City Council Meeting - unofficial minutes 10/4
Author: Colleen Ward
CITY OF TOWNSEND
City Council Meeting
October 4, 2022
CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Evans called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. Council members present were Angie Wintrow, Vickie Rauser, Matt West and Ken Urich. Christina Hartmann and Nate Brown were present later. Others present were Clerk Coleen Ward, Public Works Supervisor Tim Rauser, JB Howick, Nancy Marks, Tim Ravndal, Keith Hartmann, and Kari Williams.
PLEDGE: The Pledge of Allegiance was recited by all in attendance.
MINUTES: Vickie Rauser moved to approve the minutes of August 20, 2022, as distributed, Angie Wintrow seconded, Matt asked for clarification on the second to the last paragraph. Clerk Ward will change the second to last paragraph to read: Christina asked about the other donations for the swimming pool. Angie and the mayor stated the Rotary donation of $1,000 had been received today.
After the correction, the motion carried with all council members present voting in favor.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS: Water Update – Vickie Rauser updated the council on the Water Storage Project. At the County Commissioners meeting on Monday, the Commissioners passed a resolution to transfer $447,124 of their ARPA allocation to the City Water Storage Project.
Noise Ordinance Committee – Christina Hartmann updated the council on the progress of the committee. They are working on rewording and a checklist. Their next meeting is on Monday 10/10/22 at 9:00 am. JB asked if he could get a draft copy. The only copy we have is the original which has been completely revamped.
Law Enforcement Committee – Mayor Evans is still trying to get all the parties together for a meeting.
Solicitor Committee – Angie Wintrow reviewed that the City had a customer who asked us to review the Ordinance because of the costs. The committee has made some changes. One of the changes we are looking at implementing is for the Fall Fest to provide a list of vendors signed up for events one week prior to the event. The moratorium for the Fall Festival will only be for the days of the event. JB mentioned he thought there was going to be more in attendance at the meeting tonight on this subject, he heard complaints about the fees the city charged the vendors. Angie informed him the City currently waives all solicitor fees for Fall Fest; we receive no revenue from the Fall Fest vendors. JB said there must be a misunderstanding. Matt mentioned perhaps the vendors think the fees they pay go to the city, which they do not.
Pool Employee Handbook Committee - Ken informed the council the committee had a meeting with Peter and went over a few things in the handbook. Christina said a lot of the information was duplicated in the Employee Handbook and Peter is looking at removing the duplicated information, more on the lines of an operational handbook for the pool employees. We need another committee meeting.
City Clerk Hiring Committee – Mayor Evans informed the council the committee has offered the position to Kari Williams, and she has accepted. She will start on October 24, 2022.
Donation Button on Website – Clerk Ward and Jessica worked on getting this pushed forward. After contacting our credit card provider, PayGov, they created some options on their end (see attached screenshots) and Jessica added a donation to the existing button. After some discussion, the council felt it might be too confusing to the customer and it was thought a confirmation button. Matt would like to see a second button on the first page. Clerk Ward will contact PayGov and Jessica for changes.
NEW BUSINESS: Agreements Coming Up for Renewal – After some discussion, Clerk Ward will provide copies of these agreements to the Council for review.
GUESTS: JB Howick asked the council if there was some way, he could get no parking for when the semis show up for deliveries. The parking of vehicles on S. Spruce makes it difficult for drivers to get into the alley. After some discussion, Keith Hartmann suggested the semis use S. Cedar which is much wider. JB thought that was a great suggestion he had not thought of and will talk to the drivers.
ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION: Ken asked what the limit of dogs is before needing a Kennel License; three dogs equals needing a Kennel License. His concern is with 7 hounds on Jack Farm. Mayor Evans thought Eric was already working on that and will speak to him.
Tim spoke to the council about the swimming pool. We know we have some issues; we need to pull the gutters and strip and paint them. If you are going to open it again, I am going to try and run a camera up that pipe and see what we have, it could be a big project. After some discussion, the council would like to see what repairs need to be done and an estimate of the cost. Tim informed the council that the #3 pump went out, it was a submersible pump installed in 2012. He has spoken to the pump guy and our engineer Chris Hayes. We are going to have to replace it with a mine shaft turban and set it up, so it fits the new system. It looks like it will run around $25,000 to $30,000. As soon as he gets the information from the engineer, we can start building it.
Christina Hartmann asked about the alley behind the Parts City store; there is a huge puddle by the rock building. After some discussion, Tim will look at it and see what can be done.
Nate Brown said the alley coming out of the bank, needs repair also. Tim said as soon as it dries up, he will be getting some paving done.
Angie Wintrow stated that over the Fall Fest weekend there was a bad problem with participants blocking alleys all over town and should be a topic of conservation next year with Rotary. Tim added they were parked behind our door here at City Hall. Discussion ensued and comments were made from putting up signage in the alleys, having violators towed to moving the event out of town.
Mayor Evans said Tim and the crew made wooden tops for the regular garbage cans along Broadway and placed the 300-gallon cans up and down the street for the event. There was only one complaint that the can was not close enough to their business, everyone else liked having them out so the garbage did not go everywhere.
Vickie Rauser said the Broadwater County community review listening sessions start on October 12th. The locations and times will be posted in both papers, looking forward to as much participation as possible. There will also be a Town Hall meeting that evening for those that cannot make a day meeting.
CLAIMS: Christina Hartmann moved to pay the claims, Ken Urich seconded, the motion carried with all council members present voting in favor.
ADJOURNMENT: Ken Urich moved to adjourn, Nate Brown seconded, the motion carried with all council members present voting in favor.
______________________________________ ____________________________________
