The Garretson City Council met on Monday, June 1, and covered several topics. The issue with the most immediate impact to the town of Garretson was the adoption of Ordinance 657, which lifted capacity limits on local businesses, and the announcement that Citywide Clean-up had been rescheduled to August 29. However, the topics they covered were important and wide-ranging.
The meeting, which had all city councilors in attendance except for council member Dave Bonte, started with an update on natural gas. The council had to approve signing a new contract with Clayton Energy for 5 years instead of the initial two, so the company could hedge estimates out that far in order to see if pricing would be any better. This was done at the request of council member Bonte.
Currently, the natural gas market is very volatile, so nothing as far as price is being locked in by Clayton Energy. The representative is waiting for the market to settle a bit more. City Finance Officer Anna Uhl did note that the hedging was for winter months, and price fluctuation for natural gas during the summertime could still occur, even with the new contractor. The council will still need to approve pricing regularly once the contract takes effect October 1st. The council approved signing the new contract unanimously.
The council then heard an update from the Garretson Parks Advisory Committee (GPAC), which noted that recent miscommunication issues had been cleared up. They had lots of projects in the works, but weren’t ready to announce all of them.
Uhl stated that she had heard from Owen Wiese, the landowner of Devil’s Gulch. He wanted to commend GPAC and Parks Supervisor Randy Megard on how nice the parks looked. Council member Richelle Hofer concurred, noting how nice the new benches all looked. (Three benches remain to be placed, per GPAC member Carrie Moritz.)
The council then listened to a presentation given by Julie Nelson of Alternative HRD, who was commissioned to do a salary study in order to ensure City employees were being paid in both salary and benefits appropriately.
While Nelson commended the City for its benefits package, she did point out that comparable wages and salaries for two employees, the City Finance Officer and the City Maintenance/Utilities Supervisor, were substantially under market wages, especially for the length of time employed.
For instance, the current Finance Officer, which is a blended job that has many different job functions, has been serving for ten years. Her current hourly wage is $24.31, and comparable wages would be around $48 an hour. While the amounts given were hourly, the Finance Officer is salaried at $50,557. Nelson recommended wages be brought up to $62,304.
The Maintenance Supervisor, who has been employed for 30 years, is hourly at $30.52, and Nelson noted that comps are around $36. Nelson wanted to propose that the Maintenance Supervisor be changed from hourly to salaried, and also recommended the City start work immediately towards increasing both employees’ wages to market wages in order to ensure they retained and attracted talented staff.
After a final point from Nelson regarding philosophy of pay, council member Bill Hoskins proposed tabling any further discussion by council until the July council meeting, so they could all have a chance to digest all the information they had been given. The council plans to discuss the information much more in-depth at their July meeting so that budget discussions can begin in August.
The council then discussed a fence variance request for 505 Eastern Avenue from Mike Johnson. He was requesting a fence for the south side of his property that extended beyond the back of the house. The layout of the property is such that much of the usable portion of his property would be wasted if the variance was not allowed, and he noted that he would have a difficult time watching his children if the fence was not allowed to be extended. After some discussion, the council approved the variance unanimously.
Next on the agenda was City Wide Clean-up. The initial dates in early May had been postponed due to the pandemic, and the contractor, Garbage N More, asked for a later summer date to ensure it would not be postponed again. While it will be run similarly to last year, this year it will be one day only, on Saturday, August 29. Hours will be 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
The council then considered an item on the agenda that had been tabled at the May meeting, which was adopting the use of American Legal Publishing to place all of its ordinances on-line. This will allow ordinances to be searchable, and will also come with legal support to ensure all ordinances are correct and in accordance with local and federal law. The council had opted to wait to ensure sales tax figures didn’t decrease substantially during the first quarter, which would impact the City’s ability to pay for these services. City Finance Officer Uhl was able to report that not only were sales tax figures not down, they had actually increased by approximately 20%. This means community members overwhelmingly supported its local small businesses during the worst of the pandemic. With this in mind, the council voted to contract with the publishing company.
Council member Jodi Gloe then asked about the status of the City website, which has been discussed as in need of an upgrade in the past couple of years. Uhl mentioned that she’d like to see the city page moved over to a .gov website, but that the upgrade was low on the priority list.
Next on the agenda was a street update, starting with the 5th Street bridge. Infrastructure Design’s Chad Hanisch, who joined via Zoom, explained that the results from the boring project had been received and that they were sending their plans into the DOT for review that week. They are planning to allow for bids to go into 2021 to ensure costs weren’t increased due to a time crunch, but they are still hopeful that project can be completed yet this year. Council member Greg Franka pointed out that waiting until 2021 might not be a terrible idea, considering the potential for construction on Main Street and the truck route this year as well.
Hanisch also noted that the work along 5th Street with regards to the industrial park had some finishing items that needed attention, and they were working with City Maintenance Supervisor Craig Nussbaum with that.
With regards to connecting Lacey Avenue to Sarah C, Mayor Greg Beaner figured the City was too late to utilize Nielsen Construction for the infrastructure and street, as the company had finished and removed its equipment. He suggested employing 1st Rate Excavate to finish it while they are here working on Main Avenue and the truck route, and the council agreed.
They then looked at council member Bonte’s suggestion to start movement on annexation, especially in the area to the north of Palisades Oil and north of Kibble Equipment. Utility services are already provided by the City to those areas. After some questioning by council member Richelle Hofer, Uhl stated that the first area could go very easily if the property owners are amenable to it. Council member Hoskins proposed that City staff create a prioritized list for the areas around Garretson, which Uhl agreed to do. Council member Hofer then brought up a portion of annexation that she acknowledged might not make her too popular. This would be 485th Avenue, which lies to the south of town and is the current Palisades State Park access road. Currently, 485th Avenue lies outside of Garretson city limits and within Palisades Township jurisdiction, but it has had issues with road maintenance over the past five years. With the entrance to Palisades State Park moving to 256th Street and 484th Avenue within the next few years, there is worry that the road will not be able to be maintained. There is also a large push to get a bike trail installed from the park to Garretson, in order to maintain a link to the community, and that road is key for it. Hofer wants the city to at least look at what this would entail.
“I know it’s a huge expense and it’s going to be a huge discussion, but I think it’s one we need to have sooner rather than later, because as I understand it, and Chad can confirm, we’re going to run into stops on getting grants without a maintenance plan on that road,” she said. Hanisch did confirm that the lack of a plan for 485th Avenue was what had stopped progress on the bike trail a few years ago. Council member Hoskins also confirmed that this conversation is needed.
The council then moved onto approving Bev Howe’s request to sell fireworks from the parking lot of Palisades Oil, a pop-up business license she applies for every year. The council unanimously passed it, and then fielded a request by council member Tom Godbey to send out a letter for an alumni challenge. This challenge would be soliciting donations for the Split Rock Park bathhouse, which is in need of a full-coverage roof and tuckpointing. The bathhouse has been on the National Historic Registry for several years, but the council recently discussed the possibility of allowing it to fall off the registry in order to open up repair and maintenance options that would not otherwise be available (such as the roof). The council agreed that the letter was a good idea, but Godbey would need to pursue that as a community member and not as a representative on the council. Council member Jodi Gloe, who is the advisor to the parks board, noted that his mention of using any leftover funds for the picnic shelter started moving into the territory of the park board. Godbey had not brought the idea to GPAC prior to addressing the council.
“If we have the park board, I feel we need to include them in on the alumni challenge,” she said. She went on to say that GPAC had already been told the bathhouse roofing project was staying under the city’s purview, so she was okay with the alumni challenge letter moving forward without a recommendation from GPAC. Both Gloe and GPAC member Carrie Moritz reminded the council that there are already several projects being worked on and already started, and that they would like to keep the number of projects from increasing too much. They have already partnered with Grow Garretson in order to raise funds for the picnic shelter to be placed by the playground, so fundraising is already going on for Split Rock Park.
The legality of the City soliciting donations was then brought up by council member Hofer. The City cannot solicit donations, so they noted that as long as Godbey was pursuing this on his own as a community member, then he would be okay. No motions were made, though Godbey was given the blessing of the council to move forward.
The council then voted to surplus a vintage Cushman scooter, approved the malt beverage license renewals applied for, and platted more of the Valley View addition along Sarah C. They also voted on several resolutions for water and sewer rate surcharges, which were required in order to qualify for grants and loans that had been applied for. Uhl noted that the surcharges can be ended at a later date or the council can opt later to not increase rates if the City is doing well with paying off the loans. Utilities were a large reason why the road replacement along 3rd Street, Main, and the truck route had to happen.
Next on the agenda was Ordinance 657, which removed the capacity limits that had been placed by Ordinance 656. The City followed the example of Sioux Falls, and put the responsibility on community and business members to continue following CDC guidelines, including social distancing and hygiene practices.
The reasoning behind removing the limits was due to lower levels of viral activity than initially feared, and the ability of hospital capacity to now keep up with new cases that may present with complications. As of Tuesday, June 9, active cases in the state were at 972, with 270 of those in Minnehaha County. The number of active cases has been trending downward, though deaths have still been occurring. Three more individuals were added to Tuesday’s total, bringing it to 68 deaths statewide since March 10.
The final item on the agenda prior to going into executive session was the first reading of declaration for urban renewal on the area contained to the former senior citizen and Hove buildings. This is a tax break to help building owner Norm DeWitt renovate the two buildings into apartments.
John Brinkman, as a representative for the Commercial Club, then presented as part of other business. He wanted to let the council know that Jesse James Days had been moved to August 14-16, and that the format should proceed as it has in prior years. He wanted to bring to the council that the commercial club had been soliciting estimates for the installation of a sound system along Main, and while they had initially been exploring a wireless option, a wired option would be more reliable. He wanted to ask if the City would be willing to ensure that 2” conduit piping could be installed under the sidewalk when the new curb and gutter were done, and if the City would be willing to help cover some of the costs toward the new system, which is currently being estimated at $18,000-25,000. The Mayor expressed his support for the idea, noting that he saw the presentation given at the Commercial Club annual meeting in January.
The council then moved into Executive Session and adjourned. After Executive Session, the council voted to authorize an agreement to be signed by the mayor with Hudson Company and 1st Rate Excavate for the remainder of the Main Street and truck route project.
The next meeting of the City Council will be on Monday, July 6 at 6:30 p.m.
