9-10-25 Special City Council Meeting Minutes

Pembina City Special Council Meeting Minutes for  September 10, 2025

Date: Wednesday, September 10, 2025

Location: Professional Building

Council Members Present: Mayor Fitzgerald, Flores, Snitker, Norby, Needham, Carattini, A Huttunen

Guests: Stoiber, City Auditor; C Johnston, City Attorney; Phil Hall

Public Portion called to order 6pm by Mayor Fitzgerald

  • Phil Hall admonished council they should be planning years into the future, not just the coming year, especially for large projects; particularly concerned about Stutsman bridge and city roads; are there grants?

Public Portion closed at 6:04pm

Special Meeting called to order at 6:05pm

  • Norby mentioned chip sealing is only a stop gap measure—would like to have cement streets milled down 2” and put blacktop over to update city streets
  • Discussion on building and property maintenance costs, responsibilities
  • Discussion on allocation of funds for future projects, i.e. potential lagoon project

o   5 options: do nothing, split current lagoon in ½, split current lagoon in 1/3s, add to current lagoon, build entirely new lagoon. Widseth hasn’t provided estimates for any of this as of 8/18/25

  • Stoiber mentioned that because of how Widseth has undertaken this preliminary engineering report, City may not get the $15,000 reimbursement for the costs because they didn’t provide information to the State entity in charge of reimbursement. PER is expected to cost $60,000 which may fall entirely on the City because Widseth didn’t file forms with State.

o   Stoiber mentioned new funding mechanism called ND Flexible Transportation Fund—received first installment in August of about $12,000—put in Capital Improvements fund. Going forward will be a monthly stipend of unknown amount. Doesn’t have to be reported on usage, but can be used on any capital improvement except buildings—lagoon, streets, sewer lines, water lines, dike, bridge, etc. Similar to Prairie Dog Funds but those are only distributed every 2 years on odd years (received about $70,000 this year)—Prairie Dog Funds have to have usage reported to State.

Motion to adjourn at 6:24pm by Norby, 2nd by Snitker

By: Mayor Fitzgerald

Attested to Stoiber, City Auditor

Special Council Meeting (final budget approval) to be held September 15, 2025, 5:30pm at the Professional Building

The next regular City Council Meeting will be held on September 15, 2025, 6pm at the Professional Building