May 15, 2017

May 15, 2017

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, Shannon McCain, Fern Bontrager, Robert Freeman and 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 of April Financials and the following claims:

April Financials:

In public forum, Mark Philpot spoke in regards to the importance of bringing new people into our town and how the Wellman’s ISO rating can affect this.  He questioned what the current rating is and what the city is doing to improve this rating.  Miller stated that the city has replaced around 40 of the fire hydrants and that the firefighters are all up to date on their training which increases the rating.  Miller also explained that Philpot could contact the Fire Chief, Jeremy Peck and also Shawn Powell, the City’s Insurance Agent to get the current rating and any other information.

Randy Tinnes indicated that we had 27 calls last month.  There were 14 citations, a couple of them were from accidents but most were from speeding.  Miller has noticed that due to the nicer weather he’s seen a lot more golf carts and motorcycles out on the streets and just wanted to remind residents to follow the Ordinance.

Andrew Marsh with Hr Green and Josh Dean with PeopleServices updated council on the Water and Wastewater facilities.  Marsh updated that the metering of the city facilities are still in the works, the fire station metering is scheduled to be completed this week, Parkside metering has already been completed and North Park will be in the works as well.  Litwiller explained that the meter at the park is on the schedule to be completed after the July 4^th celebration when Brad Boyse will be in town doing other work up there.  Marsh then explained that Dean has started to work on one of the areas that were found by the two leak detection companies that the city hired.  Dean explained that it’s leaking 40 gallons per minute which is 1.6 million gallons in a month’s time.  He feels that this could be one of the big ones and will be working on it again tomorrow morning.  Marsh then explained that he had the quotes the council requested in regards to the rehab of Well #3 in order to make it a viable full-time operating well vs. a new well.  He feels that even though the cost to rehab Well #2 is considerably lower that there are still a number of drawbacks to going this route.  He still feels that the new well would be the way to go.  He then discussed with council that a decision needs to be made in regards to the purchasing of new membranes.  The quote from Global Services would be $25,000 for new and $18,000 for used.  He also reminded council that the Water Plant is only approved by the DNR to run with new membranes so we would need to get approval from the DNR on whether we could even use the used ones.  He has drawn up a letter for the city to send to the DNR if council wants to go that direction.  Miller would like to pursue the letter to the DNR so that we know whether it’s even an option.

A public hearing to receive comments on FY17 Budget Amendment 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.  Goodrich moved to close the public hearing, McCain Seconded and all voted aye.

Resolution No. 17-22 Approving FY17 Budget Amendment was introduced and caused to be read.  Freeman moved to approve Resolution No. 17-22, Owens Seconded and upon roll call the vote was unanimous ayes.

Second reading for Ordinance No. 242 Zoning Regulation Changes was introduced and caused to be read.  Motion was made by McCain to approve the second reading and waive the third; Seconded by Goodrich and upon roll call the vote was unanimous ayes.

Discussion and action on Utility Clerk hiring process was had.  Litwiller explained that the Job Description and ad have been completed and would like to start running the ad in this week’s paper with interviews starting in June and a starting date around the beginning of July.  The ad will run until position is filled.  Goodrich moved to approve, Freeman Seconded and all voted aye.

Discussion and action on estimate from Kuenster Plumbing for Water Plant Chlorine Injection was tabled due to possibility of going another route.

Freeman moved to approve estimate from Wigen for Water Plant Flow Sensor, Owens Seconded and all voted aye.

Discussion and action on Utility Service Co. Inc. Termination Agreement was had.  Litwiller explained that they came back wanting to remove Suez from the Termination Agreement due to it only being Utility Service when the agreement was made.  Bontrager moved to approve, McCain Seconded and all voted aye.

Ed Raber , director of Washington County Development Group gave a presentation on how he sees Washington County.   Presenting with a slideshow of some data he’s collected, he had many comparisons between the counties in Iowa and some great facts about Washington County.   He explained that since the last census Washington County’s population is up 577 people when most counties are actually down.  Washington County has had 217 people move into the county whereas a lot of the counties have actually had many move out.  Washington County’s Non-Farm Quarterly Employment for the last 5 years is up 24%.   Retail Sales from 1998-2016 has had a total increase of 56%.  Median family income now is $70,000 compared to back in 1970 the median was $10,000.  In Iowa’s 99 Counties Washington County is #1 in Solar, #1 in CRP Acres, #1 in Cover Crops, #2 in Hog Production, #3 in Organic Produce, #3 in Goat Production, and #6 in Turkey Production.  The only negative he sees in all his data was the single family home construction for Washington County has dropped in the last 20 years.   He’s working with many communities to look for options to hopefully change this in the future.  He concluded by saying “if you think it’s bad here it’s virtually worse in other places.”

Council moved into a work session for discussion on City Water Operations.  During the work session council discussed the PeopleService Contract that will be ending in November and what they wanted to do moving forward.  Council would like Litwiller to set up a meeting with PeopleServices to discuss options.

With no further business Freeman moved to adjournment at 7:33 pm, Bontrager seconded and all voted aye.  The next regular City Council Meeting will be held Monday, June 5, 2017 at 5:30 pm in the Council Chamber of the Wellman Municipal Building.

Minutes transcribed by the City Clerk are subject to Council Approval.