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Winthrop City Council Proceedings

Winthrop City Council Regular Minutes Monday, July 1st, 2019 A regular meeting of the Winthrop City Council was called to order by Mayor Kelly Pierson at 7 p.m. on Monday, July 1st, at the City Hall. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE ROLL CALL: Kelly Pierson, Julie Trebelhorn, Pete Machaiek, Dale Malheim and Rob Edwards. City Staff present: City Administrator Jenny Hazelton, City Attorney Aaron Walton, Utilities Manager Troy Martin, Police Chief Karen Johnson, Police Officer Aron Hacker, Police Officer Clifton Lerud Audience: Mike Mattison (Winthrop News), Garrett Meyer, Olaf and Linda Lerude. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Edwards added item e. Hiring of Police Officers, Hazelton added item f. Joe Ziegler extra hours. Motion Edwards, second Trebelhorn to approve the agenda as amended. Passed voice vote. APPROVAL OF CONSENT AGENDA Motion Edwards, second Trebelhorn. Passed voice vote. VI. NEW BUSINESS a. Downtown Employee Parking (A)/(I) Since the last meeting Hazelton has been approached by some employees that work downtown about the lack of employee parking. They are concerned if the whole half block of Kavan to RS Fiber is 1 hr. there won’t be sufficient parking for others who work in the area. Council decided to keep the 1 handicap parking stall directly West of the alley and only designate half of the rest of the spots 1 hour parking. Motion Edwards, second Machaiek. Passed voice vote. b. R2019-18 Resolution Ordering Inspections of Structures per Winthrop City Code Section 807 (306 S. Redwood) (A)— Passed jointly with item c. c. R2019-19 Resolution Ordering Inspections of Structures per Winthrop City Code Section 807 (402 S. Main St.) (A) Motion Malheim, second Edwards to approve both R2019-18 and R2019-19. Passed voice vote. d. 2019-134 Ordinance Amending City Code Section 701.06 Regarding Parking Regulations (1st Reading) (A)—This ordinance will change the downtown parking to reflect the signage that is currently posted. No parking 2 am to 6 am, November 1st to April 1st. It also removed the permitted parking required for the lot at 2nd and Carver and restricts what can be parked in both that city lot and the lot at 108 N. Main Street. Motion Malheim, second Machaiek. Passed voice vote. e. Hiring of All Police Officers (I)—Councilor Edwards would like to see a representative of the councils of each city to be represented at the interviews of the School Resource Officers. They don’t have to participate but they should be in attendance. Council and Chief Johnson agreed. Chief Johnson also told the council she is working on a mutual aid agreement between the three cities and the school regarding the SRO position. f. Joe Ziegler Extra Hours (A)—Hazelton would like to have former Water/Wastewater employee Joe Ziegler work up to 20 hours per week until we can get a new employee hired. He is currently working 4 hours per week as required to train Troy Martin in on the water and sewer licenses. With Grack’s last day being June 28th the utilities department is short staffed and they are in the middle of installing the new meters. Motion Trebelhorn, second Machaiek to allow Ziegler up to 20 hrs per week for up to two months. Passed voice vote. REPORTS OF OFFICERS, BOARDS AND COMMITTEES a. ADMINISTRATOR/EDA REPORT—Hazelton reported that all of the storm damage from the 2017 hail storm is now completed and the final claim has been paid. Tiffany and Mitchell Hacker have petitioned to annex into the city. The public hearing will be next month. MNDOT bid out the mill and overlay planned for Highway 19 and it came in more than they had budgeted so they are going to rebid it. Ten applicants applied for the utility position. Paul Kaeding, Mark Mackenthun with Quade Electric are coming July 17th to meet with Troy, Oscar, James Monroe and myself to discuss our electric system. There has been an inquiry on solar by a business in Winthrop. All of the state required distributed energy regulations are available on the city website. The utility committee met with a couple businesses that had significant errors in their metering. Chapman Metering has been out to test all the multiplier and three phase meters. This should be done every 3-5 years going forward. Farm City Fun Fest is next weekend. Hazelton spent 29 hours on EDA related jobs. GFW School board presentation and the grocery store being the biggest two items. The regional housing group met, met with Karl Klockmann to discuss a land sale/swap, attended a webinar on LOIS training to list properties on their website, joined the board of the Sibley County Community fund. c. WATER/SEWER DEPARTMENT REPORT- Martin is working with B & R to install water meters. They will start next week. There have been about 150 electric meters installed so far. e. ELECTRIC DEPARTMENT REPORT— Machaiek reported on the MMPA meeting for June. The annual meeting is July 23rd, all of the EDA board has been invited also. There is increasing interest by other towns for the data center. i. MMPA Meeting Update—included in the packet. h. POLICE CHIEF’S REPORT—Johnson provided a written report. In addition she reported to the council that they have extended a background to a candidate for the School Resource Officer position. Clifton is currently in FTO (field training) with Officers Kenny Peterson and Zach Pierce. It is going well. Johnson would like to purchase an AED for the city hall building. She feels that this building is used quite a bit by the public and there should probably be one here. There is some money in Emergency Management to purchase it. Motion Edwards, second Trebelhorn to purchase the AED. Passes voice vote. She also reported that the police staff is ready for Farm City Fun Fest. With Officer Lerude on the schedule now she is better able to flex her hours and do some traffic enforcement at some of the problem areas. MISCELLANEOUS a. Mayor Pierson would like a thank you in the paper for Gordy Grack. b. Mayor Pierson announced that with the resignation of Bob Rickheim they will be taking applications and the entire council will be interviewing applicants. ADJOURNMENT Motion Edwards, second Trebelhorn to adjourn. Passed voice vote. Meeting was adjourned at 7:40 pm. Jenny Hazelton, Administrator Minutes for a Special Meeting Of the Winthrop City Council Monday, July 29th, 2019 A special meeting of the Winthrop City Council was called to order by Mayor Pierson at 5:00 p.m. on Monday, July 29th, 2019, at the City Hall. ROLL: Council members: Kelly Pierson, Pete Machaiek, Dale Malheim, Julie Trebelhorn and Rob Edwards. City Staff present: City Administrator Jenny Hazelton, Audience: Mandy Blumhoefer, Mark Mortensen, Pete Schuckert, Tony Arhart, Lynn Drinkall, Chris Beranek, Rodney Fischer, Pat Hentges. II. Tony Arhart, Hog barn project outside Winthrop: Tony Arhart presented to the council concerns he has about the construction of some hog barns at the Sommer property outside Winthrop. He feels there is considerable concerns from Winthrop residents as well. He has a petition that he is going to present to the county as well. He is looking for support from the city at this time. The council did not take action but decided to add it to the August 5th agenda for additional discussion. III. Approve hiring Chris Beranek for the Utility/Public Works worker position: The Administration Committee interviewed four candidates and recommend Chris Beranek for the position. Motion Malheim, second Trebelhorn, passed voice vote. IV. Interview Council Applicants: The council interviewed three candidate for the vacant council position. Pete Schuckert, Mark Mortensen, and Lynn Drinkall. The council then took a ballot vote and the results were Mark Mortensen 2, Pete Schuckert 1, Lynn Drinkall 1. Mayor Pierson asked for additional discussion, being none motion was made by Councilor Trebelhorn, second Machaiek to appoint Mark Mortensen to the Winthrop City Council. Passed voice vote. Adjournment: Motion Edwards, second Trebelhorn to adjourn, passed voice vote. Meeting adjourned at 5:38 Jenny Hazelton, Administrator

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