I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for
which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Would the clerk please call the roll?
Councilperson Axtman. Here.
Larson. Here.
French. Here.
Crowder. Here.
Full roster today.
We've got stuff to chat about.
So, in your packet is the agenda for today's meeting.
I'd entertain a motion to adopt with a couple of changes.
The changes being, let's move public comment above the public hearings.
And then we're going to move item 14E to right under public comment.
And then we'll continue with the rest of the agenda.
Does anyone have any issues with that?
I'll move.
Second.
Okay, so we have motion made and seconded to approve the agenda with two changes.
Is there any discussion?
Okay, hearing none, all those in favor?
Aye. Aye.
Aye. Aye.
Okay, also in your packet are the minutes from the August 13th meeting.
I would entertain a motion to approve.
I'll move. Second.
Okay, motion made and seconded.
Any discussion, additions, deletions, corrections?
Hearing none, all those in favor?
Aye.
Aye.
Okay, motion carries.
So, public comment, Bob, I'm going to let you go first since I told you you could go first.
I'll just give you the floor.
Thank you.
I'm the chairman of the Dennis County City County Airport Commission.
We have five members, three are county appointed and two are city appointed.
I'm city appointed.
The other city appointee is Jesse Cole who informed us and actually got a formal letter of resignation last night.
So, what brings this up about is last week I got a text from our secretary who said that we needed to come up with three names to present to the commissioners to replace Jesse Cole because he had told her that he was leaving.
So, I went down and talked to Kristy at the courthouse and she informed me that, no, Jesse was a city appointee and it was up to the city council to appoint the new commissioner for that.
Coming into discussion of this, I asked Kristy why the most logical choice for a member on that board who would be Charles Trower wasn't on that because every time we have a meeting and something comes up, there's a question we need to ask Charles.
And I was informed that he could not be on the board because he takes a wage from the county of $163.75 to be Airport Manager.
And what that does is he does the mowing and plows the runways and jobs that no one else would do for that little money every month.
Anyway, she said if you don't think that's right, go talk to Logan.
So, I went down to Logan's office, well he wasn't there, but he called me back yesterday and he gave me an opinion that in small communities like this, sometimes things like that can be overlooked if, for example, an appointee who had a conflict of interest like that would abstain from voting
or anything that had to do with his particular job or wages.
So, that's why I'm here to get an opinion from Ben and to put that name forward to you guys.
Well, I've had zero time to research this and quite honestly, I'm not sure on that.
I guess I don't have a real good feel. I mean, obviously, what Charles does for a living, but I don't know how much.
Well, I guess I would just ask you, how much is the board taking up that would financially impact Charles' pay or, you know, services, pay services rendered, anything like that?
I mean, what happens? I mean, I know he mows and stuff like that.
He has the title of Airport Manager. It's 163.75 a month. That's also what we pay our secretary. You know, it's a pittance, but we go up and, you know, helps, I guess.
Because they ran into that in, I think it was Glasgow. Well, it came up anyway.
One of the landfill or city public works employees wanted to be on the council and it was a whole thing.
They actually got elected and there was either an A.G.'s opinion or actually a court case over it.
But they said you couldn't do both. You know, you couldn't be on the board that then supervises the job.
So again, I haven't looked into it necessarily and I don't know what Logan was looking at either, but I think that would be somewhat problematic just off the cuff, even with, I don't know.
Although I'm wondering though, was that the council that he was on or if he was the mayor?
He was elected council.
He was elected council.
Do you remember what I'm talking about?
It was in Laurel.
Laurel. Okay, there you go. Yeah.
So, yeah, I mean, I guess I don't, I couldn't give you a solid enough answer, I think, for the council to make a decision at this meeting.
I think that's an appropriate choice as far as people go.
Like I said, this is your decision. You have to appoint someone.
You have to find somebody.
Yeah.
And it doesn't have to be someone that's involved in aviation.
Yeah.
Although it helps.
Yeah.
And as I said before, as I said from the beginning, the most logical choice in the entire county, of course it has to be from the city.
Yeah, I guess I just, I guess I just asked the council for a whole time to research that and I can talk to Logan too.
Yeah, I mean, if it's workable, I mean, I'm a city attorney, I just give them the outer boundaries of what's already done and then wherever you guys want to go in the middle, it's fine with me.
I don't have an opinion on that.
Yeah, as far as, you know, like I said, it gets a wage for that.
Do we have any supervisory, as the airport commission, do we have any, you know, supervisory, we don't, we don't even know what he does other than I know that he does.
Well, and that's the other.
Yeah, do you guys, do you know, he gets paid through the county, but is it the county commissioners that are actually like setting the pay in stuff or is that something that you guys, that's what we talk about.
We actually, I think I've been on there about 20 years and I think they started off at $125 a month and over the 20 years they've got to raise all up to 163.
But I guess my question is, is that something that you guys approve the raises or is that all going through the commissioners?
I guess I'm not.
I think that we made the, probably made the recommendation, but it probably had to be approved by the commissioners.
Yeah, well, and that's where I'm kind of where I'm going here, just talking, thinking out loud, is if the commissioners are actually the ones responsible for the hiring, firing and whatever else of that employee, then there may not be an issue with him serving on the board,
because he's not really supervising himself.
The other thing that you might be able to do would be turn that position into a contractor position instead of being a W-2 employee.
And then I think that abstaining sort of thing, you know, might be more workable, but I'd have to look into it a little bit to see.
But I will do that.
All right.
Well, I'll leave it to you guys then.
Yeah.
Or we'll find someone.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Because you said that John Machart, Tanner Trower, they're a hard no, you know, some of the other.
Both of those are a hard no.
Yeah.
And you don't have people coming to your meeting and saying, next one off, I want on.
Yeah, no.
That's typical.
It's probably a board that most people don't even know exists.
You know, actually we spend a lot of money, you know, it's expensive to run that airport.
Well, every year we pass, we approve paperwork for grants from, don't even know where they come from.
Hardly know where they're going.
We just know there's somebody's doing the leg work to keep grants coming for that place.
Because it's got to come through the city and the county.
So, you know, 50 grand a whack it seems like.
You guys are getting, and bigger at times.
Yeah.
I think we get 150,000 a year from the FAA alone.
And it's nothing to, you know, a little minor runway repair project out there.
Half a million dollars.
Yeah, but we need it.
Yeah, absolutely.
Okay.
Okay.
Thank you very much.
Yeah, thanks Bob.
We'll hopefully have something for next meeting or so get that spot filled.
All right.
Thank you.
Yeah, thanks.
Okay, since we're still on public comment.
Is there any other public comment?
Yeah, we're going to get to you, Matt.
Oh.
Okay, so the usual suspects are here.
So, okay, Matt.
So the next item is 14E
under the streets and alleys.
So trees on Timon Street, but it also involves an East West running alley.
That's item D.
Was it?
Oh, southside.
Yeah.
D&E.
So anyway, that's, that's what we're going to talk about right now.
So, Matt, let's talk about the alley.
Well, first and foremost, I apologize for creating this drama.
I did not intend that to happen in one bit.
We were just speculating on what we were doing with our lot and then realized that the alley runs right through our yard.
So, I honestly don't care how you guys do it.
I'm not pissy one way or the other.
As far as the alley goes, the only thing that I'm, I don't care if you run through that driveway after you dump the garbage.
But it's just in the winter, I don't usually plow it.
And then I might have something parked there and then it's a pain in the butt.
So I just don't want to create conflict.
So that's why I told my wife to have you move the garbage across the road again.
I don't care.
We were given the O.K. to drive the truck through the greenhouse because we cleaned the snow there.
Oh, okay.
So, however you guys want to do it, I don't really care.
[inaudible]
As far as what you're going to do with the alley, now if we can leave alone, I don't care.
But I don't like having people have stuff over my head either.
So, if that's your decision to put the alley in, then so be it.
I'm not pissed one way or the other.
I would just recommend do the whole thing so it's there all the way down to that three blocks or whatever.
Yeah, it's out of the way.
And just get it done if that's what we're going to do.
Yeah.
So to put this whole thing in perspective for the council, the, you know, the house that Stentoft's
own south of their main house, the White, let's, the Kilian House.
So about six feet from the south side of that house is actually where the alley's supposed to be.
So instead of 25 feet south, the alley that we're currently using is actually owned by the Jensen's
and a locate was called in when Matt was looking for sprinklers and Steve found the one peg
and couldn't find the other one.
Well, then after looking at a map, he went to the north.
And sure enough, he had found the south peg and the north peg was right in the middle of the yard.
That is an established grass yard that Matt owns.
My biggest issue is our history of issues with Lori Jensen and that family.
We are currently driving on her land and using it as a city alley.
One correction there, Mayor.
It's actually Chris Jensen.
Chris Jensen.
Yeah.
He is.
He's full owner.
The official owner.
Okay.
Perfect.
Lori is still the one doing all the communicating with us.
However, my stance was, I don't want to create a whole another.
What's the addition or the grits addition issue when Steve and Paul and I were over there.
Two weeks ago or whenever it was now, I said, we just need to make this alley right and do all this right once and be done with it.
And that's, that's my opinion.
I, like Matt said, I don't want this held over my head that we're driving on this Jensen land.
Because if all of a sudden we go to haul Garbage or go to do something and all of a sudden we show up and there's barricades there.
Now, you know, we're going to have to figure, figure something out.
Not saying that's going to happen, but so that's, that's my position.
I can actually fill the Council a little bit because I had communications from both Chris and Lori.
Lori sent me a text message, but Chris actually called me the one evening or whatnot.
And he couldn't be here because he's farming, but he wanted me, I guess, to pass along to the council.
Like, he owns the property now.
He's obviously been around for the city's long time battles back and forth with the Jensen's as their land pretty well encircles the whole town.
He has no interest in continuing that on and he pretty well just wants to be good neighbors with the city because he's going to own all that land for the next 40 years or until he's dead.
So whichever comes first.
So that being said, you know, he did point out that the current alley is actually on their property.
He had no plans to, you know, start a big thing over it and he really doesn't care that it's there.
His thing is, is as far as like as getting into the trees that are in the right of way.
His perspective is, you know, when the grits addition issue was happening, they were told they couldn't plant anything in the right of way.
And those streets were developed and they had to work around it or whatever else.
Now he's got somebody else that's planting things in the right of way and they would appreciate just being treated basically equally.
Because they, you know, they lost out on the farmland that had been farmed for years up there, you know, basically without any issue.
Nobody brought it up and then it was a whole thing.
And Chris doesn't really want to make a big thing out of it, but obviously, you know, Lori is pretty upset about it and he's got to deal with her too.
So they are, you know, I guess united in that front.
He was very, he was very polite about it, but he did point out like he really doesn't want to get into or end up kind of where things have been.
He kind of feels like this is a good opportunity for a fresh start, but he does expect the city to act consistently on whether, you know, people can use those or not.
Or can you plant stuff in there or not, you know.
So would he entertain selling that, I don't know what it would be, how many feet by how many feet long?
Did not talk about that, could. That's what happened.
I was unaware it was before my time, but apparently they bought that stuff behind Hersel's.
That was actually the same thing that the alley was put in on Jensen's land.
They had to survey it, yeah, and they sold that off.
So these alleys that we're discussing now were actually bought in 2006 from Lori.
Oh, really?
and Ken can, yeah. Not the one that we're driving on now, but the one that goes through Matt's yard.
That survey was from 2006 and that's the city bought that 20 feet off the end of that.
Interesting. I wonder how things got moved over.
I wonder how things got moved over.
At least they didn't build on top of it.
Yeah, so that was in 20, and actually where that land is we're driving now, we have a utility easement on it
because there's a water line that runs over there.
Oh, okay, about right.
So anyways, from Chris's perspective, he doesn't have the time or the energy to engage in a bunch of battles with the city
and it's just not worth it to him, but that being said,
I mean, they're well aware of where they're sitting at,
and yet they would encourage the council to whatever rules are going to be set that they've applied to everybody equally.
Okay, so I know Matt's talked to me a couple of times about, you know,
if we end up developing that alley, he's going to have to move a fence that the previous homeowner built as,
you know, there'll be a handful of other things that would have to happen.
Bushes would have to be removed, but that's what I'm wondering.
Is that my responsibility or is that going to be on the city when they develop their alley?
The city would probably have to put it in,
because that was put in the right of way, whatever damage happens happens,
and I don't believe the city has to pay any sort of compensation for anything that's lost.
I'm not worried about the compensation, I just don't want to have to dig out the bushes.
Sure, yeah.
So you'd be fine with the city having to dig out the bushes,
and if they want to move my fence, that'd be great too.
We'll compromise, we'll do the bushes, you do the fence.
But I don't know, I'm under the, if they're fine with leaving it alone,
and then selling us that, I mean, then they don't have to change anything in their operation,
we become the rightful owners, it would hopefully solve any issues for down the road.
I would be in favor if the council allows to have Ben re-approach the landowner
and ask if there's a way we could just do it, and then it's done, and then we could,
since we already have, I didn't realize there's water under there, Steve, so.
You know, I mean, we got, I think, enough grounds to ask if they'd be willing to sell it, so.
Yeah, and we did not discuss that, it was mainly focused around the trees.
That was the priority discussion, and then the alley was kind of secondary,
but I'm happy to do that, and full disclosure, Chris and I have been friends for 30 years.
I don't think that changes anything that I've said here today,
but you know, everybody can take that as you will.
Sure, yeah, we'll use you for the next four months,
assuming you move on to bigger and better things after the first of the year, so.
I don't know, Ben, I'll ask you again, that's, are you, this isn't an agenda item,
but it would be continuing talks from a conversation that they initiated with you,
are you, do we need to add this to the next agenda to give you permission to call in about purchasing?
No, I don't think so, yeah, I mean, if that's what the council wants,
I don't have any real action for you, I'll just reach out,
and I'll come back with a yay-nay, or whatever it happens to be.
Sure, so.
It'd be like a 30 by 150 foot chunk is what it would be.
So, how much, like, are we talking about?
I don't know.
Hm?
That should be included in the budget, probably.
It might have to be a next year purchase, if we're going to have to survey.
Well, and then would the city be selling its current alley to,
well, can we even abandon the alley?
I heard there's a question about that.
Well, can abandon it or are, what about moving it?
Yeah, maybe.
That would be the whole purpose would be to move it to its current location.
You know, again, how this whole thing happened was from 20 years ago, you know.
Those bushes have been there at that house, as far as I can remember.
I think it's been since that house was built, because whoever landscaped that yard the first time,
put them timbers out.
Those railroad timbers look like they've been there.
Yeah, they're past the alley, so I'd say whoever put those in there, that's when I...
I wonder if they went out and found the pin and just found the wrong one.
That math adds up.
I bet that's right.
Yeah, and then just assumed.
Because that one pin is right there in the middle of that last bush.
Anyway, it sounds like there's a fair amount of wrinkles that might need to be ironed out.
Well, that's one thing.
It's like if we develop that alley, that's going to have to be budgeted in, too.
Yeah, gravel.
You're going to have to bring in a base and put gravel.
I mean, it's not like something that's going to happen right away.
It would probably be cheaper to just buy what's there and leave it and slowly improve it over time.
Okay, well, that leads us to the next item.
I guess the trees on Timmons Street again.
I'm under...
I am still under the opinion that we remove those five trees.
I believe is it five trees, Steve?
It's five little trees, and then I think there's two of the bigger trees.
If we were to move out of the hole right away, one of the bigger trees would be where the boulevard is.
But we're finding the trees on a boulevard, right?
I mean, we know everybody else can plant trees on a boulevard.
It'd be just where the street actually goes.
Between the three, you know, go and go 13-6, and that would be boulevard, you know.
It'd be treating everybody fairly.
You know, we made them stop farming the street.
Yeah, we need to have it across the board.
We can't let it do for all, not just for one.
Yeah, and I do.
So I've been over there a couple of times.
I do, you know, she's really improved that area.
It kind of stinks to tell her she's going to have to move a couple of trees, but, you know, it's just...
At this point, it is what it is until we either decide to develop the street or abandon the street,
but for now, I think we just move the trees.
Yeah, and I don't think you'd probably ever be able to abandon it,
because in order to do that, all of the adjoining property owners have to agree to abandon.
Sure, Jensen's clearly are not going to do that.
So I think that's pretty well just a non-starter at this point anyway.
Obviously, people can change their positions as times go on.
It goes on, but...
Does any of that street go into the Smoke Creek adjoining property,
just to the northern, eastern-most edge of it?
It doesn't even go into the City Limits line.
It stops before City Limits ends.
Looking at the survey.
Sure.
Okay, well, this is an agenda item,
so I'll entertain a motion that we have those trees removed that are on Timmins Street
that were put in by the Prairie Pebbles.
That in the street right away?
Or are we including the Boulevard?
No, only the street.
The street right away.
Yeah, we're going to leave the Boulevard ones.
Yep.
Is that clear enough?
This is kind of a unique one.
There's directions.
I don't make sure it's a clear enough motion.
Okay, so I'd entertain that motion.
I'll make a motion to remove the trees that are in the street right away.
Okay, motion made.
I'll slacken it.
Motion made and seconded.
Any further discussion?
Did she plant these trees before she talked to you, Steve?
No, she talked to me first.
Can we be planting somewhere else?
Yeah, she'll probably just trees now and put them somewhere else in her property.
Okay, any other discussion?
Okay, hearing none, all those in favor?
Aye.
Okay, I'll reach out.
She's been in communication with me this morning,
and so we'll always go to her when she gets back.
Okay, that includes that.
We will now move on to the public hearings.
So at this time at 8.59, we will close the City Council meeting
and open the public hearing for the 2024-2025 budget.
Do I have any questions, comments, concerns on the budget?
Okay, hearing none.
We're going to close the public hearing for the 2024-2025 budget
as we have had the same amount of discussion this year as we did last year.
Okay, and now at this time we'll open the public hearing for SID 18,
our street lights, street lighting, Special Improvement District.
Is there any questions on that?
We do have some correspondence for you, public, if it's something you wanted to look at.
Because we will take the action on this later on in the actual meeting.
This is just the public hearing part.
Okay, hearing no discussion, thanks Matt.
We will close the public hearing for SID 18, Street Lighting District,
and at this time we will open the public hearing for SID 19,
our street maintenance Special Improvement District.
Again, we have correspondence if you're interested in that.
Read our resolution.
Okay, hearing none, I will close the public hearing for SID 19 and open.
Close it at 902.
We'll open the permissive medical levy public hearing at 902 as well.
And this just covers the group health insurance.
Okay, no comment, so close the permissive medical levy at also 902.
Actually just wait for the clock to move here.
Seconds are on the other hand, okay.
And at 903, we will open the sewer rate increase public hearing.
Any questions, comments, concerns, public comment on that?
Again, this is the same as last year and the year before.
And I think the year before that as well.
Okay, hearing no public comment, we will close the public hearing for the sewer rate increase.
And at this time, at 903, we will reopen the regularly scheduled city council meeting.
And Perry, you walked in, did you have, we kind of moved some stuff around because Bob Helgo was here for the airport
and then Matt was here for some stuff going on down there.
So we'll move the agenda around a little bit.
But if you have a public comment, I'll open the floor to you.
So you already discussed the...
No, we haven't.
It's easier for the eyes to drink.
Oh, gotcha, okay.
Okay, well then we will truck along here.
Okay, pool manager report.
Steve, just real quick update the council on status of the pool.
Pool's closed.
Plan.
Pool's closed.
We'll start draining it on Thursday because, I don't know, I want to talk about somebody using it for fire rescue draining or something on Wednesday.
So that would be this Wednesday.
Yeah, that would be the fourth Wednesday.
Yeah, that would be the training meeting.
So otherwise, we'll start draining it on Thursday and then do what we need to do before we fill it back up for winter.
The water's going to be cold.
So you're saying you're not going to be training?
We'll see.
I've been a terrible volunteer firefighter these last 18 months.
Ice lunch is good for recirculation.
Through.
Do that ice bucket challenge while we're at it while we're in there.
Yeah, no heater on, so nice and toasty for ya.
Okay, so public works.
Steve.
We're working on annals this week.
I saw you did mine.
Yep, he's going to keep doing that way.
Paul's got to fix them once.
I got washed out, of course, for a little weekend.
What are those at?
Between A and B.
So figure.
What about behind the set of South?
He was putting stuff in yours last night.
For yesterday.
So how did that Harley-Rake work?
It looks like it did a really good job in my alley.
It seems to do pretty good down the alleys.
It looked down like Donnie Hammer's alley.
Donnie Hammer's alley?
Yeah.
It helps now that there's a little moisture.
Because I tried it before, we got any rain.
And all that did was throw dust in the air.
Dust and bounce.
Bounce the machine up and down.
No sense.
Now that we got some moisture, it works pretty good.
Okay.
I think that one stretch behind our place there is probably going to need some crushed concrete or something.
I know he hauled some in there yesterday.
Did he?
The pile of crushed concrete?
Yeah, we had this pile and we got more out there.
So I know he was hauling out this pile right here yesterday over there.
Okay.
Anyone have any questions for public works?
You want me to talk about that other thing?
Yes.
Okay.
So we read meters and Jen had a question on one.
Because the reading went backwards.
So I went and audited this meter.
And it was working fine until July 27th.
And then all of a sudden July 27th, it started running backwards.
Because I can read back 30 days.
We got hold of the individual's wife who let us in the house to look at it.
And the meter had then turned around.
This wasn't my house, right?
So Colin and I changed the meter.
And we just told him we couldn't read it.
We didn't tell him that it was running backwards or it was going backwards.
To see if it happens again, basically.
So we...
So what we...
Steve and I helped Steve, while I sat next to him, look through our code book.
We couldn't find anything where we...
It's illegal.
But there's got to be a crime with municipal utilities.
Step to services.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
I mean, I was able to...
Like now I can go back and read it.
So, I mean, they're getting built for the full amount.
Because I can do this adding and subtracting to see how much.
I can read it forward to the 27th.
And then, you know, from the 27th, I subtract what was...
I mean, they're getting built for the whole thing.
But it's just...
I mean...
There's nothing in the code about tampering with a water meter.
I didn't notice anything in there.
I'll do a double check on that.
Sure.
Interesting.
I mean, so I have a pretty big problem with this.
You have to have a little bit of know-how.
Like, you don't have to be a public works guy or a licensed plumber
or someone who's been in utilities their entire life.
But you've got to have a little bit of basic knowledge
to figure out how to do this.
And you've got to have some tools.
It's probably all over YouTube.
And arrows.
So, you can't tell me this was accidental.
No, there's no way it was accidental.
Why would you take your water meter out?
The only reason you take your water meter out is to repair a line.
Yeah, but even then, that's what you shut off.
Yeah, but you don't have to take it out to repair the line.
All you'd have to do is shut it down.
We did, because we had to repair everything.
Well, that's different.
And there's no new plumbing around it.
And actually, the main valve for the house doesn't even shut off all the way.
So while Cullen was replacing the meter,
there was water coming out of the main line.
Because the valve don't even shut off all the way.
So whoever would have turned it around, the water still...
Must have made a mess.
I mean, made a mess when they were doing it.
So the thing, again, you have a little bit of know-how
if you're doing something like this.
We can go back and capture their reversal and whatnot.
But who's to say there wasn't something rigged up for a day,
an hour, where you screwed, took the meter off,
screwed something else into the supply,
and went and filled up a 4,000 gallon water trailer.
Right now, that didn't happen because someone would have noticed
a big water trailer sitting there with a hose in it for a week.
It's probably taken that long to fill a big trailer.
But something like that could have happened.
I'm not saying it did, but again, we don't know.
And it's...
Steve, do we put them in with the little...
Do they have the connection we can actually put the pinch to it?
They do, but we never do.
I mean, we never have.
I was going to say, every other municipality I've ever worked under,
that's what they do, is they pin that meter so that you can't take it off.
But then again, someone...
Well, they're doing...
They're numbered.
They have the little tags on them.
And so if it doesn't match when you do it,
what you put on there, you know it's been tampered.
Right.
We never did it.
Well, we don't need a tag to know this has been tampered.
They might do it now, but we never used to pin anything.
I'm calling them Azula, the ones I've done around Great Falls.
They all put that stamped piece in it.
And we have pictures of this, right Steve?
Yeah.
But we did put in a new meter, because at the time,
the initial thought was we have a meter that is potentially not working correctly.
Well, and then it screws up the computer reading, too,
if it goes forward, then backwards, and then...
So you're not going to get accurate reading the next time, reading.
So this way, and plus, it's easier to know if now,
I didn't want them to know that it was in their backwards,
that I knew it was in their backwards.
You know.
To see if they do it.
Just to see if, you know, they think, oh, well, we'll just do it again.
So...
Yeah, that's...
That's not good.
So, well, I guess this is obviously...
Would it benefit us then to come up with the law
for tampering with our property?
Yep, I was just going to say, it might be a good candidate for an ordinance
that prohibits tampering with the city water.
Well, there's got to be one, an MCA that we would just fall under, right?
Well, I mean, it says that it's city property.
Yeah, it's just, it's either theft of city services
or destruction of city property.
Yeah, one or the other.
We got it right here.
There's a bunch of them.
Yeah.
The theft is the one that would probably really fall under me
because one of the labor or theft of utilities...
Right.
Like Ben was saying, the services.
Yeah, but that's...
I don't have to sit down with Ben,
but the theft, the just regular theft,
talks about taking control over, like, utilities
or services that are provided by a different agency,
water company being one of the services provided.
Yeah, and this is the reason why we've been...
Why Sonya has that spreadsheet to account
for how many gallons were billed from Dry Prairie
versus what we billed, you know,
and some months were off 200,000,
some months were off 700,000 gallons.
You know, like, it's...
And we know some people, like the eye doctor building,
is just on a flat rate.
We don't know how many gallons you're using,
but you're paying for water.
So, like, we're getting reimbursed for some of that,
but probably not all of it.
You know, and we are tracking the pool and the ball fields
and all this.
That's why we have meters down there.
We spent the money to put meters in so we can track,
so we can figure out, okay, where the hell
is the rest of our water going?
Well, like you said, I mean, you think about it,
if they're going to have the know-how or the knowledge
to pull the meter out,
they could easily build a meter base with a nipple
between the connections and just run it without a meter
in there for however long they want to,
and maybe they threw the meter back in backwards,
not paying attention.
Yeah, I know.
Yeah.
So, then, then this might be one where we...
I don't know.
We...
Criminals are smart.
Well, I can catch up with...
Sorry.
Flint on it.
But for what?
For running away or I can give you a...
Saving for dollars.
It's not where it's a fine.
No, it's not.
It's not.
Oh, yeah.
I feel like, yeah, we'll probably need a statement,
but I think we can probably...
Yeah.
It might be...
I'll bring the graphs.
I was just going to say,
it wasn't a lottery.
That's the problem.
There is no graphs.
But they have a garden.
It might be a good thing.
I mean, for...
Well, actually, for the amount that they used,
it wasn't even worth it.
It was less than $100 for the usage.
That's the goal of that.
So, we talked about this yesterday,
and last night, that's why I'm like,
well, for 8,000 gallons,
why would they do this?
That's where I drummed up that crazy idea
that maybe they had water...
They've had water going somewhere else,
you know, out of the service line.
So...
I think you did the smartest thing.
Just didn't mean to track it for a while.
But...
So, okay.
More to follow.
Ongoing research and investigation.
Okay, that...
Any other last question for Public Works,
where I just keep the ball with Steve and hit zoning?
Okay, Steve, we got a couple zoning requests.
And they all passed the SNP test.
Okay, any...
No, the first one.
Yeah.
Well, we're in the process of hiring that property, so...
That house to the south of you?
Yep, yeah.
You can't know that if you smile or put it on your face,
or you hit me half a batter like a thousand times.
Oh...
I mean, I did ask Steve if we do purchase that,
if I'm going to get hit with a non-compliance letter
like we did in four days.
We'll give you 15.
Okay.
You get a compliance note.
Okay, so we have zoning permits.
So at this time, I will entertain a motion that we approve the...
Actually, as you were, let's...
The zoning minutes first, I guess.
We typically don't approve the zoning minutes, do we?
No, these are just the draft minutes that we're just trying to account for.
Okay, so yes, I was right.
Back to the permits.
I'll entertain a motion that we approve the permits at 409 Mill Street,
711 Timmins Street, and 202 C Street.
I'll make a motion to approve zoning permits in these three locations.
Okay, motion made.
Do I have a second?
I'll second that.
Okay, so motion made, seconded.
Is there any discussion?
Steve or any of these, like, kind of questionable or close to anything?
They're all rubber-stamped ones?
Yeah.
Nothing?
Like, the one was actually a temporary fence that became permanent.
Yeah.
So it had to meet the deadline.
Yeah.
So this park is Park Street?
The Park Street one you're doing approach?
Yeah.
It's not in here.
Yeah, so it's not, so we are not approving it today.
Okay, any other discussion?
Okay, all those in favor?
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Okay, so notice of zoning commission board member vacancy.
Bo Reaverts has officially sold his house.
You know, I don't think he's really been an active member.
He's been primarily living in Valley County.
But now that he's sold his house, we're going to remove him from the zoning commission board.
And there has been some interest.
My question is, do we need to advertise?
Or can I just appoint if someone comes up to me and says they want to?
You can just appoint.
I mean, if there's a vacancy, it's a appointment.
I believe appointment by the mayor with the consent of the council is usually how it goes.
But there's no formal, like, hiring process or anything else.
That's a, should you not have, do you have to?
Yeah, sure.
So I don't have like a formal letter of resignation from Bo Reaverts, but he no longer lives in Scobie.
So because of that, I can replace him whenever I want to.
Like I should do it immediately, correct?
Say there's a vacancy, yeah.
Okay.
So, so does it have to be on the agenda as a commission, a zoning commission board member appointment?
Should we put that on the next?
I usually do the resolution.
Yes.
Okay.
So we'll do, I guess we'll be on an agenda item.
So does, do I give the name now, get it blessed by the council, or does it have to be on the agenda?
Then the council approves it.
Usually.
Then you'll do the resolution.
No, the resolution is the approval.
So, I mean, you can say the name or whatever, but Sonya can type it in.
Yeah.
Okay.
And have a resolution prepared for next meeting.
Okay.
So, you have to do the spelling Sonya, but Casey Chifis has indicated a strong commitment
to wanting to be on the zoning board.
So I am recommending her to the council to fill more rebirth spot.
I guess I've entertained that motion that we approve that or not.
Well, again, that would be the next meeting.
Yeah.
Okay.
The resolution is approved.
Okay.
That's the appointment, you know.
Okay.
We'll do that.
Again, I don't know what I'm doing 80% of the time here.
Yeah, it's pretty up here.
Yeah, hang on.
Okay.
Well, we'll move on.
Fire Chief.
Nothing new with us.
Okay.
On our side, I do have a list.
I'll bring you next time on the item that we want to disclose of.
Oh, yeah.
We'll talk about that earlier.
You wanted to list.
The county did approve a new truck.
Okay.
From the county side.
Yeah.
What about we briefly chatted about the suburban?
Do you have a plan for the fire rescue suburban truck?
I mean, the county wants to sell it and use the money for that to equip a different one
that they're trying to get.
I think a truck.
I think you're right.
They were told.
They put that engine in there.
That was city property.
No matter what the county does to it.
It seems to own it.
Yeah, I was just going to say that's the city.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You what?
Okay.
Whether we used it or the city uses it somehow or somewhere else.
Sure.
The county knew that if they did that work to that, they weren't going to benefit.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, how much?
It was a new engine.
What?
You know, it was $5,000.
It's kind of an older style.
I'm going to put it in.
Yeah.
Well, I think double D, if I remember right, double D did.
No.
Oh, car quests.
Very sorry.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Whoa.
Whoa.
Whoa.
Well, he kept the car instead of turning it in.
Whatever.
Yeah.
I just thought I don't know if I would sell it.
Sure.
What are you going to put it with?
Well.
It doesn't take the lights off.
That's fine.
Because we did put a new life borrow on that and the association paid for that, not the
county.
So we could take that off.
Okay.
Well.
I know that the county, and if you were to sell it, I know the county had mentioned looking
for another vehicle for the corner.
That's right.
You know, if the county wanted to purchase it for that, because it is set up for a journey.
You know what I mean?
There's a possibility there.
Sure.
So.
I just got that in the mail.
I wasn't sure what it is.
Oh, this is about $1,000.
It's about for one of our engines that was leaking.
But then I come from the small creek in.
What?
It's from the hotel.
Yeah.
For somebody to stay there on June.
And it says big fork on it.
Didn't they bill us when they did the pump test?
Wasn't that on the bill?
It might have been.
I guess I could go back and look.
Yeah.
I'm pretty sure.
Well, let's double check that because then that guy should have to pay his own bill.
Okay.
Because he bills us for.
Yeah.
It's part of the travel.
Yeah.
So he just didn't pay the small creek and they're probably won't be reimbursed.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'll get a little slave on that because they bill us for that when they do the pump test.
Yeah.
It's part of the travel expenses.
Yeah.
So you won't pay this.
Trying to pull a fast one.
By us.
Other than that, Firewise.
Okay.
We had a snafu with the one truck last year at the homecoming parade.
That was.
We good to go this year?
We are good to go.
Okay.
We had that on the last year.
Sure.
Again, they're not being used.
No, I know.
They should be driven the flux.
Back.
Can I see if I can take the bourbon on a trailer after that?
It was.
There was a carburetor issue.
That's why I was wondering when you were talking about the end and I'm like.
Yeah.
There was a carburetor issue.
That's the thing.
Okay.
Okay.
I'm going to go back and look at the other side.
Okay.
I'm going to go back and look at the other side.
Okay.
I'm going to go back and look at the other side.
Okay.
I'm going to go back and look at the other side.
Okay.
Okay.
All right.
Thanks, wife.
Sheriff Lowell.
All right.
Keep it under five minutes.
I know that.
It's been brought up in the past and how we're going to proceed with our individuals at
the moment.
I don't know how we're going to proceed around that.
I mean, it was one thing that I brought up to try to figure out a way to get around it,
but other things have come up.
So, as far as things falling on any public nuisance, we do have a public nuisance law
here in Scowley that we can go ahead and try to work around, you know, to where we can
incorporate in here in the fact that he's now parked out there and he's been parked
out there for the entire year.
We can't.
There's no thing for camping either, other than at the park.
So, we've got to come up with something.
I mean, he's both himself and his animals are, you know, are dedicated and urinating
either on the church grass and or beside or behind the library, which is now taking
in feces into there, which now becomes a health issue.
So, there's different avenues that we can go out and move them along.
I've talked with other agencies.
They're sending me value, not value coming, but Sheridan County was sending me some of
their contacts.
I reached out to a patrol about moving him along as a beggar as long as he's not asking
for food or not food, but as long as he's not asking for money or a ride somewhere,
we can't get him for soliciting or anything like that.
So, there's, as far as the city is going, I mean, it's got to the point where we've got
to come up with something here.
This council needs to come up with something.
They go ahead and move him along because I know he's got money.
He received some sort of a check on a few things.
Everyone knows that.
He's refused.
He rent places because he doesn't want to hear his animals.
So, now we've got kids and families that are staying.
It's about yesterday where I was parked.
Exactly where I was parked.
I mean, right across from him, just to watch him so he's not, you know, harassing the
children as they go by.
I can't afford to sit there all day long every day.
Something has to be done.
I'm getting calls daily on him.
So, everybody in town is very upset that nothing's been done about him.
Yep.
That's just one of those.
And I feel sorry for the guy, but he's got, you know...
He has the means to help himself out, though.
Exactly.
And I'm under the understanding that the family has all given up because they've extended
all the olive branches.
I was told he had a room waiting for him at the pioneer inn, but he can't bring his
dogs in there, so he refused it.
And yeah, where, you know, those dogs are cooped up in there.
Yeah, that's...
They're locked in a car.
Yeah, I...
The only thing I have found in city ordinance about camping is it says that even a vehicle
that is potentially, or not potentially, but is modified for sleeping conditions, could
we lump his truck into that since he's been living in it for almost a year?
And you can't even park in one spot camping for 14 days.
It's the limit, you know?
You gotta move on the state land.
Well, the last complaint I got was from, well, Dwayne Cary Wilson, who were kind of the grounds,
caretakers of the church.
The smell coming out of the back of the pickup, and then, like I said, the dog's going to the
bathroom on the grass.
It's not the dog.
It's him from my perspective.
The life, it is him, he's going around there, and he's defecating in that property.
So, would that fall underneath the public nuisance?
Yeah.
Sounds like you and I should have a...
Yeah.
That's what I said just earlier, Ben.
Yeah, there's a couple things behind that.
So, it's the public nuisance.
Go ahead.
Is there proof that it's him?
Dwayne Cary delegated it to her, and she's actually got a trail cam up on the property
because people have stated it's him, too.
So, she does have a trail cam.
Oh, yeah.
And just because Anne, she has put no trespassing...
There is putting no trespassing signs up, but he's not probably going to listen.
You know, in the middle of the night, he's not going to stay off the property.
Well, someone suggested changing the Wi-Fi password at the library.
But they're in nice...
You can change the Wi-Fi password all you want, but if you're going and knocking on
his window and saying, hey, do you have a place to stay tonight because it's going to
get cold, do you have food, and they're going to give it to him.
If he's not actively asking for it, there's nothing against it.
I can't go and tell the people I'm going to cite you for giving a gentleman a place to
stay or food.
Even if they changed the...
Because that was one of the big things that you and I had talked about was changing the
Wi-Fi password.
They feel so sorry for him.
They just tell him what it is anyways.
Yeah.
But even you and I can get internet without a Wi-Fi password.
You just get it right on your phone.
He's just staying there, I guess.
I don't know.
The church is right there and the church isn't going to kick him away.
Yeah, I don't know.
Isn't it unlimited internet on cell services?
Yeah, I didn't get...
Yeah, you're bad or whatever.
Yeah, but is it an active cell phone?
And just using the Wi-Fi?
You know, you might not have a...
You might not...
You have a cell phone, yeah, but you don't have service on it.
You get to...
You still use it as a tablet, basically.
Yeah, I have a good point.
I need to think about that.
Yeah.
I don't have an example of it.
I mean, because like my phone, yeah, you run out of...
It's not unlimited.
You run out of like 500 gigs or something.
It just gets...
It's on the way down to where I was.
It doesn't even load the pictures anymore.
Yep.
Yeah.
So...
Okay, yeah, let's do that.
Ben and Clint, if you guys can get together here.
This is...
I mean, it's gone on too long.
It's a shame no one's been able to crack the code
to just get him the help he needs
without getting law involved.
But that's where we're at.
Now we got to look out for his well-being
with the weather, you know, changing in the next,
you know, 30, 60 days.
Okay.
On another note.
Quick, go.
So tomorrow, I have one role coming for this batch
for radios to do a walkthrough.
They will be here with red tail communications
and they are also bringing in the state of Montana
because with the new radio systems,
they will have connection with the state
and where with the whole system,
our whole entire system will now have connection
with the state so that we...
What Montana is trying to do is that all this batch
will...
It will all be connected.
All everybody, all this batches will be up.
How are they doing it?
Inter-agencies.
Inter-agencies will be, yeah,
will be able to connect and upload and keep track
and like statistically see what's going on
across the state.
So they will be here to do a walkthrough
and see what is going on, do other measurements,
see where our consoles are going to go,
do a complete presentation of how our consoles will work
and everything.
They'll get here about nine o'clock
and we'll be needing to go through everything
and then they will potentially be doing the install
in the beginning of December.
And hopefully this will solve our problems
because I think our radios are about to say
Okay.
Okay, sounds good.
Anything else, Clint? Good?
All right.
Thank you guys for the update.
Thank you.
Okay, we're going to move one thing around here.
Ferry's been sitting here patiently for a while
and I know why it too.
Let's move item 14, Parks, the ice skating rink.
Let's have that, let's talk about that now.
So what do you guys can have before?
I guess, you know, there's nothing ever been formal
and the lines of others just took on
having a place for the kids to recreate in the wintertime.
Years ago the skating rink was on the east side of the school
out there on the playground and then it got moved
to where it is now and last week,
sometime in the last ten days,
I got a copy because I'd asked about it
and Tanner just got it and I left my phone in the office
and I don't know if it was $5,000 or $25 or whatever
because he said last year pro-co-op would pay for the water
and so I guess it's like, you know,
we look out after the kids, we fill the pool
and we take care of the ball parks and whatever
but I guess if the city wants absolutely nothing to do with it
and isn't going to pay for any of it,
you know, I don't bother the lines club
not to do the parks that we do type thing
but the lines club doesn't have the money to pay $5,000 a year
and I don't know that the other people
are going to continue to cough up $5,000 a year
to the skating rink.
Is that what it was?
I don't think it was all the skating rink
but it was pro-co-op with the skating rink.
Yeah, it includes some,
because pro-co-op uses the same meter out there
to fill out their spray truck.
So now I'd say there's no weight on there.
No, if anything, it's like $200.
Yeah.
374,000 gallons of water.
Well, last year we didn't fill it all the way.
So I actually got a whole jake in furry water.
Thanks, Clint.
Just an 8 and a half by 11 sheet of paper
and has water and so if there's a breakdown,
then obviously,
because I told him Tanner,
I said, you know,
Wolf, the annuals will split it with you.
Sure.
No, we'll pay it.
I'm just ranting, he said.
So I guess what we definitely need to do
is get to him and, well,
one, find out what it is for the skating rink,
which is our problem.
But he needs to kind of let the breakdown
slide down.
But that was a thing.
That ice would have been two feet thick.
Because two years ago,
the first year when Prokofl paid for it,
I thought there was only like 300,
two, 300 bottles.
Yeah.
And then all of a sudden, he's like,
this is great to know.
Yeah.
And then when you said $5,000,
do you have a picture of what it is?
This isn't done right.
So if someone, I'll try to call Tanner,
I'm assuming he's probably really pissed
at the city right now.
He's not pissed.
Well, but I mean, he is,
but for the wrong reason.
Yeah.
But the thing, we pay for all the power there.
So it's not like the city has nothing.
The Lions Club takes care of it.
We pay the power,
which is paid by all the taxpayers.
And the whole mowing thing,
that whole deal,
because I know that's what kind of sparked this whole thing.
We're not going to get into all the details there.
You know, Danny Shoemaker came a few days
before the hot dog feed and said,
hey, can the city go mowing?
And it was a very bad time.
And Steve asked me, hey, can we go mowing?
You know, Danny called me, should we go mowing?
I said, well, can you fit it into your schedule?
Well, I mean, if we have to, we can.
But I mean, it's an inconvenience right now.
I said, well, then no, they have a mower.
They can do it.
Like a few weeks in advance,
we could have done it.
But that was the whole mowing of the thing,
was because they were setting up
for the hot dog days of summer.
And I got a whole rex in heat cutting.
And normally rex or higher comes with cutting.
This year has been different.
Extremely busy.
He drove us through when we get to it.
He did cut it for it.
We normally do keep it cut.
Sure.
This weekend.
That is because you know,
it was plenty of money.
Well, yeah, I mean, everybody's busy.
Well, and that's good.
Well, yeah, you know,
what's that?
What's that?
What are the swim meets at?
Where we park our cameras.
What are the swim meets at?
Like, shut up.
Make it shut up.
You can park their skin or try to make sure they're cool.
And that's all.
I don't hate all that.
But if you guys want to pass around,
that's what Tanner got.
He sent me a copy of it.
Sure.
Whatever it is.
$5,205.
Yeah.
Oh, no, because they have their own meter.
So you're paying spray.
You're paying spray operation.
Yeah.
That's $347,000.
That's about the meter reading on it.
That is the beginning meter read.
That water was already paid for.
And I had to write that number down
because I have the picture on my phone of the meter.
That was even before you guys filled the skating rink.
And so then that meter gets read once a year.
So at the end of when Krokoff's son is filling out there,
we'll go read it.
And that's what will be billed.
So that's when the skating rink gets billed
is at the end of the year.
So that will basically shoot.
That was already paid for water that they paid for again now.
So Paul Newman said what we have here
is a failure to communicate.
So this invoice.
So we'll just issue a check back to Paul.
For that one.
That's what I would say.
And then we will bill.
We go from meter reading to whatever the reading is
at the end of the year.
And that's the skating rink.
Yeah.
Well, it's skating rink and they're spraying.
Because the skating rink they used,
I think I looked at it after you guys were done
and it was like $120,000.
Yeah.
It was just as much as basically the pool to fill.
Yeah.
So that's an error in the bill.
Yeah.
That wasn't it.
It was a lot of people.
Oh.
I wish Tanner would have just called.
Tanner was like, somebody called us.
I didn't see it.
I didn't see that.
And he didn't enter.
I had asked him about it when I was up there.
Yeah.
I hadn't seen anything he said.
And then I don't know what the date on that is.
But like I said, it was in the last two weeks.
We go a lot twice a year.
Except for that meter.
Yeah.
That meter we only do once a year.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Because it's a manual read meter.
Oh, okay.
So crisis or perdition?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right at the meter, people start after.
Yeah.
You can actually take this.
Well, I always take a picture of it before you let it take it.
But I guess I should have took one and you guys were done.
Well, I can only do two.
I'm glad I came because now I will know we'll turn the meter around when we see it.
Yes.
Yes.
Just before you start out.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, isn't the waste of time at all?
No.
No.
Glad I came.
Learned something.
Alrighty.
But I guess I answered the question.
A few guys are willing to work with us.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Well, like I said.
It is.
And that's why we never, you know, I bet you the MDU bill is, is more than the water bill
and it's more than the mowing bill.
You know, and we, we've just been, you know, blindly paying it for, since Larry fell probably
was, you know, they dedicated that building in honor.
So, and probably before that actually.
So.
And I don't know.
Yeah.
So, yeah, that's why this skating rink turned out quite a little deal this year.
And now we're all on the same page.
Yes.
I think.
So, okay.
Well, thank you.
Yeah.
We had, I had no idea about that.
The billing thing.
The right number is wrong.
I gave it.
I gave it.
Yeah.
So.
Slightly off.
Okay.
We had a meeting last night at the hospital board district at the hospital board.
Okay.
All right.
If our building, the hospital district gets abandoned, you know, we don't have any money.
Yeah.
And your name was brought up as, you know, as a possibility as a city in the county going
to do something with that building, or, you know, all of a sudden, hospital district
would never penny.
But now we're going to get the street lighting district bill, street maintenance district
bill, which in the past, I get the bills, but I take them up and eat it pays them.
Well, that's why we sat down last night, the two boards and said, you know, we got to
come up with something and Logan's put together a resolution on that, how the two boards can
work together to be like, say, as being one of the three hospital district board members
that handles the hospital or the mill money.
We said, you know, and there's $1.4 million in that account right now that they would
like to have to put it all towards the new building, but there's stuff they were told
in a report in 2018 that needed to be done.
And so we finally, we did the same thing that we just got done doing here.
We sat down, you know, had an understanding that, and Logan's working out a resolution
that, you know, they understand, we understand that what's going to happen.
And like I say, you guys are in there potentially because we talked about another walkthrough
to find out if that's going to be something.
Yeah.
Because when was that?
It's been about a year now, maybe more of me, you, Mike, you know, Cody did a walkthrough
of the current hospital.
I got you off schedule.
I'm sorry.
Okay.
Thanks very much.
I'm going to have to deal with sound good.
Do we have ownership of that building?
No.
No.
The district.
So that the hospital district, which falls under the county owns it.
So not even Daniel's Memorial healthcare hospital, health footer, clinic.
There's an ordinal renter.
So they rent it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So basically, but yeah.
But I mean, there's, you know, there, there's been, there's been several conversations
and we're getting closer to having to make some of these about, you know, do we, does
the city put some skin in the game to help keep that facility going?
And one idea was this totally off topic, but since it's top of mind now, you know, do
we move the city clerk into there somewhere, have a main street presence and turn this
whole building into just the public works building, you know, because then the city
would essentially pay rent, help offset some of those expenses.
The problem is when they build the new facility, they're going to take the Danny shoemakers
and his minions with them.
You know, he's boiler trained or certified.
Yeah.
You know, so then do we, do we send Steve, Colin, Paul, someone else, Janet to go get
boiler certified because who's going to then have to babysit the three or four broken heating
systems that, you know, heat that building.
So there's a lot of times somebody else moving in there when it's not good enough for one
and then you, but it's good for another one.
Yeah.
Well, I think they're starting to have that.
See, that was the county's thing.
As they said, they can't move in there.
And this was Lee Humbert straight out of his mouth, but we can't afford to pay maintenance
and utilities in that building, which they're probably right.
So, you know, a lot of outside the box thinking is going to have to go on because that's arguably
the biggest and nicest certified commercial kitchen in town.
It's in the basement, which sucks, but it's a nice, it's got, it passes the test.
So I mean, you can't abandon that.
Someone's going to have to figure out how to keep that going because that can be a revenue source.
But I mean, they could move the, even the senior center in the bottom of the pioneer
into there and serve meals out of there like they have to do now.
Yeah.
And you've got 10 times the kitchen availability that you have at the pioneer.
Yeah.
Do you do private pay, you know, single room, you know, non-medicaid, whatever.
I mean, a hundred ideas.
Again, I think we've talked about this briefly, but I think everybody just needs to kind of
think about it and have some ideas of what to do because it is going to be the whole
1500 Daniels County residents are going to have to get on board with figuring out how
to keep that building because then it's too big and too nice of a building to just walk
away from it, to shudder it.
We need to decide what to do with the size skating rink and make sure everybody's on
board with that.
Who's going to do what and when.
Yeah.
And I.
The entire dealing with ice skating rink.
That's insane.
So it should be in writing.
Yeah.
Either the city take it over completely, which I know you don't want or whatever, but.
Well, I know we.
You're just going to do this and this and that.
And I agree.
And my whole thing, again, my opinion, my personal opinion is we pay the power.
I get the waters only 200, 300 bucks.
But that's two, 300 bucks of taxpayer money when we're already paying the power.
Right.
You know.
I just want it.
It just, if it comes down to it where we just don't need the water, we'll do it.
It's not that much money.
But whatever we decide is going to be in right.
Like you said, he's going to be in writing and going forward.
That's, that's just.
Well, I'm pretty sure the Lions club has $300 a year to pay for.
Oh, they further skating.
Yeah, they do.
They got it.
They sit on.
I think.
At all times.
Now, 5,000, I could maybe see that.
Yeah.
And I wish.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So this stuff can be avoided by just a simple phone.
So, okay.
So you're going to issue a refund check for that.
But then are we going to refill?
I don't know.
Well, I got to look at it.
So, because we couldn't have built twice for it.
That neither.
We usually only read in, in the fall when they're done with it.
Usually we don't send a bill.
I think for that one in June or July.
So, but do we just keep the money?
And then when they're done with it after the fall spray in, because we must have an
average of 300 and some thousand gallons worth of water.
Well, I know what they're going to use.
I'm going to ask Anna.
But they, they have to just credit the difference or whatever.
Yeah.
But we've had that meter for three or four years.
So did, did Janek, did whoever start at zero?
And then.
She just did the reading.
Yeah.
Basically.
I know for all the water this ran through that meter already.
Okay.
And then I took that reading before they fled and escaped.
So we received that check before June 30th, right?
Like you.
I don't know.
I haven't seen that.
I mean, I, my, my big thing now is it's not giving the money back.
It's, is it, you know, are you going to have to, what are you going to have to undo on your end?
I don't know.
I got it.
This is first night.
I don't know.
I have to look at it.
See when the check got, when we got our deposit and it was built.
What kills me though is like co-coops had just a $10,000 check last year and I saw that
and I called Tanner right away and I'm like, this is wrong.
This is a mistake.
Yeah.
So we gave the check.
He's like, thank you for letting me know.
Yeah.
Check that.
I didn't go through any of this.
I don't understand what he didn't call city hall.
I guess.
Yeah.
He would have called right away when he got that bill and was submitting it.
Well, and then also I don't think the bill should just a skating rink on.
No, that's a mistake.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It should be like pro co-ops, bulk meter or something.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, that's, I guess I'll let you guys rename that, that meter, but if we need to, I don't
know.
We're going to have to come up with something different.
Yeah.
And, you know, we do everything one time a year.
So we're going to probably forget about this come next June and July.
Well, you won't forget.
Okay.
Yeah.
I saw Perry was just stewing and stewing and stewing like, ah, better not let him wait
any longer.
He was about to blow.
Yeah.
Okay.
Um, move it on.
Let's, um, council comments.
What?
Let's move on to council comments.
I was going to say it.
I have a question.
Somebody approached me about this and I looked through the zoning book and I couldn't find
a good answer.
Maybe I was looking in the wrong spot.
How do we treat these hooped carport buildings?
They're, they're structured.
It's a permanent structure.
The permanent accessory structure.
Okay.
They have that.
Why not?
Carport.
Yeah.
Like those ones you buy, you put together.
I have a question.
Somebody approached me about this and I looked through the zoning book and I couldn't find
a good answer.
Those ones you buy, you put together.
Yeah.
Like the director said.
Yeah.
Like the campus top or whatever.
Is there a specific address to your referencing?
I don't know.
Eric Lenders.
At his house?
Mm-hmm.
For his RV.
Oh.
Is he a, is it parked underneath him?
No, it isn't.
Now he wants to build one.
Oh, God.
But he doesn't have a permit for it.
He's got to have a permit.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
It's a structure.
Yep.
I thought so, but I didn't.
Yeah.
It's just considered on an accessory.
It's a carport.
Yeah.
It's a structure.
Yeah.
Well, I'm like, so.
Oh, he got lots of land over here next door.
You can park it on.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We're not getting Uncle Mike involved anyway.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Someone asked me same side of the street, just a little bit further down.
You know, Robin Flatterger's garage.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, I think they're down, you know, Robin Flatterger's garage.
Mm-hmm.
Well, how did he build that Disney out of lot space?
I don't know.
I said, those lots go back a long ways.
Those are big.
And he has properties.
And he has three lots.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'll tell you about possible alley.
True.
Yeah.
I think there is it.
Is there a planted alley?
No, there's no planted alley.
There is an alley.
No.
It's just a utility.
He's the thing.
Is Lot Stop at Lori's Fence or Chris's Fence?
I guess.
Is Nemont along that fence?
Is that where your stuff is?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
I didn't even know on Nemont.
It was about after you guys were out front.
So, I guess I didn't even think about where you guys would be.
Okay.
So, would he be taking this down or he'd like stake it down or he'd permanently mount it?
I think it would be permanent.
He just didn't know if he needed a special permit for it.
You know, call it a shed or call it a garage or just call it a garage or cardboard.
Same deal.
Yeah.
You just mark other on the right cardboard.
Okay.
Okay.
Basically, any time you're building up in the air.
That's what I figured.
I just didn't know if he had to call it something for the process.
You know what I mean?
Okay.
Any other comments?
Are people worried about my garden water in the alley?
No.
Okay.
Because I've been asked, Perry asked me one day.
Cromwell's asked me, you got a water leak.
Well, somebody told me, yeah.
Water in my garden.
I said, I don't have a puddle of water in the alley.
I said, I don't have a puddle of water in the alley.
Yeah.
They're like, you got a water leak.
No, I don't.
I water my garden.
But I've had like four people approach me and say, you got sprinklers leaking.
No.
I don't.
Paul's pretty upset about it.
He mentions that every week.
Tell him for more gravel down.
He won't see the water.
Build that alley up.
Yeah.
There's no gravel there.
You wouldn't see the water.
Tell him.
I've already dumped about five yards in the alley of my own money.
So.
Part of me wants to say the name of this backwards water meter thing.
I don't know if I can or not.
Just remember it's recorded.
Okay.
Public record.
Public record.
Yeah.
So.
It's up to you, mayor.
You're not running afoul of any rules.
Any other council comments?
Okay.
Moving on.
I digress.
Let us go to resolution 1108.
And I would entertain a motion that we approve resolution 108.
Street lighting.
Special improvement district.
As we approve it as presented.
So entertain a motion that we approve.
I'll make a motion to approve resolution 1108.
Street light district.
Number 18.
Thank you.
Motion made.
Do I have a second?
No second.
Okay.
Motion made.
Seconded.
Any discussion?
Hearing none.
All those in favor?
All right.
Good deal.
Motion carries.
At this time I'd entertain a motion to approve resolution 1109.
Street maintenance.
Special improvement district number 19.
No one's leaving here until we approve.
I make a motion for resolution 1109.
All right.
Motion made.
Seconded.
Is there any discussion?
Sonia is.
That one does have a slight increase.
Yep.
I'm going to say we've, but that's been every year a slight increase, right?
At least for the last few years.
Yeah.
Last couple years.
Building up a street maintenance fund.
Well, yeah.
Got to start somewhere.
Yep.
Yep.
That one is going to get us nowhere.
So we're going to fix the worst broken things and try to develop some things and just keep
on top of it until we run out of money.
Okay.
Any other discussion?
Hearing none.
All those in favor?
All right.
Okay.
Motion carries.
So we have plans and specs for fifth Avenue interstate engineering.
Got it was a bunch of stuff.
Whole packet of stuff.
Yeah.
So, but I guess it is ready.
It's basically the bid packet.
I'm using the correct terminology.
It's got all everything needed to bid.
So again, if I'm understanding it right, we approve this, then we, that will allow us
to advertise for bids, correct?
And that will be our next step.
And now again, if I'm being told correctly, this is a good time to start bidding because
contractors will look into fill their next year's slate.
So maybe there'll be a couple who fight over it.
Maybe not, but so at this time, I will entertain a motion that we approve the plans and specs
for the fifth Avenue street repair project from interstate engineering and put it out
to bid.
I would make that motion.
Okay.
A second.
Okay.
Motion made.
Seconded.
Thank you.
Is there any discussion on this?
96% of that stuff is Greek to me.
Looks like all the pertinent info that contractors need is in there.
I don't know.
I, until I run into a wall full speed, you know, I'm kind of blindly putting faith in
these engineering firms that they're doing right by us.
John is a, I've known him for several years.
I think he's trustworthy guy.
I think he's doing a good job on this little project for us.
Nothing.
It's great.
I think they do well too.
But you know, we are spending a lot of money on engineering services, but I'm hoping this
is a once and for all fix with what we're going to end up putting into it with engineering
and the cost of the projects.
Mr. Mayor, I reviewed at least the legal stuff.
As far as the engineering specs, I don't have the expertise to know if that's good
or otherwise.
But as far as the legal aspects of it, I did review it.
I didn't see any big red flags.
They work out of a standard contract book.
So I was just double checked to see if they haven't made any changes.
I wasn't aware of, but everything's going to be order.
Okay.
So any other discussion?
Hearing none.
All those in favor?
Aye.
All right.
Motion carries.
And should we discuss the south side alley and the trees on the street or something?
No, we can't.
We already talked about it.
All right.
So moving on.
We've got Resolution 1111, sewer rate increase.
Again, a small increase.
Third year in a row.
My math is correct.
Right side.
Yeah, we didn't have to describe to the public why we were doing another increase, but we
were prepared to.
We get questions.
People asked a lot.
Did they?
I just explained why we were doing all those.
Went into the fact that DEQ makes us do all of this.
I'm hoping to turn that 60 acres into some income producing properties that would just
be in a loss and expense.
So I'll entertain a motion that we approve Resolution 1111, sewer rate increase.
No, I ain't that motion.
I'll second it.
Okay.
Thank you.
Is there any discussion?
Further discussion?
Hearing none.
All those in favor?
Hi.
Okay.
Motion carries.
Steve, remote control pivot or this one?
That was actually me.
Yeah, I'll jump in on this one.
But yeah, so I'll try to keep it brief.
It's really no formal action required by the council, but as part of the pivot deal, it
was in the buy cell that the city council would pursue, you know, I guess purchasing
and installing a remote control for that pivot to reduce the number of times that the city
staff would need to go in and out.
I've had a couple of inquiries about the status of that from JCL's attorney over the last
few weeks.
I recently responded to him, just letting them know like there weren't any immediate
plans and likely nothing will happen this fall, you know, but maybe next spring or something,
you know, it would be, it might be able to get some up there.
We haven't even done any of the research on it.
So I guess my purpose in putting this on the council's agenda was just to let everybody
know that's there and then maybe make a request of Steve with all of his free time, right?
That he could maybe start checking into what something like that would cost.
The second thing is we just put a $3,000 new control panel on this spring.
I was just going to say that, you know, we got to get some life out of this.
We installed it so it was easier for the previous, as of a month ago, Lee C.
Lee sir.
So anyway, is this a required thing then?
I guess I can look back at the language, but it was in the buy-sell agreement.
Without time limits.
Correct.
Yeah.
There wasn't a hard, you know, buy-action date.
We can investigate this for as many years as we choose.
Well, we can.
And my thing is, you know, it probably won't be a bad idea, but I don't want to do anything
until we have a lease in place with a new lease or BC.
Lessy.
What are we?
We would be the less or.
Okay.
So the lessy.
Because then, you know, we can have that conversation with them because two parties who are interested
already have pivots and they maybe we can, you know, work together to get something that's
already compatible with their phone app or their whatever that they're using, you know,
try to simplify things that way.
It's got to come from TML.
I mean, you're going to have to get a TML on.
So really, that's the only option you've got.
Okay.
Yeah.
Could you at least, I guess, call them up and get a ballpark?
I just sent them a text to them.
Okay.
So it's good.
All right.
So the longest things are in the process, like I said?
I think the biggest thing for them would have to be finding something that works with Nemons.
Sure.
You know, wireless.
Service, yeah.
Yeah.
Because I mean, that was the thing with the bulk water station.
That was supposed to be remote like that.
But the stuff that they had wasn't compatible with Nemons stuff.
So that's why.
A lot of these people will go with like, it's a vendor specific deal where they only,
they'll only, I guess, communicate with like Verizon.
Yeah.
Equipment, which we don't roam with Verizon anymore because they, you know, try to put us under.
So.
Yeah.
And that was the thing with the bulk water station.
That's why you guys just ran a phone line up there.
Yeah.
It's the only one of them stations with a dial-up network on it.
Yeah.
So.
Yeah.
I'm trying to pull up there by someone.
I'm not coming up with it real quick.
But yeah, suffice it to say there was something in the buy-selling agreement that said the
city would pursue that, but no formal timeline on it.
And again, my last communication with JCL's attorney was like, it definitely not happening
in the next like month or two.
So, you know, I think we've got time.
Well, and I don't want to be the party who stops communication.
Maybe you could shoot off another email.
It says this was discussed, you know, the council would like to see some use out of the brand
new current one, which was put in place because of the previous agreement.
But we have no plans to change it until the house current.
Find out how somebody can limit access to the year ground as much as that.
Well, I mean.
Yeah.
I mean, I really can't.
I mean, a lot of this stuff doesn't have any teeth to it, you know.
Because I mean, we could drive down there every hour if we wanted to.
It's our land.
Yeah.
And our easement.
Yeah.
I mean.
A lot of the discussion that I've had with JCL's attorney is for better or for worse,
we are going to be neighbors for a long, long time.
And at some point, the city and JCL are going to have to figure out how to get along.
I always like to, well, if I end up in court, I always want to be standing in front of the
judge looking like the reasonable person in the room.
Right?
Yeah.
And so that's where I'm like, I know some of these things might seem silly, but we're
doing them, you know, and then the other party goes off the deep end.
Again, we've done what we had agreed to do on our side and, you know, got where we needed
to go.
Yeah.
We could have a fight, you know, and there's, you probably won't sue, but it's going to
be phone calls, you know, for the next few years every time something goes, you know.
And there are two sides to this, but, you know, we still have the fiduciary responsibility
to the taxpayers.
You know, we got to, the dust is far from settled on this thing.
I don't know how long it's going to take to kind of calm things down.
Maybe they never will.
I don't know, but I think we ought to endeavor to do that, you know, at least for the next
little bit and see how it goes.
But are we at a point now where we can put this out for an RF?
Yes.
And I was working on that.
Okay.
Yep.
That was part of my to-do list, I think, from the last meeting.
Yep.
And I had that, yeah.
So let's try to get that on the next.
Is that something you can have prepared by the next meeting?
For sure.
Okay.
That's a nice agenda, because we got to get that rolling.
So anyways, that's just kind of an FYI.
There's no, like, immediate, but I wanted to get it on the collective radar, the council,
but that is something that we'll have to look at at some point in the future.
And the other thing, Steve, I guess I was going to ask you about this, and I knew I was forgetting
something, because I didn't write it down, but you would talk about, we might have to,
like, mow.
You know, the weeds are so tall down there that, you know, regardless of the type of
implement, you know, not sure if a guy can even get through it.
You know, so Steve suggested, like, Jesper has got one of those great big battling, you
know, PTO mowers, you know, do we get it mowed down and then spray it, let it all dry up,
and then a guy can get through it with a disc or a pro-till or whatever implement that is
needed.
But to mow 60 acres, you know, will probably cost 80 acres.
Or yeah, mow the whole 80 acres.
Is it worse, sir, where the pivot's gone?
Like, are the weeds thicker there, or is it just all on us?
They're thicker, the whole place.
I mean, it's over the bumper on the side by side.
I don't think you'd want to spray it first to kill everything, so it's dried out easier
to mow, maybe.
Yeah.
But I suppose either way, it wouldn't.
Yeah, I don't know.
Too dry to run the risk of, you know, fire.
I don't know.
Gotta do something.
And maybe we just do nothing, put it out for bid, and whoever gets it.
They'll have to figure out how to get through that situation.
Okay, all right.
Moving on, administration, resolution 1107, adopting the budget.
Sonya puts a ton of work into this every year.
I appreciate all you do, Sonya.
I know it's, we make it hard sometimes.
Steve makes it harder because he's got a wish and a want list longer than we have checks
in the checkbook, so we compromise.
And let Sonya go home in a few days of time.
You've pretty much got everything included in this budget, so it's beautiful.
I'll make a motion for resolution number 1107 for the yearly budget.
No seconded.
Okay, motion made and seconded to approve resolution 1107, the resolution adopting
the final budget for the city of Scobie for fiscal year 2024, 2025.
Is there any discussion?
Okay, something that we get no comments on, but probably the biggest thing that we do
each year.
All those in favor?
All right.
We just refilled Sonya's checkbook.
Resolution 1110, the permissive medical levy.
This basically is an additional levy that we can levy,
which covers the group health insurance for the city employees.
And we take the max on this as well, right Sonya?
And it's just for the employees that are paid out of the general fund.
Any employees, any percentages that are water sewer and garbage they can't.
Sure.
Include in this.
Okay, and like, who's paid out of the general fund?
A percentage of me, a percentage of Steve, percentage of Colin.
Okay.
So our total permissive medical levy that we're going to ask for is $11,000,
not go straight to cover our health insurance costs.
Okay, is that, that's not the total?
No.
Okay, so did someone already motion in second?
Okay.
Any other discussion?
Hearing none, all those in favor?
Aye.
Okay, study commission.
So there's some information there about the study commission.
Sonya was asking some really good questions to MSU Extension.
And so I think what we're going to do after,
and then I'm assuming Sonya gets as much on this on her clerk,
email distro as I do on the mayor, email distro,
we're going to wait until after the election to appoint people to the city.
So we'll do it sometime after November.
Well, sometime being within 20 days of the election?
Yeah, it has to be within 20 days.
Okay, so we're, I'm hoping to have a list of names,
you know, people who are interested in doing it.
There might be a couple right now, but I'm not going to put a ton of work into it right now,
because, you know, we've got quite a ways between now and November,
but you guys all know it's going to go fast, you know,
it seems like, you know, we're already in school,
and now our next meeting in September, which just seems crazy,
and we'll be three football games in by then,
talking about the playoffs, and oh my gosh, so.
Well, with a four-vide for county commissioner positions,
we'll have one to choose from there.
Well, possibly. There's only one who lives in the city limits.
Well, so that person has to nod.
So Mr. Trevor has to nod.
So we need to start slandering, Trevor.
No.
Deeply and resoundingly.
He hates the county.
So that's the plan with that.
You know, I don't know if anyone's been approaching you guys on study commission,
but there is going to come a time where,
if you guys think of someone who'd be good, you know,
approach them, or if you don't need to approach them, I sure will.
A couple of years, but that's a forbidding,
and people should let them know, don't vote for it,
unless you want to be on the board to do it.
Yeah.
The biggest thing that I've heard from people is they would like to do it,
they just don't know that they have time.
So, I mean...
That's kind of everything though, unfortunately.
Yeah.
I don't know if it would benefit us to get a hard number,
a hard, you know, time frame from Dan Clark on,
what do you think would need it to be put in as far as time?
Sure.
I remember seeing, it's like Missoula's,
but they were figuring 5 to 15 hours per month, I think.
Yeah, I think that's what it is.
See, that's significant.
That's pretty healthy.
It seems a lot.
That's what I was thinking.
But if you've met a couple of times for two hours,
and did a little bit of leg work...
But I think up front is going to be...
It's going to probably slow down,
because you're going to have to get the training,
go to the training, that'll be right away.
And I suppose they'd probably figure in the training into that time, too.
Yeah, that would be sure.
Well, at the risk of sounding agist,
I think it would benefit to find a few younger people.
Trevor is a good, you know,
because we need a plan that's going to be sustainable for many years,
beyond any of us being here.
Yeah.
So that, we'll keep touching on this probably each meeting,
since, like I just said, November is right around the corner.
You know, two meetings in September, two meetings in October,
and bam, we're in November, so...
Do we, would we be able to...
I was just trying to think of how we could get,
like you were saying, get more information from Dan.
Would he be willing to come back and do another kind of a city community deal,
basically staying, but we pay for it, right?
Possibly, but I wonder if...
So, you know, that's a good question.
Maybe a guy should call him or email him and ask,
because I doubt you're the first one to have that question.
I'm assuming he's...
Other towns are asking, hey, can you come to Libby?
Hey, can you come to whoever and do this?
So if he gets enough of that, maybe he'll just put a roadshow...
Or maybe even a damn Zoom call.
Yeah, I mean, it's weak if you facilitate something, you know?
Yeah.
I don't know.
Like Nicky's saying, I think it's probably more the unknown
of how much commitment they're going to endure, you know,
before they say yes or no.
And by looking at it, you really can't tell, you know,
that I could tell anyway.
Yeah.
I don't know.
Well, just looking at the different options that he gave at the meeting
of different forms of government.
Oh, yeah.
That would have to be thought about in these brainstorming things.
That could take forever.
Yeah.
So...
Yeah, just to narrow it down to what you think might benefit them.
Well, we're the best for this community, yeah.
And we've all sat through similar meetings where it's going to
wrap a trail off to something that completely has no relevance
of what they're even talking about.
Easy to take those five and 10 and 20 minute conversations.
You know, then hopefully, like that Joanne B. Arco's in this case,
assuming she gets elected, can bring everybody back.
Because there's...
You need somebody that can just run the meeting.
Yeah.
And have some of the discussion on topic.
Yeah.
Yep.
So, keep it on the top of your mind.
Okay, moving on.
There is no public, so upcoming agenda items,
we should probably add
outside of city limits garbage pickup.
One of the county commissioners requests us,
who is outside of the city limits,
to pick up this garbage at Theven Autobody.
Because he marked on a calendar,
how many times the county didn't show up,
and he said it was half.
So...
So you're taking charge for months when...
Yep.
And what the county's charging is going to be significantly less
than what we would charge.
And we're already basically, well, we're not quite going by,
but it's right there.
So then...
We would be less.
You know, and then maybe we got signed out,
and we would be less.
We would be less.
Yeah, we would be less.
Yeah.
And we'd be more reliable.
So...
So I told Mike that we would for sure do it,
but he has to bless off with the other commissioners,
because this is money out of there.
You know, he's like, that's fine, I'll talk to him.
So, because Steve and I and Mike talked about it
after the zoning meeting,
when we were all here for the Stenoff RV Park field.
So when we sat and talked for about 30, 45 minutes.
So...
So he's got the tasker of getting the county on board with it,
and we'll do it as long as the county gives us their blessing.
But I don't want to step on their toes.
But like he said, he'll still pay the county one.
He just wants us to do it.
Because he's tired of this paper and the plastic.
Because, you know, the wind blow is up there,
more than it does in town right here.
And he's chasing paper and plastic all over,
because that's primarily what he puts in there,
is the paper and the plastic.
So...
So yeah, agenda item, please.
And then...
So you'll see part-time office person in there.
We've been talking...
It's about time to start thinking about,
you know, who's going to replace the Janets and the Sanyas.
Because is Janet turning 65 this year?
I think it's two more years, isn't it?
Yeah, like her one and a half years.
Yeah.
But we have...
You know, Sanyas is not going to be here forever either.
She's getting old.
Yeah.
Patient level.
Yeah.
So, Sanya did work it in to...
into the budget.
So, my thing is,
the last thing I want to do is take the county's approach
and just have a $12 an hour thing,
because you're going to get $12 an hour experience and commitment.
So, it's going to have to be something that you're going to have to compete
with the pro-coops, the banks, the Nemons,
who, you know, who are offering something.
So...
Well, and I think you should advertise it as,
you know, it's sort of training grounds for the future,
clerk position or secretary treasurer.
And we need to decide exactly what we want to,
you know, bounce off from pool managers to grant writers to fill in.
Yeah.
That was my suggestion.
It was in the summer.
They could almost go to full-time in the summer
and be a lifeguard pool manager.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Then you're not stuck with hire in that person every year.
Yeah.
I don't have to train someone new hopefully every year.
Well, speaking of that,
Lindsay and Danielle want to be co-pool managers next year.
I said, well, we're going to have to send one of you to CPO training,
who operated training.
I said, so whoever is that...
How are they going to do that with full-time jobs?
So, Lindsay has...
Flexibility.
I told Lindsay, she's the one who's approached me with this.
She said Danielle wants it.
So that's just hearsay, I guess, if you will.
But I told Lindsay that if this is something serious,
you guys are going to have to probably come talk to us.
Yeah.
And we'll have to...
I said, we have a year.
We don't have to put this fire out now.
But if you are interested, we can more or less hire you,
and then we can get you sent to training sometime between now and June 1st.
Ben, that's one thing we don't have to do crap out in May,
is we just hired Kathy French.
We've got to send her to training next week,
so she can come back and run the pools.
True.
I don't know if it's good having people that already have full-time jobs,
because that's basically a full-time job as it is.
Well, it should is.
The bottom line is it should be.
I know you've had people with other jobs before,
and they're not capable of doing the job.
So we need to...
To me, it's a full-time job.
I mean, a pool needs to be tested at 5 in the morning,
you know, noon, 2, 5, 9.
Well, in that person, I mean, that's where we ran into all the trouble,
is not having somebody there to supervise the kids.
Yeah.
And so, that kind of defeats it if you're not going to be there all day.
And, you know...
Yeah.
All the time jobs are during swim lessons,
which is the busiest part of the year to swim lessons.
And you have two swim team families,
so that's going to take them away, you know, the weekends.
Yeah.
Because both...
I asked it both for planning on swim team next year,
and they both...
It was a resounding yes.
Yeah.
You know, we're going to ride this out, so...
I mean, and I'm a swim team person,
so then they're...
Yeah, you're gone.
You're losing your managers and the every weekend.
Yeah.
So...
So, pool or getting inspected this year?
No, we didn't get inspected this year.
Might have been a good thing.
You know, and...
And, I mean, it sucks if you keep hiring new people every year,
I understand that.
Yeah.
Because then you end up in the Plentywood situation.
Yeah.
Where your people in there don't know what the hell's going on.
Yeah.
So...
No, I think you guys are...
Have the right idea with somebody that could, you know...
Yeah.
Hopefully, it would be a constant every year.
Well...
In the summer to kind of take over the managerials of the pool.
It's set up perfect for a teacher to be the pool manager.
Yeah.
You know...
It was...
I think we almost had Brock Berryhill
talked into it until he took the driver's edit,
because he was at the pool every day with his kids.
You know, you might as well be there to get paid
if you're going to be there anyway.
And I always said you could always do it too,
as you hire a lifeguard slash scheduling manager
and then public works could do the chemicals and testing and stuff.
Yeah.
Because there's always going to be a high turnover rate.
Yeah.
So we're just going to have to assume the city will...
You and Colin and whoever is just going to have to do the bulk of the testing,
but they need to know how to test as well.
And they can do maybe the middle of the day ones,
or the 5 a.m. ones, I guess, since they're there.
But...
Blue's and Tate is going to be tough, because he was pretty good at it.
I know Luke has mentioned being interested in it too,
and I don't know if he plans after he's done school,
if he plans on moving back here, or...
You know, because he did a lot of it at 9 o'clock at night.
Sometimes you have to dump a barrel acid in there,
and I know Luke usually did that,
because in those barrels of acid, our home's 200 pounds.
Yeah.
So it's just, you know, the last few years,
there's been a lot of drama with the pool.
Thank God, not as much as like the Plenty Woods,
and Malta, and whatever were, you know,
their city's basically all the shuttering there, pool, but...
And then we're going to have to figure out wages.
You know, we've got to compete with the Burger Hut,
if we're going to try to keep lifeguards,
and the biggest thing is getting that weekend...
The weekends, holidays, and fair schedules,
like they need to know on June 1st,
are you going to Sydney Fair or not?
We need an answer, because we can't,
all of a sudden it's Thursday,
and you're going to the concert tonight, or tomorrow night,
or whatever, and now everybody's down.
Well, and I, you know, like I said before,
you have to have some kind of a seniority system
when it comes to that stuff.
This lifeguard's been doing it for the last four years.
They can go, but you're new.
You have to, you have to stay and work.
I mean, that's how life works.
You need summer?
Yeah.
At some point, kids need to understand what work ethic is.
You can't take a job and then work once every two weeks.
And the kids need to take that information home to their parents
and say, okay, are we taking vacation,
are we going to school shopping, are we going to the lake?
Because, you know, Scoby empties during the summer,
during the weekends.
There's, you know, there's just no doubt about it.
So anyway, we're going to probably be talking about the pool
for the next nine months as well.
Um, okay.
The last item on the agenda would be the consent items
and the test results.
Yep.
So I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent items.
So I'm going to ask Steve to talk about it.
I know.
Motion to approve consent.
So I can do.
Okay.
Motion made, seconded.
Um, okay.
So we did a little bit of issue with the, the test results.
Steve, do you want to just let the council know what?
Oh yeah.
One of our back fees hit, we're back to the example.
So we have to do a retest, which one upstream here and one downstream
and resend it.
Well, the problem is now we do not have next day guarantee delivery
to Billings.
So we did our retest on Thursday and they didn't get there until Monday.
So then we had to retest to get it tomorrow.
And I went and talked to the post office.
And that's when they informed us they don't have guaranteed next day
and more to Billings.
And they said, we could try putting it in a priority envelope,
but they'll try putting it on top of the stack to try to get it there soon
and on.
So it's an issue all over in our Eastern.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I don't have energy labs.
It's considered an immobile lab testing.
Yeah.
Or the rules need to be changed.
Yes.
And we can't afford to drive to Billings every week and month.
No.
When I first started, it was 48 hour old time for back to these samples.
And then a few years they had dropped that.
Now it's 30 hour old time for samples.
So I did write a letter to Ben, who is the guy that's in charge of Montana Roboter
to see what he says we should do or try.
I don't know if us in the Northeast of Montana,
maybe we need to switch to the lab in Williston.
Yeah.
And then car pulled back and for everybody takes their samples the same day.
You know, at least send it to Williston,
but you didn't get a mail at the Williston,
so almost got the drive over there.
Yeah.
But I mean, UPS.
UPS is not guaranteed either.
Ah.
Yeah.
Because I talked with Ron about that,
because we send our other samples, like our better examples,
lead and copper and everything has to go UPS.
And the first time we thought like,
Neemot was an everyday pickup.
So we dropped it off there.
So then Ron says,
there's nobody in school who does an everyday pickup anymore.
They have to schedule pickups.
Nobody pays for the everyday pickup anymore.
So if there's nothing else there for them to pick up,
if they're not called in,
it sits there and tells you UPS gets there,
and that's what happened with that disinfectant by-product one
that we had to get driven down there,
because there's not an everyday pickup for it anymore.
Well, I think it's beneficial for the Northeast Montana towns
to visit above the possibility of switching to Williston.
Yeah.
So can we?
Is there a reason why we have to go to energy labs?
But we still have to drive it over there.
Yeah, we still have to drive it over.
I think they should come to energy labs
or somebody should do a mobile.
Yeah.
Why don't they do that?
The biggest thing with energy labs,
they submit all the paper to the state for us.
If we went to Williston, we would get the report,
and then that would have to be submitted to the state.
Because that's an astro-canastro-laton.
Yeah, right across the Walmart.
Yeah.
And that's where CNC and Anderson Wood were doing their back-tea samples.
They would just drive somebody over there, of course,
and they would do their samples that way,
because it was closer.
And it wasn't that way of a problem until they quit doing them.
They don't quit the mail on the airplane anymore.
The mail is all driven all the way down to Billings now.
So I'm waiting to hear back.
I'm going to call energy labs tonight
to see if our sample we sent yesterday made it.
If not, then we've got to figure out how to get a sample
down there by the end of the month.
Because what's the fine for this?
If we don't, what happens to the city of Scobie
if we can't get it there?
I don't know if there's a fine, but we get written out.
You just got to keep doing it until you pass it.
And you have to write it down in the paper,
put it in post-it at all the locations we put the agenda.
If it's a high enough tier after so long,
then you have to start mailing out to everybody that you failed it.
And I mean, the second thing is there was chlorine in there,
so it was probably either something got on the edge of the bottle
or something fell off the tap.
So they can retest it.
And then hopefully that one will come back.
And if that one comes back good,
then it doesn't matter that we failed the first one.
But if we hit it again,
then we have to do an action plan on what's going on.
We did have to inform dry prairie that we hit,
which dry prairie didn't even know we had to do that.
So it must be something on our end,
if we failed it, but Plentywood and Freud
probably used a bogus test.
Like I said, something got on the lid,
or set the lid down and might have got something in it
or something or a cough when he was doing it.
I mean, who primarily does it?
Paul or you at all?
Okay.
And so she touched Plentywood,
and of course they made it.
Their first samples made it there,
because they had just stopped air here like a week and a half ago,
is when they quit sending them down there on the airplane.
And those tests don't guarantee
that there's no coliforms in the water.
They guarantee that the levels are acceptable.
Yeah, that they're below the level.
And if you let that specimen sit long enough,
they won't be acceptable.
It's going to climb.
So if it's a time constraint thing,
then why is it our problem,
if they don't provide,
if we don't have a provision to get it there in time,
why is it our problem?
We can get it there in time to get it to drive it.
That's it, that's the thing.
But it's the money, yeah.
If it's 24 hours or you have to get it there in 24 hours.
That's why it's got to be a bigger conversation.
Yeah, I mean, this is almost going to have to get pushed up.
Hey, when other places have a health department does this,
it doesn't have to be on site.
DEQs, that's the time.
I think rural water, like you say, needs to get involved.
Yeah, because we need to come up with a plan for,
because they're our voice, right?
So they need to come up with a plan
to make sure that all of these water systems,
the rural areas in Northeast Montana
can stay up to snuff.
It's not just going to be us that tells it,
because they put this air mail everywhere all over the state.
So even the smaller towns around Great Falls,
they might not be able to use this City of Great Falls one,
but if they're centered to energy labs in Helena,
it's not going to get there in time.
You know, because they say everyone's billing goes to like,
butte or billions, and then it goes out from there.
Yeah, that's the distribution basically for this half of the state.
Yeah, so I mean, anywhere that,
day to get to billions, you're not going to hit.
So does the sample go bad after 24 hours?
Yeah, after a whole 30 hours is what they say.
But like I said, when I first started, it was 48,
and then they reduced it.
And there was people having a hard time hitting 48 at the time,
and they reduced it down to 30.
Yeah, well, again, people mad about the freaking ice skating rink,
and you know, here's a real problem that we have to deal with, you know.
You don't get sick skating on the ice skating rink.
Yeah, you don't get sick skating on the ice skating rink.
Yeah, you don't get sick skating on the ice skating rink.
Yeah, so we've got a motion main seconded.
We've had a moderate amount of discussion.
All those in favor?
Aye.
Okay, and this time I entertain a motion to adjourn.
So moved.
Okay.
Thank you.