City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, it is 6:30. We will call the Monday, January 26, 2026 city council meeting to order. If you could please join me in the pledge of allegiance. 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. Thank you. So, with that, do we have any additions to the agenda tonight? Uh, no additions tonight, mayor. All right. Hearing none, I'll look for a motion to approve the agenda as presented. Motion. Second. We have a motion, a second. All in favor say I. I.

Post same sign. Motion carries. 4. With that, we'll open up to public comments. If there's anyone who would like to discuss anything that is not on the agenda, please come forward. And seeing none, we'll close public comments and move to consent agenda. Is there anything on the consent agenda that needs to be pulled for further discussion? Hearing none, I'll look for a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. Motion. Second. We have a motion to second. All in favor say I.

I. I. Post sign. And motion carries 4. With that, we will move right into the annual fire department report by Fire Chief Metsold. Um, so Annie, thank you for for coming to present. It's kind of a new thing we're doing now, kind of give an annual update. Um, it'll I think keep council updated on things and uh keep our residents updated. So, keep in mind it's a a working uh update. So, if there's things we want to see or not, you know, uh certainly reach out to Andy or Nick and um they can communicate as we go forward. So, with that, Andy, I'll turn it over to you.

Thank you, Mayor Dodge. Uh so, in 2025, uh we ran 127 calls, uh which equated to 1,793 firefighter hours. Um, of those calls, 78 of them were medicals, 11 fires, 11 PI accidents, 10 CO or fire alarms, and then 17 mutual aid calls. Um, as you can see kind of the breakdown here of where those calls all were. uh vast majority um you know in the city of mayor and then breaks down the different townships that we serve and the calls that we had in those particular townships. Um we currently just brought on three new members. So we're currently at 29 members uh with one of those being on a leave of absence. Um, again, our officers right now that we have, myself is chief one, Bob Carlson is chief two, uh, my four captains, Josh Macintosh, Zack Stifter, Carl Olsen, and Eric Strand. Uh, Kevin Nace was a lieutenant this past year. Uh, Brent Hilk uh, replaced him as a lieutenant and then Adam is the other lieutenant. Uh just some notable items uh this past year. Um we had had purchased the new uh Lucas uh automated CPR machine uh that we've got in service now. Um we did celebrate our 125th anniversary this year. Um our our relief association has um four different fundraisers that we did this past year.

A couple fish fries. Uh we do the hamburger stand at the rising community festival and then we do a um a calendar uh that we put out stuff. Um other things we do uh we always uh in October uh fire prevention month we have um the preschoolers through the fourth graders from Zion come to the station um give them a tour of the station, go over some fire prevention, different things like that. Uh we also participate in the national night out uh along with the Lions and and we host pictures uh with Santa um every year.

Any questions anybody's got on anything going on or a busy year obviously so thank you to you and everyone involved. Um, sitting at the 29, are we still kind of tracking around that 30 or is that is that number starting to fluctuate a little bit or are you still good with 30? Yeah, I'm still good with, you know, 30 being um good. I don't kind of a benchmark. Yeah. Um, so a few over, few under, and long as we're right in there, it kind of depends on um you hate to turn away good uh good people if they're looking to to join, but definitely

Yeah. not at a a panic where we need to search out people. So, I think we're a very good position right now on membership, right? Yeah. And I tend to agree with that. It's tough to turn someone down, especially being out here in the rural area of things and it's tough to get people start there's a lot there's a very there's a lot involved, you know, it takes a a big commitment. So, um Right. Well, perfect. Well, thank you. I appreciate any other questions. Nope. Go ahead.

Just a quick a couple things, Chief Mets. If you want to talk just a little bit, this is our year in review, but a couple of items. I know we've been talking about looking at 26 that council may look forward to uh plans for another street dance celebration and then we had started preliminary discussions on equipment purchases.

Yeah. So um after our 125th uh anniversary, we had a lot of very positive feedback from the whole event. Um a lot of people, you know, asking, well, you going to do that again? Stuff like that. So um our department and committee looked at it for quite a while. Um, one one item we were um kind of held back on because this in 2026 here, I know city of New Germany is just celebrating their 125th anniversary. Um, they were looking at that same kind of date in September to do theirs. Uh, so we kind of held back, let them, you know, decide what they wanted to do and then would go off of that, not to compete with them on anything. um they end up deciding uh I'm not quite sure what they have decided fully yet, but they weren't going to be using that date. So then we looked at um you know do we do something again kind of that same weekend as we did last year and um reached out to some uh different bands and stuff and you know the ones we were looking at were already kind of booked that weekend. And uh so then we had talked um a little bit about having it coinciding with the Mayor Rising Community Festival and having something that same day to making kind of a day of it. And um as of right now, that's that is our plan to do it that same day. Um we're going to be working with the Rising Community um committee and working out kind of the logistics. The idea would be to hopefully have it all here. Um but just want to work through kind of some logistics of that and

setups and stuff um with a backup plan of doing it at the fire station again. But wonderful. So that is the plan right now is to have something that same day that evening but working I guess with that committee festival and trying to um yeah work out the details. That'd be wonderful.

As far as um just uh long are looking into the future and purchases and stuff like that. Um, we're slated to replace one of our engines in 2030. Um, in talking with a lot of the manufacturers, uh, build times can be out anywhere from, depending on who you talk to, two years, three years and stuff like that. So, um I met with um North Central Ambulance, the company that we had boughten our previous trucks from, and uh just had some preliminary talks with them about, you know, what is their kind of build time on that and um looking to kind of start getting some specs and then hopefully maybe applying for some grants uh you know, prior prior to that date when we would have to kind of go ahead. So that is kind of plans right now.

Good. Good. Got to plan ahead when you got a two-year two-year lead time. So wonderful. Perfect. Anything else? Wonderful. Thank you, Chief. I appreciate it. Thank you, Andy.

All right. With that, we will move to consider approval to declare old fire hose and surplus equipment eligible for donation. Thank you, mayor. Uh, we had an, uh, nonprofit uh, come to us uh, come to Chief Mets and request a donation of surplus fire hose that the fire department has in the city's policy for surplusing equipment, especially relates to fire hose. We have a process that we need to get through. We just can't give it right away. Included in the packet, I I outlined a memo that spelled out that process. The organization that requested it is Akala Family Foundation uh whose mission is to provide outreach and support efforts to San Lucas Tolman in Guatemala. And they have requested uh three or four lengths of fire hose. They're going to take those down to Guatemala so they can use them for firefighting purposes. They're no longer of use to us and our firefighting standards that we have for hose use, but they can still be used down in Guatemala. So, what we would need to do is we need to declare the equipment surplus. And then we have to post 30 days uh on our website and social media to give other nonprofits a chance at it. Uh if the because the fair fair market value of it is less than $500 since it's defunct. It really does haven't doesn't have any resale value whatsoever. Uh the city administrator has then delegated the authority to approve the donation subject to review by the city council. And so what that would mean is I can go ahead and choose the donation and if the city council I would report back who I donated it to and if you have issue with that you can then call that in to be reviewed at your choosing. Uh so if we get multiple organizations I'll evaluate those and then um make the donation on that behalf. So what we have before us is the recommendation to uh declare the

old fire hose as surplus and eligible for donation. Perfect. Thank you. I'll look for a motion to declare old fire hose as surplus equipment eligible for donation. Motion second. Motion a second. Any further discussion? So, I think this is wonderful. Great place for it to go to. Uh um I you know if there's other things that come up that we can do you know if it's boots or or turnout gear or even some hoods or helmet anything like that I I think this is wonderful to do with our um excess stuff that's expired and and no good for the community any longer. So hearing nothing else I will uh all in favor say I.

I post same sign. Motion carries 4. And with that, we will move or we will uh move to number 10. Consider adoption of ordinance 252 amending the fee schedule.

Thank you, mayor. At the last meeting, we had uh introduced the ordinance 252 amending the fee schedule. Along with the changes, staff identified one change right afterward. Um we had we didn't get proper notification from the state of Minnesota. I'm not sure if they had a bad email address, a bad address to send mail. I'm not sure what happened, but one item we have in there here is the Minnesota water testing fee. And what this is, it's a fee that is charged upon us by the state of Minnesota. We pay it quarterly. And it's based upon the number of connections we have in the community. And what that historically had been has been at that 81 cents uh as we got it out to uh as we uh divvied it out as a base fee adder, it was about 81 cents per uh customer. They have upped their fees by quite a bit. Uh they're citing higher testing fees, higher costs, inflation. Um end all beall is that they are now imposing a higher fee on us. This has always been a pass through cost. We don't make any money on it whatsoever. The state charges us and then we charge our residents that same amount. So we make no money on it whatsoever. But with that fee change, that changes it from 81 cents per month to $1.27 27 per month to make sure we're recouping those costs. So, that was the only change from the introduction to the adoption tonight.

Thank you. For a motion to approve ordinance 252 with the one addition of $127 per month for the Minnesota water testing fee. Motion. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Motion and a second. That was close. It was. one. Any further discussion? And again, as we talked last time, thank you both and uh for putting this together and going through this. It it certainly helps and um as we can keep cleaning it up and make it more usable for for staff is much appreciated. So with that, all in favor say I.

I post same sign. Motion carries 4. That will take us to city council reports. Council member health, anything to report on? had a couple personnel committee meetings. Still working on um uh public works supervisor number one. Perfect. Council member Jackson, we we picked the coloring contest winner. So, it's really important. And u talked about tree lighting. So, wonderful. That's about it. All right. And you found the person who was uh uh coloring entry. Did we Did you Did they turn themselves in? Shiloh. Yeah. Yep. We found Perfect.

Oh, and we did talk about um the grant we got to Oh, for the park, local trails for the trail. So, that's in discussion, too. There's some money that we're discussing using on some trails in Okay. the city. Is that a matching fee or match? Yeah. And but we just have to decide where to use it. And you were he's figuring out if it we can use two different spots or it have to be in one spot or whatever. But yeah, some of the parks trails are needing some attention. 50/50 50% city 50% I thought it was full, wasn't it?

7525 city 25 city up to $250,000. Oh wow. Wonderful. Yeah. Yeah. There's definitely some trails that need some work. Yeah. Uh the consensus was leaning towards the trail behind Mole and um by Zion if we can combine them because there's no actual trail. Oh, actually creating a trail not that one because because that other area would eat up so much. We can't really go to the other areas that need it. And they were mentioning that there's no walking area. What about a trail that connects by Casey's to like Dollar General or does that have to go through the state?

That's through. So that would be more of our sidewalks and trails fund. This is specifically for internal park trails. But that has been discussed too. Nothing has been voted on or anything, but it's perfect. It's definitely at the forefront. So good. Thank you. And to your point, Chad, we have been discussing that at public works committee. Uh, Council Member McNeely. Nope. Nothing.

And I also have been on the uh personnel committee meetings with uh uh Chad as backfill for the public works supervisor. And then we did have a meeting this morning with uh Central Homes who uh they're the ones looking at possibly purchasing some property up by uh Fieldstone. Uh so we met with them and the seller, the Sver Peterson uh uh group who was selling the property just to kind of work through some of the

roads that we may some of the infrastructure that may be needed for that to get cars in and out um through that area and meeting with the long-term plan from the county uh their 2040 2040 or 2050 comp plan 2040 comp plan. So, some discussion with that, trying to get creative on that, what we can do to kind of keep some of the costs obviously down. They they have their numbers where they need to be from what they're purchasing for, what they're going to do. So, um more to come on that obviously. Uh they got to work with the county on some things, get get some further information from the county. Um I think that's all I had. So, with that, I'll look for a motion to adjurnn. Motion. Second.

Motion to second. All in favor say I. I. I. We are adjourned. My son does not shut down your computer. Don't just let it die. Yeah, cuz that's what