Public Notices February 12

Winthrop City Council
Meeting Minutes
Monday, January 6, 2025
A Regular Meeting of the City Council of the City of Winthrop was called to order at 7 p.m. on January 6th, in the city council chambers of the City Hall, for the purpose of conducting city business.
Councilors Present: Mayor Trebelhorn; Councilors Wickenhauser, O’Connor, Stoll, Pierson and Santelman.
Councilors Absent: None
Staff Present: City Administrator Michael Looft, City Clerk Heather Haun, Officer Reed Mitchell
CALL TO ORDER
Mayor Trebelhorn called the meeting to order at 7:00pm. Oath of office given to Martha Santelman by Administrator Looft.
APPROVAL OF AGENDA
3.1 Establish Current Agenda
3.2 Add an informational items 6.9 and 6.10.
Motion by O’Connor, seconded by Wickenhauser. Motion carried unanimously.
CONSENT AGENDA
4.1 Approval of Minutes: December 2, 2024
4.2 Approval of Financials: December 2024
4.3 Sewer Adjustment: Jeff Blunt $7.31, Katherine Schuch $156.74.
Motion by Stoll approving consent agenda, seconded by O’Connor. Motion carried unanimously.
PUBLIC HEARINGS
5.1 Public Hearing on changes to City Code Chapter 2: Operations and Administrator (Second Reading) Looft reviewed the changes again. Meeting days back to the first Monday of theMonth. The order of the established agenda changes. Trebelhorn spoke about dropping the public forum doesn’t take away the public’s ability to address the Council, it is only requiring it to be on the agenda allowing the Council to act more efficiently. Pierson motioned to open the public hearing, seconded by O’Connor. Motioncarried.
Mark Santelman 703 N Hennepin St, one of the city council representatives up here ranwith the term “I’ll listen”. Feels the Council is taking away an opportunity from the public. Trebelhorn spoke about the ability of not being able to communicate back and forth with the citizens with the public open forum. Stoll gave an example of a person bringing something to the council with the public forum vs if the item was on the agenda. Pierson spoke to the message that the public forum sends when the council isn’t able to give the citizen an answer. There were no more residents wishing to speak. Stoll made a motion to close the public hearing, seconded by O’Connor. Motion carried.
NEW BUSINESS
6.1 Ordinance 2025-001: City of Winthrop Rate Schedule (A)
With the staff’s recommendations and DDA proposed increases from the 2023 Utility Project, the attached rates would be effective in February 2025. Notice will be given to the residents in the paper and utility bills after finalization of the proposed rates. Electric went up 2.4%, Water rate will go up 15%, Sewer rate will remain the same; however, the base fee will increase 1.89 per month. Storm Sewer base fee will increase the most going up $10 a month. These increases are to fix the bond debt obligations. Fire and Ambulance fees will be going up as well. Trebelhorn clarified that the enterprise funds should be a self-supporting fund, and the rate raising talks were being discussed in 2015-2016 because there were not any increases happening. Motion by O’Connor accepting the resolution, seconded by Wickenhauser. Motion carried unanimously.
6.2 Resolution Adopting Updates to Chapter 2 of the Winthrop City Code (A) The updates include scaling back committees, eliminating unnecessary agenda items, and updating some of the language.
Motion by Stoll accepting changes, seconded by Wickenhauser. Motion carried with Santelman dissented.
6.3 MMPA Amendment to MMPA Agency Agreement (A)
This interagency agreement has been approved by MMPA’s legal team and is required to be accepted by each participating MMPA city. Voting will change based on 500 mW hrs used by the cities. For example, Shakopee will get two additional votes. Motion by Wickenhauser, seconded by O’Connor. Motion carried with Pierson dissented.
6.4 Resolution 2025-002: Mayoral Appointments for 2025 (A) The City’s Charter requires that the mayor select appropriate committees for council members to be appointed to. Motion by Pierson, seconded by O’Connor. Motion carried unanimously.
6.5 Resolution 2025-003: Approval of City Administrator to apply for DNR Grant The DNR requires City Council to approve any grants that the city submits. In March and April, the city will be applying for two grants. One grant is to finish the remainder of the trail around the main city park. The additional grant would be to rehab the public restrooms at the city park for fiscal year 2026. Motion by Stoll, seconded by Pierson. Motion carried unanimously.
6.6 Approval of an RFP for Seal Coating Bids (A) Motion by Pierson, seconded by Wickenhauser. Motion carried unanimously.
6.7 Work Session (I) City Staff have prepared 2025 work goals and are prepared to present them to the council. We would like to present these during a work session on January 27th @ 7:30 pm.
6.8 Letter of Resignation – Ryan Froehlich – Ambulance. Motion to approve by Stoll, seconded by Pierson. Motion carried.
6.9 Library Phone (I)
There was discussion about switching the library phone to Verizon. Currently RSFiber services this phone.
6.9 Ambulance Billing (I) Our current billing company is not keeping up with our needs as a city. We will make a recommendation to move billing companies in the future.
COMMITTEE NOTICES
& UPDATES
Admin/EDA – Friday speaking in front of 400 legislators, one of three communities to participate at the DNR Roundtable for the STREAMS project. One plant is shipping water to California for irrigation. There is another Council in Iowa doing this same project and it has taken them 20 years to get to where they are. Right now the group is really trying to figureout the rates. There was a report on the yearly accomplishments of the EDA in the Winthrop News. There is a presentation for the REV group in Henderson at the Sprout.
Fire – Recap of 2024, 36 calls 19 fires, 1 dust 8 medical 2 cancellations. We were up ten calls from the 2023. Other things that are happening. Our training board had an adjustment from 265 to 258 for funding. Thursday there are three going to the EMR training. There were two more retirements, department is down 4 firefighters. There is one going through fire school right now. The training is done mostly by ZOOM now, there are a few departments that are going back to in person.
Public Works – Going through and cleaning and organizing the items that we have. We are also in the process of ordering the new transformers. There are a few that need to be switched out. There will be more of this discussed at the work session.
Ambulance – Finished calendar year at 278 calls up about 40 calls. Purchased a new stair chair for the backup ambulance. Both trucks will now be identically stocked. We have ten candidates that will be taking the class. There is between 20-25 for the whole class.
Police – Pick up the new K9 unit tomorrow and go to training in April.
Parks – Picked out colors for the splash pad, looked at the drawings for the trails. The next meeting will be more future planning.
ADJOURNMENT
Motioned to adjourn the meeting at 8:18 PM by O’Connor, seconded by Wickenhauser.
Motion to adjourn carried.
Michael Looft
City Administrator

NOTICE OF
Charter
Commission
Pursuant to Minn. Stat. 475.705, subd. 1, the “Open Meeting Law”, you are hereby notified that the Charter Commission has scheduled their annual Charter Commission meeting on Wednesday, February 21, 2025, at 5:00 pm in the City Council Chambers, 305 N. Main Street, Winthrop. The public is welcome to attend this meeting.
AGENDA:
• Welcoming New Charter Members
• Proposed Charter Recommendations
Michael Looft
City Administrator
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STATE OF MINNESOTA
COUNTY OF SIBLEY
DISTRICT COURT
FIRST JUDICIAL
DISTRICT
Court File No.: 72-PR-25-6
NOTICE OF AND ORDER FOR HEARING ON PETITION FOR
FORMAL ADJUDICATION OF INTESTACY, DETERMINATION OF HEIRS, FORMAL APPOINTMENT OF PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE AND NOTICE TO CREDITORS
In Re: Estate of
Robert Lee Hewitt, a/k/a Robert L. Hewitt, a/k/a Robert Hewitt, Decedent.
It is Ordered and Notice is given that on March 4, 2025 at 10:45 a.m., a hearing will be held in this Court at 400 Court Avenue, Gaylord, Minnesota, on a petition for the adjudication of intestacy and determination of decedent’s heirs, and for the appointment of Nicholas Hewitt, whose address is 407 W Baker Street, Arlington, MN 55307, as personal representative of the decedent’s estate in an unsupervised administration.
Any objections to the petition must be raised at the hearing or filed with the Court prior to the hearing. If the petition is proper and no objections are filed or raised, the personal representative will be appointed with the full power to administer the decedent’s estate, including the power to collect all assets; to pay all legal debts, claims, taxes, and expenses; to sell real and personal property; and to do all necessary acts for the decedent’s estate.
Notice is further given that, subject to Minn. Stat. § 524.3-801, all creditors having claims against the decedent’s estate are required to present the claims to the personal representative or to the Court within four (4) months after the date of this notice or the claims will be barred.
BY THE COURT
Dated: January 28, 2025
/s/Amber Donley
Judge of District Court
Dated: January 28, 2025
Karen V. Messner
Sibley County Court Administrator
Court File No.: 72-PR-25-6
GAVIN, JANSSEN, STABENOW & MOLDAN, LTD.
Lori Moldan
MN# 0397215
1017 Hennepin Ave. N.
Glencoe, MN 55336
Telephone: (320) 864-5142
Facsimile: (320) 864-5146
e-mail:
[email protected]
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