June 20, 2016

June 20, 2016

Wellman, Iowa

The Wellman City Council met in regular session in the Council Chambers of the Wellman Municipal Building at 5:30pm.  Mayor Ryan Miller presided with City Administrator, City Clerk and the following council members: Robert Goodrich, Jared Schneider, Fern Bontrager, Robert Freeman, & Tracy Owens.  Following the Pledge of Allegiance the Consent Agenda was approved upon motion by Freeman, Seconded by Owens and all aye votes.  The Consent Agenda includes the agenda, minutes from previous meeting, approval Casey’s Liquor License, and the following claims:

No one spoke in the public forum.

Randy Tinnes gave a Sherriff’s update regarding 20 calls in the month of May.  Tinnes indicated that there was 1 dog bite call but no arrests.  Larry Thurman mentioned to Tinnes & Council that he was concerned that the South Park can be a little rough after the sun goes down.

Josh Dean with PeopleService gave council a brief update on the operations of Water/Wastewater facilities.  He explained that High service pump number 2 is back up and running.  The Meter was replaced by Woodruff Construction about 2 weeks ago at the Sewer Plant.  He recently attended RO School and feels it was very helpful and gained a lot of knowledge while there.  He suggested that next time this is offered that some Council members, The Mayor or City Administrator should attend.  He also explained to council that the ammonia nitrogen samples that we have sent out to labs can be done through the labs here and would save the city around $150.00 per month.

A public hearing to receive comments on proposal to enter into a General Obligation Annual Appropriation Refunding Loan Agreement was opened upon motion by Goodrich, Seconded by Bontrager and upon roll call the vote was unanimous ayes.  There were no oral or written comments.  Freeman moved to close the public hearing, Schneider Seconded and all voted aye.

A public hearing to receive comments on proposed plans, specification, form of contract and estimates of cost for the 11^th St Sanitary Sewer Project was opened upon motion by Schneider, Seconded by Owens and upon roll call the vote was unanimous ayes.  There were no oral or written comments.  Goodrich moved to close the public hearing, Owens Seconded and all voted aye.

Resolution 16-32 setting salaries for employees of the City of Wellman for FY17 was introduced and caused to be read.  Bontrager moved to adopt Resolution No. 16-32, Seconded by Owens and upon roll call the vote was unanimous ayes.

Resolution No. 16-32

A RESOLUTION SETTING SALARIES FOR EMPLOYEES OF THE CITY OF WELLMAN FOR FISCAL YEAR 2017.

Be it resolved by the Council of the City of Wellman, Iowa:

SECTION 1: The following persons named shall be paid the salaries or wages indicated and the Clerk is authorized to issue warrants/checks, less legally required or authorized deductions from the amounts set out below, on a bi-weekly schedule to start effective July 1, 2015, and make such contributions to IPERS and Social Security or other purpose as required by law, all subject to audit and review by the City Council:

NAME                                                  POSITION                                                        SALARY

Section 2:  Permanent full-time employees shall be eligible for health, life, and/or dental insurance coverage in the amount of 100% single premium and 80% of a family premium is paid by the City as set forth in the City of Wellman Employee Policy Manual.

Section 3:  The City Clerk is hereby directed to publish this resolution.  Passed and approved on this 20^th day of June 2016.

Resolution No 16-33 to hire and appoint Public Works Employee was introduced and caused to be read.  Bontrager stated that she supports the decision to hire this candidate but struggles with the change in wages.  She feels that our current employee when hired a year ago asked for more money and council declined.  Schneider feels that there needs to be further discussion on what will be done with the 3 Public Works Employees and where they are needed in the future.  Goodrich feels that there needs to be a decision made tonight or we need to move forward.  Goodrich moved to approve employment of Josh VanWinkle with a salary of $16.50 per hour with the requirement of being gas certified as soon as possible, Seconded by Freeman and upon roll call the vote was 3 ayes, Bontrager nay, and Schneider abstained due to not being part of the interviewing process.

Resolution No 16-34 A Resolution taking additional action on proposal to enter into a Loan Agreement and authorizing the use of a preliminary official statement for the sale of bonds was introduced and caused to be read.  Litwiller stated that this would be with Northland Securities and the original bond was for $1.7 million and would be a savings of around $29,000 over the remaining terms of the loan.  Freeman moved to adopt Resolution No. 16-34, Seconded by Owens and upon roll call the vote was unanimous ayes.

Resolution No 16-35 A Resolution approving and confirming plans, specifications, form of contract and estimates of cost for the 11^th St Sanitary Sewer Project was introduced and caused to be read.  Owens moved to adopt Resolution No 16-35, Seconded by Bontrager and upon roll call the vote was unanimous ayes.

Discussion and action was taken on the Consideration of bids for the 11^th St Sanitary Sewer Project.  Tim Cutsforth with HR Green, Homeowners: Don & Anita Randol, Ray & Brenda Overholt, and Kim Anderson were present for the discussion.  Cutsforth explained that we had received 5 bids last Tuesday and was very pleased with that number with it being the busy time of the year for contractors.  4 of the 5 bids were over the estimated amount of $72,993, but the low bid was Delong Construction out of Washington with a bid of $71,714.  His recommendation would be to go with this bid from Delong Construction.  He figures the project should take 30 working days for completion and aiming for mid July for starting date.  Litwiller questioned about easements for the service lines and if someone needed to hook onto these new lines whether this needed to be decided on prior to starting this project.  Cutsforth stated that this should be done prior and that if any homeowners that were having their own lines running through another homeowner’s property that they needed to have their approval prior to starting as well.  Don Randol stated that he hasn’t heard from any homeowners that need lines ran through his property yet.  Brenda Overholt stated that they would need to run through Randol’s property but was told to hold off on this and will plan on getting with Randol’s before project begins.  Goodrich moved to accept, Seconded by Freeman and all voted aye.

Resolution No. 16-36 A Resolution awarding contract for the 11^th St Sanitary Sewer Project was introduced and caused to be read.  Bontrager moved to adopt, Seconded by Goodrich and upon roll call the vote was unanimous ayes.

Resolution No. 16-37 A Resolution approving contract and performance and/or payment bonds for the 11^th St Sanitary Sewer Project was introduced and caused to be read.  Goodrich moved to adopt, Seconded by Owens and upon roll call the vote was unanimous ayes.

Discussion and action was had on Purchase of Dehumidifiers for Water Plant.  Litwiller explained the bid amount for 2 Dehumidifiers was $5950 plus shipping through PeopleService which is $850 less than if the city was to purchase them on their own.  Freeman moved to accept, Seconded by Goodrich and all voted aye.

Discussion and action was had on Hach Service Partnership Quotation.  Litwiller explained that this would just be adding more equipment to the original agreement.  Goodrich moved to accept, Seconded by Bontrager and all voted aye.

Discussion and action was had on employee health insurance.  Litwiller explained that she has looked over all paperwork and compared with last years, and it looks like nothing will be changing except for the premium amount.   The increase in the premium amount is $181.58.

Bontrager moved to renew the same policy, Seconded by Owens and all voted aye.

In Council reports, Owens wanted an update on the stop signs that were to be put up by fire station.  He noticed they did the one calls for them about 2 weeks ago.  Litwiller explained that they are on the list for the guys but have had so many other issues arise since then and will make sure they get put up.  He has noticed that the parking lot behind Main Street is full of weeds and thinks it looks really bad.  He also was wondering about where we are on nuisance properties and noticed certain properties have gotten worse since letters were sent out.  Litwiller explained that she is waiting to hear from the attorney to see what she can do moving forward.  Freeman wanted to let council know that there’s construction on Gum Ave and the roads are being torn up pretty badly and just wants us to be aware of this so that we can make sure that it’s put back the way it was before starting.  He would also like to see the filling of cracks on the streets be put on the list of things to do.  Goodrich was concerned about the water plant and feels the clear well needs to be looked into further.  Litwiller explained that she’s sent the engineers an e-mail and they feel that this wouldn’t solve any of our problems so she’s waiting to hear back from them for further information on their reasons why.  He would like for the city to look into other engineers to see what they’re thoughts would be.  He also wanted an update on the findings for the Wellman Co-op equipment on the water tower.  Litwiller said that Utility Services were here late Friday to look at things and she’s waiting on the report of his findings.  Litwiller updated council that the Blosser property has received an extension due to the contractor being out of town.  The city gave them a two week extension and if not done then the city will own the property.  She wanted council to know that the Trimpe property has water and sewer to their property.  She wanted to know how council feels about the recording of the parade on the 4^th of July.  Susan McClellan stated that they do this without pay and it would be nice to have the holiday off.  Litwiller also updated council on the Senior Center and whether they should renew with Elder Services for another year and feels that all the Financials show that things are going better than the past year.  She also wanted to mention that she’s been approached by a citizen who is pleased to see many businesses downtown putting in handicapped accessible ramps to their businesses but explained that on the east side of main street there isn’t any access to those ramps except at the top or bottom of the sidewalk.  Litwiller asked if we would consider notching the sidewalk somewhere in the middle so that they can access the sidewalk.  Schneider stated that if we do this we should do it right and make a cross walk that goes completely across the road and would give access on both sides.  Litwiller updated council that the building downtown now has water to it.  While working on this the guys found that the service line was connected to the building it was just never turned on so there will be new concrete on Main Street before the 4^th of July.  She’s also received a phone call concerning the Starbeck building.  Their attorney will be getting in touch with our attorney regarding the property.

With no further business to be discussed Goodrich moved for adjournment at 6:40 pm, Schneider Seconded and all voted aye.  The next regular City Council Meeting will be Tuesday, July 5^th, 2016 at 5:30 pm in the Council Chambers of the Wellman Municipal Building.

Minutes transcribed by the City Clerk subject to Council Approval.