September 24th, 2024 Meeting
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.
I would like to please call the roll.
Councilor Axtman.
Here.
Larson.
Here. French.
Here. Crowder.
Here.
All right.
In your packet.
is the agenda for today's meeting, I'd entertain a motion to adopt.
I'll move.
I'll second.
Okay.
Motion made seconded.
Kind of got a full docket done here today.
Any questions, concerns?
Anything you guys want to move around?
Okay.
Hearing none, all those in favor?
Aye.
Okay, also in your packet are the minutes from the September 10th meeting.
I didn't retain a motion to approve.
I'll second.
Okay.
Motion made seconded.
Any discussion?
Changes, corrections?
Looks right.
Okay.
All those in favor?
Aye.
Okay.
Public comment?
Did Janet have anything for today?
I think she did.
She wanted to talk about this on BMS.
Oh.
Okay.
She did Janet a few minutes to enlighten us.
On BMS?
Yeah.
All right, Janet, you can have the floor.
Okay.
On the past due for September, I've sent out the letters and the red cakes will go out today and shutoffs will be on Thursday if we don't proceed payment.
There was quite a few 60 days past due this month.
There was 35.
Five of them are currently shut off and we haven't received payment in quite a while.
Nine of them are on a payment plan of two or 300 a month and they have all paid.
There are seven of those have made payment that aren't on the payment plan.
Three have paid in full and I'm still waiting to hear from 11 of them.
So hopefully I'm going to try to get a hold of some of them this morning.
Otherwise, red cakes will go off to them this afternoon.
And usually after I do that, I hear from them or they come in and pay or something.
That's about all I have on the past due.
Okay.
So did you want me to do the BMS now or?
Yeah, if you want to, because we'll look at the price proposal a little further down.
Okay.
But yeah, if you want to just discuss or explain to us what.
I talked to her on the phone for quite a bit and we have two different options.
The first option that we've had quite a few people request is the ACH option where
they give us their bank information, we put it in the computer and then it gets sent to
the bank and so when we send out a bill, it comes directly from their bank to pay us.
So where the bill paid through the bank, you have to change the amount every month.
This is why you wouldn't have to.
The new thing that came out is this BMS pay and that has a lot more involved.
Oh, to go back to the ACH's cost, annual fee of $250 a year.
The BMS pay, now that includes a whole lot more.
They'll be setting up an account and I think I included quite a bit of the information in
the packet on this year where it has the price proposal.
This next page tells you about the ACH module that I talked about earlier and then the next
page is the BMS pay and so it does quite a bit more.
She had told me to make it a little brief.
The ACH option would be included with BMS pay.
So if we want the ACH option, we just have that where if we got the BMS then it would include that.
It would be where the client can go to the website, create an account and they can select
the pay by ACH.
Those payments will post automatically to BMS and you would not have to do anything.
Do any of this setup or posting.
The ACH dropping requires you to set up with your bank to get the capability started.
You will enter the customer bank, you can get the information each month.
You will upload the file to the bank and post the file and apply the payments which is a lot more steps.
But it is kind of included in everything that it does.
So you can either log on and just pay whatever you want or you can set it up to where whatever
you owe comes out like the fifth of every month for example.
The ACH we send out the bill, it automatically takes it out of their check.
I know a lot of people do that with NEMON and with MBU and so that would be just the playing ACH.
This BMS pay is it has all sorts of different options.
Real-time integration, seamlessly synchronizer, utility billing systems, eliminating manual file transfers,
payment posting, enjoy hands-off approach that ensures accuracy and safe time.
They have an online portal that the customers can easily create an account, view their history,
securely save payment methods from any mobile device or web browser.
So basically they are in control of their account and when they pay it automatically posts,
I wouldn't have to do any of the posting to their accounts.
They can text to pay, there is an auto-pay feature, pay by phone and they can still come in or whatever.
They also have a live agent call center and agents are available via a toll-free number
to answer questions about the online portal, retrieve citizen bill information
and even process payments over the phone.
That says the point of sale, the card readers could process walk-in payments
and post them directly to the online portal.
So it would cut out a lot of the things that we have to do
and it would save a lot of errors and stuff that would be sold directly.
And they do the training, they will come and train us.
There is no initial fee, it's just an annual fee.
An annual fee for the BMS pays $1,200 a year.
And that's it, I see where they are waiving these other fees.
You know, monthly portal fees, way of implementation fees.
Yeah, because otherwise there's the different bank fees.
And then they must, so if someone sets up a credit card or debit card, they get 3%
instead of having to come out of your account.
I just see that.
I know there is a 3%, and that's like when they pay through a pay-up right now.
Yeah, they add the 3%.
Yeah, and so I had written in my notes somewhere where it was 1, I think 1.5% for something
and 3% for something, but I didn't bring those notes with me.
Okay.
But yeah, I don't understand a lot of it, but this is what she's giving me and it sounds.
It sounds like it would be nice.
She also mentioned that if we went with the straight ACH, which a bunch of people are requesting,
that she didn't know how long that option was going to be available.
We're going to try to get it to where you have it.
Really?
Yeah, which would probably increase the fee.
Yeah, so are other cities using this?
Yes, this is something that just came out recently.
They talked to me about it when I was at the conference, and they said it hadn't came out yet.
And as soon as it did, they were going to ask, you know, get a hold of me.
So they reached out and I, so this is the information I've received.
I don't know how many other towns are currently using it.
I can get that information or give her a call, but yeah, I can get that information.
So the $1,200 a year, that doesn't seem like all that much, $100 a month.
So with this, let's just say half the people switch to it right away,
so you're only counting, you know, 300 checks instead of 600 checks or whatever.
So how much time do you think this would save?
Assuming we can implement, you know, most people sign up for it just like they are.
Like I'm signed up for the Nemont auto pay and the MDU auto pay.
So I mean, I've had people ask me why we haven't gone to something like this before.
Yeah.
So it's hard to say depending on how much people would use it to its full, you know, benefit
because like they have the customer service so they can, and they can go check out their accounts online
and check the history and everything where they wouldn't have to, you know, call for that information.
So it just depends on how much they decide to use it.
So is this something, Janet and Sonia, are you guys, like, are you guys in favor of us going this route?
Yeah, I think I am.
Okay.
Definitely the ECH.
Yeah.
Definitely the ECH if not the full war.
But I can get ahold of Theresa and find out how many other cities are using it.
Okay.
Yeah, we'll, I mean, it's, I'm definitely in favor of doing something different than how we do it now.
So.
Yeah.
But anyone have any questions for Janet?
Under ACH payer paid, looks like there's a $1.95 transaction fee.
It says if the payments made through BMS.
So are they going to bill each of the folks a $1.95 for each transaction?
Usually I think that's how it works.
It's like a convenience fee, basically, I think.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
I mean, I'm on the same plans that you are.
I just didn't notice that.
Yeah.
And they may well have that in there.
I just didn't realize it.
It's kind of a big thing.
Yeah.
Just where I can say from taking off attorney hat, but as rental property owner, like they
do this in Wolf Point and Moneywood, and it is super handy.
Like it just, yeah.
You don't accept to think about it.
Yeah.
You know, just all, you know, all the rent anymore is all electronic straight to your bank account
and then all your utilities and mortgages and everything will come right out automatically
and not having to sit down and write seven or eight different paper checks.
I mean, that actually saves a fair amount of time to earn two bucks.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You spend 20 bucks just waking up in the morning.
Yeah, for sure.
It's two more.
Anyway, so it's just, I would be in favor of that too, just for one person.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's kind of annoying having to write my city of Scoby check on everything else.
Yeah.
The only reason you have a checkbook.
Yeah.
Exactly.
Okay.
Well, yeah, we'll, it's a little further down on the agenda, but we'll discuss it.
And I'll see if I can find out from Theresa if, you know, what the consensus is or how
many people are actually using it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm not, like you said, I'm not worried about, you know, the cost for the city.
I would assume it's going to save you.
Yeah.
I would, I would think so.
It sounds like it anyway.
It might take a minute to get the training and set everything up because it's going to
be kind of a totally different way of handling stuff.
You're going to see all the same old people, but you're going to see half the young people
more or more because they like to have a place to go and visit.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Trust me.
No.
Social events do become a major challenge.
Okay.
Well, thanks, Chad.
Okay.
Utility.
Public works.
Well, not a whole heck of a lot going on.
Just trying to get everything wrapped up from ball here.
I'm going to try and get this white international take into Williston here one of these days.
If I just drive over there and have a chase, bring a column back or something after he
draws it over there.
Okay.
I called that international dealer and they said just drop it off and they'll take care
of it.
So I don't need to just get in an appointment or nothing.
Yeah.
Because it could snow next month.
Yeah.
We're done fixing all the roads.
So I don't call it like you go over there this week.
Did you get that corner trimmed by Arnie Bluequist House?
Yep.
Okay.
I did have them down that way.
Yeah.
It's only about two feet tall now.
Okay.
And then did you do any others or was that just the one you focused on that day?
Well, we only did that one because that day because it had rained and we couldn't get
out.
Oh.
And both of our pickups were full of tree branches from, so.
Sure.
That's one of, well, to go around here once it gets real cold there, not much else going
on, drive the streets and check all the signs or whatever.
I noticed the other day when we were talking that Paul, he never did put any concrete in
the alley back there.
Which one?
Oh.
You didn't?
I don't know.
Okay.
No.
It's still really sandy in that one spot behind Neal's and he's right there.
But I just thought it was, you know, it doesn't matter to me.
Yeah.
I got to call some over here to this alley too.
I know.
Okay.
What we got going on with the pivot right now is it, oh yeah, so the hydraulic pump motor
went out down there at the pivot.
So hopefully in the next, that was last week.
We can't look at it and that's what we determined the problem was.
So hopefully end of this week, next week we'll get a new motor and start winter drawdown
and start sucking it down.
And we have, there's a leak on a pipe out there between the pivot where it goes into
the ground that we got to dig up and Kent has to build a new one for it to go in there
and it's all specially welded pipe that goes in there.
And then I got a call from the fencers.
They were thinking the guys, the cruiser start to come back up here.
So then hopefully in the next few weeks they'll start putting the fence out there too.
But they can work all winter.
Yeah.
I think he, yeah, he's got all the shit to go all the time.
Okay.
Just don't forget your 24 hour heads up.
Yeah.
A little text message.
Okay.
Anyone have anything else for Steve?
Okay.
Well, moving on.
We've got some zoning permits here.
101 North Main.
That would be Rye Brands.
I guess Griggs Edition-ish area of town.
Just north of the, or just south of the mini storage basically.
Okay.
So between the mini storage and Ronnie Plants.
He's already got it all.
There's a store out there.
So there's a street and then there's the blank and then the mini storage.
There's a street between Ronnie Plants and the slot.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like Oak or is that one Oak?
I don't know if that one's Oak or...
I thought Oak was the one on me.
I think this is Pine.
Okay.
There was a time where we had them all memorized.
Yeah.
I don't know why we had them all memorized.
We did.
Okay.
So we have 201 North Main and then assigned permit to go on that big lot.
Just south of Archer's.
The thing's going to put up something that looks like what we're all has at the leaders.
So at this time I'd entertain a motion to approve both permits.
201 North Main and assigned permit and whatever main street.
I would move that we accept both those zoning permits.
I'll second.
Okay.
So motion made seconded.
Is there any discussion?
What are they putting the sign up for?
Just saying.
We are the beacon.
Oh, it's just say it's a beacon community lot or...
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
I didn't know if it was...
We don't have regulations on sign.
I didn't know if it was going to say private parking.
We don't have regulations on what they put on their sign.
Yeah.
Yeah, I just didn't know what the purpose of it.
Probably an election sign on your...
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You might be she he...
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Alright, any other discussion?
Steve, I'm assuming you would have spoke up if something wasn't in...
Yeah, that was good.
I...
So that, you know, anytime anything happens down there, you know, all the neighbors get
paired up.
Oh, yeah.
So I'm hoping you've measured twice and...
Let's do what I've...
Checked your list twice, made sure...
Somebody won't be happy no matter what.
Very nice.
Curial.
Okay.
We've got a new tenant in down there, so that'll help.
Yeah, I saw that.
Alan Jewel is kind of his...
Oh, yeah.
Just got him right.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And that's all that Alan owned, right?
Yeah, it's all that Alan owned down there.
Yeah, so...
All person bought all that, so...
There you go.
Okay, perfect.
Any other discussion?
Hearing none, all those in favor?
All right.
All right.
All right.
Fire Chief is not here.
The roof is done.
$50,000 later.
Fire Hall has a nice roof.
Oh, yeah.
Hopefully it's better than the last one.
They recommended not putting the flake pull back on just because you don't put any more
holes in that stuff.
And then we're not going to attach it to the brick because, you know, it'll eventually
just work out.
So I think Colin was going to talk to Fire Department.
Dad may be us about putting the pole in that breezeway between the two buildings.
It'd be on the south side of the City Fire Hall.
So...
Yeah, that's what I talked to Colin about.
So it'd have to be pretty...
Like I told Colin, it'd have to be a pretty tall pole, which is fine.
Just so, you know, when the flake's all the way up, you can see it.
And then it meets requirements when we do go to half staff and all that stuff.
I would assume it would be kind of like Freddie the farmer's across the street.
And then I'm not sure what was going on with the siren, but if you guys were listening
when the tornado went off last week, it was going, and then all of a sudden it wasn't
going.
One of them stayed going for a while.
Yeah.
The other one didn't quit.
The other one didn't.
The water tower quit.
Well, I thought that was the one that was going.
Yeah, it was the one that was going.
Yeah, I think that one stayed.
The big yellow one died.
So I don't know if it's been...
I haven't paid attention, I guess, if it's been back and going.
So who owns that?
That's kind of why we're going here.
So I can tell you who probably does want to pay for it.
And I don't think that thing's been serviced since it's been installed.
And I'll talk to him about Phil, Robbie, some of those older fire department guys.
Well, we've been talking about putting a new pole in there for about 15 years.
Yes.
Because we're afraid it's going to fall off when it goes on.
And he says, oh, there's nothing wrong with that pole.
No, the thing doesn't happen.
It fricking twists to it every time.
You watch that thing.
Yeah.
You don't want to be anywhere near it.
Especially when the fire whistle's going off.
Yeah.
You don't rev it up and down.
That pole is sweet.
Torts, yes, to the max.
I know the one that's on the water tower about 10 years ago.
Very lag-ramming up and serviced.
Yeah, they went through it and got it working again.
Yeah.
He's 10 years ago, so he was only 72 or 3 climbing that pole.
He didn't climb there.
We took our bucket truck up there.
And he used...
It was right after we got that bucket truck from Nemond that he went up there and worked on it.
Oh, you had his harness on?
Yeah, it was before you gave us the harness.
We quick paint at the boom to cover the cracks.
There's got to be an organization that specializes in servicing these alarms.
Every town has at least one, if not multiples.
But we don't know, Sonya, you have no idea if that city or county...
I don't.
I don't have it listed anywhere.
I would say it would probably be county, but...
Or maybe one's one, one's the other. Who knows?
All the county is there. You'll find out if it's there.
Yeah, they'll tell you immediately.
I'll call Gary Lender and ask him when he's going to fix his siren.
That should get the ball rolling.
So, well, anyway, that's probably going to have to be addressed by somebody at some point.
It at least needs to be serviced, if not.
And Robbie was looking at it.
There's two different sirens in there because when you look at it, there's two motors.
And he said that you can make it make different tones for, like, different alarms.
So instead of the thing just running for ten minutes on the tornado,
you can give it a totally different sound and maybe not run it as long or have it spiral up and down.
So, you know, if we're going to do something, it'd be nice to get everybody together
and if we're going to make any changes, do it all at once.
We just need to figure out who's going to write the check.
So, I'll make a motion that we vote the county.
Other than that, let me just see a quiet message.
Sometimes he messes with me.
Nope.
It's all been pretty quiet. I can tell you that much.
Okay, so moving on.
Sheriff's report. I did see the sheriff.
Was it the courthouse this morning along with probably someone who was seeing the judge
for a slow pursuit DUI west of town a while ago just judging by the vehicles sitting there?
So, I don't think Clint will be in this morning.
I think I saw that vehicle up and running out again.
So, we have a law enforcement advisory board meeting next month, October.
And the date of this is my phone update.
October, I think it's October 16th.
Is it on a Wednesday?
Yeah, 16th to a quarter. That's what I have.
Okay, moving on. Council comments.
The only thing I've heard and I don't know if we need to send out a notice or something else
is the unbagged garbage keeps ending up in the alleys.
It's happened behind mine, down by my son's and a couple other places in town.
Do we need to send out a notice to make sure it's bagged up?
Because with the high winds we get, it blows everywhere.
Are they not putting it in the container?
No, it was in the container.
It's supposed to be in a sack.
And I talked to a couple others and they said that they used to send out a little mailer that notice anyhow,
put it in the paper, please bag your garbage and things like that.
But I know it's becoming a bigger issue this summer, especially with the winds we've had.
Well, could we put something in our deal that we're going to put in the paper for this fall cleanup?
Like on the bottom of it, a reminder, all trash that goes in the black dumpsters needs to be bagged,
regardless of what it is.
It'd probably be a good time to do it, just add it on.
Yeah, it'd all go out at the same time.
You wouldn't have two mail-ins, you'd only have one.
Because we pay for a little bit bigger ad there, so it should catch everyone's attention
versus paying for a little two inch by two inch.
In fairness and honesty, at the end of December, I will have been here six years,
so that's the first time I've approved this.
So maybe we have a bad actor here at the table.
It wasn't my alley.
I don't know how you do things up north here.
And the bags are not biodegradable.
No, this is 60-year plastic.
It is tricky to get it into that container at just the right time so the wind blows it someplace else.
Requires a great deal of thought, much more than bioclastic life.
We'll get hit on the head by the lid.
Does Paul or Colin say anything about everyone's smile?
Is there troubled issues where people just don't do, aren't bagging it properly or at all?
It happens as I starving with people.
I mean, there's one guy in town who'll take his garbage can out there with the bag in it,
dump it in there and save the bag.
So maybe that's just something that needs to be put on the fall cleanup every year.
Yeah, if I would have heard.
When it's an annual thing.
Garbage reminders or something.
I mean, you're always going to get some, someone pulls up to a can and takes a pick up.
Yeah, you're always going to get a little bit.
You know, and then, yeah, they bag it, but do they tie it?
Some people don't tie the bag, so that doesn't help either.
Right.
Well, maybe we'll throw the reminder in there so that way at least we're making an effort
because we're not, we don't have the manpower or time to be the garbage police to go
physically look in every dumpster every day for however many days in a row to see who's not doing it.
How did the, speaking of the dumpsters, how did the whole grass dumpsters thing work out this summer?
They seem to be working good.
I mean, every now and then he sees one with garbage in it.
Yeah.
So he'll just put it in the regular truck when he's picking garbage.
Sure.
You think it saved you guys some trips to the landfill?
Well, I mean, it didn't save us.
I don't know.
Maybe in spring and fall, spring and when people pick and leaves this year, probably.
Yeah, leaves too.
Yeah.
Because leaves can go in there.
The bigger majority is it's going to save if they ever start hauling their garbage to
Plentywood, you know, not taking dumps for loads of grass.
I know it was handy.
I'll tell you that.
Oh, for sure.
Definitely handy.
If you got one.
Yeah.
Everybody got one.
There wasn't one in your alley?
Nope.
Really?
Well, you should mow your lawn.
Yeah.
Okay.
Any other council comments?
I visited with Mayor Legfold about furthering complaints on our friend, John Holly.
So, and I know BJ and Clint are working on that.
So not much else to be said other than there's still complaints coming in.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
I think we all have.
Yeah.
And then I just want to thank Morgan and Seth again for the help of my place.
So.
So, I talked to Clint and he says that he's aware that John's driver's license has
expired.
And to everyone's knowledge, it hasn't been renewed.
So does that give him, with that being known information, if he sees him driving?
Is he allowed to pull him over?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And we've had discussions of different ways to kind of approach that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Because I mean, because I see him driving daily.
And I know he's, you know, there's only two of them.
He's got one guy at the Academy and he can't just, you know, post a guard on him from eight
to five because he won't move.
But there's got to be a way to catch him in the act.
He drives from where he parks down my alley and parks on the north side of Tandy's to
go by, I'm not going to say, but to go by his sustenance.
And then he pulls out and reverses his way back to either north side of the church or
the east side of the library.
So did we, did we change the password on the library Wi-Fi?
I don't think they were going to.
Because I think that would be one thing that would maybe help.
The library board said they're not going to put a password on.
For better or for worse, it is a public library.
Yeah.
That's public.
But the church, I think he's using the church one now.
So I had a complaint from someone who goes to the Lutheran church, who is not on the
board.
And we had a conversation and I took that conversation to a board member and I said,
you know, we can't have this both ways.
You can't have your church complaining about this guy but then having your employees and
staff helping this guy.
Said you need to pick a stance and either be all in or all out.
And it wasn't a very comfortable conversation.
But, you know, from what I understand, Bev brings in coffee, he does his laundry, does
a few other things throughout the day and week.
Bless your heart.
I mean, yeah.
Bless your heart.
But again, it's your enabling, you're just enabling somebody.
And I've heard only one time, but I understand it's happened multiple times, where he will
just start screaming at her for whatever reason.
They get into an argument over something.
So, but the biggest thing now is just the smell.
His pickups plump with garbage.
You know, he drives right by my business dumpster on his way to park in that alley,
you know, in front of Tandy's there.
So, I don't know why you just can't stop and throw a few things out.
So, there's...
Is there...
We were talking about this the other day.
Is there any kind of...
Is there a route to go, Ben, through the mental health realm?
Be kind of a county attorney decision, basically.
I mean, there is if it gets bad enough, you know.
Because I think it's kind of become that with him.
I think it's a mental health issue.
Yeah, I'm sure.
You know, among other things.
But live that way.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Now, correct me if I'm wrong, Ben, but that's going to come down to a competence question.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Competence is real.
It's hard to...
It's a greasy slope with all sorts of slides off of it.
Well, as I have the discussion off and on in Sheridan County, it's not illegal to be mentally ill.
No.
It's only when, you know, as far as civil commitments go, or in voluntary ones, it would be when
you're substantially unable to provide for your basic needs.
Yeah.
Or if you're, you know, a danger to yourself or others, and that requires active efforts
towards that.
So, so you can talk about, I'm going to harm myself or I'm going to do this.
And as long as they don't actually take any steps towards it, there's really nothing you
can do.
And my opinion is as it should be, because we're going to come, you know, it was a time
where everybody just got locked up.
Whether, you know...
Yeah.
We got deemed incompetent.
And now it's difficult to do that.
And I think that's the way it should be.
But, you know, the reality of the situation is then you end up here with kind of, you
know, everybody agrees there's a problem.
And again, it needs help.
But as far as what you can actually do is pretty limited.
So, I don't know.
But yeah, Clinton and I have been in touch on it on the city side, I guess as far as
any sort of mental health commitment or anything.
I mean, it's not, it doesn't strike me as a terrible idea to look into it.
I don't, you know, know exactly well.
And it'd be Logan Wolfson's call on whether that meets the criteria or not.
But, you know, theoretically he is homeless at this point in time and winter is coming.
Unless things have changed, the furthest you're going to go down this road, I think, is a 72-hour
hold for evaluation.
And based upon what I've seen and what I've heard around the table, you'll slide right
through it and pass.
Yeah.
Well, and then you do run into issues now at the state hospital.
They're trying to clamp down on who they'll even take.
And you have to make sure that there's a met available before you even send them because
they've been in hot water with them.
Finding a mental health man in this state with nine facilities is almost impossible.
Yeah.
Most of the people who I've sent somewhere else or who I've sent for that purpose went
to another state.
Yeah.
And that's a whole other set of laws because you can't involuntarily commit somebody in
another state.
Yep.
That's exactly right.
As far as the county attorneys go, their only real option is, well, in state, but the
only secure facility that we have really for a lot of options, well, either Glendive
potentially or the state hospital.
Glendive is up and running.
Yeah.
It's been down a couple of times in the last few years because of staffing.
Yeah.
And then the state facilities had its own bulk issues in the last two years.
Oh, yeah.
For sure.
But yeah, that's another.
I like to say mental health management is better someplace else, but it isn't.
It's a chronic issue across the nation and around the world.
The question is, okay, so if we find a path to, if the county attorney and city attorney
law enforcement is able to find a path, what is that going to look like?
Don't say because it just.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
Okay.
So you, so say in theory, you, you charge him with whatever.
Yeah.
Can you just say you have to leave and you can't come back to this county?
No, I was an involuntary commit, you know, quite honestly.
Even if they got him into the state hospital, it's usually just to stabilize the person
basically, and then they'll release them.
If you work real hard, you can get sometimes a plan into transition to like a group home
facility in Missoula or something, but you know, most of the time, the way it actually
works is they're there for about a week and then they turn from right back to wherever
they came.
That's my honest experience.
Has this, has this gone on through a winter yet?
Two winters.
Two winters.
Okay.
Yeah.
I'm pretty sure the first winter was partially the first winter and then the last winter.
I really wasn't tracking this until just kind of.
I don't think he had any heat or water or anything though.
He hasn't had water since Danny was there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But I guess, so you, I guess you could call, yeah, he was still in his house.
He was still.
He didn't have heat or water or anything.
Yeah.
Then last winter was the first winter he was actually in his pickup.
Yeah.
An ongoing situation.
Yeah.
It's by far the most complaints that I get.
I mean, to the point now where I think people are going to stop coming to us because then
we've already talked to everybody about it.
You know, they've called the sheriff department.
They've, they've, they've talked to me or one of you.
But we're going to move on.
Any other council comments?
Okay.
So under streets and alleys, we have, John Bach has provided us the information on the,
like the driveways that would be affected once we start working on 3rd Avenue West.
I think there's any need.
I don't know what Steve, we kind of talked about this a little bit.
Do we want to get this information out there to the homeowners now in case they are planning
on doing something versus waiting?
Cause we're essentially two, probably two years out from doing anything on that site.
Well, I mean, we're two years out.
We go talk to them now by the time it starts, everybody forgets what we're doing or we
tell us closer.
And if something is, if somebody starts working over there, then we can go talk to them.
And you don't know, you might get some people changing homes over there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I just like, I see Robbins building that garage.
I don't know if he's planning on doing an apron to, you know, so if we gave everybody
just the heads up that, you know, there's going to be some things going on, let us know
before you, you know, do any major landscaping or, you know, put in your own sidewalk or
asphalt or pave your driveway.
I think for the most part everybody over there is aware, but I don't know.
I guess I haven't talked to all of them.
No.
With the street representative on that.
If you see anybody over there, I don't know the state of things.
Yeah.
So, well, I guess at this time, Consensuses will just, you know,
will just take this information and put it in our file.
No need to.
I'm somewhere.
Yeah.
And you're probably right.
I think everybody does know that something's going to be happening in the foreseeable future.
So, but I guess we'll just have to keep our ears out if someone is wanting to do something.
I just hate for someone to spend, you know, 10 grand, you don't get much for anymore,
it seems like, you know, that's, that's still a lot of money.
So I hate for someone to spend a significant amount of money and then have to change it,
tear it up, do whatever.
Yeah.
I mean, you're looking at a driveway now as big as what mine is.
I think you're looking at 25 grand.
So you don't want to do that and have to redo it.
And then, you know, if you're anal like me and then you do end up having to shave off
say the last three feet, work on the cradle and it's a different color.
You've got a scene there, you know, because you never get the same coat of concrete.
So, but okay.
Well, so we'll just hold off on this info.
Yeah.
Sending out this info out.
Um, Ben, can we talk about the hay lease?
We got a draft in here.
I think you're ready for us to basically approve this and you can take the watermark off.
Yep.
That's correct.
And I think has it, the notice has already been published in the paper.
Okay.
But yeah, the council wants to approve it.
And then has this one been uploaded already to the website?
Okay.
So, well, I don't know.
Well, I guess we probably should approve it, but this is the draft anyway.
And, uh, all I did is incorporate, you know, the discussion that we had last, um, last
meeting, I guess is the, um, specifically stating that the less you would be responsible
for all those things that they're responsible for, you know, uh, monitoring the water usage,
reporting, you know, crop production, whatever else.
And I referenced the land application plan.
So, um, if you can't say they, they didn't know what they were getting into.
So one of the, somebody who's interested did reach out to me and said, now, you know,
you can't just go in there and seed it 12 alpha and expect to, you know, have a crop
that's going to need some, basically need to be reclaimed.
Um, he was suggesting or asking, um, could you do a hay barley for a couple of years,
a salt tolerant hay barley that would help get the, so you could get rid of the weeds
and you'd have to do that for one or two years.
And then you go back into the alfalfa grass mix that's required.
And they also said you're going to have to do a roundup ready alfalfa because of the constant,
you know, weed problem that's going to take a few years to get rid of.
So, um, I said, you know, the con, the book answers, no, we can't do that.
I said, but because of the shape of the land, we have to do something.
It said, if an agronomist on his letterhead comes up with this comprehensive plan that says,
this is arguably the only way to get this land into shape, then we can submit that to DEQ
and see what they say.
Yeah, I would say I wouldn't even be like quite so dire about it.
I mean, I think if, if it's a reasonable alternative, I mean, we would have to work through DEQ,
you know, to amend that plan for better or worse, but, uh, again, but, you know, I think it could be done.
Yeah.
My, I guess my thought would be have them put the proposal together and, you know,
depending on what it shows up, I mean, that those will be the city's options to choose from.
Yeah.
And, you know, we talked about going in there, um, you know, mowing it down, spraying it,
just doing whatever.
And he said, he said, actually, that'd be the last thing I do.
He's like, I would just go in there now with like a, like a mower conditioner and hey it,
get it off there because you don't want to put all those seeds back in there because then you're fighting that.
He's like, so you got to get as much of that trash off of there.
Then you go in there, spray it, disc it, do whatever.
Not that the bale's going to be worth anything or just kosher and whatever other weeds grown down there.
What about burning it before we fence it?
I would, in burning it would be in, it doesn't say we can't ever burn, does it?
Not that I recall.
I mean, I think that would, that would take step one.
Kill the seeds.
Kill the seeds off.
And it's going to probably regenerate some of the prairie grasses that are there.
You're burning it.
You're going to have to wait until it's dry.
That's, yeah, that's the problem.
I mean, because right now it's wet because it's wet and the rain and they're going to have the fence up before.
Yeah.
I don't have time to dry them.
So then, I mean, you can disc.
It would be ideal, but it wouldn't.
So he's using all steel when he fences.
No, wood round, certainly he's going to have to use wood bows.
Okay.
If it was a square section, probably metal, but with a big round he said he'd probably have to use wood.
Really?
Okay.
But you can always put a fire line around the outside with a motor.
Yeah, yeah.
Well then, and the inside, you'd have to disc that 10, 12, 15.
Yeah, it'd be kind of a tricky burn, but I mean, I think it would take care of a lot of the weeds.
All on training for the fire department.
Yep.
Truly controlled.
It'd require at least a text in advance.
Just don't start to do it on fire.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What kind of notice would we have to give the neighbor to do something like that?
That would be a benefit over there.
A text now?
No.
Seriously though, yeah.
I'm fair enough.
You know, I mean, the notice is for the easement, but you know, we want to make sure we had all of our ducks in her old.
Yeah, we don't want to create any more proxies.
So working with an abundance of caution.
That would be, you'd probably want to talk to the other attorney directly and be like,
this is what we're doing.
Yeah.
For sure.
I mean, the prevailing winds are out of the, you know.
Northwest, so you're going to commit it down.
We should out, but we wouldn't be, it wouldn't be blowing right into his yard.
Oh no.
And if you burned it right, it wouldn't be an issue.
No.
I mean, you get enough crews and a couple of trucks.
And honestly, maybe having it a little wet would help that situation.
It's still going to burn.
It's going to burn.
Yeah.
A little more smoke and a little slower.
Yeah.
But, so anyway, you know, there is some interest.
I think there's potentially three parties that are, that I know of that are interested,
not sure how interested, but.
Would the fire thing be worth talking to an agronomist about?
I don't know enough about it.
I don't either.
That's why I'm way outside my area of expertise.
I think a lot of the times the good thing about fire is it burns all the seed up in the weeds.
So they don't repropagate, but some of them may be receded.
Some of them may be heat dollar.
But, but honestly, a lot of the fires over the years out in pastures.
I've seen the pastures 10 times better.
You've seen green grass coming back.
Yeah.
It comes back greener.
And there's no hands in it usually.
Yeah.
I would say that would be the case.
Okay.
So, you know, I think this thing is good.
The only thing, you know, the five year.
So would we, would we give whoever has the least, the first right to release it?
Or would it automatically have to go to bid?
And the reason I ask is because whoever gets it this first time is going to have a significant
investment into cleaning it up and actually making it worth their time.
So I don't know what the.
What that mean we have to change the Haley's agreement then.
Like if we put a first right of refusal in there.
Yeah, I wouldn't.
I mean, we would, it is a draft.
And I mean, understanding that some of these things might have to come in there, you know,
if they're going to burn it or whatever.
Yeah.
So it might have to be modified.
But yeah, I guess that the short answer would be, yeah, probably would have to be modified
somewhat.
But I think there's still room for negotiation after the, you know, requests.
So do you want us to approve this and then you'll work on the other stuff later?
I think this should be approved as the official draft.
Okay.
And just knowing that, you know, it is a unique situation.
I think, you know, the first few years anyway, it'll hopefully look a lot different.
And you could make amendments to this lease based upon a particular leasee.
Yeah.
Could you not?
Yeah.
After they've signed that lease?
Yeah.
It need to be.
I mean, the city reserved, you know, reserves, it's right to rejecting the proposals and
notifying them as needed.
So, but that's why I'm curious to see, you know, again, what whoever's interested in
comes up with for a plan on how they would tackle things and see how that affects whatever
the price is.
Maybe it'll be a dollar, dollar a year for three years, you know, until they can get it
back in production.
I don't know.
Again, I don't have the expertise to know how you turn that thing around.
Sure.
I will move that we approve this draft.
Okay.
Okay.
So we're motion made and seconded to approve this draft as the official draft for leasee
in our irrigated land.
Is there any discussion?
Okay.
Hearing none.
All those in favor?
All right.
All right.
Okay.
Moving on back to, I guess, not so much to pivot so much as the lagoon and whatnot.
Steve, it looks like you got a little bit of work to do this fall yet.
Yeah, we're going to tear some trees out of the banks of the lagoon.
Now, is there risk of damaging any liners or anything?
No, they're right on the top.
I'm going to try to find this hokando and pull it straight out.
I'm going to get that bad.
And then, I probably just have to spray the banks with some weed killer that I got from.
I got a good deal on some good stuff from grain growers.
Yeah.
Okay.
You're going to spray down there.
And the kosher at the baseball field is so.
Yeah.
That Legion field is.
And then one of the things in there is also the weeds at the pivot area.
So, I'll just get to explain to them that we just got controlled over it on July.
You know, we're putting it out for bid to get it cleaned up.
So, they just wanted to know you have a plan in place and you had a plan?
Basically, that's what you wanted to get.
When the guy was your tourney, he said, we just need to know your plan to remedy whatever
recommendations we have.
So, and one thing is like, there's a meter out there that doesn't work anymore going
to the pivot.
So, we have to get a new meter for that.
So, they can use that to count the gallons instead of guessing, you know, half inch or
inch or.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, the other way to do it is how many hours to pump around.
Well, that's a full capacity.
Like right now, we figure how many gallons per minute the heads put out and then you
just figure out how many minutes you're around.
Just like sprinklers this time.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Same thing.
So.
Okay.
So, I don't need to ask for a motion to approve this.
With more FYI.
Yeah.
I mean, there's nothing to prove.
Yeah.
They told us what needs to be fixed.
So.
Yeah.
We do need to get another certified operator.
Who's our, who's our second one right now?
Ricky.
Perfect.
So, in an emergency, we'd call him and he'd come from Harlem.
Yeah.
Turner.
Yeah.
Okay.
All right.
Well, that's an FYI.
We'll have to stay on that because I don't want DEQs sniffing around more than they need
to be.
No, they're one of those three letter agencies.
Yeah.
As long as you keep them happy, it's okay.
Yeah.
So, Steve, that's a tall order.
Bring them a cup of coffee when they show up.
Yeah.
We got to take some money out of the penny cash to buy fresh donuts.
This guy's actually from Haver.
My brother used to date his...
We need to keep them.
Yeah.
Keep them.
So, we're just helping her to our relationship.
Yeah.
All right.
So, next item looks like we got the BMS pay price proposal.
You know, we had the discussion earlier with Janet and I...
I don't know.
I guess if we're going to do it, then if there's talks that just the ACH1 is potentially going
away, we would just, for $1,200 a year, we would just go with this full-blown BMS pay.
My only question that I didn't ask before is, how good is that $1,200 a year?
Is that going to go up?
It will go up.
Every year.
There you go.
Buy.
You know, 10%, 100%.
But if you figure it's helping in managing your billing process, it's probably well worth
it.
Yeah.
I mean, $1,200, you say $100 a month.
I mean...
Yeah.
That's nothing, you know.
Correct.
Not for trying to get payments easier.
I would like to see them do this like price.
Charge us off the amount of accounts we have.
Basically, a 580 accounts.
Yeah.
Sure.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And maybe that's something you could talk to them about too.
Yeah.
Because a lot of times these, you know, like with Nemont, when you have, you know, stuff
like this, you can, when it comes down to brass tax, you can say, hey, you know, this isn't
going to work for us.
What can you do for us?
You know.
So...
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, what Nemont did was just make their bill so confusing, you look at it.
Yeah.
Just throw it away.
Yeah.
Even the employees can't understand it.
I'm like, well, I guess I'm able this much.
I bring my bill in and they can't tell me what it says.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It says, don't build threads here.
Yeah.
I'm assuming, well, they want to do a website or do regular work together.
Black Mountain website.
Yeah.
That's what I want.
Well, I would assume either they put a link on our website.
I would say it probably goes to, kind of like when you do Nemont online, it takes you to
somewhere else.
Yes.
Yeah.
Because them and Sheridan use the same one, Sheridan Electric.
You click on it.
It goes to over there.
It would probably just be a link on our website.
Yeah.
It's true that we have take-ups and I wonder if people want to say, do you want to continue
using that thing?
Well, I would assume...
I would assume this BMS that would take credit and debit card.
It looks like it.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
I'm assuming it's just like that one that like Nemont Sheridan use.
You click on to pay my bill and it takes you to a different website.
And you can use credit card or debit card to set up a username and everything.
Yeah.
Well, I don't know how many people Janet sees that, you know, it's just a here and there.
They just forget to pay their bill.
But I would think something like this would stop that from happening.
You know, cut down the frequency of that anyway.
Yeah.
Okay.
Well, I will entertain a motion that we approve the purchase or I guess the contract, if you
will, to pay $1,200 a year for this BMS pay for our utility bill payments.
I would move that we do that.
Second.
Okay.
So motion made seconded.
We have had some discussion.
Any other discussion?
Okay.
Hearing none.
All those in favor.
All right.
All right.
Another step forward into the future.
And then it would get to the point where we would, we could potentially stop sending out
cards to certain individuals or will those always go out?
Yeah.
Because I mean that right there would be a savings.
We may have enough electronic bills, I suppose.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I bet that this has electronic billing right built into it, everything.
Because that would send you an email notification of what was going on.
That's basically an electronic bill right there.
Yeah.
It would probably take it out of the system here.
Yeah.
A bill wouldn't be certain for that person.
That's how I'm assuming it would be one less.
You know, because what do we, what's it cost to mail the postcards?
I know it's not the $0.69 or whatever.
It's like $0.30 something cents.
But you know, times $500.
$500.
Times $12.
That's a lot of money.
So yeah, I mean again, we're essentially paying for it by getting rid of all of our manual
steps.
Yeah.
Absolutely, I think.
Okay.
Well, we voted it.
Oh, did we vote?
All those in favor?
Aye.
Okay, good.
There.
In case we did last time.
I was, yeah.
Look at the recording.
Yeah.
Okay.
Well, good.
Interlocal agreement looked like there wasn't much change.
It's a date.
That one.
Yeah.
The only thing that I spotted that needed to be removed and I just asked the council
to approve it with that change is on the payment.
That was the, this is based on the very first one we did.
And I think we paid up front for the first three months with the on execution of the
agreement.
We've been doing this for a couple of years.
I don't think that's necessary.
Yeah.
But what with, but you can see the lack of trust that existed at the start.
We're going to need a certified check.
Yeah.
For the first six months.
We're going to get paid, which I didn't quite understand.
Yeah.
The municipal government.
Wow.
That's usually the highest guarantee.
Yeah.
Municipal bonds are pretty second to best.
Sorry.
Yeah.
So which section?
So finances the section 12.
Good.
It's a second paragraph under 12.
Yeah.
Okay.
So we will strike that.
Yeah.
Strike that little paragraph.
Yeah.
And then we'll approve it as amended.
Okay.
So we have a motion made and seconded to approve the amended draft for the law enforcement
interlocal agreement.
Moving in section 12 a the entire second paragraph starting with city shall pay to counting.
Okay.
Is there any questions, comments, concerns, other comments?
Okay.
Hearing none.
All those in favor?
Aye.
Okay.
And passed.
And are we still moving forward with?
We are.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Logan, I don't know if they had their baby or not yet.
Must be close.
Very close.
Overdue.
Yeah.
September 11th.
Oh, God.
Yeah.
I would hope so.
Last week, yeah, they were, it was like any moment.
They very well may have had them.
I was just out of town.
I know that was going to take Logan out of commission for a hot minute.
But yeah, we'll have something.
Super early October to get in front of everybody.
Go from there, but it's still, we're still working through it.
Okay.
And then, um, I guess since we're under fire and police, just an FYI, this new gallon
town, her name is Kashia.
Dorsey.
Dorsey.
Yeah.
Um, she just secured a grant for the sheriff's department.
Um, these fancy whiz bang laptops that they carry with them in their patrol vehicles.
And I think there's even one for the dispatch and it's, um, about 25 ish thousand dollars
worth of equipment.
Um, she's got a couple other grants that she's working on.
Um, she's visited with me multiple times yesterday being the most recent.
Um, she's got a lot.
She's found a lot of grants that she is stepping forward on.
Um, found lots of good things coming up.
So, um, you know, she hasn't been paid for anything yet.
There's probably going to come a time where we'll have to discuss, you know, how we're
going to pay somebody if they put in for a grant and we receive it.
You know, how do we peel money out of either the grant or the general fund or somewhere
to pay her something?
Um, sheriff's department has nothing to do with us and she's aware of that.
Um, that was just kind of an FYI.
But so, but anyway, um, one grant in the books and hopefully more to come.
She did find, uh, several different paths for the fighter hall.
Um, so to include little ones like paying for the, um, environmental survey, um, or
environmental study, whatever it's called, um, we were already covering the PAR.
So that's going the right direction.
So yeah, um, she found up to a $500,000 grant to rehab a historic church and she
asked me if I knew of any in town and say, as a matter of fact, I do.
So, um, she got a hold, she was going to get a hold of Pastor Kelly, uh, yesterday.
So, and she thought that one would be fairly straightforward and that we'd get some money
out of that.
So really hope that.
I know you've said this before.
Who is this kind of?
So they moved up from Hawaii.
Well, they've been living in, in Western Montana.
She came up here through, she hooked up with Laurence Rohn somewhere along the way.
And that's a, you know, that's an orange-length distance for me.
So, but regardless, um, you know, I'm not going to get it.
I'm not going to get in, get in the middle of that path, but, uh, she's has now moved
into his office.
Um, I don't know if she's paying rent or what, if they're working together on some stuff,
but just last week or the week before she's moved up there.
I know I met with her once down at the sheriff's office when I was working.
She's really nice, very intelligent.
Seems to have a good handle on what, where to go to look for what.
Yeah.
She turns 15 minute meeting into 45 to 60 minutes real easy.
So, but it's all good stuff so far.
Her husband's a vet that I think he like a disabled vet.
So, um, yeah, they, they're the ones about Reaver's house.
Okay.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
I talked to Brian, one of the last meetings and, um, about the new fire hall that they
built down in Sydney and I've been meaning to go toward it and he encouraged me to.
Yeah, please.
I think they, I think they got most of the funding for that off of a grant or oil or
something.
Between the grant and the oil, they got a big grant and then oil paid for to make it
bigger.
Yeah.
And we don't need that big of a building, but.
No, but if anybody ever has a chance to go down and look at it, I have contact numbers
I'll give to anybody to get in there.
City and county buildings in that same area.
Oh, yeah.
This is the county office.
It's all right across from the hospital.
So it's easy to find.
You can't miss the fire station and there's usually someone there during the day.
I have contact numbers for the city inspector.
He works out of that building.
So, but it's an impressive building done properly.
So she asked about the fire hall and I said, well, the plan would be to move both departments
in there arguing over who's going to own it, pay rent, you know, this, that and the other.
I said, but she went in, she asked for details.
I said, well, if you want a dream list instead of a wish list, I said, you know, a building,
you know, with 10 overhead doors, a fitness center for current retired firefighters and their families,
a meeting hall or a training room, if you will, maybe a kitchen and, you know,
then look at the required bathrooms for the commercial building.
Full service bar.
Yeah, full.
Yeah.
So concierge, concierge.
Yeah.
But, you know, like if there's funding for, you know, fire department fitness and this stuff,
which probably is, there's funding out there.
So I said, there's the, there you go.
Go forth and find us money.
So, so that would be kind of maybe she could find us some money for the splash pad.
So I've talked to her about that and told her that Kim and Steph, or working on it, told her the grants that they were working on.
And so she was going to look into it some too, but they, they haven't formally met yet.
Sure.
But yes, there definitely could be a resource there for Kim and Steph to, so.
Okay.
Next item.
Border patrols given Daryl a little scared about his lease here.
So I think did we send them anything yet?
I haven't sent them anything after we came here.
So it looks like they are just requesting zoning information for in town and around.
So they, they wanted any comments the local government had.
And I mean, my, this is just my idea as you can see in the email.
I mean, I think it would be reasonable to advise them, provide them a copy of our zoning ordinance.
Like if you're looking at places to buy, like these are obviously restrictions that would apply, you know, that should be part of the decision, I suppose.
But I wasn't sure if there was anything else council thought, you know, should be included.
So are they trying to get away from leasing buildings and own their own?
I have no idea.
This came, I mean, Steve sent it to me completely on.
Yeah.
I got it in my email and I was like, I don't know if it's a scam or what?
So I sent it to them.
Yeah.
But it was a, it's legit, you know, government contract or contractor ID and emails and everything.
So I mean, it was legitimate to the best of my knowledge.
So I have no idea what's going on, why, what it says right there.
That's as much information as I have.
So we're talking about leasing land.
Please find a tax and letter of land and plan federal leasing action.
Yeah.
You know, one of the big chunk of land.
Yeah.
One of the things that I thought is, you know, could, could they be the first little, um,
hold the first piece out of the puzzle to get our hands on the state land that's, you
know, north of the saddle club and then go into the cemetery, you know, because if they
look at that and say this is perfect exactly what we need, I'm sure they probably trump
the state land board.
I'm assuming a lot here, but government agencies work better within versus like us trying to
get that state land.
So does anybody have any idea how many employees are out there in that building right now?
I don't know.
Because they're talking about a building for 24 employees, 21,250 square feet.
Yeah.
It's a big building.
That's a Walmart and a half.
Yeah.
But it's also, they bring in, inside, um, they have computer rooms, they have storage
for vehicles and it would gain them a lot of vehicle storage and vehicle, you know,
ability.
I think that's what it more entails than just office space.
Similar to the board of patrol station.
Yeah.
Plenty would.
Yeah.
Yep.
They would.
Yeah.
Where all the equipment could be inside.
Yeah.
It's all inside the parking.
So, I mean.
Yeah.
So I have mixed feelings on this because, you know, I feel right now we have a nicer
border station than board of patrol station that plenty of does.
Um, but with that being said, if they're willing to front the money to build a new one, you
know, and we do have the newer building, nicer building, I feel there's going to come a time
where they start consolidating these border stations on the northern border because they
still want to focus on the southern border.
You know, are we going to be better off having the newer, nicer building here versus, you
know, plenty would build in the brand new one.
And we lose more.
So, I mean, so I'm always in favor of the new.
Plenty of work.
Got a similar letter.
It's all theoretical, I guess.
Yeah.
Yeah.
If I, if I remember, I can ask Nick Hannebert to my neighbor and see if he knows what's going
on.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He's the station.
Is he the guy in charge here?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
Well, so do we need to vote to tell Steve to just reply to this?
To just reply to the email with whatever they're asking for?
Yeah.
This is coming up.
And there's only a little bit of the land that they're looking to acquire within city
limits anyways.
Boy, it'd be nice if it would be in city limits.
I don't know where they'd find 21,000 square feet.
No.
How big, how big is Mark's potential?
I wonder if the county got this letter too.
I, that's what I was wondering.
I guess so.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Cool stuff.
I can't believe that building's that old up there.
Daryl said they're on their 17th year of their lease because Southlands did a lot of the
construction, if not all of it.
There was a lot of stuff going on when we actually moved here.
What have you been for 16 years?
Almost 17, yeah.
So you guys moved back right around the same time we moved here?
Yeah.
Yeah, I think they were just finishing it when we moved here.
I don't know if they had moved into it yet or had just moved into it.
Well, in this second page they're offering to set up a meeting in order to answer any
questions that we have.
That would be worthwhile doing that.
Yeah.
What are you saying, you want to be a nosy grand?
Well, they're offering and we've got questions.
Yeah, yeah.
We'd like to know what's going on.
I think that'd be a grand idea.
I guess the second question is where do you guys want the letter to, or a response to
come from?
Is that something to just put up a city letter for you or for my officer?
I mean, I don't think it really matters just so we're clear on this.
Yeah.
I guess city letterhead, I don't know.
They want to see something by the 9th of October by the look of it.
30 days from the date of the letter.
Yep.
You put none on your officer?
Yeah.
But that's not what we told the 9th.
So do we have a Morgan request a meeting then or Steve or?
I would say in the letter.
Yeah.
Maybe.
In the letter request a meeting to.
Would there be any possible way of setting up a meeting for more information or something?
Yeah, and we could maybe try to schedule a time during our next council meeting.
Well, this individual has put their email in here on a mobile phone.
Yep.
Would that be the best time to ask an answer question?
I would think so.
It would be the best time we could prepare some questions for.
I mean, because it, you know, it is kind of a big deal.
Definitely want to be.
Be the biggest building in town.
Well, you know, we, we, we were all kind of put off by not being able, not getting notification
from or talking to the dollar store when they struck their.
Yeah.
I was thinking the same thing.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Let's.
Same thing on a bigger scale.
And these guys are willing to talk.
So.
Yeah.
And they're offering to.
Yeah.
Okay.
So I guess in the response, we'll just ask for a meeting.
What is our next meeting here on toward.
Eight.
Yeah.
And then.
You know, sometimes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then.
You know, sometimes 10 o'clock now, and we're probably close to the end.
Should we just say.
If they can do at 930.
Yeah.
You can just get through as much of the agenda as we can.
And then.
Just make it.
We'll just pause.
Yeah.
Just put it in.
Just so.
Same page.
Yep.
We haven't had a marathon.
No, the clock meeting in a while.
No.
Our last one.
You were gone last one.
That was.
Yeah.
Back in the day, Morgan had run us till lunchtime.
Luckily, he's busy now.
Yeah, I was busy that day.
So we did fall asleep.
Okay.
So.
The eighth.
I guess.
The eighth at 930.
We'll put that in the response letter on city letterhead.
Or I guess that can go in just the body to email.
But.
I don't know how you guys want to do it.
Yeah.
Then Steve, you can just sign the letter.
It's addressed to the zoning administrator.
Okay.
All right.
Moving on.
Resolution 1113.
Canceling the general election.
So we got notice from the county that we need to pass a resolution.
So.
I will entertain a motion that we approve resolution number one.
One three resolution of the city council of the city of scoby to
cancel the study commission election from the ballot and to
appoint electors for the city of scoby.
I would move that we accept.
Resolution 1113.
Second.
Okay.
Motion made seconded.
Is there any discussion?
So.
Go ahead.
At the last meeting, you had mentioned that while there was.
Interested.
But I see that nobody.
He was too.
That's right in.
He was too late to file September the third.
Yeah.
Alrighty.
Yep.
So we will have to appoint two.
Yeah.
So far on our list.
Is one.
Which is why it and said I was just going to say that was why it.
Yeah.
It's only one.
So far it's reached out.
Jason Nassby is a shoe in.
Yeah.
Resigns.
So.
So we do need to find one more and we are going to.
That'll have to be on our agenda.
At our meeting.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So we will have to appoint two.
Yeah.
So far on our list is one.
Which is why it and said I was just going to say that.
On our meeting.
Following the election.
November is.
November 6th or something.
So.
November.
Fifth.
Fifth.
Yeah.
This is the Tuesday.
Okay.
So then our next meeting would be November 12th.
So.
So we'd have to do it.
So I'm hoping.
I'm hoping.
A couple more people step forward.
Before we got to start.
You know, cold calling people.
I really don't want to do that because then it's going to appear biased.
But.
You know, maybe we put something in the paper.
After October, maybe after the.
Our first October meeting.
We put something in the paper, but.
So.
Okay.
Any other discussion.
Hearing none, all those in favor.
Hi.
Okay.
Resolution 1113 passes.
Appointment of airport commissioner.
I would entertain a motion that we appoint Charles.
Trower.
To the airport.
Commission board.
I'll move.
Second.
Okay.
So motion made.
Seconded.
Any discussion.
Just for a heads up.
Mr.
I finished my research on that as I expected.
I think this is okay.
The difference between.
That war situation.
Basically comes down to whether they're a full-time employee or not.
Charles is not a full-time employee of that.
Right.
You know, even though he does stuff out there and so in the.
Rules for.
Yeah.
Elected or appointed officials basically from Montana.
If you're not a full-time employee, like you can.
That's not a full-time employee.
If you're not a full-time employee of that.
Disclose the interest that you have and kind of work around that.
Sort of situation.
And it would only be if he was.
Full-time.
That it would really become an issue.
Although I did find out that at least in some counties and some situations.
The airport does have all the authority for hiring firing all the rest of.
Full-time versus part-time sort of thing that.
That.
Was removed as a barrier.
So I think you're okay.
Seems an appropriate fit.
How much he knows about the airport.
Okay.
There you go.
Perfect.
Thank you for.
Dotting the.
Eyes and tees on that one.
So.
No problem.
Okay.
So we have motion made seconded any further discussion.
All those in favor.
Hi.
Hi.
Okay.
So.
I didn't see.
The.
Email with the state budget report.
Did you email that out separately?
I.
I.
Didn't even think to look for it until this morning.
And I wasn't there.
I know the financial report is was in your packet.
I think I included.
The budgets in your two.
Yeah.
I read it.
Front to back.
Yeah.
We're gonna.
Yeah.
This is the state report.
I can't remember.
Both of them.
Early meeting or not.
But.
I wanted to let council know it's been uploaded to the state.
Okay.
Okay.
That's.
I mean it's already been uploaded.
Yeah.
To approve.
No.
Okay.
Then the financial report obviously it's.
Yeah.
Good.
So.
And set your like my cross from.
So you.
Have that.
My.
Yeah.
Page 67.
All that had to do with the sewer budget.
Okay.
Yeah.
He says.
Okay.
So.
I guess.
Move it on.
To.
Fall.
Clean.
There it is fall.
From October 1st to 15.
We're going to add.
On this.
Just a little reminder.
For the garbage sacks.
Area all garbage going into the black dumps.
There's needs to be.
Sacked up at some capacity.
How cold.
Bay.
Yep.
So I don't know if we want to pull that right from the.
Code book or if you want to just.
Put it in layman's terms.
But.
I guess at this time I did entertain a motion that we post our fall.
City fall cleanup dates.
As October 1st through the 15th.
I'll entertain a motion for that.
For that.
I would move that we do that.
In a second.
Okay.
So motion made seconded.
That fall cleanup dates are going to be October 1st through the 15th.
And we will post.
This ad as presented with.
The line.
As a reminder to.
Have your household trash banged up.
Is there any.
Discussion.
Are there any comments questions concerns.
Okay.
Hearing none.
All those in favor.
Hi.
Okay.
So.
I'm coming to agenda items.
We're still kind of working on our time office position.
So Sonya I do have a question on that.
You did.
Budget.
A little bit for that.
For our current disclosure that we're going to write.
So.
If.
If we had to pull some money out of somewhere because we get a grant out of left field.
Whether it's for.
It doesn't matter what it's for.
Are we able to.
Pull money out of that to pay.
For grant writing services.
Probably.
I mean I just I want to make sure we're not.
Gray with you know the auditors and with you know taxpayer dollars.
I just can't imagine people would complain about where the money comes from.
If we get.
More free money.
You got to do a budget amendment.
You got to have a public hearing.
Yeah.
So.
Well and to be honest other than the hassle that.
That puts you through.
You know I would love to do that.
And say yeah we didn't know we were going to get.
A hundred thousand dollars or.
Yeah.
A hundred or five hundred thousand dollars.
You know.
You know so I mean it would.
I honestly kind of hope we have that problem.
Hmm.
Yeah.
Really.
Then Sonya has justification to give herself a bigger raise.
Come July so.
Yeah.
She's like I had to do four budget amendments fiscal year twenty four twenty five.
Is the justification right then.
Yep.
And to buy your fancy coffee maker here.
Oh we'll pull that out of state of fire.
Okay so yeah this Sonya if you could.
Kind of keep that in the back of your mind because I.
If this guy does come through and we do got a payer for something I mean I don't.
Want her.
I don't expect her to work for free because it is.
Her business.
Yeah.
We're hoping to get to a point where she can.
Okay.
Okay.
I know a lot of those.
You're able to.
Work that into the grant.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Grant writers work on that basis.
Great.
Kind of contingency fees for attorneys.
If you're only if you're a world we get paid.
If you have to win something.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
And she was saying that some of these bigger ones like through FEMA and then.
Yeah I mean.
She she referenced a couple specific examples but.
You know if.
You know this.
Twenty five thousand bucks for new equipment for dispatch and the cop cars.
You know she there's no she doesn't get nothing out of that you know.
Can you throw her a bone for a thousand bucks or whatever.
So.
Anyway.
On the side note we forget the auditors are going to be here.
The week of October 21st.
Okay.
We're going into our council meeting but I think last time we just moved them off front.
Yeah they moved up front and then they also spent the morning at the school or something.
Yeah.
Usually they provide us with the school.
Okay.
Public safety commission we're going to keep talking about that every meeting.
Garbage truck quote.
Yeah we were going to put this on there but we already had a full docket so that'll go on.
Let's put that on.
That's changed.
Yeah.
That was good until November.
Whoa whoa whoa.
Yeah.
Wow.
Kyle had a price increase effective September 1st.
Oh perfect.
So because what was it like two two seventy or something.
No it was only two twenty.
Two twenty.
Okay.
It was only two twenty.
No it's probably two twenty.
And then.
You see what you did Martin.
That's in my thought.
It'll be a minimum fifty thousand dollars.
Yes.
They were in French as well.
Also it's on there.
It's all mine.
I'll take this one.
If they come and take the truck down there as us driving it down there.
No.
He was going to include that on there and the use of a rental of a truck if we needed one.
It was going to be included on there.
How far are they out on trucks?
So the way we're doing it since we're taking our truck and doing the body.
They say the bodies takes them about 90 to 120 days for them to get the body to them.
So we would get to use our truck for that still.
And then once they got the bodies when they come get ours and they say at the most it
takes about three months to put the body on the truck.
Because I know when like right now for us for bucket trucks it's three years.
Oh yeah.
Three years.
The body is 90 to 120 days.
Holy cow.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
As long as it's paid by the light first we're all right.
Okay.
Well, I guess we'll have more details on that for the next meeting.
And then bid openings or I guess that we will be opening bids next.
Yeah, we have two bids next week.
Shoot, I hope we get some.
Okay.
Then last item on the agenda would be the consent items.
I would entertain a motion to approve.
I'll move approved consent items.
Second.
Okay.
So motion made seconded to approve consent items.
So Steve, quick question.
Jake Zumble must test water almost every day like in the alley behind banjoes and the body
building.
Is that he's always back there like doing something.
Is that what he's doing?
Well, their office is there.
Oh, okay.
Their office is behind the extension office.
Okay.
Well, it's like seven in the morning.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's their office.
That's the local.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Pat's other building.
Pat's old building.
Yeah, yeah.
Okay.
I forgot they were in the extension office and they need to use the back door.
I don't think it's the extension office.
I have one question, Steve.
I was talking with my uncle this last weekend and they like Vermont and New Hampshire side-by-side.
What they do is all their testing is done in New Hampshire because as long as it's PWA
approved, is there a chance there's something in Williston or?
Yeah, we get close to Williston, but the problem with that is it's quicker to send mail to
Billings than it is Williston.
So we would have to drive it there.
And also, you have to do all the state reporting.
Oh, okay.
I just, because, see, they, because they're side-by-side and tiny, they just, they submit
the way.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's chem lab.
It's right across the street from Walmart.
Right.
Astrochem.
Astrochem, yeah.
But see, they don't submit anything to the state.
So then you have to get the results and we have all the paperwork to go to the state.
Yep.
We're energy labs.
You send it and they submit all the, they do all the paperwork.
These guys are doing the water project here.
They were running their samples to Williston to get them back to you.
Yeah.
I just wondered, because he was talking about, they used to send it clear to Burlington out
of where they are in southern Vermont and they were having problems with it not meeting.
It found out that they could go to Leviton, which was like driving to Plentywood.
Yeah.
And so they run them down.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, we, we can't do it.
It's just more paperwork on our side.
I was just looking for an option to get stuff passed.
Yeah.
Well, and that's what I, because I talked with Opime about it, because they were concerned
too.
And I says, I mean, if all of us fails, all of us towns probably have to get together
and somebody just started Opime and they carry your service all the way over to Williston
or something.
Yeah.
But.
We've had a couple complaints about pink residue in the water.
Yeah.
That's about what you heard about.
Yeah.
Really?
I said, well.
Yeah.
I believe you're like around your drink.
It doesn't at my house.
Hmm.
Hmm.
Someone says it's a, it's a like an algae, some sort.
Hmm.
I don't know.
Hmm.
Mike Murphy told me what he thought it was.
I'm sure.
So.
Interesting conversation.
Well, I just think that the last week that water seems different.
Hmm.
Because my hair was like straw the other day after washing it.
And I never had that problem.
Although Kendall and Jody Willis have at their house.
Hmm.
Ever since it got switched to dry prairie.
Yeah.
I know.
I can't shower in it because it's just too toxic for my.
Banning your eggs.
It affected your hair too.
My hair was affected the ball.
Yeah.
His fell out.
I have to go all the way back to my 30s in Canada.
And I'm pretty sure it's genetics.
Okay.
All right.
So.
You have motion maidens.
Yeah.
All those in favor?
Aye.
Aye.
All right.
All right.
This time I'd entertain a motion to adjourn.
See you.
Yep.
The motion to adjourn.