July 9th, 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.

Will the clerk please call the roll.

Councilperson Larson. Here. French. Here. Crowder. Here. Okay

Seth called me last night, said he was last minute unavailable today, so I said no problem.

I think we can get through it, so.

In your packets is the agenda for today's meeting, I'd entertain a motion to adopt.

I'll make a motion.

I'll second it.

Okay, motion made, seconded.

Any additions, changes?

Okay, hearing none, all those in favor?

Aye.

Okay, also in your packet are the minutes from the July 2nd meeting.

I'd entertain a motion to approve.

So moved.

Second.

Okay.

Nikki, Nikki got it first.

All right, any changes, corrections, additions?

Okay, hearing none, all those in favor?

Aye. Aye. Aye.

Okay, and we have our usual public, so did Janet want to give us a quick update?

Get her in and out, then Melinda, I'll probably have you go next after Janet.

Steve's got to be here anyway, so.

All right, ready when ever you are.

I didn't have much of a chance to get much together, but I got just an update on a few things.

As far as the past-due accounts, four tax liens have been sent out.

505 Robinson, 507 Main, 207 Park, and 111 Park.

One of those has, is a reverse mortgage, which we talked about before, and Sonya spent quite

a bit of her time yesterday trying to find out who to contact, and she made a little

progress and we'll see if we can't, you know, go from there.

Other than that, there was just one person that didn't make a payment at all, everyone

else paid, at least something if not paid it off.

The bulk water bills were sent out yesterday, and these are billed twice a year, they're

billed out twice a year.

From January through June, it's billed July 1st, and then July 1st through December 31st

is billed January 1st.

And so those were all put together and mailed out.

And we usually get payment on all of those.

There's one that hadn't paid for a while, so we deactivated the truck number and the

customer number, and they've since been making payments.

So that one should be paid off here hopefully soon.

Other than that, I've been busy with the EPA letters, and we've been getting quite a few

responses, I'd say.

But now I've got to get, I need the time to get all the information together and make

something out of it, get ready to make appointments, and what we need to do from there.

So that's about it, that's where I'm at.

OK, are we about half?

Do you think we got half the responses back, or not quite?

I should have counted them, I don't know.

It's, yeah, there's been a few questions, but when they came in and I've explained,

or even over the phone, exactly what they needed to do, then they seemed more comfortable.

So we'll see, we have got, I'd say we have maybe, I wouldn't say half, but close to it

maybe.

OK.

So that's about it.

OK, anyone have any questions for Janet?

All right, well thank you very much.

Thank you.

OK, Melinda, you're up next.

The pool's doing all right.

Yeah, the pool's doing all right.

We got the swim meet this weekend, so we're trying to get the kids to get it cleaned up a little

more and keep on top of things.

OK, do we have a plan to keep the locker rooms kind of ship-shape?

I have been riding them every day, Morgan.

The only thing I can do is go in, I don't know.

Well I..

I even told them yesterday, I was like, girls, that locker room looks filthy again, and I

just cleaned it myself last week before I left.

Yeah.

I pine-soled everything, but the smell of urine is so bad.

So, I don't know.

How many guards are you gonna have on duty for the swim meet?

I have two on Saturday and three on Sunday.

OK.

We'll just rotate the stand.

OK, like every half hour or whatever, just looking at the weather, I know it's gonna

be probably hot, so make sure the umbrella...

Is there, I haven't even looked, is there shade above either of the stands?

We have the umbrellas, so we can use those.

And then, you know, if there's a way to have the person who's on break, if they can, you

know, take ten minutes of that, thirty, and walk through the locker rooms, and, you know,

I know it's gonna stink because the boys' locker room's gonna constantly be busy, so

we need to, obviously, a boy to, or somebody to help address that, but...

Do they have somebody on the...

You know, I guess, I don't know, maybe...

So I know they're scheduled, like, Sunday to check trashes in women's bathroom and, like,

do locker room checks, so I think they might have a guy scheduled for that.

OK.

Like, a parent.

Well, that'd be good if they did.

Yeah, they have one guy for Saturday and one guy for Sunday.

OK.

So...

Sean and Sean.

Sean and Sean.

Sean and Sean.

Sean and Sean.

OK.

So, yeah, so I guess they can check those and then...

OK, well good.

Yeah.

OK.

I went in, when was it, last week?

Of course I, because I'm not there every single day.

I walked in to do a morning shift and it was, like, just, like, a tornado hit the place.

Even Bridger was like, yeah, it's real bad in here.

So I was like, you guys, can you just stay on top of this, keep getting this clean, because

if you wouldn't want to walk on it, pick it up.

Yep.

Part of the job is making sure the place is...

But we finally kinda got the chemicals

somewhat balanced before the power went out and I'm working on balancing it out again.

OK.

We got chlorine in our pool, at least, and it's holding, so that's a plus.

OK.

Other than that.

Sounds good.

Anyone have any questions for the pool?

I know Seth is kind of our parks guy, but...

All right.

Sounds good.

Well, thank you.

Yeah.

Good luck getting ready for this weekend.

Yeah.

We will be.

All right.

Moving on to Steve.

Well, so, like I said, it's swim meet this weekend, so we'll be focused on the park and then hopefully

next weekend we can start getting the blacktop ready to patch the holes and start in the alleys,

so...

OK, yeah, that was one of my questions, was starting to patch the blacktop, and I guess

the one in particular would be the Henderson apartments.

Yeah, the Henderson.

Yeah, there's some other ones, too, like by that Credit Union there going on.

Yeah.

Seen that one yesterday, so after the swim meet we'll start doing that next week, so...

I know there's one that I always hit when I'm turning, when I'm heading towards my house.

It's on...

Yeah.

Is it on First and Park or Second and Park?

Yeah, I remember I seen it yesterday when I was going to your house, too.

It's just, you know, it's one that I'm afraid if people keep hitting it, it'll just keep

getting worse, so...

So, but that's on the agenda for next week after swim meet.

OK.

Sounds good.

I'm assuming you're going to sweep...

Are you going to sweep around the whole park?

Yeah, on Thursday.

OK.

So don't let any campers park there until Friday.

No promises, but there shouldn't be.

You're in charge of that, so I see your name.

No one's called.

So...

But yeah, and Howie was going to move his stuff Wednesday, I think, so we can sweep on Thursday.

OK.

I know, it's kind of nice that Lacey's the head of our swim team, so she can tell her

dad what needs to be moved, and he'll listen to her.

Yeah.

OK.

Yeah, and I don't know about you guys, but I keep getting complaints about the dump burning.

Like, OK, the courthouse is right over there, go talk to the commissioners.

Everyone seems to think it's a city problem.

But the problem with it is it's going to keep it, even when they switch to hauling it out,

they're still going to burn it.

Yeah.

Because unless the people in the community want to pay to haul grass and trees over to

Plentywood.

Yeah.

I mean.

Well, my understanding was, being on the solid waste board, Neil was supposed to try and

get that done while there was rain, you know, a couple days within.

And that rain should have cleared away some of the smoke smell, but it was pretty thick

last night.

Is it?

Well, there's extra smoke, too, from Edmonton coming up.

Well, that's what's crazy, is like, the wind rarely comes from that direction through town.

If it does, it's in the early evening.

Yeah, it's either when there's no wind or when it's pushing in a storm, when the wind

is out of the east, southeast.

Because a lot of the smoke is from Edmonton, too.

Yeah, when you can look that way and that way, you can still see haze.

Smoke at my house, so I ain't going to the county to complain, because I don't think

the dump made it that far.

Yeah, so I just, you know, I chuckle every time I see the Facebook complaints on, like,

the Scobey site or the Daniels County neighbor's site, and whatever.

Okay, any other public works?

Okay.

Steve, we had a zoning permit for Pucketts. Two zoning permits.

A fence and a deck.

Oh yeah, one address, I guess.

I'm assuming now they have three lots for that particular property, right?

Yeah.

So they could probably do just about whatever they wanted, as long as they're not encroaching

on the...

Oh, what am I trying to think of?

I mean, everything follows the setbacks.

Yeah, the setbacks.

You know, I know you lose some with the corner lock.

We'll see.

This is the second time it's been put in, so we'll see if it gets built.

Okay, well, I would entertain a motion that we approve of the deck and fence permit for

306 First Avenue East.

I'll move.

I'll second.

Okay, so motion made and seconded.

Any discussion?

Okay, hearing none.

All those in favor?

Aye. Aye. Aye

Okay.

There is a zoning meeting tomorrow.

Okay, at 2:00?

I think it's 2:00.

I don't know.

2:00 or 3:00.

We've only had one person respond saying they're not going to be there, but no one's responded

saying they're going to be there.

Yeah.

We don't even know if we'll have one or not.

Yeah, I know.

I hope we do.

I know one of our zoning members is now a county commissioner.

So...

Okay, fire chief report.

Other than our city fire chief is the one who also sells the fireworks.

Nothing to report there.

He never got anything to me.

Didn't sound like there was a lot of people left in town over the 4th, so no...

Baseball fields were not many people there.

Yeah.

Fire department's having their feed this weekend though.

Yeah, I think it's like a free will offering type deal Saturday after the swim meet on

the west end of the park on the street.

So hopefully they get some.

So is there not a pancake breakfast then this year?

Not that I know of yet.

I think they were approached to do one next year for the all-class reunion.

And that is in the schedule for next year.

Okay. No sheriff either today.

And we have a law enforcement and fire department meeting this month sometime.

Can't remember off the top of my head. 17th.

17th, yeah.

I think I have it in my calendar.

Okay.

And that will be here at city hall.

Is it at 2? or? 3.

I don't remember either.

Because it used to.

We used to do it in the evenings and I just...

I don't remember, did we do one last time?

We didn't have one in April for some reason.

But...

So I guess that info will be coming out.

All right.

Moving on.

Council comments.

Anybody hear any?

The dump transfer station construction should start next week.

Okay.

Who is going to be...

Les Scanlin, Scanlin Construction.

Oh yes.

That's why he's so hard to get hold of from Glasgow.

Who's doing that?

What's he doing?

Building the dump transfer station.

Maybe they [inaudible] the County then.

He did work for us and never billed it.

Really?

Yeah, like four years ago.

Maybe he billed the County and they paid it because they didn't know what it was.

There you go.

That'd be alright, too.

Okay, well that will be...

When do they start hauling to Plentywood then?

Off the top of my head I don't remember how long they said it would take.

I think our schedule, the board's schedule talking was like October is when they want

to start doing that.

Okay, that's coming quick.

Already halfway through July.

But I'll ask at the next meeting.

Okay.

Just to make sure.

The engineer's bid came in way low so we had to rework some things and it's not going

to be what it was supposed to be but it's going to be pretty close.

Yeah, that's typical.

Was there multiple bids received?

No, Les Scanlin was the only bid.

There were two others that came and picked up the packet for it but we never heard back

from them.

Okay.

Any other council comments?

Okay, moving on.

I just checked my emails again this morning.

No new info from Ben for the pivot land.

He didn't send you anything, Sonya, did he?

Figured it would have been out.

So I guess maybe no news is good news.

It's just moving forward as planned.

About halfway through your packet, page nine-ish on the electronic version,

the information for the lead and copper service line.

Just kind of an FYI.

I know I've been here when a handful of people have been coming in with their paperwork

either filled out or with questions and it seems to be going fairly smooth.

Has anyone had you or any of the guys come to their place?

I've had a few.

I think I've had like four or five of them text me back their forms but we haven't had

to go check anything yet.

Okay.

When did we request to have those?

By the end of July.

That gives us two months to schedule appointments.

Okay. Moving right along.

Nuisance ordinance.

I think Ben is still working on some letters.

And once they're ready I'll sign them.

Kind of going along with that.

We have a nuisance yard we sent a letter to.

All of them got done but the one.

But the one that needs to be done is also one that we submitted a tax lien on.

For a water bill.

So if we go over there and cut it we're probably not going to get paid to cut the lawn either.

Is that on Park Street?

Yeah.

So I don't know if we just let it go or what?

I don't know that's you know I see both sides of it because yeah we you're right.

Because I just have a feeling that place will end up going for taxes.

It's just going to take it's going to take a long time is the problem.

And we'd be the last ones paid.

But it is a giant eyesore.

I saw is it not Zach, Nick Dighans took care of his neighbor to the north.

Oh he's the one that mowed that one.

Yeah I happened to be riding my bike by and saw him with his industrial strength weed eater cutting through the forest.

Yeah I seen him was mowed yesterday when I toured them.

This is the only one that didn't get out.

So I guess I should maybe visit with him.

Maybe he's in contact with that Jeff or the wife or he just got sick of it.

He probably got sick of seeing it.

Yeah.

So I know and the other thing this was brought up to me I've been kind of waiting for it.

Hedges on Main Street.

Of course the one is the skating rink one.

But then across the street basically let's just start from Nick Dighans' again and go south.

There's some that are overgrown.

I think it's probably mostly where Jensen's live.

Yeah and the next one down. And the Germundson's have always been maintained.

But it makes it tough if the kids are skating, biking, walking, running.

So I don't know what the city's obligation there is.

I mean it's none but

Alex Juel is trying to put together a little volunteer group to take care of the skating rink.

The hedges, everything inside.

So I said okay.

You have my permission.

You didn't need it.

And maybe with things changing at the county now with one new member who's on immediately.

Who's the new member?

Mike Thievin.

And then with Tammy, assuming Tammy getting it during the general election.

Maybe some of those things will change.

Yeah we could send the county a nuisance letter to trim their hedges.

Sonya just gave me a look.

That's an idea.

Go for it.

No, that would be me having a conversation with.

With them.

Okay.

Yeah, moving on.

Steve, anything to add on the nuisance stuff?

I mean I purposely were kind of moving slow on the like the second letters going out.

I was more than pleased with how much work actually got done just from the initial blast that we did.

Okay.

And the property on First Avenue is starting to look good too.

That Lee Cook's taking care of.

Oh yeah.

Yeah, it hasn't looked that good in 20 years or more.

I'm sure he'll take a break for haying now.

Yeah, he told me he was going to.

In fact, it looks like all of his trailers, tractor, whatever's gone.

Okay, seeing no public.

Upcoming agenda items.

Sonya, you want to just, you have us balanced.

For June.

For June, yeah.

So now I can start entering all the year end numbers.

That's my next step.

Okay.

And then we'll need to prioritize some of our big ticket items.

I think the first big one will be that street in front of the hospital.

Finishing this building, which partially funded with a grant.

And then fixing the fire hall roof.

I think those are three things that are going to be on or towards the top of the list.

So splash pad.

Yep, splash pad.

And I think where we're at there, talking with Kim, I told her that our plan right now was to just,

the city was going to budget 150,000.

Because is that what we had for this year?

And that's about what you need just to do.

That one splash pad where it just drains the waste.

So, because I think we need to have a set number for some of these grants from what I'm gathering.

So if we're going to budget 150,000, that gives them some info to complete these grants.

I think the one through the Fish and Game or Fish, Wildlife and Parks was a 50-50 match.

But then they were going after a couple others that they had found.

Plus they're going to do a gun raffle fundraiser.

So that'll kind of, because you know there's going to be some unforeseen gobbledygook that gets thrown in there.

If they quote you 500, you know it's going to be 520.

Especially the longer you're waiting, the prices keep going up.

So.

That land purchase would give us an upcoming budget, both the PER and the PAR.

Yeah.

Yeah, 12.5 for the PAR.

Yeah, 100.

What was the rough number for the land purchase?

120 or something?

120.

So, we're talking.

Oh, I don't know where were at with like a garbage truck.

You're going to have to limp it along another year.

So throw some grease at it.

Check the air in the tires.

But once we get that land purchased, you know, then it'll turn into a little income producing property.

We can lease it out.

Not that that's going to be a ton of money, but it's not going to be negative.

And that'll have to go right back into the sewer fund, right?

So that should hopefully help us from raising sewer rates more than we have to.

Probably enough to maintain the pivot, I would say.

And, you know, the pivot and the pumps and stuff.

Because we are going to have to raise sewer rates a little bit, probably, just because of what's going on.

I haven't seen the final numbers, but I'm assuming.

We'll probably have to look at the garbage fund, too.

I think there's like 255,000 in that garbage fund, but I can't even buy a truck for that.

Not even close.

That's what's left over.

And we don't want to do what Flaxville's doing with their water.

No.

Their base rate's going up by $41.

Which with what, tripling, I would guess?

Their water bill is going to be about the same as ours.

And ours has garbage on it.

Yeah.

So.

Okay.

The last item on our agenda are the consent items.

There was a couple added after the packet was sent out.

We have some handouts in front of us here.

So, assuming we've had a chance to peruse the numbers,

I would entertain a motion to approve the consent items.

I'll move.

And I'll second.

K. Motion made, seconded.

Any comments, questions, concerns?

Okay.

Hearing none.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Aye. Aye.

All right.

At this time, I would entertain a motion to adjourn.

I would move we adjourn.

Boom.

30 minutes exactly.