Aberdeen City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, it's 5.30, let's call to order this meeting. Jordan, would you start us off with a roll call, please?

Please respond by stating present Councilmember Ronayne. Present. Fulberg.

Present.

Wiebel. Present. Ward. Present. Johnson. Present. E. Conger.

Present.

Nelson. Present. Norb Stroup. Present. Meir Shoneman.

Present. Please stand with me for the Pledge of Allegiance. The first order of business here tonight will be to approve this week's agenda. I take a motion. Second. Motion Nielsen. Second Ward. All in favor please say aye. Aye. Opposed nay. Motion carries. We've got the minutes from two weeks ago June 22nd as well as an amended payroll section from that meeting. The meeting minutes originally did not include the payroll data. Now they do with that amendment. So I take a motion to approve the minutes in that amended payroll section.

So moved.

Second.

Motion Johnson second forward all in favor. Please say aye opposed nay Motion carries chief if we got any open forum with it when I came in and I see none All right moving along to our consent calendar that eight items of routine city business some event permits some contractors licenses, etc Would someone care to make a motion on our consent calendar move to approve second? Emotion ward, second e-conqueror. Anyone have any abstentions or any items that they'd like to speak about? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Motion carries. Next, we've got old business, a single item. It's a rezone that we had voted on two weeks ago. Ken, this one is from I-2 and C-2 to just C-2. It's located at 402 15th Street South. Ken, anything new beyond what we had spoken about two weeks ago?

Thank you, Mayor. I have no news to report since first reading.

Second motion Nielsen second Ward Anyone have any final thoughts before we take our final vote on the second reading of this rezone? Jordan would you give us a roll call vote then please?

Councilmember Ronayne. Hi Fulberg. All right, Lee belt. I board. Hi Johnson. Hi. He conger. Hi Nielsen. Hi, I'm here Sean. I'm in I

Motion carries next we've got new business segment the meeting the first item on the agenda here for tonight is a possible appointment of Skylar barrier to the parks rec and forestry board for a five-year term this would end on June 30th of 2031 Skylar is a Very ambitious young man. He works for climate control out in the industrial park Matt anything to add

Sorry, nothing really to add. This is the second year. He's shown interest last year Adam Attempted it for the third year in a row so Adam kind of got preference points and got it last year and Skyler is showing interest for the second year in a row so I'll move to approve

Second. And a motion from Councilman Ward. Second. Councilman Johnson. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed nay. That motion carries. The next item involves me, so I will be stepping away and turning things over to Deputy Mayor Alan Johnson.

Thank you, Mayor. Council members, before us, we have an item 7B, which is possible authorization of a council member to derive a direct benefit from a contract with the city, which is in excess of the amount set forth in Section 2-2 of our charter, that amount being $5,000. So because the business involved is Production Monkeys and Mayor Shoneman is co-owner of that business, He has followed ethical procedures and we are here to determine if this can be granted this evening, the request. So this particular contract being considered is with the Aberdeen Convention Visitors Bureau. It is an amount of approximately $6,600. And as an overview, the mayor requests the council to authorize video production services to the CVB, and his written request is in the agenda package. We'll follow the same procedure that's been used in a preceding instance. In 2024, we had Councilwoman Tiffany Langer who made a similar request. And so after this brief introduction that I'm making, the mayor will step to the podium. He'll answer any questions that the council members may have. And then prior to voting, we'll ask him to exit the council chambers. And his vote will be an abstention and the rest of us will be tallied. So the two points that we need to ensure are met if we are to vote in favor are item A, that the mayor has provided full written disclosure of all parties to the contract, his role. in the contract, the purpose or objective of the contract, the consideration of benefit conferred or agreed to be conferred upon each party, and the duration of the contract. That's item A. And item B is that the council finds that the terms of the contract are fair, reasonable, and not contrary to the public interest. So with that brief introduction, Mayor, if you'd step forward please.

any questions that Council members have will entertain them now Fair enough, I just want to say thanks for making this consideration as I'm sure most of you have noticed I do a considerable amount of free work for the city video production photography You know anything and everything to draw attention to our wonderful parks events activities hundreds upon hundreds of hours annually and no cost to the city for my meager salary of $17,000 here this one is going to involve a lot of employee time and that's why and I was asked to provide a quote proposal five thousand of this sixty six hundred dollars is a grant so only one thousand six hundred dollars is is actually from the convention and visitors bureau which is not the city itself it is an organization which derives finances partially from the city of aberdeen and that's why this thing was queued up so hopefully you'll take that into consideration but i'm happy to answer any questions that anyone would have uh yes

A little bit more intimidating.

Like being in court.

Mayor, I have one question. Go ahead. Can you briefly describe any RFP process or any bidding that might have been involved with this?

yeah so uh casey had sent me an email in uh november of 2025 and said that he had two series of videos that he was exploring doing one was geared towards hunting and one was geared towards summertime shoulder season travel here in aberdeen we provided estimates for both of those things and then didn't hear anything for quite some time but he was waiting to hear whether or not he received the grant uh funding to to finance the thing so I know that he had reached out to a number of different firms asking for it I don't know what entirely his decision-making process looks like but I will say after we kind of went back and forth a little bit we're settling on producing seven videos and normally I would say a fair market rate for a video would be about three to four thousand dollars minimum so you start to extrapolate that map I'm really trying to cover my costs when it comes to employees with this

Yeah, and on that last point, I would concur my experience in the marketing world is that this would be a package closer to 25,000 or more, just for reference. I'll make a motion to approve.

I'll second that.

Yes, thank you.

I actually had another question.

Oh, yes, please, Councilwoman.

I had a question about why the discounted price. I mean, I guess if you're bidding for a job, it would seem to me that anyone here that owns a business should bid for the cost of the actual job.

Well, I had provided two quotes to begin with. And the original intent was three produced videos. And just in talking to him and kind of observing what they were looking for, it turned into a bigger thing. I try to be as gracious as humanly possible with that kind of a thing. I could have probably said, no, we'll just stick with three. But when we're talking about it and getting excited and trying to make a real impact for the community at large, it spurred into a bit of a larger project than it began.

Does anyone else on the council have questions? All right. Thank you for departing the mayor. So we had a motion from Councilman Ward and a second from, I'm not sure who, Councilwoman Liebelt. Would you please give us a roll call, Jordan?

Councilmember Nordstrom? Aye. Nielsen? Aye. E. Conger? Aye. Johnson?

Aye.

Ward?

Aye.

Liebelt? Aye. Boberg? Aye. Ronin? No.

Okay, voting is eight to one, or seven to one, excuse me. And so this passes. Thank you very much for your consideration.

All right, appreciate that. Next, we will have a public hearing and possible approval of an application for our state revolving loan fund for $2.5 million. It's a 3.75 rate. It's annualized on a 20-year term. Jordan, would you walk us through what we're signing up for here with this loan?

Thank you, Mayor. This is a loan to provide gap financing for the water tower project. This is a project the budget exceeds roughly $14 million. We secured around $10 million in SRF loan, and it's the first time around. Roughly $2 million in EDA funds, so this is a gap to provide the additional funds necessary for that. As part of the application process, we're required to hold a public hearing for the loan application, and this is serving that purpose. I was hoping we'd have our friends from NECOG this evening, but you're stuck with me, and I'll walk you through it. So again, this is a $2.5 million loan. I'll attempt to share my screen here, but as I discuss it, it's a 20-year term at 3.75%. Again, it's the time and place for public input questions or comments on the loan application a copy of the application is attached with our Agenda packet and it is available on our website as well So a copy of the resolution will pop This is what we passed last week. This is the resolution that authorizes the application it looks like the screens are not in turned on in the agenda or in the common area here, but again, it's resolution 20-06-07-R. I will attempt to share a screen that shows the financing that was shared last week as well. And this is the financing that contemplates the rate increase. Based on the calculations from NCOG, We have roughly 9,500 users. A usage rate for domestic is $48.25. Business bulk is $60.25. We're required to have 110% of revenues to cover the debt capacity. That's the number illustrated in green. So this shows that over the 20-year term, we will satisfy the yearly payment of $177,000 by meeting the 110 requirement in that green number. Again, this is an application that went to the state. I think it was last week. There's a meeting in June. I don't have the dates committed to memory, but that's a rough timeline. We've again submitted this to the state. This is a requirement for our loan application. We passed the resolution last week and I'd invite any questions.

Move to approve. Second.

Got a motion from Councilman Ronan, a second Councilman. So and then in the near future Jordan wondering if we could update the Rate comparison that we've got now that I know that we've had a few Rate increases with utilities, but then this one will add I guess nominally to those just kind of see where we're standing at with everything because we've got an additional increase for next year

That's correct. This wasn't contemplated within the rate study, but I do maintain some subsidiary ledgers that track rates, and I can update that as part of the budget process for 27, if not sooner.

All right. Thank you. Appreciate that. We've got a motion and a second. Anyone have any thoughts?

Jordan? Or Mr. Ray?

Go ahead.

Can you remind me how NECOG was involved in this?

NECOG compiles and prepares the loan application on our behalf. They compile the various exhibits within the loan application itself.

Thanks. It's a long application.

It is. And this is only part of it.

They also requested a grant too, right?

They are administering the EDA grant as part of this.

Oh, I thought, well, we talked about potential grant funds, but it didn't pan out. Correct.

Correct.

All right, well, if you know anybody in the state, maybe we should push a little harder on those things. It's nice to get grants. Nice to get grants. All right, so we've got a motion or a second. Any other questions? Jordan, would you give us a roll call vote then, please?

Councilmember Ronan. Aye. Fulberg. Aye. Liebel. Aye. Ward. Aye. Johnson. Aye. E. Conger. Aye. Nielsen. Aye. Nordstrom. Aye. Mearshawn.

Aye. Motion carries. Next, we've got a possible approval to purchase a 2026, I don't know how to say that word, some sort of a crack sealer from Transource Truck and Equipment. What is it? I don't know.

Just make it up.

I'm phonetically guessing here. Jeremy, how do you say that company?

I'll let you pronounce it. All right.

Well, it uses a source well contract, and it is a 2026 brand-new vehicle, cracked sealer. Jeremy, would you walk us through what the expense is on that, since it wasn't listed in the overview, and then also where we're going to add with that equipment?

So this is a piece of equipment that we don't have right now, so we won't be replacing an older one. Staff is looking at doing some of this type of work. It's been quite some time since we've done some crack sailing in-house anyway. Any other work like this has been done by some contractors, and they've spent some time for that. So the city manager and I discussed the possibility of trying to find some money for the equipment like this and doing some of this work in-house. And what is the total cost Jim so it is I'll move to approve

Got a motion from Councilman Johnson, second from Councilman Knapstrup. Any questions? Go ahead, Alan.

Thank you, Mayor. Just wondering what this price tag, close to $80,000, and anticipated cost savings from doing work internally. Is there an expected return on investment where it would pay for itself within a few years?

Yeah, certainly. You know, so it's been quite a while since we've had a contract. You know, in my career as a public work director and assistant public work director, I don't recall us doing one. This is the type of equipment that a contractor would use, so I think by doing this in-house, you know, it would keep the cost down considerably.

Jordan, would you give us a roll call vote on that purchase?

Councilmember Nordstrom? Aye. Nielsen? Aye. E. Conger? Aye. Johnson? Aye. Ward? Aye. Liebelt? Aye. Fulberg? Aye. Ronan? Aye. Mayor Shoneman? Aye.

motion carries next we've got a possible approval of a pay request title number four it's for the public works building granular film material it's one hundred fifty five thousand seven thirty eight and it's to Jacob and sons construction brought in some more fill on that one there Jeremy

Move to approve second

Got a motion. Councilman Leeville. Second. Councilman Ward. Any questions? Jordan.

Councilmember Ronan. Aye. Foberg. Aye. Liebel. Aye. Ward. Aye. Johnson. Aye. E. Conger. Aye. Nielsen. Aye. Nordstrom. Aye. Mearschaumann.

Aye. Motion carries. It's like Christmas over there today. Jeremy, we've got a possible approval next of 2026 Elgin Pelican Street Sweeper from Sanitation Products out of Sioux Falls. Also using our source well contract. Now that is one thing that I know that we do actually have. Are we replacing an older one or adding to the fleet?

Yeah, so this will not be an addition. This will be replacing an older one. We typically run three street sweepers, and we have a fourth one on hand as a backup. They're very high maintenance. They break down often, so we keep one extra one on hand. So we'll be surplusing the 2015 model. That's our spare. And we'll be moving our 2017 model to the spare, and then we'll be replacing that one into the day-to-day service. We previously had run these machines for about seven years. We stretch this one out a little bit longer to see how it worked, and it hasn't been very beneficial, so we need to get a little bit closer to the seven-year lifespan on these machines. This one's a little bit past that.

Move approval.

Second.

We've got a motion from Councilman Johnson. Second, Councilman E. Conger. And so we've got a fleet of three operational ones that are active at any given time, and then the fourth one, so

one of the older ones in our current fleet of three will just sit on the sidelines all right any other questions from the council all right jordan council member norvstrup nelson hi e-conquer hi johnson hi ward hi weebelt hi foberg hi ronane hi mayor shoneman

Motion carries. When are we going to take possession of these? I was meaning to ask this and that crack sealer. When will they arrive?

When will we take possession? 60 to 90 day lead time on both. Okay.

Thank you. Appreciate you joining us here tonight, Jeremy. Next, we've got a possible approval of pay request to settle 13. It's $286,355 and a change order for $27,337. That's for our often discussed 10th Avenue Bridge replacement project, prom construction out of Slayton, Minnesota. Destin, we've got a couple of final bills for these fellas.

Yes, thank you. This is intended to be the final pay request. It covers asphalt pavement, base core sidewalk, signing, erosion control, and structural concrete and includes releasing of retainage. Change order for the most part is for normal variation of plan quantities. Exceptions include clearing and grabbing the trees, half of which were removed by the Moxon Creek project, so they didn't get removed on this contract. HP piling underruns. You pretty much put your pile in until you have bearing strength. You don't necessarily always use plan quantities, so we underran on that. And then there was a plan error by the design engineer, which we had to use significantly more structural concrete than the plan showed. Also included are liquidated damages in the amount of $100,500 that is for the contractor exceeding going past the contract end date. Staff recommends approval of the final pay request and change order. Move to approve.

Motion, Councilman Wart. Second, Councilman Knopfstrup. Any questions? Go ahead, Chad.

Thank you. Justin, on that request, item 80, remove and reset that floating silt curtain, is that something that they had to do because they went past their contract time and had to take it out for something seasonal, or...

No. If you look at the change order, that item is a deduct change order. So we removed it because the work was not performed.

Okay. So there wasn't really any reset. It was just the removal.

Yep.

Okay.

Thank you. Jordan? Councilmember Ronan? Aye. Fogberg?

Aye.

Lebel? Aye. Ford? Aye. Johnson? Aye. E. Conger? Aye. Nelson? Aye. Nordstrom? Aye. Meir Shoneman? Aye.

Aye. Motion carries. Next, we've got a possible pay request. Title number two, it's for street maintenance concrete repair. It's $52,136.60. And a change order, which is for $7,169.50 to Wright and Sudlow. Dustin, how is that project coming along?

Yeah, so this project is completed. This is for our curb and gutter projects ahead of our chip seal route. This is the final pay request and the change orders for the actual constructed quantities of work. So we spent $245,000. We plan to spend $250,000, so we're right where we need to be.

Move to approve. Second.

Got a motion, Councilman Liebel. Second, Councilman Ronan. Any questions on this project or this invoice? Jordan.

Councilmember Nordstrom. Aye. Nielsen. Aye. E. Conker. Aye. Johnson.

Aye.

Ward. Aye. Liebel. Aye. Fulberg. Aye. Ronan. Aye. Meir Shoneman.

Aye. That motion carries as well. Next is a possible approval of an interior drainage study by HDR Incorporated at a not to exceed amount of $299,041. Destin, would you walk us through why we're doing an interior drainage study?

Yes, thank you. I'll also add I invited TJ at HDR to stop by in case any in-depth questions are here. But a quick little background. FEMA is remapping Brown County, and as part of that, they do not really account for some of our conveyance systems, storm sewers, drainage ditches, retention ponds, lifts, et cetera. So we're trying to get ahead of the curve and show FEMA that these This is my structure does have an effect and provide and that's where HDR comes in to provide a create a model and show that This does have a conveyance and that should be accounted for so previously the engineering department put out RFPs and interviewed and talked to consultants and we ultimately selected the HDR and And we are now asking for approval to go forward with this project. So the hope is here that we'll model our interior drainage and show FEMA that help create an accurate floodplain. There's a potential that a large part of the north side of town will get thrown into the floodplain as the FEMA preliminary maps show.

DJ, welcome. I'll move to approve.

Second.

Got a motion from Councilman Johnson. Second, Councilman Ronan. TJ, how was that description? Anything you'd like to include?

No, that's fairly accurate. As far as the levee remapping or the FEMA remapping with the levee, FEMA requires an interior drainage study to go with that if you want to account for your drainage system on what I'd say the dry side of the levee. And so the goal of the project is to accurately show the flood risk within the dry side of the levee. So if Moccasin Creek is high and it rains on your dry side of the levee, how does it flood on the dry side of the levee compared to the river? And so that's what the study would show. If it was not done, FEMA would map that water level on Moccasin Creek on the dry side of the levee as well. So that's the purpose of the study is to represent that Moccasin Creek can be higher than any sort of flooding concerns within the dry side of the levee.

Mr. Ryan.

Go ahead, Councilman.

When you say the dry side of the levee, you're talking about the west side of this levee?

Correct. So west side of the levee. That is correct.

But if you look where we live, we live right next to the creek, but our elevation is so high. I mean, it's going to be like end of days before I flood. So that's on the wet side of the levee, but it's not in the floodplain.

So FEMA is modeling the Moxon Creek floodplain within their HEC-RAS model. So it will determine which high ground sits higher than the floodplain versus what would be floodplain. The interior drainage study would be on the west side of the levee within that storm sewer network that goes through the levee system and also drains to the south of the levee system.

So elevation is still going to matter in the FEMA floodplain? This gives us another layer of answering? Questions about areas where elevation is low?

Correct.

Is that a good way to interpret it?

Yeah, so FEMA's remapping is showing the flood risk anywhere in town. And so their modeling in HECRAS on the east side of the levee would depict what that water elevation would be on Moccasin Creek. And then they would utilize the drainage study to map any areas on the dry side of the levee that would be part of that mapping process.

Mr. Mayor, I have more questions.

Please.

So then my next question is, when you're looking at the data gathering stage, it looks like you're doing a subcontract with Helms & Associates. So you guys aren't going to be up here in the field at all?

So yeah, we're working with Helms & Associates. We've worked with them on various projects, one of them here in town with the Water Tower. So we've worked with them in the past. We recognize that they're a local firm that understands the They have surveyors in town versus having for us to have people drive up to do the survey work. So we felt it was a benefit to the city of Aberdeen to use a local firm that's in town, doesn't have to travel, doesn't have a hotel or any of those costs.

Can I ask another question? Please. So one of the advantages of bringing in a consultant, per se, is sometimes you get an outside perspective on things. Talk me through why that's not an advantage here, why it's an advantage to use Helms, besides the cost. Because, I mean, aren't they going to work with a bunch of assumptions they already have? Or are the assumptions, like, water agnostic?

So Helms and Associates will be doing the survey work. So they're out there going into the manholes and taking the elevation shots of... the inverts of the pipes and the rims of the manholes and so really there's there's no judgment with that it is is going out there and getting actual hard elevations of the various pipes they provide HDR that information and then we utilize that in our model to build the underground network of stormwater pipe that the city has in town

One more and then I'll stop. But we can assume there's just not a lot of elevation differentiation in Aberdeen anyway. So, I mean, if you're using LIDAR and you're using HELMS, like what are you guys bringing to the table?

What is HDR?

Yeah, what are you bringing to the table?

So HDR is providing the stormwater model. So the survey information will be put into the model. And so that will model the underground network. And then it will be a 2D model. So utilize the LIDAR on the surface. So how it works is water goes into the pipe. If the pipe isn't big enough, the water comes to the surface onto the LIDAR in the model. And so it's mapping how much water is on the surface versus how much water is in the pipe's network. And then we're able to model multiple events. So smaller events or larger events. So FEMA typically is looking at the 1% chance rain event. And so that's one of the things that we'll be looking at.

Okay, I lied. I have one more question. So one more question. So how do like the surface drainage places that we've created in Aberdeen since the Cinco de Mayo flood of 2007, how are all those new little drainage spots like the spot south of Taco John's and other places like that, how are those factoring into this or do they not? Because this is all just underground.

So it has underground for the pipe network. We will have any detention system that the city has, we'll incorporate that into the model. So the city has incorporated various detentions around town where water comes to that point and it kind of holds that water to reduce some of that flow. We'll also incorporate pump stations that are part of the stormwater network that pump the water out of the pond. So all those things will be incorporated into the model. Okay, thanks.

Appreciate that lengthy explanation, TJ. Anything else you'd like to add before we take a vote? Oh, did you have a question? Yes.

Go ahead. Thank you, Mayor. My question, Delston, is more from the fiscal side. How often are hydrologic studies like this needed?

Yeah, that's a good question. You know, one big benefit of this is we do not have an XP swim model of our storm sewer network. So after HDR builds us, it would be much easier for us to maintain and build off of it for future retention pond storm sewer that's constructed. And, you know, we could also use it to, you know, analyze ourselves maybe where we have problems and where we need to do more for certain problems around town. So to my knowledge, we really haven't done something like this.

Okay, so this will create a sort of baseline for us. And really without any way of anticipating when FEMA might come knocking or when, again, we might need to conduct an updated study.

I can look on the last time they mapped it. I think it was the early 2000s. I don't know if you know the top of your head, Todd. I had to look at it last time.

I don't remember what the map had for a date. It's been a while. FEMA has switched from a one-dimensional modeling platform in HECRAS to a two-dimensional that's using the LIDAR. So they've switched modeling techniques, and that's part of this remapping process that FEMA's going through. Many other counties in the eastern half of South Dakota are going through that same thing as well with FEMA. So typically they're going, you know, 20, 30 years between remappings.

Okay. So when will the study actually occur?

I think as soon as we get ink dry in the paper, we'll set them free and let them go. Okay. I think we had a schedule in here.

The goal of having surveyors get out there right now during the survey season and get that data and then in the fall begin that modeling process. There's some modeling activity that we can do up front as far as GIS data gathering and putting some of the hydrology information into the model.

And then the surveyors are out there gathering that survey information Providing it to us that we add that to the model and at that point we're able to run the model sure Yes, we the proposal has a June 27 completion We're probably starting them a little bit later than after they wrote that so in or around that that time for a complete survey modeling everything coordination with FEMA Okay one other question Destin so was this an anticipated expense where Stu had it in budget or is it popped up and we need to address it that way yeah he put I think he's budgeted 150 so we could budget 150 again next year to cover it okay thank you and I think that's our plan it is our plan

Okay, tell me.

You may have touched on it. So if we get this model in place, as we make changes, we're able to add to it and keep it up to date?

That's correct.

Okay.

Thank you.

Jordan, would you give us a roll call on that approval?

Can I add one more thing? So as far as the scope of the study, so you understand the area of Aberdeen, not the entire town will be part of this study. It will be from the levee basically all the way to the west edge of town. There's a small portion of the west edge of town that drains west away from town so we're looking at anything that's coming to the moccasin creek either through the levee there's an intertwining of the storm network so some of it goes south of the levee as well but that gives you an idea too of areas to the east out by the airport that that's not part of this study And so part of that reason was to answer FEMA's mail as far as their remapping process to be able to have the interior drainage study coincide with their moccasin creek study.

And the thought was we could finish the model at a later time to do east of the creek and whatnot to finally do the whole town.

Will this satisfy FEMA's demands or is there additional work that needs to be done for compliance with their... their requirements?

So we don't have to do anything. We could do nothing, but there's a large risk that a large portion of the north side of town will be thrown back in the floodplain because they do not account for, in their mapping, our retention ponds, our storm sewer, and all these other systems. So we are not required to do anything, but we are coming forward with this because we think we should.

but we had spoken with former city engineer robin bob ziend about retaining him and his expertise for some of this process will that not be necessary then as a result of this or will there be other things for him to do

I can answer that. So he was part of the selection part to this and the interview panel for interviewing the engineering firms that we would ultimately select for this and kind of had a role in the build up to putting this proposal together and working with Stu to finalize this. So it took a little bit of time to kind of put this project together. So at this point, I don't anticipate Robin would have any involvement And we'll be talking about the new city engineer in my manager's report. So that's a good question. Thanks for asking that.

One last question. So if I'm understanding correctly, the city opted to do this as a sort of favor to many residents who might otherwise possibly have their insurance rates spike because of being grafted into a floodplain. Yes. So it's a good thing to help out the citizens.

Mr. Mayor? Go ahead. I was just going to reiterate exactly what Councilman Johnson said. It's the right thing to do. It's costly, but I think it'll... benefit our citizens and a lot that would have their taxes go way up if we didn't do this work. So thank you.

And it's a not to exceed amount. So it might be $20,000, $30,000, $40,000 for all we know. We just know it won't be more than $299,000.

There are these change orders.

Yeah. Jordan. Jordan.

Council Member Ronade. Aye. Fogberg. Aye. Wiebel. Aye. Ward. Aye. Johnson.

Aye.

E. Conger. Aye. Nielsen. Aye. Norbstrup. Aye. Mayor Shoneman.

Aye. That motion carries. Thanks for joining us. Thank you very much. Next, we've got a possible approval, F-150. It's from Pearson Ford for our engineering department. It's a $44,468 vehicle. Destin, why do you need a F-150?

Yes, thank you. So the truck we're looking to replace is 18 years old. It's really rusty. It's in the parking lot if anyone wants to see it. The reason we are asking for a truck is we carry a lot of surveying equipment, concrete testing equipment, and we just need the space and use of a truck. Pearson Ford is willing to match the state contract price on this purchase. So we recommend approval of that.

I move to approve.

Second.

Got a motion from Councilwoman Wiebele. Second. Councilman Johnson, any questions about the purchase? Jordan, will you give us a roll call vote then for that purchase?

Councilmember Nordstrom. Aye. Nielsen. Aye. E. Conger. Aye. Johnson. Aye. Ward. Aye. Wiebele. Aye. Fulberg. Aye. Ronin. Aye. Meir Shoneman. Aye.

That motion carries next we've got a review and approval of claims and payroll the bills this week Of course payroll pay period is from June 28th through July 11th take a motion to pay the bills Second the motion Ward second II Conger anyone have any Thing that they'd like to abstain individually you feel free to mention that when we are doing our roll call Jordan Would you kick us off the final roll call vote of the evening?

Councilmember Ronin. Aye. Fulberg. Aye. Liebel. Aye. Ward. Aye. Johnson. Aye. E. Conger. Aye. Nielsen. Aye. Nordstrom. Aye. Mayor Shoneman.

Aye. That motion carries. Next, we've got our city manager's report.

Yeah, thank you. So coming from our holiday weekend, I hope everyone had an opportunity to experience Aberdeen and participate in the various activities. We're very gracious for the things that occurred in our city over the weekend. you know we had a celebration a parade on the 4th of July to celebrate the 250th anniversary of our country and you know a lot of things that are occurring at Wiley Park and Stuyvesant land so great things occurred in our city over the weekend and I just want to say thanks to the city staff that helped in basically doing the the planning and the site preparation and the traffic control and and setting up barricades. And again, city staff had a direct role in handling those things and was very well organized and put together on all those events. And really, life is good in Aberdeen and put our community in a good place. So I just want to say thank you to city staff and all the volunteers and organizations that made these activities happen in our community. It was a great weekend to participate in some of these events. So I just want to say thank you. Just a moment ago, I mentioned our city engineer and so it brings us great pleasure to introduce tonight We've made a selection for our new city engineers position and that person is Leif Redinger. You may be familiar with him He's been familiar to the City Council. He's talked a little bit about some of the projects he's been managing to help the city with the water tower and the transmission and the construction of the 8th Avenue corridor and but I want to talk about him a little bit and his qualifications. So Leith is a licensed professional engineer with more than 15 years of experience in planning, designing, funding, and delivering municipal infrastructure projects for cities, counties, tribal governments, and public utility systems throughout South Dakota. He has extensive experience managing water, wastewater, transportation, drainage, solid waste, recreation, and community development projects from concept through construction. Leif is a proven leader. He has leadership experience supervising technical and support staff. He's helped coordinate most of the multi-project teams and managing complex infrastructure programs with construction values exceeding over $20 million. It's important, too, to talk a little bit about his core qualifications. So he's a municipal engineer that has the leadership that we need on our team. He's somebody that is experienced in capital improvement planning, water and wastewater infrastructure. He has experience in stormwater and drainage systems, considerable experience in grant and loan funding administration. Construction Administration. He does a very good job and an excellent job being interactive when he's doing public presentations and stakeholder engagement. So not too long ago we saw him here talking a little bit about the 8th Avenue project. and kind of explaining those things to us. And I think that's another area that he really shines and the community is really going to benefit from is his ability to engage people and answer questions and his desire to do that, to continue to educate people on what we're doing and why we need to do it. So basically, he's somebody that we're very appreciative and very gracious that he's accepted to be part of our city team. Years ago in 2008, he did an internship for the city of Aberdeen. So he's familiar with us and our team. I think he's going to be a great fit for this team. Just super excited that we have somebody that comes from our community that has the investment, the connections, the partnerships. He'll be able to communicate well with our partners. Somebody that will be able to give his cell phone. Number two, the community in general and they'll be able to call him, run problems by him. He'll show up on site and look at the problems that people are concerned about. I'm just super excited. I know we're kind of setting the bar pretty high, but he's been kind of in the crucible of a lot of different projects and has a lot of experience. And again, some are just gracious to have as part of our awesome city team. And with that, I also want to say thanks to Destin and Joe and Dan and Jeremy and Nancy and Emily. for all the things that they did to kind of help continue to move this process along. The engineering department, I pat you guys on the back. And Dustin, thank you for all that you've done to step into the gap here to get us to this point to bring on our next engineer. And I'm just very excited for what this team is going to do in the future. We have a lot of expectations, a lot of needs. And I think, well, you know, bringing on Leif on board, we'll have the energy and the experience and the drive and desire to kind of complete, you know, some of the things that we want to do in the future. So, Leif, anything that you want to say as I just introduced you here? All right.

So we might grab a picture of you before you take off. We do have an executive session here tonight, so it would be a perfect opportunity. So don't run off just yet.

Sorry, Dave. No, no, I just want to say that we look on bringing him on board on the 20th of this month. So as you can imagine, there's things that he wants to close out with Helms, you know, as being the project engineer there. So we thank him for that time and give him that opportunity to close things out. Just blessed to have him as part of our team, and thanks, Leif. We look forward to working with you in the future. All right, thank you.

Can I just have one more?

Just want to talk, I have one more thing. So basically our promotional fund is open right now on July 1st. We put the application for that. You can see that on our city website. That'll stay open until August 3rd. So those organizations and partners that are interested in taking advantage of promotional funds, I know that's something that people have been asking about. You may have been receiving questions about the promotional fund. draw their attention to our city website. There's an application on there. There's a process where you'll need to kind of describe what you're asking for and how that fits with the mission of the city. But if anybody has any questions on that, feel free to reach out to the mayor or any city council person, myself or Jordan. We'll be able to answer that. So with that, that's all I have, Mayor. Thank you.

Sounds great. Well, let's get that picture, and then we'll take a motion following that for executive session. So if the council would stand up towards the middle, we'll get it.

Let's go. Let's go.