OSMOND — The Osmond City Council met Monday, Oct. 14, in regular session. During the meeting, a number of ordinances and a resolution were passed.
Rezoning Approved
A public hearing was held for the rezoning request from Northeast Tire & Trailer Sales, LLC. Clerk Timmerman informed council that the Planning/Zoning Commission made a suggestion to move forward with the rezoning and explained it will be rezoned from R-1 (Single Family Residential District) to L-1 (Limited Industrial District). Ordinance No. 2024-5 making the change of zoning was adopted by the council. A complete copy of the ordinance is printed on Page 4 of this issue.
Another public hearing was held for the conditional use permit from Northeast Tire & Trailer Sales, LLC, to store trailers for sale on property located at 31-28-2 in South Osmond.
Clerk Timmerman informed council of the six conditions that the Planning/ Zoning Commission made that must be followed if the permit is approved. After some discussion, the council approved Resolution 2024-9 granting the conditional use permit.
Broadband Cabinet Approved
Klint Arnold with Stealth Broadband provided council with a map of the property where the water tower sits and asked council for approval to house a communication cabinet in the southeast corner of the parcel. After some discussion, council members approved the construction of the concrete slab with a communication cabinet on the City’s property. The council passed Ordinance No. 2024-6 granting a non-exclusive franchise to Midstates Data Transport dba Stealth Broadband to construct, operate and maintain a fiber optic communication system.
A complete copy of the ordinance is printed on Page 4 of this issue.
Alley Vacated
Michael Koehler requested vacating the east-west alley between his property and the property to the south of him. Maintenance employees stated there are no utilities of the city’s that run through the alley and they don’t believe there is any other utility that would either.
Clerk Brittney Timmerman informed council she did contact Lon Knievel at Osmond General Hospital to see if the other half of the eastern portion of the alley would eventually need to be vacated to save on filing fees at the court house. She said that Knievel didn’t see any problems and gave the go ahead to vacate that portion of the alley as well.
After a little more discussion, the council approved vacating the alley.
Clerk Timmerman stated the official ordinance to vacate the alley will go before the council at the Wednesday, Nov. 13, meeting.
Engineering Firms Discussed
After reviewing the proposals from the following engineering firms - JEO Consulting Group, Miller & Associates Consulting, and Advanced Consulting Engineering Services (ACES) — maintenance employee Caleb Eckstrom said that one thing needs to be asked of each firm: if they are able to assist with prepping the NetDMR reports that must be submitted for the sanitary sewer system and sent to the state. With more discussion, it was decided Eckstrom would reach out to the firms to ask any maintenance questions that would be a concern and bring back the information at the November council meeting.
New Camera System Requested for City Dump
Maintenance workers brought a quote of $2380.00 from TWD Lock Safe & Key to install a new NVR and camera system down at the city dump. They explained with the rise in illegal dumping at the city dump the current camera quality makes it hard to read the license plate and then requires them to do more research to figure out whose vehicle it was leaving the dump to send the illegal dumping invoice to. They explained with the new camera system it will save on time and resources as it will be better quality and have a longer backup system than the current one.
Council members approved the $2,380 quote from TWD Lock Safe & Key to install the new system.
Vacant Properties A Problem
Updates on three vacant proper-ties has unfortunately gone nowhere, explained Clerk Timmerman. With weekly checkups on the properties, nothing has been done that was required of the property owners to get in compliance.
She explained the owners now have until Oct. 28 to take care of the issues. She then asked council what steps they would like her to take next. The council discussed how things had been done in the past with some of the same properties, which are now having the same issues.
Timmerman explained that with the adoption a few years back of the International Property Maintenance Code ordinance, this allows them to skip the health board process and allow the attorney and code enforcer to go through each property and condemn it. Mayor Dennis Kuhl explained after discussion he had with the attorney, the fees for this process would be between $2,500 and $3,000 per property.
Timmerman asked council for advice on what steps they would like her to do next and council approved moving forward and contacting the attorney for the condemning process.
Clerk Timmerman stated she had been asked by a resident if a property along the highway in the business district had been part of the vacant property process and she explained to them it was not. She provided council with pictures of the structure and after some discussion, it was decided Mayor Kuhl will contact the owner of the building and report back next month on his findings.
New Dump Truck Purchased
After setting the price range of $15,000-$20,000 for a new city dump truck last month, a week later one was found on an auction that would fit the needs of the City, according to a few of the council members. Mayor Kuhl stated that, with the short window, he and Councilman Dennis Haselhorst had attended the auction and purchased the new dump truck for $23,000.
Councilman Neil Wattier asked if someone had driven it before purchasing and maintenance employee Jason Willard stated everything felt mechan- ically fine and listed everything that was good on the truck. However, he stated it may have a leaking hydraulic hose that may need to be repaired, otherwise it was a good truck.
After a lengthy discussion about the purchase, Mayor Kuhl asked the council for reimbursement if they thought the truck was what they were wanting. Treasurer Timmerman asked council how the truck would be paid for since the city’s expenses for the month had reached over $200,000 so far. The council approved reimbursing Mayor Kuhl for the dump truck for $23,000 and for it to be paid this month out of the general checking account.
Employee Wages Increased
After many times of being asked if maintenance employee Jason Willard was supposed to have had a wage increase after obtaining both water and sewer license, Treasurer Tim- merman finally found the reference in the minutes from the Jan. 8, 2024, meeting which stated it would be taken into consideration at the December meeting.
She explained it is before the council this month since it is continuously being discussed and that if they choose to change maintenance wages this month, the issue will not go back before council at the December meeting.
During the discussion of increasing the three maintenance employees’ wages, the employees explained how they’ve been able to save the city money on all the small concrete and other projects they've been able to do. Since the last two employees have been hired it gave them enough manpower to be able to take on those tasks.
Council commended the three employees for all the work and improvements they’ve done around the community. Council members approved the increase in all three maintenance employees’ wages by $2.00 per hour effective with the November paychecks which are as follows: Maintenance Street Supervisor/Secondary Utility Supervisor: Caleb Eckstrom from $24.50 to $26.50 per hour Full-Time Maintenance: Bert Wat- tier from $23.34 to $25.34 per hour
CITY COUNCIL INCREASES EMPLOYEE WAGES
Full-Time Maintenance: Jason Willard from $23.69 to $25.69 per hour Off-street help wage rate had not been increased for years, Treasurer Timmerman explained, and after it was brought to council’s attention last month, they requested the council consider increasing it this month.
Timmerman explained the current rate is $11.50. After some discussion about past help and Tucker Timmerman not working for the City but being one of the first people to be called to help since he has knowledge of the city equipment and projects, council members approved raising off-street help from $11.50 to $15.00 per hour effective immediately.
Council members also approved paying past employee Tucker Timmerman $20 per hour for any offstreet help he would come in and help with, effective immediately.
Treasurer Timmerman stated that, since employee Bert Wattier went onto the City’s health insurance the beginning of September, he would be eligible for half of the year’s HSA contribution of $750 this month. The council approved the contribution of $750.00 to Bert Wattier’s HSA account this month.
Treasurer Gives Report
Treasurer Timmerman explained that there have been three audit requests this month which are the normal work compensation audit and city audit, but she also had an audit on the state revolving loan for the water department.
She stated that all the requested documents for each audit had been submitted by the end of the previous week and the loan audit has since been approved and closed out. For the work compensation audit, she is waiting to hear back on any additional requests they may have, and on the regular city audit, a few more documents have been requested to be pulled for the on-site workday at the city office on Wednesday, Oct. 23.
She then reviewed the end of fiscal year 2023-24 profit and loss budget vs. actual with the council and asked if there were any questions or concerns for any of their departments. A few questions were answered about expenses in some of the departments.
She went on to explain in the past week she discovered some of the upcoming projects weren’t budgeted for in this fiscal year and that the council would need to take that into consideration as the year goes on.
Timmerman apologized as one of the projects was supposed to be on the budget but somehow had been overlooked, and maintenance employees assured that the quote was a lot higher than the actual work that will be done, so that unbudgeted expense won’t be what was originally anticipated.
With some discussion about ballpark projects, it was discovered that a portion of the rain gutter was not installed after the roofing project on the grandstand had been completed. Clerk Timmerman will reach out to the company to see why it was not re-installed.
Other Business Discussed
Clerk Timmerman presented a new park bench advertising logo that Summit Contracting wanted to replace the old Peterson Ag sign with. She explained that the rest of the signs in the park are all white with green lettering and Summit is requesting the arch on the logo be blue with black lettering. Since the rest are uniform, she wanted to get council approval before moving forward on replacing the sign. After some discussion, council approved letting Summit Contracting use the colors from their logo for the new park bench sign.
Council members passed Ordinances 2024-7, 2024-8 and 2024-9, establishing new rates for water service, user charge system for wastewater treatment works, and garbage removal service, with all to become effective Jan. 1, 2025. Copies of the ordinances are available for inspec- tion and distribution at the city office, and are printed on Page 4 of this issue.
Police Chief Tyler Wells presented a report on recent activity within the city including one suspicious person, one report of a threatening person, one report of illegal dumping at the dump, two dog at large, one call for assist at a business and one problem with a juvenile, to name a few.
Wells went on to say he attended a dog kennel meeting with the Plainview police department and in the coming months they should be able to start taking in dogs at large caught by the police department. Wells also mentioned he attended his annual conference last week and still has more continuing education hours to get in before the end of the year.
In other business, the council: — approved Tiger Town Food Center temporarily blocking off half of 4th Street between State and Logan Streets on Oct. 17 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. for a customer appreciation luncheon.
— heard an update on the community sign by Councilman Doug Schmit, who stated that the committee is currently waiting on a quote for the electrical work that will need to be done before anything is finalized.
— heard Clerk Timmerman state there were no building or floodplain permits, but she read a letter from the Pierce County Assessors office in regards to the property tax changes with LB 34.
— heard Mayor Kuhl state city sales tax for July 2024 was a total of $16,106.54 (of that amount $2,247.29 is from motor vehicle tax).
— heard Mayor Kuhl read one correspondence from a camper who said it was a charming place and they enjoyed their visit.
