OSMOND — The Osmond City Council met Monday, July 8, in the city conference room. Council members had a number of items on the agenda, including those on the helipad, a housing project, vacant properties and street projects, to name a few.
Possible Helipad Move
Mayor Dennis Kuhl brought before council a request from Osmond General Hospital to possibly move the helipad from State Street over to a grassy area to the north of the hospital. Lon Knievel, CEO of OGH, informed council that the hospital board was in support of the idea to move it to north of the hospital and east of the old hospital basement.
Discussion was had and council was ok with the idea if it was at no cost to the tax payers. Mr. Knievel stated they will proceed with doing their research to know if this area will work with all regulations and bring it before council for a final decision.
New Housing Project Possible
Jim Schmit provided council with an email between him and Susan Norris, Pierce County Economic Development director, on a proposal for a housing project that they hope to take place on a parcel in the Dakota Pines addition. Schmit stated that a lot split will eventually be requested if that area meets all requirements to do a TIF (tax increment financing) project on. After more discussion, the council approved the future lot split.
Vacant Properties Discussed
The council had more discussion on vacant properties. Another property on Logan Street and one on Second Street were discussed. Mayor Kuhl said he talked to the property owner for the Logan Street parcel who stated he was in the process of selling and asked that nothing happen for another month. Council all agreed it was time for the Health Board to start having meetings on all the vacant properties to start the condemning process.
Ordinance Wording to Be Changed
Councilman Dan Timmerman stated that the cost set for water tapings last year didn’t allow for the recent inflation on those materials. Treasurer Brittney Timmerman stated that she had a discussion with the maintenance employees who suggested the wording of the ordinance for the tapings be worded as though the resident covers all material costs and maybe an additional 5% to help cover their wages for completing the tapings.
The council approved changing the wording for the ordinance to state that the property owner will cover the cost of the materials for the water taping and any boring and/or trenching costs.
Cemetery Directory Discussed Councilman Dennis Haselhorst discussed the idea of a city cemetery directory with council. He provided them with a quote from West-Hodson based on a similar directory from another community.
All council members were in favor of a directory and suggested an upgraded more permanent directory be installed. They requested the cemetery board be contacted to come up with more ideas and possible costs to be brought before council next month. It was also suggested that donations could be raised to cover the cost of a better directory.
Engineering Firm Sought Clerk Timmerman informed council that, since there are no actual projects in place that Osmond is needing an engineering firm for, Osmond does not have to let it out for bid to find a new engineering firm for the community.
She provided them with example letters for a request for proposal and other supporting documents for what the city would need the firms to do.
Timmerman asked council if they would be okay with the firms bring ing their proposals to them during the October meeting to allow her time to send letters out to several firms.
Council agreed the October meeting would work to hear the proposals.
Street Plans Updated
Clerk Timmerman noted that currently there are no one-year plans for any street projects but for the six-year plan it includes Logan Street from Fourth Street all the way up to Prairie Street and one block east and west starting at Fifth Street up to Eighth Street.
Councilman Neil Wattier requested that the block on Third Street from Maple Street to Hill Street and one block on Sixth Street from Meadow to Main Street be added to the sixyear plan. Council members approved those additions to the six-year portion of the plan.
Meeting Dates Changed
It was requested by Clerk Timmerman that the August meeting be rescheduled to an earlier time at 6:30 p.m. in hopes that the draft of the City’s hazard mitigation plan will be completed for the public and council to review during the meeting. Also, she stated that the November meeting originally scheduled for Nov. 4 would not be feasible because the office would not have many claims in to pay by the 4th of the month, so she requested that meeting be rescheduled to Wednesday, Nov. 13, at 7:30 p.m. The council agreed to reschedule the Aug. 12 meeting to 6:30 p.m. and move the November meeting to the 13th at 7:30 p.m.
Budget Items Discussed
Treasurer Timmerman reviewed the Profit & Loss for FY 2023-24 and budget worksheets with council and asked for any other items that needed to be budgeted for in FY 2024-25.
Councilman Wattier stated that there would need to be an increase in library wages and pool wages for next year and also that Library Director LaVail Aschoff is looking at purchasing new plastic chairs for the library which would cost roughly $4,000.
Assistant Treasurer Cindy Hoffman mentioned that the Highway Allocation funds received would need to be spent in the next couple of years on more street improvements and not just temporary patching. Treasurer Timmerman asked council again to consider moving half of the allocated funds each fiscal year into a separate Street Fund account to be set aside for these future improvements to help decrease the amount that would come out of the general account after those projects are done.
All of these items will be taken into consideration during the budget workshop.
Other Agenda Items
After reviewing information collected by other municipalities on how long a camper could stay at their CITY COUNCIL DISCUSSES HELIPAD, PROPERTIES park, it was unanimously decided by council that a camper could stay at the park for 14 days and for any stay that required more than 14 days, they would have to contact the City office to make arrangements.
Clerk Timmerman brought to council’s attention that after the email platform had changed for the city’s email it hasn’t been the most user friendly and doesn’t provide the option to forward an email with a clickable link, nor does it allow for large attachments to be sent out. She asked council if they would be okay with her checking into switching the city’s email account over to a Gmail account. Council all agreed to allow Timmerman to look into a new city email system.
Treasurer Timmerman went over some information she thought would be beneficial for the council members to know from attending her treasurer’s conference. She also mentioned that she obtained all eight of continuing education hours needed and submitted it all to the state auditor’s office.
Treasurer Timmerman informed council that the available dates for the budget workshop are Aug. 19, 20 or 21. After a brief discussion, it was decided that Aug. 19 at 6 p.m. would be the workshop, which is not open to the public. A budget hearing will be held in September.
Clerk Timmerman presented a building permit for Ed and Missy Hoppe, who are adding a deck to their house along with a storage shed on their property. Councilman Wattier wanted clarification on whether a building permit is required for pouring concrete. Clerk Timmerman informed council it does require a building permit due to a section discovered in the regulations that monitors how much of a property can have impervious coverage.
Police Chief Tyler Wells presented a report on recent activity within the city, including one question on condemning a property, one assist on an outside agency for a suspicious vehicle, one assist for an outside agency referencing a traffic stop and one house watch, to name a few. Wells also reported there were no issues during either weekend for alumni or Summerfest.
Mayor Kuhl stated that he and Clerk Timmerman would talk with the city attorney about the condemning processes for vacant properties.
Mayor Kuhl stated city sales tax for April 2024 was a total of $16,427.19 (of that amount $3,273.55 is from motor vehicle tax).
