Hanska City Council – Regular Meeting
November 13th 2023
6pm – Hanska Community Center
Regular meeting was called to order by Mayor Vee at 6:00pm. Members present Vee, Miller, Kjelshus, and Larson. Members absent: Geiger
City Clerk Moldan, Public Works Tauer and Library Director Amy were present.
The Pledge of Allegiance was recited.
Miller moved to approve the agenda. Seconded by Larson. Motion passed.
Open Citizens Comments: David Stolt was in attendance. Stolt’s dog was attacked by Randy Geiger’s dog. Stolt was walking his dog when Geiger’s dog broke the chain, came across the street and started biting immediately. Stolt’s dog tried to return home to the Stolt’s residence. Geiger’s dog prevented this by attacking and attempting to pin Stolt’s dog. Stolt reported the incident to the Brown County Sheriff Office. Stolt was told by the deputy that he couldn’t press charges on a dog biting another dog and was told to carry mace on his walks. This is not the first incident involving this dog, Stolt wanted to bring this to councils’ attention and wants to know what can be done.
Kjelshus moved to approve minutes from the October 9th 2023 meeting. Seconded by Larson. Motion passed
Larson moved to approve City claims. Seconded by Kjelshus. Motion passed.
Library-Kjelshus gave the update. 3 applications were submitted for the open board position. One was at the library meeting for board interview, board asked follow up questions from the application. Lots of grant options were discussed. Amy wants to know what the council thinks about reaching out to another library and possibly becoming a branch of another library, this is something the clerk would need to look into. Larson said the city should look into this option.
Fire Department- Larson gave an update. Only two members were present at the last meeting. Larson said the FD was outbid on a fire truck, but looking into one from the City of Sleepy Eye. This truck is 15 years newer and would like to purchase for under $25,000.00.
Public works- Tauer gave the update. Compost has all been moved to the city dump site. Will start street sweeping and fire hydrant flushing. Larson brought up just having the brush pile only at the dump and not by the north shed. Tauer said he doesn’t think this would work due to it being here for so long and city residents not being able to get leaves and branches to the site. Bucket truck is down, Hanska Repair is working on it.
City Clerk- Moldan said there is a MN law regarding sick time. ESSL now requires all employees to get paid sick time up to 40 hours per year. Full time city employees get 80 hours of sick time. Clerk said the League of Minnesota Cities recommends updating the employee handbook. The first half (40hrs) of the 80 now allotted will follow the ESSL law, and the second (40hrs) half of the 80 allotted will follow the current employee handbook. Seconded by Larson. Motion passed. Clerk said the baseball fence will be replaced in the next two weeks. Clerk presented a list of items at the baseball park that need coverage, this amount adds an additional $232,650.00 in baseball park coverage. Clerk updated coverage on the water tower and city park. Larson asked questions about FD coverage, and the clerk followed up with the insurance agent. Clerk should have the insurance quote at the next meeting, then the council can review the coverage and make final decisions. Clerk said the city can have Geiger’s dog deemed potentially dangerous or dangerous, this would require steps from Geiger’s. If they could not complete these steps they would have to rehome or destroy the dog. Council decided to talk to Geiger before filing legal paperwork. Vee and Kjelshus will talk to Geiger.
Council: Larson asked about what can be done with a resident whose garage is falling down. Clerk will check ordinances and send a letter. Vee brought up holding 2024 city wide clean up at the city dump. Vee has been talking to landlords about their tenants cleaning up yards.
Kjelshus made a motion to adjourn, Larson seconded, meeting was adjourned at 7:04pm
_______________________________ __________________________________
Attest: City Clerk, Cinnamon Moldan Mayor, Daniel Vee
