recently the league of Minnesota City's trusted insurance came
down and reviewed some of our police policies um they simply wanted some updates in our auditing when it comes to the police video camage so they also took away from that meeting that uh it's we're doing a really really good job at auditing video and giving feedback to our officers so that was part of the the camera policy um that while we instituted video in recordings for the police officers we also reviewed it for performance hey you know this was unsafe
you might want to change your practice you know it's identifying officers that maybe need more fto training um so that's really the specifics of what we're updating in the policy we were doing audits um but he wants them the league wants them done in a little bit more meticulous way so what does fto stand for uh sorry field training officer thank you it was nice to know that all in all
the League's take on it was that we were doing a lot of things well which is yeah nice it it was more like um when we were auditing um redacting information too that we were putting in the reports so you know blocking out minor names that kind of stuff when we're doing the audit it was really minor things that honestly we would do if someone data requested something but we weren't doing it within our audits so
um so we need a motion to approve the proposed policy motion by Kelly I'll second it second by Jenny any discussion any discussion any discussion all in paper please say I all right post names on all right we have police policy moving on to 4.2 city administr of professional development yeah and on 4.1 too just so the citizens are aware of that policies on on online has been for a while
policies online as well good very good point um so uh we have taken our wastewater treatment plant full circle from the Minnesota DNR and now they want to do some good development opportunities and to get in front of the EPA uh to Washington and this trip is out of the scope of our normal travel policy so I want city council to approve it um based on our research the
registration is only $150 that's not a problem um hotel is about 4420 is500 flights up to $600 for a total of $1,300 um for the budgeted total expenses that's only a really like a three-day trip a day out there we present on a Tuesday and then we come back on Wednesday we get to speak with clob Bashar and Smith when we're out there and get some FaceTime with EPA officials um when it comes to this so um
in total our budgeted in travel right now is 5,000 it was it's 4,000 in training and conferences so and I just wanted to add that this wasn't something you s out you were invited to this after the presentation after the DNR who you be presenting too um it's a small panel committee about rural Wastewater um and those Reliance on
obviously a growing Wastewater problem um so basically it'll be EPA officials mostly and when you say we who do you mean we sorry uh kimley horn or uh engineer will also be there but we don't pay for him yeah engine for that I mean this really is a a lot of really good visibility and publicity for our project and hopefully possible funding stream so I think this is I think this
is a really good investment in sending Michael there to present when is it it is uh it's the first week of April April 6th 7th 8th should be a nice time to be in DC should Springtime not too cold not too so you need a motion for that yes I do I'll make a motion to approve motion by Jenny so a second
I'll second all right so Jing second by down any further discussion any discussion any discussion I do yeah so what do you hope what do you hope to bring back from this yeah it's actually what we hope to bring them so right now we really want to give them a solution to um droughts and continuing to support our ethanol plant and DFA so you know our Wastewater facility will sell four RU problems with Wastewater
facilities and on the back side it'll recycle almost 500,000 G gallons of water back to the ethanol plant so when the ethanol plant's talking about hey we want to expand or we want to do a different project or maybe just maybe they want to get into jet fuel which would be a good sustainable source of income they can't do that right now because the DNR is never going to appropriate more water to them never they just won't um so when built on an
artisian well not to go in depth but our well um has virgin water in it is what it's called and that's what we're pumping out of uh even if Heartland corn products doesn't need all 500,000 gallons every single day we can still filter it enough to actually pump it back into the ground um so those are all options that are on the table so what we're hoping to gain is number one exposure to the EPA staff and to our Senators
and this project if you if you think about it because I've sat in on some of the meetings the surrounding towns that are part of the project like left yet really is going to need to deal with their Wastewater sooner than we do even as a community and the cost is so prohibitive for each Community by themselves that if we could work together it would it would be cost effective in the long run it it's it's a lot of money on the on the up front
but there's a possibility of getting money from state and federal state and federal absolutely you know when we look at you know the rest of the towns around us so right now wi trop is is on the oldest Wastewater permit in the state it's from 1994 it was when the ethanol plant was basically built is when they renewed our permit if if we were going to go into a new permitting cycle there is no way
that our chlorides and potassium that we give back to the waste stream would be permitted so therefore we would have to start treating our water in our ponds which gets extremely expensive it also means that we have to upgrade our license which we currently don't have with our Wastewater people which means you're going to hire an outside company or put them through school to make our permit correct um so there's a lot to that and uh New
Auburn is a great example like they were told by the Minnesota Pollution Control agency is you have to solve your problem you are currently using irrigation to get rid of Wastewater which means they put them in a holding tank and then they sprayed on fields and then those fields are harvested by a farmer for hay most likely right well last year and the year before that it got really really soggy they couldn't Harvest it then they wanted to harvest it but the tank was full so it it's it's a really difficult
problem to solve when you're a small community and how many gallons a day would that put back about half a million about 500,000 we take in about 5.3 million gallons of waste water every day uh depending on flows depending on what the industries are working on um and then we you know separate solids from water
clean filter and then put it back into the Stream So we basically be keeping up with what they need yeah almost that would be almost all of their water needs in one day so really this project has a lot of infrastructure it provides a lot of that but it's also you can look at it as economic development because if e plant wants to expand or do something that
requires more water they can't unless we find a source of water because they are kind of DFA is running into problems they are also yeah DFA is just running into you know old um equipment I don't think that's a surprise to anyone you know so they either have to upgrade their plant or get rid of their plant all together and this solution would get rid of their plant all together they're not Nota but they the Wastewater
Plant good clarification yeah yes yeah the Wastewater Plant no one wants to be in Wastewater anymore it's getting more expensive it is highly technical um especially when you become a mechanical plant there's just different specifications that you really need and you know Industries spend between half a million to a million dollars upgrading supplying staff to I mean it it's getting it's getting overbearing especially with the the
guidelines that are going to be passed down so the um uh surrounding uh communities that you we want to do the streams project with um would they would they be willing to help pay for your trip to DC they actually already put money into a pot they everyone put $25,000 in to start okay to pay for the engineering
engineering okay and so that would come from we can take it from there yeah from that but I think they had planned to send people as well I'm pretty sure that Al from Lafia wants to go oh yeah he really is very knowledgeable he's very knowledgeable be a good good voice okay so um does anybody any further discussion otherwise I will call the motion to approve the professional development
trip all those in favor please say I I opposed motion carried all right um 4.3 private lines insurance this is just informational so I I wanted to get this back out in front of council so you can spread the good word about this um you know since we started this program we've actually had a number of private service lines break again and they're not insured and so it's very expensive to
fix private sewer lines any lateral is not the city's purview that's not our line um so when that happens that organization or that individual you know they have to pay for a contractor to break up the road and go through their yard and find where that private service line is um and sometimes it's not as obvious as you think um and some are tied in together so your
neighbor then has to get involved it becomes very complex um this is not the only insurance program out there um the slwa is approved by the national league of cities and by the league of Minnesota cities but the other homeowners insurance will also do the exact same thing um the rates however are usually not as um what were the rates on here
again uh I don't know if I have it on this one see I honestly I would go to the website to view your individual rates um and even surrounding communities as long as your ZIP code is winr up they they serve as sewer lines they ensure um water lines but they also do septic so if there are people that are in or near winup with an aging septic system this could help potentially help replace their septic
system if it goes non-c compliant so the reason I say that is because we've had a few lines go recently I had a a resident reach out the cost to repair their private service line was over $7,000 and these people did not have the money for a sewer line it's a really unexpected expense um we gave them some additional resources uh but you know the city can't be responsible for every service line in town it's like I said last year had we
done all of the ones that happened it would have been an expense of over $100,000 so it's it's pretty significant we have State Farm Insurance and we added a rider back in November yeah great and last week our main plug fortunately they got through it yeah so it happens especially when it's this cold too you know we haven't had a lot of rain or parti P precipitation in uh the area and that actually is really bad for super L cuz it freezes so because it
freezes easier it's there's not enough going through it it just is not great it's not good for storm it's not good for sewer so I just put it back on the council agenda to remind people that they can go on SL wfa.com or go to our website at winr minnesota.com or winr mn.gov and we actually have stuff under the utility page I'll bring it right to it did the city use to cover that no never okay oh yeah it's been even in yeah you look
like in your you know homeowners and stuff yeah we did Cover a few of them um this last year because it was two private sewer lines but they're paying us back with interest so um but it's something that we normally wouldn't do there are unusual circumstances so that I mean this is informational we we can just put the information out for the I mean we could publicize this and say hey residents win
this might be a really good thing for you to check out yeah and it was in the utility bills again this month I just um but yeah we're just trying to get that out because I mean it's a very minor expense monthly uh you know it's usually about 8 to 10 bucks every month but it really protects you from those unexpected even you know even internal pipes your house your furnace stops and your house freezes they help fix that so good
probably be good to put it out there too that it's not anything that the city is making money on we're just we really not we we get zero Kickbacks we're just giving you yeah we're just giving you a resource okay um 4.4 Personnel policy the on call pay for Public Works you want to give us the rundown yeah I sure will so we currently do not have an uncom policy um Better Label labor
standards really differentiate between two different on calls one is an un call policy where you know you have to stick around the area you can't be consuming alcohol you are basically working but not working at the actual location um our on call policy is the opposite one so our on call policy says go out and do your normal chores have a normal day but you're still going to carry a phone with you just in in case an emergency happens so um during
our labor negotiations um with our Union this really became a sticking point for the unall policy so what we did and devised is almost exactly what flsa standards give us um it is basically um work rated tasks so every week 10 hours gets divied up to whoever is on call that week and that pays for
their their actual on call pay for having the cell phone for having to respond to emergencies but they also do the weekend um run so just in case Council doesn't know Public Works is in wi thp every single day they have to go check ponds they have to check the water towers they do rounds uh and this is kind of the silly part is that we were paying them time and a half on the weekends for 2 hours when it took 30
minutes so basically this budgetarily this was almost the exact same as paying someone 10 hours but now they can split it up so if Tommy wants to take a Saturday and Chris wants to take a Sunday because they have a family obligation or whatever um they can't they can kind of break that up it's easier for us to calculate than the office um there are some stipulations so response time is within 30 minutes so they are expected to be be on call and in our area within 30
minutes when [Music] they're for instance if there's a power outage or something major happens like there was a um a storm sewer collapse on the north side of town this weekend it it wasn't a huge emergency but certainly someone called myself in Troy and said this is what's happening we barricaded it off we'll we'll fix it on Monday there's not much we can do anyway um so those type of things would be addressed by that on call person and they have to
directly contact myself or Troy to call in extra labor so during a power outage if you need everyone all hands on deck they they would be the ones to call us to get that going seem to happen on a weekend always on a weekend can't Happ during that um so then we also gave some specific responsibilities you know they have to do daily rounds they're checking bathroom uh bathrooms in the park um they'll also um you when it's snowing
out and maybe City Hall is not open on a Saturday or Sunday they're still coming by making sure the sidewalks are cleaned off those types of things so they're doing daily tasks during that time as well uh when we ask them to come in we are having them punch in under a different uh time code basically so that we know that it's on call pay you need a motion I yes it does have to be approved change personal policy
motion by Kelly is our second second second by Jenny any discussion any discussion any discussion all those in favor please say I I oppos same sign motion carod all right and I think you know I try to do that all the time but please tell the Public Works people that we do appreciate their weekend and other contributions um 4.5 the resolution appointment to the
Charter commission I'm glad you have names yeah we have names so Dale Angie Wanda and Bob uh have all agreed to be on the charter commission that Charter commission meeting this year is on February 21st it's a Friday I think it's at 5:00 pm um and it'll be um at least half of their I think for most of them the majority of them it'll
be their first Charter Commission meeting so it'll be a learning experience for everyone it's good to have some fresh faces and voices there um somebody would like to make a motion regarding appointments to the Charter commission motion motion by Ed is there a second second second by Jenny any discussion any discussion any discussion all those in favor please say I oppose same sign motion carried 4.6 the resolution appointing Library
board candidates so normally these are done uh during our annual meeting in January that's why you're passing resolutions uh so Jen Isaac and Robert pson Bobby pson um are asked to be on the library board they um absolutely said yes and so we just have to have councel approve them okay it's m working harmony with the board I like the wording of that yeah all right somebody like to make a motion I'll make a motion motion by Martha is there a second second second by Kelly any discussion
any discussion any discussion all those in favor please say I post same sign motion Carri 4.7 USPS parking Elite heal parking give us the scoop yeah so Planning and Zoning went through this month ago uh basically we asked USPS um to put the blue box back out in a area that people could put their mail
in easily um and then we would help them get 15-minute parking for the customers um they were compliant they understood that most of this was due to the Box not being accessible by cars and the alleyway like it having been in the past um so what we're asking Council to do is approve the 15-minute parking for USPS it'll be two slots it'll actually go directly next to the alley where that that one didn't get painted did cuz there was a car there um and then the
one right next to it so basically right in front of the door um it would not be legally enforced just so you know we'll do our best to police it but um it's not a you know handicapped spot which has federal and state backing but um this would be just to kind of identify to people that this is for people that are picking up packages or dropping mail off or mailing something um and then Elite chiropratic the same so when we
vacated parking on the street in front of elite Health Chiropractic in December of 21 we gave him and approved some parking right behind his building kind of in the gravel lot that was there yeah right so when we redid everything uh we never put those signs back out and so uh what we're asking is it'll actually have a specific date and time um on them you know he's not there all the time so we're going to put those
back the two spots directly east of his building so his customers can park there get in and out and in the park in the actual parking lot yeah and any other business that's close by could request absolutely yep so just to not be uh dactic but um so the just two 15 minute spots in front of the post office yes okay yep just two
and then how many spots are there Al together five I believe there are five in front of the post office yeah there's five or six there's six five or six okay yeah I think G has on the highway 15 minute parking to run in and get your mail and they do yeah do it's pretty common yeah okay yeah and it looks I think it looks like it's 5 it's actually six just because we couldn't get that
extra strip B there's a couple of them that were like that so those will get everyone will be striped after they do the yeah once they do the next lift of payment pavement they'll also close down the street and paint and not have the cars there so good and where's the money coming from for those um signs are pretty cheap they're 15 bucks we'll just take them out of the supply line for streets and streets actually has its own budget okay
Y and I'm putting them SS back for Elite chiropractic we we should that's yeah all right somebody like to make a motion regarding parking some Move Motion by Don is there a second second second by Jenny any discussion any discussion any discussion all those in favor please say I post and sign all right just talk faster next time
that's okay um 4.8 building engineering Prospect yeah I wrote that really weird because it's a really weird thing so we're not actually engineering we're asking an architect to look at um placing basically a very similar building that the fire department has directly behind it or on the west side of it I guess that's not really behind maybe on the side of it is a better description um so to double the size um the the main purpose of that would just
be to explore what it would look like to get a building attached to it um but with that we're also asking them to add some Mechanicals so some air circulation um in the old barn so that we can stop having things rust yeah and um some heat and Cooling in both so it's a 10,000 buy so we would be into it for 10 grand
um we do have money in engineering this year for such a case as the ambulance um so we do have that money set aside but you know this would only be the start of that so we would have to come back and say this is how much a total full as built plan would would look like but this 10,000 would give us the basics to see if we even wanted to go forward with it and why do we need this I mean where is
this for we have a fire bar right an ambulance yep well the ambulance is so so we're downstairs back here and we can't do any upgrading with um our backup ambulance because we can't we don't have any place to put it it won't fit anywhere CU our backup is in the building behind it and it's literally door to door to wall okay um you can't even walk in front of it you have to open the door to walk around it to get
in um so that the purpose is to house the ambulance um you know we had uh we had done quite a bit of work with a different company and um they quit listening to us and quit responding to us so we went out to someone else and um to try to get something that we can use and be much more reasonable priced um we've kind of we have vacated the
thought of building a brand new building on a different site um just because of it was cost prohibitive so and this would house this would house both of our ambulances um there would be an an open wash bay um kind of as what we're talking about uh there'll be a couple of offices a meeting room and some small interior uh things so that we can function as a
group so there's no meeting room right now for the Fire Department fire department they would also utilize that for training yep and I would say there's very ambulance meetings are way too tight down there they actually need to move up here it's not a good environment right now this space just I mean I've noticed it because I've tried to schedule meetings here this room is getting really busy that it's it's getting difficult it would be between you know pound and the churches and the
birthdays and stuff this room gets utilized a lot yeah um I think what we're going to do downstairs is just remove the tables and just have chairs we'll be able to get about probably 10 more people in there that way and the future too the the existing fire burn um has a lot of issues it needs circulation um equipment it doesn't get to dry out and how old is the old fire the Fire Barn
20 yeah 25 years yeah 2025 yeah I think it's more I think it's 25 so the mechanical part would be updated for the Fire Barn and the ambulance yeah it would be one unit ideally is what we're trying to get you know there's some some other things going on with the Fire Barn that we don't really talk about but uh you know when we cut in that new step step for the voters uh when was that
this fall you know it the brick on the outside of the building is just falling apart it it literally is crumbling um so there's going to be some things that we're going to have to do in order to even connect the two buildings um including taking that brick off so it stops eroding um so yeah there's there's just some things I mean buildings get old and they get used and well would they look like one building or yes that's the idea yeah they would kind of reskin the old
one so and I think you should address this too but we're trying to look proactively because it's very likely that we would need some small sleeping quarters Y in 10 years you know in five years we may not be a volunteer service anymore you know simply because the we may be legislated away from that um we may lose our volunteer staff you know none of us are getting any younger you got lots of young
kids we have young kids and I tell you that well we'll we'll address that later but but this would be set up to be a regional um Fire Barn then so that someone can stay there on not Regional but it'll be yeah it would be if if the fire if the ambulance became necessary to have a paid staff then they would be able to sleep there kind of like gay Arlington yeah they sleep there they pay
people to be there in that building in case the patri go off yeah and why did they go to that cuz there's no volunteers have volunteers so they have but tur is in very good shape right now compared to a lot more money other agen and our response time is much better than paid staff just CPR on somebody for 20 minutes yeah because that's what's going on in other cities yep well yeah and we cover half the
county I mean we forget how large our ambulance service area for volunteer service we're the second largest territory in the state of Minnesota um and you know we get approached by like Lafayette quite often about can you help us out can you take us during day calls um because they're just not the volunteer service I will say though that a private service or hiring something out is extremely expensive that's why you know last year when we had conversations with the the
townships you know they know what could come down their way because it wouldn't be up to us anymore it would be up to you know Alena or ridg view or whoever is going to staff that it gets very expensive quickly all right somebody like to make a motion regarding the fire ambulance plans I'll make motion I'll second go ahead with it the motion okay motion by
Jenny second by Kelly to um move forward with that planning process any discussion any more discussion any further discussion all those in favor please say I oppose same sign motion carried all right 4.9 mmpa this is um distributed energy so how we we get our energy is from distributive lines and we have to
pay for that so our power plants are across the state of Minnesota some actually in North Dakota now uh and all that power comes through the lines and we have to pay a percentage of that so um if you looked at 2022 rates for DG tariffs they have doubled in the last two years um and so this is just something that we have to approve on our level uh unfortunately we don't get much
say in it how does that affect our rates and I mean what it won't that's why you know that's why we increased our rates 2.5% is because we're trying to keep up with some of these and hedging our bets when it comes to the tariffs that are going to come on and this is uh lines that are are they owned by mm no they're owned by Excel Energy so we're paying to use their line yeah and Great River Energy too I shouldn't say
it's just Excel the lines that are on the west side of us that they just replaced those are actually Great River Energy those are not Excel um and we do tap into those to our substation as well what's uh causing the increase just uh replacement um I think Capital costs they've replace a lot of transmission lines in Minnesota so Kelly is there a second second second by
bed any discussion any discussion any discussion all those in favor please say I post same sign motion carried 4.10 appr local vendor lists this is just um the local vendors that we use and pay so I don't know in 2022 we talked about this as a council um basically basally it's when our normal vendors um and local vendors we use them
we pay them right away so there was times where you know we'd go to Napa and he would get a big laundry list for us and we'd put it in our trucks and then he wouldn't get paid for 45 days because he just missed the council date that's what really this vendor list is for um and to make sure that we prepare checks correctly to council so basically unlik unless um those individuals are not on our vendor lists approved by Council we
don't pay them until until they are all right somebody like to make a motion I'll move motion by Don is there a second I'll second any discussion any discussion I I have a question so um is there a way to like is there a way to look back and say okay so um Napa you know like what you actually
bought from Napa you know what I mean like can you drill down on the invoice yeah or or like um trying to work this correctly um or or they're just normal um doing business type expenses Yep they're just normal you know we have a windshield wiper go out we have um a
tire go out we get it from our local sources okay hydraulic line you know whatever I mean sometimes they can be kind of spendy it's not like us at home where we replace a battery in a car and it cost 150 some of these bigger batteries would be a lot more expansive and we can you can with the accounting system you can find out exactly what yeah and that's what you guys appren claims okay you know so if there's a if there's a charge
for $271 you can find out exactly what okay can can we go in and do that or not can you yes absolutely how through my viewpoint oh were you not there my viewpoint oh he might not have maybe not I don't know okay have we ever talking about this stuff we would have access yep some of that stuff you guys can have Total Access I'll be honest sometimes it's easier just to say hey on this claim yeah what is this can you break it
down for us directed with me no it wasn't at all it's honestly trying find this would you please help me yeah and Heather there Heather's a whiz at just pulling up the receipts so our new accounting system literally drills down we we scan in every single invoice every sing We cannot touch it we cannot change it oh no yeah you can't change it department heads can like like so Ed would know the most because he actually approves invoices for ambulance but we
we we can access mhm okay yep absolutely and maybe that's something we should think about you know we talked about doing some Council Workshop stuff maybe we should do a short little Heather can give us a little workshop on that's all I want now I know and you have to remember your password write it down let me just write the dog travel volunte yeah I know I know and the the G of it would be
okay Julie would do this don't do that do the other yeah I will say the one disadvantage to my viewpoint is that you'd have to remember a lot of the GL categories the general ledger categories but I mean it's doable it's absolutely doable so my viewpoint is the name of it yes it's connected to our actual accounting system good all right so that we were still finishing up four
okay any further discussion okay I will call the motion on the approved vender list all those in favor please say I I oppos same sign motion carried 4.11 resolution membership in the Coalition of Greater Minnesota cities I was going to do their virtual workshop on Friday and then I couldn't so me too I thought we were members of that we are not members of the Coalition of Greater Minnesota City I think we were at one point I see a lot of stuff coming they do a lot of work so
flattering hood is actually the ones that Lobby for the Coalition so for instance the extra pay that came for ambulance this year the 67,000 62 whatever it was 60 some thousand uh that that was lobbied for and and really gone after because of the Coalition um it doesn't include any Metro cities it's cities like us and new WM m is part of the Coalition um and they really go after Ro
fighing so ambulance has been a big kick for them uh so has um some Municipal things when it comes to local government assistance they're the only ones that have moved the needle um on that stuff so they're uh how did I put that in here yes their breakdown so like this first year it's $870 but it gets progressively more expensive till our full membership so if you were looking had that agenda item um you know it does get really
pretty spendy but they have really good conferences the one I did go to in 22 22 or 23 um I would say it was much better than the leag they give you actual Solutions legal recourse um you know they're all lobbyists and lawyers so so you said it starts out at 800 it goes from 870 to the last year's 3482 is it based on population or what yes it
is based on population so the basic membership policy um cities under the population of 35,000 pay a base fee of, 1500 plus additional fees based on the application per capita assessment rate cities with population over 30 that doesn't matter to us uh the due policy is designed to ensure that each City pays appropriate dues relative to the population and size so for the first year new members are assessed just 25% of their total dues the second year
they're assessed 50% and the third year 75 and then the fourth years is full dece so they kind of ease you into it well I think there is a lot to be said for a voice for outstate cities I think we need to work together as much as we can and the other I think good thing about it is we can try it and if we don't think that we got our money wor this year we don't we're not I was just going to ask that is there you can
cancel it at any time yeah so I think it and I would recommend their conference is really good yeah I remember you saying that yeah it was it was very good and they have quite a few that you can access like that have been recorded too just you know one or two hour sort of things so those are good resources also and when things get kind of um you know just like this you know the the house and the
Senate not cooperating and working together and you know how that's going to affect local government assistance and how that's going to affect our funding for some of our projects that we want to get off the ground even rural development funding they're in the mix so they know kind of what's going on at the capital and their emails are really insightful when it when it gets down to it I'll move okay motion by Kelly to then reevaluate it yeah yeah see what we got for it so motion by Kelly to join the
Coalition of Greater Minnesota cities is there a second I'll second it second by Jenny any discussion any discussion any discussion all those in favor please say I I oppose same sign motion carried 4.12 building permits and rates K do you want to go through building permits sure okay I can do that um so there's been some questions on how we
do our building permits um so it starts out with an application looks like this you all have them in your packet oh and it's up there um the individual comes in they grab a building permit if they haven't done an offer online they select which category they're going for um some categories are over the counter permits which would consist of say you're doing a window replacement and you're just taking that window out and putting the
same size window back in that is a flat rate over the counter permit we can issue those and those um we can do those we can do the reroofing the siding any of the ones that you see in like the M area as long as they are not structurally changing any part of the project those are a flat rate of $60 and there's a dollar so charge that goes to the state so they $661 permit if there is
any modifications as far as structural changes you're making the whole bigger you're adding um you're putting two windows with another piece of wood or whatever they I'm not a builder but whatever they put in between the windows that's a structural difference those permits and as well as our over the counter permits go after we have them to our building inspector Darren reviews everything to make sure that Yep this is what it is or no this is not
what it is we need to update something or change something um also if it's a commercial building we cannot do over the- counter permits for those those have to be reviewed by Darren because they are commercial buildings and the building code is completely different uh so once Darren gets it he does his thing I have no idea what he does he's got formulas and knows all the building codes stuff like that when he's done he puts it in a nice little packet drops it in our little
payment drop box we get it this portion of it in the corner is filled out by him we then make contact with the person that asked for the permit advise them of the fees or if there's any differences say they said it was an over the counter and he found out when he went to do an inspection that it was not we call them and say hey this was issued as an over-the-counter but according to our building inspector it is no longer we need additional funds in this
amount but that is basically the just of our building permits um so Darren is a State Certified building con inspector um not our employee he has nine other cities something like that I know he did 600 permits in December in December Alone um and I can tell you only like five to six of those were ours yeah we
didn't have very many so uh there's a couple reasons why we have building code inspectors obviously um you know we want our fire department ambulance individuals to be safe when they're entering buildings um you know go down to New Alm who had a bread and breakfast 10 years ago burned down and people died I'm sure most of you know that story that's because they weren't following building Cod right it's a blatant disregard to code and so when we as a
city um have Darren go out and inspect buildings like the ones we did last year and we say hey the have these have to be addressed it's due to the health and safety of of the city secondly he's licensed to give fees so the one the two things that I added to the file are appendix a and appendix B this was passed in 2022 um it's when the fees increased and it gives you evaluation of how he calculates the bills these are online they're at the office um you can
go through them at your leisure but um it gives you all the mechanical fees it gives you commercial fees it gives you a value based fee um external structures etc etc so he takes these and says hey you know I think your Project's going to take you know $2,000 worth of equipment time money and uh this is how much that's going to cost this is how much my billing code inspection is and
then this is the the Surplus or SE charge that we're going to charge you um then there's other things like reinspection fees you know if he comes out and stuff's not right and he has to come back that costs the resident or Commercial Business additional funds because every time he comes back he charges us so um you know he's just like an any contractor when he's here um doing a job he's charging us every single time um I I know uh that uh you
know some people get really upset that you know hey this wasn't approved in two to three days I'm going to give you just an example so my parents live in M um they live kind of up by the mall they uh had some Ravine damage this last year so they're bu building some stuff and uh they were uh doing kind of like a deck Terrace thing and they submitted a
building code um form actually was their contractor that did that it took three months for the M building code inspector to get back to them so it's not out of the realm um Darren also has employees he has a fire Cod inspector he's got like three other people that work with him and work through these architectural designs and drawings um so it's a hard job I would say I wouldn't it's very Tech techical in nature um he has lots of fights I'm sure with commercial
buildings all the time well sometimes it's not his fault because he's at the whim of the state because if it's state electrical or State Plumbing and it's his permit and his liability so when things are not right and not done correctly under his permitting process you know it comes back on him so so basically they fill out permit we charge what we think is appropriate Darren gets the permit he gives us back what we should be charging we call resident or Commercial Business and they come pick up permit and pay the SE
charge that Darren um Darren in backs so if I came in to get a permit and I looked at this it looked like it would be $61 um it says all 60 plus a dollar Sur charge then I come down here and it's 6225 so I would pay the initial 60 or $62 right away not always no do you wait until it's approved normally we wait until it's approved there are times
where people will say hey we're putting a window in and not knowing building stuff or doors we're going to put new doors in we just automatically charge them the door or window feed um sometimes what we find out is Darren goes there and say well this wasn't just a you know door replacement you put in a french door and built a deck and uh that stuff happens every once in a while but uh generally we don't charge them if we know that it's going to be more than the
overthe counter fee in search charge yeah that's enough so I was hoping the person that brought this to my attention would be here this evening but they are not um but I would like to make a suggestion that maybe this that this form is somehow uh make it a little more easy for somebody to realize that they probably aren't just going to pay the $61 that there is going to be some kind
of an extra fee because I think this person thought that it was $61 and that was it and they were I mean I know it's not a lot more but you know they're like well we were told it was only this amount of money so why do we have to pay more so if somebody's getting a permit say okay it's this is the over the counter charge but there may be a Sur
charge yeah if they would have put the right evaluation on it gr to begin with that wouldn't have happened in this case um and you know the so the form is supplied To Us by Darren it's his form and he will not let us change it Hees it in every city it's a matter of him recognizing where it goes and I will say we used to have like six different permits and that was watch worse it was terrible I will say I remember a few years ago when we tried to you know make sure we were getting a good deal and
everything we we went out we looked at going out to bid we couldn't even find other building inspectors I mean they're they are not easy to find and he is good and he's he's pretty responsive for as busy as he is he responsive and I'm not doubting that and I'm not even doubting that you know there should or shouldn't but you know I'm not questioning whether there should or shouldn't be an extra fee and just think it would be uh good
for the resident to know that there might be an addition maybe the resident needs to ask some questions or I suppose I mean the appendix a and appendix B is available we can you know the remodel applicant valuation that's what they thought um it would cost to replace that the $300 yeah that's what they filled out yep and Darren came along and said
200000 so they probably thought they were going to get buy a lot cheaper than I I think it would be good good practice to as the as we are the professionals we are the city people that we uh bring that up to to somebody coming in cuz you know if if I went and
had to get a permit I I mean I don't know if I would be able to ask all the right questions I think if you had a contractor they would know these people are doing it themselves so they're obviously underestimated yeah yeah no and and I get that and I'm not arguing that point at all I'm well what if we just had the appendix a and appendix B printed and available for people to pick up you know the other thing we could do we could just wait till Darren gives us all the permits
back and says yep over the counter nope not and just make people pay at the yep so I mean either they can trust us to do it correctly when we ask them are you taking a window out and just putting it back in or are you structurally changing it mhm and if they answer that question and then Darren goes there and finds out nope they structurally changed it mhm I mean we do ask those questions but sometimes people don't know
themselves right and like that just waiting until Darren sends us back for a note I had one this week that I sent to him and said hey according to what this plan looks like it looks like they are just popping windows out and putting them back in but I want you to confirm that that's what you're seeing too he came back said yep over the counter let it go okay so I mean so you're saying we would just not people could come in and request a building permit but they're going they wouldn't pay it until and
they couldn't start the project until they get it back yeah that's the problem is that well they can't really start the project until what's that but with the over the counter yeah they it's an immediate permit but now they can't I got to do it I think which if you break a window siding falls off normally you want I think people wouldn't be very happy if they wanted replace a window and they have to wait even 3 or four days much less three
weeks and you know you don't know what his workload is either so you're at the mercy of that too it could be 2 3 weeks before I get a yeah that should be an over the counter permit yeah so when you give them the permit can't you or when they come to get this can you attach that appendix would you say A and B to it and have them look at it and say here and now they see that and if they come back and they still put $300 down as their valuation and Darren comes back and says it's 2,000 well you have the appendix A
and B mhm so let me ask you kind of a well so I'm assuming that the $300 was the cost of the actual window that's what I and I would assume I don't really know and they they didn't think that they should because the $2,000 to me that's got that's got labor in it I Y I mean I bought a eress window and it was you know 500 bucks or whatever it was but I think the building permit just
assumes that is part of the value even if you're providing lab right and I that has a value when you're looking at the finished project that's interesting I would thought that do we have a lot of distance you know issues no there's like few and far between and one offs some you catch some you don't it just I mean it almost exclusively happens when residents try to do it themselves to be completely honest contractors kind of know that
game and they kind of know what's going on well what what if we would just have printed appendix a and appendix B there and available people can come in and grab this they can take the more information if they want that way still be available to get the same day permit you know if you have somebody who's doing a a project themselves and they want to get it done I think it's nice to be able to yeah I wouldn't allow them to have wa I don't I think that's what I mean the over the counter I think was
most of the building code people saying if you're just replacing a window please just go do it please do it and we'll inspect it later on I think it it's one of those things where you know a hail storm comes through yeah you just want to get the windows back in right so yeah we do indeed let's not go through so yeah whatever Council wants that's why it's on the agenda we'll do whatever it doesn't matter to us if it's not an issue that's popping up quite often and I think that it is a learning curve it is for me too I mean right now
jeez I have to rethink we place my two doors now sorry about that okay so that was information unless anybody has any drun and felt things that we should adjust we'll move on to 4.13 ambulance billing companies you want to take that one too go for it
okay so we are currently with expert billing and we had a couple of the people that service our account now this is like ambulance goes on a run they come back they submit everything they did to a system and we have a third party biller so the third party biller staff sat down and had a meeting with the Vice Captain of UL and I and told us that they were working on getting our account
better and having more attention to what we needed and sending us more reports and all these things that they were going to do they also informed us that they had no longer been doing our Collections and hadn't been doing it for probably a year which we had no idea so we left the meeting feeling like they were going to send us all the things we needed we could get everything back under control and it would all be great fast forward a week or
two still no reports they were supposed to do training with our ambulance to help our ambulance crew understand what things should be in the correct me if I'm wrong dead Ed but like the details or the N thank you that's word got to the night of the meeing knowing answer from the guy he was supposed to link in and train
them so at this point we had felt that we were being ignored again still so I went out and I started asking other cities who they're using for the third party billing I also come to find out that the current one we have is subject to a lawsuit by the city of red Rochester red wi red a bigger city so after finding that out I had reached out to Metro billing who is used
by another city that is around our same size um Metro bilding is based out of South Dakota North Dakota North Dakota North Dakota um and they are a billing service that was built out of their own they had their own ambulance they saw there was a need so they do all of the billing for a bunch of smaller agencies because that bigger AG is like a line and they have their own billing people within their
system so we set up a meeting with them and the Vice Captain and I asked all the questions you know how do we submit to you how does it go do you handle our collections or do we do you send us reports got all of that information done it is a very similarish system to what we have so there's not going to be a whole lot of change but it is a little bit cheaper by
like two bucks a report and their turnaround time of getting us reports is a lot better speaking to the people that actually use this billing company right after I got done with that meeting I got an email from the people who had sat down with us to meet with us from our current company and said hey we're forming our own company do you want to come over so we would like to go with Metro
billing starting March 1st and the Vias captain and I think we can have everything ported over by that time how many cities do they have in Minnesota um they have told us I'm call Olivia Hector not sleepy ey but it's down there spring Springfield thank you um they've got like 10 in our area well like southern
southwestern cities you know they're similar in size yes yep and how long have they been doing this since the beginning they've been billing their own bills since they started a decade 19 yeah for over a decade they've been helping in Minnesota Yep this is the new company mhm yep they do the collection they don't but we're set up to do collections yes so they will send our stuff all we have to tell them is which collection agency we use they will send
it to them but we're in charge of working with them okay so they're kind of involved but not involved um they will not collect any they will not cash any of the money but they do have everyone send everything to them which actually takes some work off of me because right now I take all the money and then I have to report it to expert wait for their person to actually look at the report that I sent them and we're getting some some of the statements I'm getting
back from them or from customers are I've already paid this I paid this two months ago why is this still in the system well it's because of the way that they're communicating with us yeah or our customers that say you know I've already submitted this to my insurance and they've already paid it and they're still billing me we've had a couple of those in the last couple months I have been trying to get a report for the DHS system out of them for 2 months and I still don't have
it and they are the only ones that hold the records they're fired yeah I think to change that do we have to commit to so many years or you no no all right what your wish is Council I say we I make a motion by second by Martha to go Metro Building Services any discussion any discussion any discussion all those in
favor please say iose son Carri committee updates Michael I don't have a ton um we did meet with region 9 today about some of the um projects that we're working on and how they can help and integrate with us um I know that Sly county has kind of had a couple cities work with uh region N9 recently um on the Eda standpoint you know we're just starting
our new round of facade grants we haven't had any applications yet but that went really well um I guess the big announcement is that we are hiring u a business coach and Mentor through our grant through the southern Minnesota initiative Foundation that's again between us gibon and Fairfax um that person will be basically the touch point for all entrepreneurs um within our region so we just put that ad together it'll be in the newspaper for fair of accent winr up
the next couple weeks um we hope honestly to have that person kind of in place by March April uh group is pretty excited about it that's pretty exciting so the grant will take care of the first year salary then and then going it'll be up to the cities to pay after that if we decide to keep them yes can you apply for Grant again sure can gonna ask that yeah the good thing
is is you know with our reputation um and our group was um excited because we got to we're speaking at the Sprout event I think I told you guys that last meeting um you know Smith is pretty happy with the way we've been reporting and progressing we've got a new website that we're launching for rev really soon it's an economic development geared towards entrepreneurs like who do we contact and what kind of things do we need in our community um so that is
launching hopefully in the next couple weeks also uh we really wanted to have the the coach on board to look at the website suggest any improvements um or anything that they would do differently before we launch but we might just do it um but it's a really One Touch to go from Fairfax to win up to given it's all on the same website you know some of it links out to like our own individual Eda programs but um yes I think that there
will be multiple opportunities to continue the grant good all right um let's see we'll just move down fire Adam's not here do we have anything going on no not anything like can uh Library Martha so we um had a library board meeting on January 21st at 8:00 in the morning down in the
library and um there was Terry shoy Lynn drink all Audra Julie creger Bob Morland and I were there it's a cold morning that morning um the I think the main thing uh we talked about was instead of having an 8:00 in the morning meeting we're going to move our meetings to the 3D Monday at 5:00 okay it just works better for
everybody and because the third Monday of February is President's Day um we're going to have a work session next week and then our regular schedule meeting will start on March 17th good 500m we talked about grants and and I guess people didn't realize that you had to apply for
Grants um in order to get a grant it has to be like eight weeks out of the event through TDS so that was discussed and then we discussed people that might want to be on the board and Jen Isaac's name had come up I didn't know about Bobby Paulson then but that's great um yeah so that's that's thank you PA you got anything
from Troy the only thing that I will say there's um you know there was just some some work that has to be done we're still trying to get insecure um some quotes for Grant Street to get um paved this upcoming spring it's a really small project so we're trying to find companies that have work around here because it will offset some of those traveling costs um so we've been kind of contacting Hutchinson and new Al and trying to find
someone our company that's doing um the park project isn't going to have a lot of tar most of its cement work so um so we're still trying to find that that we're ignoring that but we're still trying to find a company that's doesn't have such a large um fee to come up here the mobilization fees are I mean some of them quoted as 10 to 15,000 just to come here and that I mean that's outrageous anyway uh so we're working on that and
then um other than that uh the Public Works has just been busy really cleaning up I will say the shops are looking really good they've got electric kind of hammered out they know what they're doing this spring so they're ready to go all right um Planning Commission Michael you again they have that meeting actually next week on Thursday at 5:00 p.m. all right um RS fiber we met um Thursday
January 30th um there wasn't really much to report we had the RS fiber Cooperative a representative came and um addressed the group they are um you know they had a press release last fall um saying that they were looking at selling um they're they're still looking at it but there's nothing there's nothing going going on right now I mean they're they I'm sure there are discussions going out but they're they're still fully functional
and um they're dealing with their parent company sure as in HBC and maybe looking for other possible buyers or there's I mean they said there's a there's a possibility they would like to stay um solvent if they can work that out so um it was rather a lengthy meeting a lot of discussion um that was about it we didn't really take any action at all there wasn't anything to except that we'll be asking each City to contribute
$200 just so that the joint Powers board can pay the league of Minnesota City's insurance that we have to pay as a joint Powers board so um that was that was about it again a long meeting um utilities anything there no Okay ambulance what you got for us said so uh we just completed our refresher uh em2 refresher this weekend and that was uh
about half of our crew we we're split every other year um so it's a 24-hour class where you sit and listen to Somebody talk and get to play with some stuff and whatnot anyway hours and one sitting it's two days it's Saturday and Sunday I don't know I was think getting watching somebody sit there for 24 hours yeah it's you know there's some independent study time that goes into it
things like that as well so no no um so we finished with that um so everybody is back certified again um I'll be attending the pipeline meeting uh the car's pipeline meeting that's coming up uh 21st I think it is 19th it's that week yeah sometime that week um and basically what that is is we uh all of your
Regional all of our regional pipeline um operators are there um giving you some safety information and kind of going through how to identify what's in the pipeline and uh what to stay away from etc etc so I've attended that several times and it's it's an interesting night um and then our uh Mt class that's going on up uh here is going very well I think
we're at week number coming up to week number five um and it's been really fun uh I've been here every night uh doing some co- teing and some helping with the instructor because it is a very large class she's absolutely shocked that we've that there's that many people in the class do you guys do it when the kids have basketball and stuff um is there like a t or video or something so she will just go go back and so most of their work is online and if you know the
basically we do the the technical stuff in the classroom so and we go back every week and do some of that same technical stuff so they they eventually get it all in there um yeah so that's going really well um the few of the kids of uh kids sorry few of the uh the recruits have made made a couple of their 10 required uh uh patient contacts so it's that's been fun
watching they do uh Hospital ER hours or not um they don't offer that anymore like when you and I took the class that was so helpful it was yeah well you spent a 12-hour shift at the yard saw I mean I was at M and I was very busy y m I was at M as well but so they don't is of don't offer that right now that's it's not a requirement it used to be a requirement in the class actually I me I just think instead of yeah and I think
if we don't if we don't have enough patient contact I think there's a way that she's going to figure it out so that they can get patient contact but yeah it's it's been fun watching them learn and um their seriousness from night one to night four was was very dramatically different so yeah it's been good that's about all I have for you it's a good showing for
ambulance yeah yeah yeah it really is supporting them yes how many people are in the class uh there's 25 total um and how many went through there's 11 from winr so two of them are taking the bridge class okay which is EMR thank you I was going to say ECA but that would really dated me EMR to EMT okay um and then we've got
nine no I'm sorry we have 10 in the class and then we have one taking an online class so I have to write a state of the city thing for the paper so I think the ambulance is going to get a little a little recognition go yeah all right and you know what I I do think that um you have on a Thursday night you know in the next four weeks you should come up and oh that's a great idea say hi to them what time do they meet they start at 6:
and go go till 9 9:30 and then I want to sold 6:37 or yeah yeah whenever you want to bring it up yeah so and Krist McHugh served them supper last Thursday and jeno is going to bring up supper coming up one time it won't be this week but next week yeah because it gets to be a long time it's a long time just scho right and you can think better when food okay I'll be in touch about that that's
a great idea thank you for suggesting that um let's see so after that is police Logan's not here I have a few things okay let's hear uh so he just so you know he's at Cleo training this week so he'll be gone all week um the police have done the required VR training for their new tasers um so they actually have a VR headset that trains them now that came with our new taser system uh they got a donation of $2,100
from the national I don't it was the national County government helpers I don't remember their name but they're getting active shooter equipment uh worth $2,100 so basically like they're in GO bags it's full plate armor um instead of the small vest that they have we got it completely free so that'll be in all three of our units uh warrants and arrests are up I will tell you that last night was a long night for the witer police department it's called
hatrick it's it's called a hatrick so that's what I should get him oh he gets free food for me but three R Us One car that's pretty good yeah three r one car so um they've been very very busy it's great to see uh tasers are coming in very soon uh I think they're actually here um I think they were delivered but we just don't have them not everyone's trained so we can't use them yet and then uh our K9 unit goes to training March 10th uh and then that's a um
depending on how well they do it's a six we training program so which I love more training the officer than it is the canine it absolutely is yeah it's training the human to do it correctly uh versus the dog the dog kind of already knows what to do and if you haven't met Nash yet um he is a great K9 unit I think he's going to serve the residence over thre up really well he doesn't like me I mean like I said he's a really good
judge of character you didn't think we were going to let that one fly did you no lie smart do hey now another think Micha I think the mutually gor what is working out very very well was they need help we help we need oh good that's right and I know our our squad's been going over into giving quite a bit lately too just it's just there's a lot of stuff that we don't see um as city council
maybe even our residents but you know when when help is needed our officers are not hesitant to go help and I think that's a great culture to build it's taken a little while but you know between Gaylord um and Gib uh we we go to help um we're there to help them I know they've been paged to lafette a couple times this last month as well um so yes we we're taking care of residents we have a great Police Department we do excellent Police Department would much rather have things like that happen we
don't have to know about them yeah because when we do know about them then that's what it's bad yeah and gaylor's been helping us too I don't want to make it some it's all us RJ and officers over there have done a great job coming over to help the whole agreement to help all is working out well yeah which is just a good example we should all try to combine our resources and do what we can um C commission Martha that's also you so we had a meeting on Wednesday
January 22nd at the gay Library um we had a special guest the Acting gfw Superintendent Kelly Smith was there um kind of telling us what they're looking for as far as I believe they call it the last mile cable uh to go to the new school um all the represent the two repres representatives from Gaylor Gibbon and winre were there as well as Wade Warner
uh very interesting I learned a lot that night um as I am continuing to learn uh they did elect or make a motion to keep the current officers and I'm going to be the treasurer um now and we decided that think the other main thing is we just in the past they had just given out grants to all of the
schools or whoever kind of wanted it there was a set amount and we're going to make the entities apply and yeah we're going to give you the grant but tell us what you want to use it for so I just think that for the cities to use also um for the schools for the school they're supposed to well they have some of them when I was on cable they when they got them money they have to send back to us what they use that money for and they and they did like like the Lutheran schools
that we gave to they would tell us what they Ed that money for gfw I think did some updates and that's what their money was used for so but we we'd like to have them own it a little bit and say Hey you know we we we're going to use the money for this or we'd like to use the money for this so good yeah and that's really it our next meeting is going to be Wednesday February 19th okay and last committee is Parks Don
Park committee hasn't met have they not this not picked out colors and stuff no I didn't even know about that one not since that DS color meeting that was Michael's fav I will say that the contracts have been signed we did have a pre-construction meeting for the splash pad and some of the storm upgrade improvements in the park uh so they cross your fingers weather dependent they should start in late April early May um we are getting ahead of them to
make sure that our electric can handle um it we want to do some changes there um so that uh we don't have to do so much underground work Troy is working on that and um they should be open by the third week in June it should be done so it'll take them about eight weeks that would be exciting all right um anything else that covers the list
like it it's time to move to so thank you