City Council - Regular Meeting

Ready. Councilman. Call to order for a Watertown City Council meeting for December 1st of 2025. Um because our fallback option of Councilman Shuddy who's always reliable in giving the prayer is gone, I will give a short prayer to start this meeting. So everyone please rise. Dear God, we ask for your presence, your guidance in this meeting tonight as we try to do what's best for the city of Watertown. We ask for wisdom to do what's right and the courage to take action when that is needed. Amen. 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.

Finance officer Bob Zine, please call the role. Okay. Jirens present. Okay. Peters here. Shetty here. Allan here. Hoyer here. Helen here. Mormon here. Thank you. Quorum is established. Chair will actually first call for any conflict of interest tonight. Councilman Hoyer. I'll be abstaining from 12A. All right. Anyone else? All right. I'll take uh an action to approve tonight's agenda.

Motion made by Councilman Allen, second by Councilman Peters. Any discussion on that hearing? None. The motion is to approve the agenda. All those in favor, please say I. I. Any oppose? Say nay. Motion carries. We're on to open forum. If there's anyone here who would like to address the council on something that is not on the agenda, please let me know. I'll close the open forum and we will go straight into item 9A which is a 20125 bridge inspection report to council. For starters, we will go to our city engineer Justin Peterson.

Thank you, mayor. Uh the city has uh 13 bridges are inspected um through the program through the DOT. We do about half every year. So this year, uh, CDI inspected seven bridges and as part of the program, uh, Chris Brosek from Civil Design, Inc. is here to present council with a summary. With that, I'll let Chris take over. All right. Thank you very much.

Uh, good evening. Uh, Chris Brozik with Civil Design out of Brookings, South Dakota. Uh, as Justin said, um, we inspect your guys's infrastructure, bridges specifically within the city of Watertown every year. Half of those being inspected, uh, on the even years and half on the on the odd years. Uh, the city of Watertown has 13 total bridges that are inspected every single uh, uh, two years uh, this year with seven of those being inspected. Um any bridge is is any structure that's greater than 20 ft in length. So anything less than that uh does not get included within this inspection. Um also what's included is uh a box cover. Box culverts are these rectangular cells uh that act similar to a pipe culvert uh but that constitute that greater than 20 foot in length. And so those qualify as well. So those are inspected as part of this program. Um in addition to doing any field inspections, we also prepare reports uh detailed inspection findings, defects, any recommended repairs uh or rehabilitation andor future replacement down the road that we relay to the city staff and provide those recommendations. Uh in addition to the uh inspection reports, um we also meet with city staff to go through those inspection reports in detail to make sure they understand what our recommendations are moving forward and so that any immediate items can be addressed in in short order. Um that meeting was held back on November 17th with city engineering and street department staff. And just as a reminder too for for everyone, these are specifically related to the structure

itself and not not meant to um look at drainage or any type of improvements uh thereof. Mainly just the structural integrity of that bridge and any safety components related to the structure. Uh so this next slide is a map showing every structure within the city of Watertown. again 13 total uh on the on the list this year. Again, doing seven of those structures, four of them being bridges, three of those being concrete box coverts. Uh overall, the condition of those seven structures inspected. As you can see, three are listed as being in good condition, three being in fair, and then one structure being in poor condition, which I'll get into uh in a little bit more detail. Uh, one other caveat too is, uh, this year we had two structures added to the list that for whatever reason when the the development was was constructed, uh, specifically just north of Pelican Lake, there were two structures there that actually meet that bridge criteria that weren't originally on the list. For whatever reason, when that when that developer came in and did that development, it didn't transfer uh, to the city. So, we got that corrected here this year and are now going to be performing those inspections within the cycle. And that also means that any future replacement or anything like that that would need to be done years down the road, you guys qualify for that because you're meeting the inspection requirements. Uh, so I'm going to briefly go into a summary of each bridges so you guys can get a little bit more information on what we see and what some of our recommendations are. So this first bridge is located at the north side of Lake Pesca. This is on North Lake Drive and it was built in 1931. So it served its time very well. This is the one structure that is in poor condition. And

as you can see from a couple of the photos, there's just quite a bit of deterioration. um some scaling, spalling mainly at the ends of the box culverts and some areas of cracking that have some e fllororesence and stelactites. That's that bottom left picture where you see some of that yellowish to whitish paste that's coming out of a crack and that's showing signs of that internal deterioration of the box. But overall, this box is still performing, you know, in generally uh fair condition when you look at it from the underside of the roadway. It's more or less once you get to the edges of the roadway and beyond that we're seeing a lot more of this deterioration. And so this structure has you know certainly served its life um well and uh looking forward uh you know over the next call it 5 to 10 years this would be probably the next structure on the city's radar that would be looking for future replacement just because of its condition and its age. Um nothing that requires any immediate load posting or weight restriction on this. It's still safe to carry regular legal loads. Uh just want you guys to be aware of its current condition and what it may look like over the next few years. The next structure is um located I'm having a hard time reading that actually 17th Avenue Southwest. And um this is one of the ones that's located just north of uh Pelican Lake that we recently added to the inspection program um that wasn't originally in there. It was built in 2008. The good news is everything looked really good on this structure. It's a pre-cast box covert. Just a couple minor maintenance items that uh were relayed to street department. And then this is the other structure on Pelican Lane, also just north of Pelican Lake that we added to the inspection

list. Also a pre-cast concrete box cover culvert. And again, very minor maintenance items that require addressing on this one. and specifically a little bit of undermining of the concrete sidewalk just to the east of the box on the south side of the roadway, but nothing major that um you know is unsafe for the traveling public or the pedestrian traffic at this time. Just something that should get addressed before it gets to that point. Uh this structure 18170 is on Third Avenue Northwest and crosses the Big Sue River. This is your newest bridge that was completed just a few years ago. And overall, no major items on this one as you would expect. Uh really just a couple areas of minor settlement where the concrete sidewalk joins with the sidewalk carrying the bridge. Uh the bridge carrying the sidewalk, I should say. Um those are pretty common. You're going to see some areas of minor settlement like that at bridge ends. Uh specifically at those sidewalk ends where over time things will tend to settle out. nothing major, but as that continues to develop, the city may want to address that tripping hazard as it continues to develop. Uh the next one is 1817 on West Kemp. This is one of your older structures. I believe it's actually a historic structure. It's uh very unique in nature and uh very aesthetically pleasing. Uh overall, again, this structure is in fair condition and for its age, it's actually holding up quite well. Um, probably the bigger item that we addressed with the street department, which the street department's already taking some steps to address this is some of the pedestrian safety uh improvements that we've recommended right at the corners of the bridge. Um, the middle photo on the towards the left shows where the sidewalk kind of drops off off the edge of the bridge. And so we're recommending

some improvements to the railing and any back filling or or infilling of those areas just to help with safety improvement of the pedestrian traffic. Uh 181 175, that one's located on 4th Avenue Southwest, and this one also crosses the Big Sue. Uh built in 1977. This one's starting to show some age to it. Uh generally speaking, just some minor maintenance items. But um this one we do what's called a deck damination survey where we do a uh steel chain drag across the deck and we look for areas of hollow popping on that deck where chlorides have uh potentially contaminated the deck by getting in through cracks and causing that steel to corrode internally, causing that steel to expand and pop that surface of the concrete. And over time that tends to accelerate. And that's what we're starting to see here. It looks very normal to the naked eye when you drive across it. And no concerns there. Just something that in the future as this continues to progress. Um something to consider for future preservation work to rehab the deck and help protect that to extend the service life. Things we've talked to engineering and the street department on as well. Uh 1961 190 is your longest bridge on 20th Avenue Southeast. This one had a couple little issues. Um mainly on the deck joints where some of the deck joints have started to fail. That middle picture towards the left side of the slide shows some air gaps between the bridge end. This would be looking along the joint transfers to the roadway. And mainly what that means is moisture is getting in through that crack. dirt and debris getting in through that crack and over time that will tend to cause

advanced uh deterioration to the to the beams and other such devices but nothing major yet but if we let this go for years on end that will advance the um deterioration of the bridge. So sealing those joints properly again is important to keep that moisture and debris out. The second photo as well, the bottom one at the bottom of the slide there in the middle of the page, that one has an elastic bearing pad under one of the steel bearings of the of the beams that has started to slide its way out. For whatever reason, it's lost adhesiveness to the the other elements and so we want to keep that in place from moving any further. So, we've also addressed that with the the street department. Again, neither one of these items are safety issues for the traveling public, just items that require uh maintenance work to maintain service life of the bridge uh and maximize that service life. Uh the second to last slide here just provides really a an overall summary that we provide to the engineering department and street department to give them really a highle view of just on a single sheet of paper. These are all of our recommendations for each bridge. This is that overall condition rating of each bridge and um whether it's good, fair or poor and an overall value to that as well as its location, any required load postings if there were any and any changes to load posting if there are any. U fortunately you guys don't have any uh load posted structures and moving forward we don't recommend any changes to that because of the the overall generally good condition that you guys have. With that, a lot of information, but I'll gladly take any questions you guys have for me.

Thank you. We will open it up for questions. Councilman Hoyer. Um, I guess my only question looking at and just purely for an education sake. Um, with Third Avenue being built in 2022, you know, I I guess for me personally, I would kind of expect it to be closer to like a nine since it's basically brand new. It's a three-year-old bridge. Yep. Why do we see that kind of deterioration to a seven on that? But then our bridge built in like 1931 is at a six.

Great question. Uh so the one on Third Avenue, we we start everything from a it's it's on a scale from 0 to 9ine. So nines being absolutely pristine, perfect, not a single crack, nothing. Um, when I first did an initial inspection, when it was first constructed, it started at an eight, I believe, just because you already had some starts of cracks within the deck and with some other components. And there's some other construction related defects, I'll call it. So, nothing very rarely do we ever actually give it a nine. And if it is a nine, it would be for a very short period of time, just the way they they do the rankings. and then from going to an eight to a seven is just because of the uh more frequent cracking we saw in the top of the deck. But I would expect this structure to stay at a seven in that good condition for many years. Um it's just the way it's scored at the top end being very critical with how it's scored and so we have to drop those usually very fairly quickly but over a period of time. I wouldn't expect that to continue dropping drastically over the next 10 years even. I mean, it should stay in that good condition for many years moving forward. In terms of the other one on on Kemp, that one likely has probably seen some rehab over the years and maybe it was in more critical shape, but they were able to do some rehab to that bridge to get it into better condition and that's what's kept it in its in its better state.

Any followup, Councilman? I don't think so. I just always get uh critical of concrete work these days. It just seems like we never can hold up to the same standard those WPA sidewalks do. And I I hope somebody smarter than me can figure out why do those last so long, but we can't seem to not crack these days. City Manager Stagger.

Thank Mr. Mayor. Uh Mr. Brazic, a question regarding the sufficiency rating that was used in 2024 versus the condition ratings used in 2025 and how do we calibrate the two? Uh, another good question, I didn't touch on that. Um, a lot of new changes came out within the last year that we now have to uh go through. And so there was actually quite a bit of additional fieldwork that we had to do this year to update information within the federal highways database. And one of those components was the sufficiency rating. We no longer actually use the sufficiency rating. So you'll see on the map that some of those structures that we didn't inspect have that sufficiency rating still. And a lot of the and then all the structures we did this year just have a condition rating mainly because we don't calculate that sufficiency rating anymore. They strictly look at just overall structure condition rating. And so we always had a overall condition rating before but we always based it on that sufficiency rating. The sufficiency rating was based on a scale of 0 to 100. that took basically the same components into account when they calculated that. But now it's more of a um kind of in layman's terms an easier way to provide that condition to anybody and have them understand it.

Do you have the equivalent overall condition rating for the 2024 inspections? Uh we do not. We'll have those next year when we actually perform those inspections and then those would update all of the sufficiency ratings so that you don't see sufficiency rating anymore in the future. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Allen.

Um, two really good questions that uh were questions I had as well. Um but the other question I had is about uh excluding the two new bridges that you inspected this time. Uh did any of the condition ratings change from the last time these bridges were inspected? And and I I guess I'm just thinking that uh obviously next year when you get rid of the sufficiency ratings and and come up with a condition rating, it would be useful to know um are the sevens now sixes uh you know is something happening there. So just kind of overall are we holding our own? That's my question.

Sure. I I don't have the previous numbers right in front of me, but I can say with fairly good confidence that almost every single one of the bridges I looked at this year, nothing major change. You usually how we rate that overall rating is based on your deck condition, the superructure or your your beams and your substructure or your foundations. And those are the three main components that go into that overall score. The only one that I would say probably dropped is honestly the new one where we went from that eight condition being very very good to a seven which is good. The rest of them probably held their own pretty well just um going off of memory.

Yeah. And then one follow-up question. Legal loads just means that they can carry what they're supposed to be able to carry, right? Correct. like anything from your regular pickup truck up to an 80,000 lb truck semi that that's handling any I don't know if you guys even have you know special permit loads that need to come through town but those would be the only nuances where um you know we see that more on the interstate system or the heavy highway system where you get special permit loads like wind turbines and things like that but I'm guessing in the city limits you're not seeing that so any any load would be considered typical and not restricted. So,

thank you, Councilman Mormon.

Uh, just a quick question. Just curious, um, like the bridges that are out, uh, by out by Pelican in the CS edition where you have just stagnant water. Um, essentially, are those supposed to last longer than if like the ones along the Big Sue River where you got flowing water going under them or does it not really matter? Uh generally speaking, it doesn't really matter. It's more dictated on structure type, the the environmental conditions, not necessarily whether there's flowing water or not flowing water. And I say that lightly because some structures may depend more on that. Say you got an older timber bridge that has timber piling in the water and that water is fluctuating constantly. Well, you're getting a lot more oxygen exposure to the timber, which is going to feed off the bacteria and cause advanced deterioration. Whereas, if you get a timber bridge that's always underwater, um it's not going to get oxygen to it. So, it's not going to deteriorate as fast. So, it's very um sight dependent and it it can have a small impact, but it's very much dependent more on the environment and the structure type than it is whether it's got flowing water.

All right. Thank you. Yep. Thank you. Any other comments or count questions? All right. Thank you very much. Thank you guys. Item 10A is an approval of the 2026 Watertown Police Officers Association Collective Bargaining Agreement Addendum. For this, we will go to our city manager, Alan Stagger.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, before you tonight is the first of three agreements uh that you will be seeing this month. Um, as part of the annual negotiation with each of the three unions, we negotiate the the increase in wages year-over-year and then one additional item uh that each union is able to bring forward as well as an item that the management team at the city uh desires to bring forward for the union uh consideration. What we have before you tonight is the agreement or the addendum to the agreement with the Watertown Police Officers Association. Um the reason why you have this one tonight but not the other two is this was the first one that we had completed the negotiation on. Uh we have tenatively agreed to essentially the same terms and conditions with the remaining two unions and you should be seeing those agreements uh on the December 15th agenda. A summary of what uh we have agreed to is an overall wage increase of 3 and a half% in 2026 which includes a 1.5% cost of living and an advancement of one step on the grid which is an additional 2 percentage points for a total increase of 3.5%. Uh to put that into perspective, um I do want to call out that uh the city did not receive an increase in the health insurance plan for 2026 and therefore we've not changed or increased the employee contributions for the health insurance plan either. And that really um really sweetens the 3 and a.5% here as our employee base will not be giving up part of the increase by paying higher health insurance premiums in 2026.

Also, uh, as requested by the union, uh, we are increasing slightly the match that we make on the supplemental employee retirement plan, uh, by, I believe, uh, $25 per month for participants who who fully participate. And finally, uh, from the city standpoint, we've changed language, uh, regarding employee compensation. If for instance we close one city department but not another one. Uh in the past the language required that uh there be equal treatment across all city employees. Um in this case our our preference is not to close or shut down any city facility but to require that those hours be made up or covered with uh paid time off or vacation time. Um if there is a significant event that does result in the closure of one particular uh facility, we will grant essentially that additional time paid uh to all employees ac across the city. I'll stand by for any questions you might have on the agreement.

Thank you. Council, can I get a motion to approve this addendum? Motion made by Councilman Allen. Need a sec. Seconded by Councilman Peters. Any questions or comments? Council. Councilman Mormon.

Uh just wondering um like on the wage matrix, we have 15 steps in it. Um I know we have employees that would be higher than step 15. Um what would their raise be then? um they would have the 1.5% cola. We've actually discussed potentially doing something special for the handful of employees at step 15. Um looking at the data, we actually don't have very many at the step 15. And one of the things as we went through the negotiation this year is I've kept the door open with all three unit unions that as I learn what our practices have been and as they have desires throughout the year, it's going to be an ongoing conversation um so that we can look at it in the future. But the short simple answer is there's very few people in that situation and we may bring just a special request forward for the the five or six that that are maxed out on the grid.

Follow up. Followup.

Um yeah, I would appreciate that. Uh you know, just just looking at it to me it just seems like well it's just simply calculating out five or 10 more steps or whatever to do that so that way we don't leave the men or women that have dedicated the bulk of their life to working for the city to uh now taking being short changed on the raises. Any further questions or comments? All right, we will go to a vote. If you're in favor of approving this addendum, you'll say I and opposed nay. Finance officer Bob Zen, please call the role. Okay, jirens

I. Peters. Hi, Shuddy. I Allan, I foyer. Hi, Pauline. I Mormon. I. All in favor? Motion carries. Item 10B is an approval of a professional services agreement for the reconstruction of Taxiway Alpha with Helms and Associates Corporation in the amount of $545,000 $54500 thou,0001 whatever roughly $545,000. We'll go to our city manager Stagger who will do a better job than I just did.

Thank you, Mayor. Um hopefully I do a better job, but I I didn't bring my notes on this one. This is a project that is in the airport long long-term improvement plan to um reconstruct one of the taxiways. This is a federal and state grant match program. I believe on this one the city portion is 2 and a half% uh that we will pay on this agreement and I recommend approval. Thank you. Council, can I get a motion to approve this agreement? Motion made by Councilman Hoyer. Second.

Seconded by Councilman Mormon. Thank you. Any questions or comments, council? We'll go to just a voice vote. If you're in favor of approving this agreement, please say I. I. I. I.

Any oppose? Say nay. Motion carries. Item 10 C is an approval of a change order number one final for the 2025 neighborhood street reconstruct on Second Avenue Northeast with Dbor Construction and Company Incorporated for an increase of roughly $64,000 for a new contract price of roughly $1.2 million. City engineer Peterson. Uh thank you, mayor. Uh this is the final change order for Second Avenue. Uh the project in includes uh water main uh storm sewer and sanitary sewer. So the water main portion is paid by WMU. Um the change order is uh about 33,000 of that is uh WMU share. It's for additional um um traffic control and removals based off the water main. And then the 31 about 31,000 is for uh additional removals and that's the city's portion of that. Um, overall the the city total is just under $780,000. So with that, I'll stand by for questions.

Thank you. Can I get a motion to approve the change order? Motion made by Councilman Peters. Second. Seconded by Councilman Mormon. Council, any deliberations? All right. All those in favor of approving this um change order, please say I. I. I. Any oppose? Say nay. Motion carries.

Item 10 D is an okay. So items 10D and E are very re are related. So, we will be discussing them together, but voting upon them separately. Uh, item 10D is an approval of a bid award to sell the 2018 Spalding asphalt hotbox in the amount of $24,000 to Sanitation Products Incorporated. Item 10E is an approval of a bid award via Sourcewell bid for two new unused Falcon asphalt hawk boxes from sanitation products in the amount of $153,000. We'll go to city manager Stagger to explain these two. Thank you, Mayor. Uh the product that we are looking at here is called a hot box and it's essentially a hopper that that has a heating unit in it to allow us to manage hot asphalt for roadway repairs. This will actually allow us to uh to have two of those units in our fleet to enhance our ability to do more timely asphalt repairs in the future. The first item, item D, is actually a bid that we we um put in place to offer for sale the existing hot box that we have. Uh we didn't want to just merely trade this in on a source well contract as we would have no way of knowing what a fair value for that particular hot box is. So, we opened it up to a bid. Um the vendor of the new hotbox made a proposal of 24,000 which was the highest bid received. So we recommend accepting it. Um I'll stand by and and take item D after you item E after you vote on D. Thank you very much council. I'll take an action to approve the bid award. Motion second.

Motion made by Councilman Mormon, seconded by Councilman Peters. Council, I will allow questions or comments on both of these items, 10D and E. But any questions now? Councilman Hoyer? Um, I'm just curious with us getting some new ones coming up too. Um, what is the average lifespan on one of these vehicles? Just with it being a 2018 and already going, are we going to expect then to see these go that same period of time? Get about eight years out of it? I don't know the answer to that. I would would think we'd get a longer life. I think these are actually higher capacity boxes as well. Yeah, I saw there are two different lengths, but um

yeah, just wondering uh what's triggering us to sell off the 2018 instead of just adding two more and then having three hot boxes. I I think we would struggle having crew sizes to be able to run three. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Council, I feel okay just going to a voice vote on that. All those in favor of item 10D, an approval, the approval of the bid award, please say I. I. I.

Any oppose? Say nay. Motion carries. Item 10E. Can I get a motion on this bid award? Motion made by Councilman Allen. Second. Seconded by Councilman Hoyer. Same thing. Any comments, questions hearing none, we'll go to a voice vote. All those in favor of approving the bid award, please say I. I. I. I. I. Any oppose? Nay. Motion carries. Item 11A is a first reading of an ordinance to supplement the 2025 budget for various departments and projects, state and federal grant appropriations, and budget line item transfers. Finance officer Bob Zen.

Okay. Thank you, Mayor. Uh yes, it's that time each year where during the month of November, I reach out to departments and have them look closely at their budget and make sure we're going to stay within those limits. Once they review it, we discuss um maybe some needs that they have and just kind of a quick overview. Um once that's established, it comes before the council as a supplement to the budget. Um there's three parts to this. The first part is just by ordinance supplementing. The second part is any federal and state grants are kind of considered an automatic. We have the revenue that offsets the expenditure and then if we are doing any transfers between departments of budget funds. Um it's it's fairly straightforward. It's all broke down by fund and then division and account. Um it's all in here. If there's any specific questions, I can answer them, but I feel like it's a it's a relative uh adjustment to the budget that we've seen in past years. So if there's any questions, I can answer them. Thank you.

Thank you. This is a first reading. No action is necessary, but questions are encouraged. Anybody? Councilman Peters. Um, I just have a question on the on the line items. Just random thought here. So, when we see like machinery and equipment like for the wellness center, what would that is that for like new fitness equipment or what would that be? I know that's a super detailed question. I'm just trying to understand like what's all put in that line item.

So that can be various things. It doesn't have to be specifically like the fitness equipment. That machinery equipment is probably more some actual mechanical equipment. We did have quite a few updates that needed to happen. Some of the systems are getting a little bit older. Um so that that would go into that line item. Okay. Um okay, that makes sense. Thank you. Yep. Any other comments, council? Councilman Hoyer. Um, just looking at it to for and granted I'm no accountant. Um, under some of these where we have things like banking services and those being like $45,000. I'm just curious what are those? Is that like paying for an accountant or is is it like POS related?

So that Yep. So that is our credit card fees. The situation that we just had where we've passed that resolution to put those credit card fees back onto the consumer. That was us paying for those. So that the banking service line is all credit card fees. Okay. Y Council, City Manager Stagger.

Um I'll just make a couple of general comments. Um first of all, when we do the supplementals, we are looking at only the items that have had significant overspending. So all of the items that have been underspent throughout the year don't require a supplement. There are really three areas within the city that we had some spend overruns that that are are in this supplemental request. The first one, as we've talked about in the past, is the credit card fees. And we have remedied that by moving to a new new supplier for the credit card services as well as doing some uh patron bill backs for some of the fees going forward. Secondly, the budget for 2025 significantly over significantly underestimated overtime, especially in public safety, without really a plan to run at those overtime levels. So, we overran overtime. Um, I think our overtime levels are fairly low, so we've adjusted that in the 26 budget to go back to a more normalized level um of overtime. And then finally, as our CFO mentioned, the wellness center is is starting to age as a building, and we've had some unplanned expenditures in that building that uh um that were addressed this year. I will say some of them were offset by some insurance payments that we had previously received uh related to the roof that covered some other items, but it is something to keep in mind as we go go forward. the maintenance cost in our aging buildings uh will start to creep up and consume more of our budget uh going forward.

Thank you, Councilman Peters. I just got a couple more questions and I was looking at this um this morning on the ice arena. I've got two questions here. One, there's consultant services there. I think it says 9,000 if I'm reading that right. That's correct. What would that be? Um that was when we had Gary Worth help during some of the pre-operation planning. Yep. Okay. Um and the second one is refunds and reimbursements there on the bottom. What would we what are we fronting that we're reimbursing? So that is what we do when we have our agreement with Shamrocks as far as their payment for the alcohol and concessions their portion. Sounds good. Thanks. Yep. Councilman Hoyer.

Oh, I just want to make sure I I have this understood 100%. So like with the banking services now this is going to be a supplement that we will pay this year and then going forward we shouldn't need it. This is just correcting the issue we had in the last year. Correcting. Correct. Okay. Perfect.

Thank you. Uh city manager Stiger, was there a reason why the overtime was so high in the past or not covered or what what accounts for that discrepancy? I'm not sure how the budget was prepared for 2025. However, when I looked at it, one of my first conversations with Chief Roland was how can you operate with that low of an overtime budget, understanding how the staffing works within FIRE? And I think it was it was something that was maybe forced upon our team that they didn't really buy into. But as you look at it, we run about 5% overtime in public safety and it's real tough to run anything less than that without increasing staffing. People just don't know to keep all their emergencies within 5% of our budget.

Yeah. That's Chief Roland in the back saying sorry. Uh no reason to apologize, Chief. And um with the wellness center, just uh the things that we're aware of, the roof, the ventilation, you know, heating, cooling, things like that. And uh we're still figuring out a little bit on some of those warranties, aren't we? Or do we have that all figured out? I thought that there was still some cons some question as far as the ice arena. Yeah, I don't Oh, that was with the ice arena. Yeah. Well, I knew about that, but

yeah, I don't think there warranties on um the wellness center. However, we were able to get some additional life out of the HVAC system in the pool by engaging with a different uh contractual firm that was able to give us some advice on how to better run it. So, we did push out the life of that system by by perhaps a year or two. That's what I was wondering about. So, thank you, Councilman Allen.

Uh, City Manager Stagger. Um, my assumption is that um the assessment that we're doing on our facilities that we said, you know, we need to do that assessment. uh that that's going to maybe provide us with a greater lead time in terms of things. Now, I I get it that we're not ever going to know. I mean, stuff breaks, right? I mean, if you've bought a new appliance in the last decade, it probably didn't work anymore. I, you know, it's like the concrete that Councilman Hoyer was talking about. Um, having just done a bunch of concrete work, it's all cracked at my house, so I get that. Um, but I assume that the whole reason for doing that assessment is going to provide us with more of a lead time uh to know that there aren't any real big surprises maybe coming and it might help us make decisions about facilities going forward whether maintaining them uh is worth the expense. Um, you know, I I just I know we have some facilities within the city that we're probably, you know, we're losing a lot of money on and our usage is not justifying it. Would that be accurate?

That is absolutely accurate. The the facility assessment which will be completed next year will give us a little more guidance in terms of specifically which systems and which facilities. Um, in the absence of that, I would recommend that we we budget a general percentage because, as you stated, we don't know what's going to break in our aging facilities. And frankly, as I'm getting up to speed in this job, there isn't a week that goes by that I don't discover another facility I didn't know we owned. And and so it it does have the capability of being quite extensive in the future, just maintaining what we've got. Okay. Councilman Allen, did you have any more?

Just a followup to that. Then I I think from my perspective, it pushes us to maybe get some of those facilities off of our ledger. Uh if we're just throwing good money after bad, it doesn't seem justified to me. So, thank you,

Councilman Peters. Just to follow up on what Councilman Allen said, the bridge presentation was actually I was thinking a lot about how we can start to do this with some of our equipment in the city and the the hot box just came up as an item that we bought eight years ago, six years ago, whatever it was. To have a a Gant chart of of sorts that shows, you know, what we're going to be coming up against would help our capital planning process. And I know it's going to be really hard to put everything down on a piece of paper and start to itemize it accordingly, but when we're talking about where to dedicate our dollars, it isn't a true representation of where we should be focusing. We've got other things that we need to replace. You

you are absolutely correct. And as we went through the 10-year CIP plan, that is all based upon dates, not condition or value or use of the equipment that is is planned to be replaced. So, as we continue to refine that CIP planning process, that's absolutely what we need to look at. Councilman Hoyer, do

Yeah. Yep. I had one more. Just looking at it closer. Um, the question that I had is just, um, I noticed it specifically on the aquatic center and then on the zoo, but I'm just curious, how do we traditionally budget our utilities for some of these facilities? I'm just a little surprised to see them spike up like that in just those alone, like if it was across the board, I go, "Oh, it's a utility rate." And so, I was just wondering what it was. Yep. So, both of those locations did actually have water, right? The pool had a leak and there was a water main break. Um, so yes, I would say normally our our utilities are pretty straightforward. This was a little bit of a issues came up. So otherwise, I would say utilities are pretty straightforward. And then the electricity with the zoo.

Um, I will have to I'll have to look into that one. Okay. But yeah, just because I you know, again, I would think they'd really just be the same every year. I can understand if the water man broke and we didn't quite catch it right away what happened there. But Yep. Okay. Councilman Allen. Um, did we fix the pool leak? Dusty.

The response in the back of the room was was from Director Rodic from Parks and Reck and the answer was we hope so. Okay. Um, yeah. The the only other thing I would say is that um you know it as I recall of our very first meeting as a new council when we were sitting here we approved a supplement that was a mid-year supplement and that seemed to me to be unusual and it was for the police department to to do a million-doll contract I think is what it ended up being and and I understand that those kinds of things happen. Um, but it seems like that doing mid-year supplements like that makes endofear supplements maybe a little trickier for us. Is that accurate or not? Am I am I worried about something I shouldn't worry about?

So, normally the process is when we've done something more midyear, it's because some of those actions were approved and it's more of the housekeeping side of it. So then as those departments are reviewing their budget for the last half of the year, they can see that that supplement was already made. So then now when they're looking at again in that November time frame, they kind of know what the new budget is. So So it's more we would only ever do that probably mid year when we had some really specific things and to kind of just keep the books clean. Yeah. And I recognize that was an exceptional uh situation. Thank you. Yep.

Councilman Mormon. Uh just a question question for city manager Stagger. Um some of these supplements that we've had to vote on throughout the year. Um I just want to give you an opportunity uh to inform the the citizens of Watertown. Are there some areas where we've been able to really save a lot of money that was budgeted in certain areas that we didn't spend? So when a large request, you know, in the midstream, in the middle of the year comes up, um, yeah, we have to fund that. But are there areas where it's just like, look, we're we're not spending hardly anything here that we thought we were. There are actually many areas uh where we have underspent which we don't need to do a supplement to adjust for those. Um the team has been really great on materials and supplies and the team has also been really great on backfilling open positions and as as you might recall actually taking overall headcount down year-over-year and we've moved positions around uh within the city. So there many areas like that, Councilman Mormon, that uh we have adjusted expenses down.

Thank you. Any further comments, questions? Thank you. We'll see that back at the next meeting. Item 12A is an application for a new retail liquor restaurant license to LA Palooa LLC doing business as the local at 16 West Kemp Avenue. We'll go to finance officer Bob Zen. Okay. Thank you, mayor. Yes. In front of the council is the application for the new retail uh restaurant liquor license. Um all fees have been paid, notice has been published. The location has also been approved for alcohol. So if there's any questions, I can answer them. Thank you.

Thank you. This requires a public hearing. I will open one now. I'll close the public hearing. Go to council action. Can I get a motion to approve the application? Motion made by Councilman Peters. Seconded by Councilman Allen. Council, any deliberations. All right, let's go to a vo a vote. All those in favor of approving the application, please say I. I. I. I.

Any oppose, say nay. Motion carries. Item 12B is an approval of a 5-year lease agreement with Clyde Strickurts for the grazing rights on city-owned pasture land in the amount of $70 per acre with an increase in rent every two years. City Manager Stagger.

Thank you, Mayor. Uh, this 5-year lease agreement is a renewal with the uh tenant Clyde Strickers. Um, the amount agreed upon is $70 per acre and that is based upon a a land and rent survey that uh South Dakota State University conducts periodically. Um, and this is the uh average rate for pasture land of this type in the area. Uh this particular parcel is property that we own north of Watertown that was acquired years ago as part of a potential flood control project. Um we recommend approval. Thank you. I'll public I'll open a public hearing on this item. Is there anyone who would like to testify? I'll close the public hearing, open it up for council action. Can I get a motion to approve the agreement?

I'll make a motion. Motion made by Councilman Mormon. Seconded by Councilman Allen. Thank you very much. Any questions or comments? Councilman Peters. Do we ever take this out for bid? Do does everybody have an opportunity to to bid on this? And when does that happen? Because is is this just a renewal? Yeah, we we did provide notice on this one, but we have other property that is currently actively out for bid with the airport property. Okay. So, this one was or wasn't I we we provided a date something to me. Sorry,

city attorney Carico. Sorry. Yes, this was where the uh tenant had the option of renewing. Okay. But we had to re negotiate the rent terms were not in the previous. So, okay, sounds good. Thanks. Thank you. Any further questions, council. Hear none. The motion is to approve the agreement. All those in favor, please say I. I. I. Any oppose say nay. Motion carries. Item 12 C is a second reading of an ordinance amending title 7 of city government chapter 7.01 city limits and datim line. City manager Stagger.

Thank you mayor. This is the second reading. Uh the principal change affected by changes to title 7.01 are to remove a roughly six page meets and bounds legal description of the city of Watertown. and it it replaces that legal description with a map that will be be maintained by the city engineers office. Thank you. Council, can I get a motion to approve this ordinance? Motion made by Councilman Hoyer, seconded by Councilman Peters. Any questions, comments? Councilman Hoyer,

thank you for striking this. It would have taken a lawyer and an expert to understand what any of it meant. So, thanks for cleaning this up and just getting a picture. Thanks. Any further comments? Motion is to approve the ordinance. All those in favor, please say I. I. I.

Any oppose say nay. Motion carries. Item 13A is an approval of resolution establishing fees for city licenses, permits, administration, memberships, user fees, and other miscellaneous items. City Manager Stagger. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, this is an annual process that we go through as a staff. Um, this resolution, uh, it essentially allows us to change various fees that we have, uh, within the city. um we look at it on an annual basis and bring forward the approval. Um there were some changes but not many uh for 2026. As you look through the list, you can see it's pretty comprehensive. Um, not really anything that changed significantly that I would would highlight from a a magnitude of change standpoint, but what I will say is I challenged the staff as we went through this this year and asked for some consistency. Uh, in the past we had inconsistent rates being charged across facilities for equal type of services. So, we did do some cleanup there and uh we will continue to look at trying to streamline this fee structure going forward as we look at it in future resolutions and and future years.

Thank you. Can I get a motion to approve this resolution? Motion.

Motion made by Councilman Mormon, seconded by Councilman Peters. Councel, Councilman Allen. Yeah, I I uh city manager Stagger and I had some conversation about this this morning uh relative to that consistency, which I think there's kind of a wide variation in a few areas and I uh applaud the effort to be consistent about it. It would also be helpful in the future to see uh where we're currently at. So, here's the current fee structure and here's where the changes are because you can't really tell from this what was changed. And I I understand there weren't major changes and and uh you know trust that a lot of it was cleanup and the other things that you were talking about. So, um but it would be helpful in the future to kind of see well here's what we've decided to change. Thank you,

council. Anything else? Councilman Hoyer. The only question I had, and it's only because I see them all stacked up on each other. So, who sets the rate for our on sale, off sale, like liquor licenses and stuff, just cuz, you know, liquor is 1,500 for renewal. Package liquor is 500, wine and cider is 500, but then malt beverage in South Dakota farm wine is 300, and then that's split with the state. Does that get dictated by state or do we set those fees? For the most part, state statute sets those fees. Um, in some cases, state statute, for instance, the restaurant liquor license will set a minimum fee. Um, but most of what you see in that section is coming right out of statutory language.

Okay. Because I know I believe we send off like 500 for like wine in cider for instance. That's one of the ones I deal with. So 500 there and then 500 to the city. Correct. Yep. Okay. And they dictate that 500 that the city's collecting. They dictate the the max amount. So, we could charge less, but we're at the max. Yeah. I'm just I was curious. I thought it was weird with the malt beverage in South Dakota Farm Wine that that one's sitting at 300, but then the others are all 500. Yep. And I just was curious what dictated that. Yep. The state law. Okay. Yep. Any other questions or comments? We'll do a roll call vote on this one. Finance officer brazy. Okay. Jirens.

Okay. Peters. I. Shotty. I. Allan. I. Hoyer. Hi. Holene. I. Mormon. Hi. All in favor. And Councilman Jurn's. Just making sure you're not there. I think he might be gone, but I Oh, thank you. Motion is unanimous in favor. Motion approves. Any city council member announcements. Councilman Hoyer.

Not so much an announcement, just kind of a question. Um I don't know if we have any dates coming up at all. I know some a little bit of small group movement has happened, but some of them there hasn't been. Just kind of wondering where we're at with our affordability situation on housing and how that stuff's moving along in the other groups. I've emailed but haven't gotten a response. And so just thought I'd ask here. Um there's actually quite a bit going on with uh a housing steering group uh working through six different initiatives and as as that group put forward they're really forming the charters of the committees looking at the six areas between I think it was uh early October when those groups came together in the end of the year and so there is activity with with all six of them. Anything else, Councilman? Nope.

Okay. Oh, I'll do one shout out for somebody. Uh, Carnegie Market kicks off at the Heritage Museum this week on the 4th and that'll run through Sunday. Uh, the times kind of vary, so go ahead, just pop online, take a look at it. But that's always such a super cool, charming event downtown. So, it'll be a little cold. Make sure you bundle up. Councilman Mormon,

uh, just a quick question for city engineer, uh, Justin Peterson. He and I had discussed this a little bit earlier, but uh I had a question asked to me this week and I know other people in the community um have asked it and are curious with the discussion about the bridges. Um just wondering if there's any if there has been any discussion or uh any discussion on timelines. The bridge near uh Menard's that goes across Highway 212 and the cemetery there. Um there's lots of people concerned that to the fact that there isn't any sidewalk or any basically any pedestrian way for them to cross over that bridge other than walking in the lane of traffic. Do you know of any uh anything that we would do or is it all going to be at the state and federal level? Um and have you heard of any timelines or discussion on it?

Uh that that bridge is the DOT controlled bridge and I haven't heard of any timeline anytime soon that that bridge is going to be uh replaced or updated. So

Okay. Thank you. Um then just one other quick shout out. Um had the opportunity to attend uh Lake Area Technical Colleg's Festival of Trees, their fundraiser. And I appreciate that opportunity. It was a wonderful evening. And um at the end of the night, uh President Sanderson um announced that approximately $192,000 had been raised for Lake Area Technical College at that event. So just appreciate everybody that showed up to that. Um, and once again, I just say thanks for the invite to it.

Thank you. I have a quick question. Where do where does the public go to sign up for alerts in particular on snowplowing? Actually, going to uh watertown sd.us us/ snow will bring up a page with all related uh snow removal information including the link to sign up for the text notifications. So basically type in city of Watertown, South Dakota, go there, search for snow, and then get the alert. I mentioned this because I received several calls over the weekend about plowing and some people getting their cars towed and I think some of the confusion might be that we have switched recently just last year from streets and avenues to zones. So there's a little bit of a difference than it has been traditionally done. So I would encourage everyone to go sign up. Um, I don't even remember where I got signed up, but I remember I got the alert and got my cars off the street. So, thank you. Anything else, Councilman Allen?

Yeah, I just want to add, uh, to Councilman Hoyer's promotion of the Carnegie Market. Um, uh, it's always a great time, a fun time, and they have lots of products for sale that, uh, can fill your wish list. Uh, and it's shopping local, which is a great thing as the mayor has said many times. So, I encourage you to get out, even if it is cold, it's fun. I would also do a shout out to Kay Soulberg and the Watertown Business Group that uh brought forward a great holiday parade. Uh, I'm a little biased because my father was the grand marshall of the parade, but it was still a wonderful parade and I thought the crowds were great given the temperature and the snow. It was a lot of fun. Uh so a shout out to that. Also I want to give a shout out to the police department and uh you know we think of the holidays as this great time but we also know that lots of people um it brings up some uh some struggles for a lot of people as well. And so the police department is starting the are you okay campaign and I just want to say thank you for that. Um because I think it does make a lot of difference. We can ask people are you okay? Are you doing okay? because it it can be a time of great depression for people. And so, uh, not to be a Debbie Downer on it, um, because we love the holidays, but I do think it's a wonderful thing that you've done and I appreciate it very much. Thank you.

Thank you. And thanks for reminding me, but people go shop local. Okay. City manager report.

Um, I'll be very brief. uh sometime within the next 30 days, I'd like to go through for the public's benefit goals and objectives of the city manager's office again in four categories and just recap what we've accomplished in the last five or six months. Um we have one more remaining meeting uh to clean up some loose ends on the 15th of December. We have a few topics that we are starting to gather for a potential work session, but I think that work session will be in in the month of January uh to cover um some street facility items as well as a potential change to an animal uh control ordinance. Um with that, I'll just uh end by thanking our street department and our police and fire department. They had a pretty busy holiday weekend uh dealing with the snow removal and I I think they did an exceptional job. They worked quite a few hours and responded to uh quite a few calls. Thank you. I am not aware of any reason to go into executive session. So therefore, I will ask for a motion to adjurnn.

Motion made by Councilman Allen. Second by Councilman Mormon. All those in favor of adjourning, please say I. I. I. Any oppose? Say nay. Motion carries. Good night and God bless you. Water town.