Hanska City Council – Regular Meeting
June 12, 2023
6pm – Hanska Community Center
Regular meeting was called to order by Mayor Vee at 6:00pm. Members present Vee, Geiger, Miller, Kjelshus, and Larson. Members absent: None
Pledge of Allegiance was recited.
Geiger moved to approve the agenda. Seconded by Miller. Motion passed.
Sara Oberloh – Presented the 2022 audit. Sara went over the opinions of the audit. Audit standard follows government outlines. The audit looks at the city as a whole, total assets governmental and business type is 5,520,316. This includes buildings, land, machinery, equipment, infrastructure and all receivables. Total liabilities are 3,437,090, cities total net position is 2,116,727. There are 3 levels of audit findings, City of Hanska has one only Clerk/Treasurer there are no separations in duties, clerk takes on the role of 6-8 positions/people. Audit finds no legal issues; city is in compliance with Minnesota/Government Standards. Audit did find deficiency in the water and sewer funds, 5,500 water loss and 7,798 in sewer loss. Water and sewer income and expense should be even or positive. 97% of funds are in the general account, council should earmark funds to different accounts. General account was down from 2021 due to 2021A project funds came in 2021 and spent down in 2022. MUNI funds can be closed down and transferred to city side for use. Sara went over different USDA and PFA grants and loans. The City of Hanska needs to prepare for upcoming projects and city repairs. Sara noted the city needs to increase the utility rates for water and sewer.
Open Citizens Comments: 3 citizens in attendance. They asked about the minutes and agenda being posted online, clerk said she can do this but they will always be a month behind due to council having to approve the last month’s meeting minutes. Clerk said the agenda is harder to post, there is a basic agenda that council approves at the beginning of a meeting, and she doesn’t know what each department has for their report. All 3 citizens had concerns about garbage cans being put on city streets and not alleyways. They felt that they city didn’t inform them, there was going to be a change. Citizens said they should have been told about this and been able to attend that meeting. One said that waste management didn’t make the choice to put the cans on the street and the city did. Council member Geiger said RVS made the decision to put the cans on the street due to new trucks with an arm not being able to fit in the alleyway. Council then decided to have all cans on the street to help keep the maintenance cost of the alleys down. One citizen said they wanted to know how much this really saves the city by not having big trucks in the alley. Clerk said that most cities do not plow or maintain alleyways that’s the homeowner’s responsibility, the city is providing an extra service and is trying to keep the cost down. One citizen said the city should contract for garbage and just have one company in town. Clerk said there are two issues with that. One half the residents would be upset with the company the city picks. Second the clerk would have to start collecting the garbage fees on the utility bills. There are residents that don’t pay their bills now and will not pay the garbage bill. Clerk said that when residents don’t pay their bill there are times the city attorney has to get involved, this adds to the legal fees for the city and these amounts get passed on to the resident’s property taxes.
Geiger moved to approve minutes from May 8th and May 31st meeting. Seconded by Larson. Motion passed
Miller moved to approve City and Muni claims. Seconded by Kjelshus. Motion passed.
Muni- Clerk gave an update. Clerk talked with Michael about the purchase agreement. They are working with other bar owners to get guidance on what name to purchase the building. There will be one name for the building purchase and a different name for the bar. Council asked what amount the earnest money should be, clerk said it should be $10,000 due to the other offer willing to put down that amount. Council agreed to $10,000 earnest money.
Library- Mayor Vee and Clerk gave update. Building needs major repair, water has been leaking in on one wall, insurance is working with Service Master to remove the sheetrock, tin, insulation. Service Master thinks part of the celling needs to be removed. Insurance brought in an engineer to look at all city buildings, insurance is waiting on the report to see how much if any they will cover on roof repair. Until this report comes back the city is in limbo. Amy is meeting with the county commissioners to try and get an increase in library funding.
Fire Department- Larson gave update. FD is redoing the concrete in front of the fire hall. FD would like the paving fixed in front of the FD. FD is getting bids and will talk to Lake Hanska, Linden township and City of Hanska about splitting the cost of paving. FD will be getting estimates to paint the FD building.
Public works- Tauer gave the update. Cities main well went down on Saturday May 10th. Tauer switched the city to the backup well and called Schaefer Well Drilling, they came out on Sunday and found a hole in the well casing, large rocks are getting into the well and can be passed through water lines. Schaefer Well came back on Monday to do a temporary fix. The city has two options. One to recase the well this would take the pipe down from 12 inches to 8 inches and reduce the gallons per minute, this is not the best option for the city. Second option is to drill a new city well, Tauer is getting the estimate for this. The city’s main well is from 1972 and the backup well is from 1946. Mayor Vee asked where the well would be drilled and can it be moved? Tauer said the well would need to be close to the pump house for chemicals. Tauer did say that if its moved city would need a new house and at that time maybe looking into the water treatment plant and water tower, the cost would be in the 5-million-dollar range. Council member Larson said that a large rock could damage a pumper truck. Vee said that it’s not an option for the city not to have a good main well and should move ahead with a well, council tabled this until next meeting and bids are in. Resident contacted Tauer on May 24th saying they have sewer backing up into their basement. Tauer called GSM and Clerk for assistance. Tauer and Clerk went to the home with GSM worker that night. The camera was placed into the sewer, the GSM worker found the blockage under the home owners’ floor and said it’s not the cities issue. GSM cleaned out the blockage. Homeowner is now refusing to pay the bill and says it’s the cities responsibility. Clerk talked to GSM and said that it is the homeowners bill based on what their employee found.
City Clerk- No water was shut off in May. 9 water shut offs were sent out in June. Sowers land purchase is taken care of. EDA tenant has been served the termination of lease and has until the end of June to be out. Clerk is working on the Southern MN Small Town Cities grant for the community center, this is a matching grant up to $10,000. City wide clean up went well but the city didn’t collect enough fees to cover the cost. City collected 3,894 and has spent 3,838 and still needs to dispose of tires. Clerk said the fee should go up by $1.00 council agreed. Clerk said the water and sewer rates should go up based on the audit report, council agreed to a 3% increase on base fee and 5% increase on usage fee. Clerk had ordinance number 95 building permit fees. Fee for less than 300.00 is 3.00, clerk said this amount doesn’t cover her time to issue a permit. Council said to change the fee to: up to 1,000, 10.00, 1,001 to 10,000, 20.00, over 10,000, 50.00, clerk will update ordinance and bring to the July meeting for approval. Fireworks permit is ready to go for the 4th of July. Clerk said she would like to try and get something going for the 2024 4th of July, food trucks, parade, music. Clerk is working with the insurance company and engineers on storm damage to the ball park, community center, library and club house. Community Center had shingles lift off and water leaking in the bell tower. DeAnn the insurance adjuster said the water damage in the bell tower has been going on for a while and that will be a separate claim from the storm damage. Club house roof is leaking, DeAnn has the bids for that and will let the city know how much if any amount will be covered. DeAnn is waiting for the engineer’s report, until that time everything is on hold.
Council – Larson said the resident who got a letter about his property approached him. Resident said they will have cars gone by the end of summer and thought their property was commercial. Clerk said the property is residential. Council member Geiger said this is his hobby and the property is looking way better than it did. Council member Larson and Mayor Vee both stated that the city does have ordinances and we need to enforce them. Council member Larson said if the city takes action maybe other residents will get their yards cleaned up. Council member Larson said to give them an extra 60 days to clean up their yard, council agreed.
Kjelshus made a motion to adjourn, Geiger seconded, meeting was adjourned at 8:01pm
_______________________________ __________________________________
Attest: City Clerk, Cinnamon Moldan Mayor, Daniel Vee
